Spiritual Activism

Avraham Weiss

Description

"Avi doesn't only talk the talk, or even walk the walk. He writes the instruction manual. This book shows a way, perhaps not the only way but one indispensable way, of being an activist on behalf of the Jewish people. Read it and learn."
—from the Foreword by Alan M. Dershowitz I

n this age of perpetual strife and conflict, we need now more than ever to find out how to be proactive in repairing our broken world. Rabbi Avraham Weiss's provocative and challenging guidebook will show you just that—and so much more.

With easy-to-follow steps, accessible explanations of the principles of spiritual activism and an exploration into the foundations of spiritual activism as rooted in the Torah, Weiss offers more than simply a user manual—he provides an in-depth approach to changing your role in the world.

Topics include:
• Why, How and When Do We Engage in Spiritual Activism?
• Choosing the Cause
• Making Partners
• Designing the Strategy
• Leading Other People
• Seeing the Big Picture
• And more …

Foreword xi
A Parable xiii
Preface xv
What Is Spiritual Activism? xviii
Spiritual Activism Is a Tree of Life xix

Part I
Foundations of Spiritual Activism 1
1. Why Do We Engage in Spiritual Activism?
A Partnership between God and Humankind 52. How Do We Engage in Spiritual Activism?
A Balance between Public Protest and
Quiet Diplomacy 9
3. When Do We Engage in Spiritual Activism?
Action That Benefits the Larger Community 15

Part II
Pillars of Spiritual Activism 19
4. Loving Other Jews: Ahavat Yisrael 23
5. Acting on Behalf of Other Jews: Pe'ilut Yisrael 27
6. The Unity of Israel: Achdut Yisrael 31
7. Nurturing Jewish Spirituality: Ruach Yisrael 35
8. The Centrality of the State of Israel: Medinat Yisrael 39
9. Loving Humankind: Ahavat Habriyot 43

Part III
Principles of Spiritual Activism 47
10. Step 1: Choosing the Cause 51
11. Step 2: Making Partners 75
12. Step 3: Designing the Strategy 101
13. Step 4: Leading Other People 127
14. Step 5: Seeing the Big Picture 151
Every Action Counts 167
The Spiritual Activist’s Action Plan 171
Notes 185
Acknowledgments 190

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Torá
• Jewish philosophy
• Judaism
• Jewish leadership
• Religion
• Torah

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 05 décembre 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781580237017
• Langue: English

Extrait

Thank you for purchasing this Jewish Lights e-book!
Sign up for our e-newsletter to receive special offers and information on the latest new books and other great e-books from Jewish Lights.

Sign Up Here

or visit us online to sign up at www.jewishlights.com .

Looking for an inspirational speaker for an upcoming event, Shabbaton or retreat?
Jewish Lights authors are available to speak and teach on a variety of topics that educate and inspire. For more information about our authors who are available to speak to your group, visit www.jewishlights.com/page/category/JLSB . To book an event, contact the Jewish Lights Speakers Bureau at [e-mail] or call us at [phone].
To My Beloved Children Dena, Elana, and Dov; Mark and Michael
What Is Spiritual Activism?
Activism is any act performed on behalf of an other. Spiritual activism characterizes all action that emerges from the spiritual, divine base. In mastering the principles of spiritual activism, a person will have learned basic ideas of leadership.
-from the Preface
Contents
Foreword
A Parable
Preface
What Is Spiritual Activism?
Spiritual Activism Is a Tree of Life
Part I
Foundations of Spiritual Activism
1. Why Do We Engage in Spiritual Activism?
A Partnership between God and Humankind
2. How Do We Engage in Spiritual Activism?
A Balance between Public Protest and Quiet Diplomacy
3. When Do We Engage in Spiritual Activism?
Action That Benefits the Larger Community
Part II
Pillars of Spiritual Activism
4. Loving Other Jews: Ahavat Yisrael
5. Acting on Behalf of Other Jews: Pe ilut Yisrael
6. The Unity of Israel: Achdut Yisrael
7. Nurturing Jewish Spirituality: Ruach Yisrael
8. The Centrality of the State of Israel: Medinat Yisrael
9. Loving Humankind: Ahavat Habriyot
Part III
Principles of Spiritual Activism
10. Step 1: Choosing the Cause
11. Step 2: Making Partners
12. Step 3: Designing the Strategy
13. Step 4: Leading Other People
14. Step 5: Seeing the Big Picture
Every Action Counts
The Spiritual Activist s Action Plan
Notes
Acknowledgments

About the Author
Copyright
Also Available
About Jewish Lights
Sign Up for E-mail Updates
Send Us Your Feedback
Foreword
Avi Weiss is a true hero of the Jewish people. He understands the biblical command to pursue justice actively, and not to stand idly by. Avi s spiritual activism may embarrass some timid Jews, but timidity has not worked to protect us in the past. We need Avi s peaceful activism now more than ever.
But no single individual, even one with Avi s incredible energy and devotion, can defend and protect the Jewish people during this time of crisis. Rising anti-Semitism throughout the world is often disguised as anti-Zionism and it poses dangers that the Jewish community has not experienced during the lifetimes of most young Jews. The fact that our sworn enemies now have access to weapons of mass destruction only exacerbates the threat.
This threat is not limited to only those Jews who live in Israel. In many parts of the world, Jews are once again being attacked just because they are Jews. This fear of attack is driving some Jews away from any identification with Israel, but that will not protect them from bigots who make no distinction among Jews. I am reminded of the old story that took place at City College during a Communist demonstration. The police began to beat a student. The student protested, Stop beating me, I am an anti-Communist. The cop kept beating him, saying, I don t care what kind of Communist you are. I suspect the same will be true of anti-Zionists. They too will be beaten by bigots shouting, We don t care what kind of Zionist you are, as long as you re a Jew. What we need now, above all else, is a multifaceted approach to a multifaceted problem. We need to proactively defend ourselves by using the law, politics, morality, economics, diplomacy, and human rights. But we also need the kind of spiritual activism that Avi Weiss has shown can work effectively.
Though I do not always agree with every action taken by my good friend and rabbi, I know that they are all motivated by ahavat Yisrael , love of Israel. I am certain that Avi does not agree with every action or statement I have made in the same cause. Yet he too has never doubted my love of Israel and he has always defended me as I have defended him.
Our generation of Jewish activists remembers the Holocaust, Israel s struggle for independence, its defense against genocidal attacks, the struggle for Soviet Jewry. Our children s and grandchildren s generations-the future leaders-did not personally experience these transforming events. They need different incentives than the ones that motivated us. Avi s brand of spiritual activism is one such crucial motivator.
Avi doesn t only talk the talk, or even walk the walk. He writes the instruction manual. This book shows a way, perhaps not the only way, but one indispensable way, of being an activist on behalf of the Jewish people. Read it and learn.
Professor Alan M. Dershowitz
A Parable
In the kingdom of Solomon there once lived a two-headed man. Upon the death of his father, the man became embroiled in a bitter dispute with his brothers and sisters over the inheritance.
Since I have two heads, he claimed, I deserve twice as much of the money as the rest of you.
Perhaps you have two heads, his siblings responded, but you have just one body. Therefore, you deserve only one share.
The case was brought before King Solomon, the wisest of the wise. His response was characteristically enlightening.
Pour boiling water over one of the man s two heads, said King Solomon. If the second head screams in pain, then we will know he is one person. If not, then we have determined that the two-headed person is in fact two separate, independent individuals.
So, too, with the Jewish people; so, too, with all of humankind. If there is a member of our family anywhere in the world in pain-if boiling water is being poured over his or her head-and if we feel that pain as if it were our own heads being scalded, then we will have proven we are one people. But if we do not scream out in agony, then we will have shown we are nothing more than a divergent and disconnected group of individuals.
May we always feel the suffering of our fellow Jews, of all people. And may God, with infinite love, also grant us the ability to feel the dance, the song, the celebration, and the joy of our sisters and brothers.
Preface
Over the past forty years I have, alongside many colleagues, students, and other friends, engaged in activism on behalf of the Jewish people. Beginning with the defense of the State of Israel and the movement to free Soviet Jews, I have taken part in hundreds of demonstrations, marches, vigils, hunger strikes, and acts of nonviolent civil disobedience.
Some of the more celebrated events include conducting a Sabbath sit-in in the Bergen-Belsen Documentation Center to protest President Reagan s visit to Bitburg; protesting at the Vatican against Pope John Paul II s embrace of unrepentant Nazi Kurt Waldheim; demonstrating against the presence of the Carmelite convent at the Auschwitz death camp; holding up a protest sign in front of David Duke at the very moment he was declaring for the presidency; carrying a coffin to the official residence of New York City mayor David Dinkins to protest his inactivity while Jews were being attacked during the Crown Heights riots; being detained in Argentina for accusing its president, Carlos Menem, of covering up the bombing of AMIA, the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires; protesting in Oslo, Norway, against Yasser Arafat s Nobel Peace Prize. These actions, the events that precipitated them, their consequences, and the lessons learned from them are described in greater detail elsewhere in this book.
My activist seed was germinating in me at a young age and first began to sprout in 1959. I was fifteen years old, and my father went to Poland. Upon his return to the United States, he started a package program to send clothes to needy Jews in Poland. His actions had a deep impact on me-they exposed me to both a community in need and the responsibility to help that community.
Around that time, my father told me a story about his visit to Auschwitz. The guide who accompanied him commented that it was a shame he was visiting in winter and was not able to see the grass. My father responded that he had seen grass before; was the grass at Auschwitz different?
Yes, the guide responded, the grass here is blue because years ago human remains were used as fertilizer.
My activist career thus originated in the late 1960s as the almost instinctive, visceral reaction of a young Jew born at the tail end of the Holocaust. This response derived from my understanding of the tragically wrongheaded silence of the American Jewish community during the 1930s and 1940s. The early days of my activism were spent with the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry. The Coalition for Jewish Concerns-Amcha was a later outgrowth of these activist efforts, involving some of the very same people.
As a young man, I was determined to do my part to ensure that we would never again look away and go on with our lives while our sisters and brothers were being persecuted. Through the decades, the basis for my efforts on behalf of the Jewish people has evolved from that heartfelt cry of Never again! into a multitiered philosophy of activism that is quite complex.
Complex is a word that is rarely associated with activism, which is often dismissed as reflexive, unthinking, and simplistic. A widely held belief is that the activist invariably reacts quickly and with little forethought, simply holding up a sign and making a lot of noise to protest any particular issue on a whim. Not so.
Activism is precisely the opposite of what most people think. It involves engaging in serious analysis, grapplin