October 2, 2020 “They shall teach your ordinances”      Veysos HaBrachah 33:10 

The loss of RBG is the loss of a critical champion of the rights of individual citizens VERSUS: the rights of states to suppress voters, the rights of religious employers to ignore employee health laws, the rights of states to prevent termination of unwanted or dangerous pregnancies, the rights of corporations, hidden actors and contrived charities to leverage wealth to influence elections, the rights of companies to claim religious exemptions to avoid civil rights law. Notorious!

September 25, 2020 “For the sin we have committed before you…”  Yom Kippur liturgy 

Who must atone? For winking at his relentless lying. For ignoring the conflicts of interest and corruption among his appointees. For abiding subversion of environmental protections to benefit his drilling and mining patrons. For tolerating his murderous distortion of COVID data and protections. For endorsing his assault on the sanctity of elections. For permitting his narcissistic hypocrisy. For all these: Selach lanu!

September 18, 2020 L’Shana Tova Umetukah

Praying for a year of Justice, Compassion, and Truth

September 11, 2020 Men of Israel, your wives and children    Nitzavim 29:9-10  

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Jewish families have struggled with the discontinuation of child care programs. In the Jewish community, day care, after-school care, pre-school, and camping are viewed as essential to work priorities and to child development. Why, then, do we not demand the poor be provided these programs to permit them also to work and study and to give their children the possibility of escaping the circle of poverty? 

September 4, 2020 “The widow and orphan shall eat in your cities” Ki Savo 26:12  

The most utilized welfare program for families is the $2,000/child tax credit, a benefit available, ironically, mostly for the wealthy – eligible up to $400,000 in income. Who among those beneficiaries nevertheless makes the utterly racist claim that “welfare destroys the Black family”? In fact, poor families with food stamps and similar aid are far more likely to stay together and to have children who graduate high school and who are, themselves, far less likely to be impoverished as adults.