The fast I desire

I was dissapointed to miss our prison vist this week while I was at a conference in Orlando. I have read some posts about Thursday's class and Friday's tour and it seems like the former was really successful and the latter was very agitational. Since I didn't go inside this week, I will write a little bit about what I did in Orlando. The conference I attended was the biennial for the Union for Reform Judaism, a progressive Jewish movement and the largest group of Jews in the U.S. I was there with a cohort of J Street U students, promoting transparency, asking tough questions, and building relationships in the community. There were a plethora of panels and plenaries, breakout sessions, meals, music, tabling, meetings, and lots of running into old friends (And making new ones). Wednesday night, we passed an exciting, and in some ways ground-breaking, resolution on trans inclusion. Thursday night, Rick Jacobs, president of the URJ, spoke about a commitment to peace, accountability, two states, and ending the occupation in Palestine. It was incredible to hear an influential leader of my community stand up for my values and just say the word, "occupation," which is a dirty and uncomfortable word in many Jewish circles. Friday morning, Ari Shavit--a leftist Israeli Journalist--, Eric Yoffie--former URJ president--, and Stav Shaffir--a member of the Israeli Parliament--spoke in a panel about Liberal Zionism and progressive movements in Israel. I am always excited to hear Stav, the youngest ever member of the Israeli parliament, speak sincerely and passionately about her progressive values. Saturday night, Vice President Joe Biden spoke with gratitude about our shared commitment to social justice (including racial justice, labor rights, and LGBTQ rights) and with fervor about his commitment to Israel's security despite opposition to settlements and disagreements with Prime Minister Natanyahu.

In one of the first sessions I attended, called "Words Shape Worlds: How Telling Your Story Can Strengthen Your Pursuit of Social Justice", we practiced telling our own stories about why we care about racial justice. I immediately thought about the consciousness-raising experience of going to prison every week and recognized how powerful and interesting a story that is for people to hear. In another session in which college students had a conversation with Rabbi Jonah Pesner, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (RAC), we also shared stories about experiences that agitated us and motivated us to act to create a more just society. This program reaffirmed for me that living a Jewish life is inextricable from living an ethical life, that Judaism and Social Justice are intertwined, that I cannot live Jewishly without living ethically and I cannot live ethically without living Jewishly. This connection is something I grew up with. My parents are both Reform Rabbis and I have been involved with a myriad of Reform Jewish programming throughout my life. In this session with Rabbi Pesner, we looked at Isaiah and his call to make our fasts meaningful:

Is such the fast I desire,
A day for men to starve their bodies?
Is it bowing the head like a bulrush
And lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Do you call that a fast,
A day when the Lord is favorable?
⁶ No, this is the fast I desire:
To unlock the fetters of wickedness,
And untie the cords of the yoke
To let the oppressed go free;
To break off every yoke.
⁷ It is to share your bread with the hungry,
And to take the wretched poor into your home;
When you see the naked, to clothe him,
And not to ignore your own kin (Isaiah 58:5-7).

It is not enough to do the ritual, I must also work to end oppresion and structural inequity. Isaiah then goes on to talk about the Sabbath, a symbol of the world to come, a vision for the world as it should be, the world that I feel I need to be part of creating.

On the plane rides there and back, I was reviewing Freedom Summer and it was incredible to me how much it connected to the work I was doing this week. The youth activists embedded themselves in the community they were organizing and worked not only to push forward their campaign, but did so in a way that framed their campaign in the self-interest of the community members. Similarly, I worked with other J Street U students to frame a financial transparency initiative in the self-interest of the members of the Reform Jewish community. We met with community members and passed out postcards for people to sign showing their support for two states and financial transparency. We prepped and debriefed and strategized. I learned and grew a great deal and became even more excited to continue this pro-peace work.

When Rick Jacobs spoke so clearly on my values--peace and two states and ending the occupation--this feeling of pride and joy swelled up inside me. I am impressed with his bravery--he received a  lot of flack for his comments--and proud of my peers who seemed to have helped to push him to this point. Two years ago, he would not commit to maps that reflect the occupation (with green lines). This weekend, Jacobs spoke about the experiences of students on campus, experiences J Street U students shared with him. As inspiring as his words were, I want to work to continue this momentum. The Reform Movement reflects and represents many of my values and we have a lot of work to do to make those values a reality. The trans inclusion resolution passed, Jacobs committed the movement to ending the occupation, participants expressed their concern for racial injustice in the U.S. and now we need to make sure our synagogues, camps, youth groups, and programs reflect these values. When I went to Israel on a URJ program, I was told that only "sick Jews" questioned Jewish rights to the land of Israel. On my program, I didn't meet any Palestinians and instead encountered racist settlers, one of which said "Lebanese are shits." We never mentioned the occupation. The values Jacobs expressed were not represented here. At my summer camp, there wasn't really a place or support for my gender-exploring camper. Synogues of wealthy white Jews often with black and Hispanic maintenance staff still perpetuate racial hierarchies in the community. I hope that I can be a part of making our commitment to social justice a lived reality. I am grateful for the opportunity to repair the world. As we sing and pray every morning at my Reform Jewish summer camp:

Baruch Atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech Haolam Shenatan Lanu Hizdamnut L'taken Et Ha'olam.

Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Ruler of the universe, who has given us the opportunity to mend the world.