[492] in peace2
Palestine-Israel
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (felixauyeung@juno.com)
Mon Dec 11 04:53:59 2000
From: felixauyeung@juno.com
To: peace-list@MIT.EDU
Cc: iguanatw@MIT.EDU
Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2000 17:54:25 +0800
Message-Id: <20001211.175552.-322727.4.felixauyeung@juno.com>
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1. Tuesday Dec. 12, 7pm; Bunting Institute:
Personal trip to Palestine, Slide Show, Allegra Pacheco
2. Thursday Dec. 14, 4pm; MIT Kresge Auditorium:
Current Crisis, What can we do?, Noam Chomsky
3. Thursday Dec. 14, 7:30pm; Hebrew College Auditorium:
Current Crisis in Israel, Rabbis for Human Rights
1.--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Allegra A. Pacheco" <Pacheco@radcliffe.edu>
To: <BCRP@egroups.com>
Date: Wed, 06 Dec 2000 10:46:57 -0500
Subject: [BCRP] report from Palestine
Dear Friends,
I will be giving a talk about my trip to Palestine and the Intifada
complete with a slide show.
Tuesday, December 12
7:00 pm
Bunting Institute
(2nd floor)
34 Concord Ave
Cambridge.
(Harvard Square T stop. Walk up Garden Street and bear right on Concord
ST)
617-496-1603.
Looking forward to seeing you.
Best
Allegra
2.--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Nurul Kabir <nxk@marduk.cam.iacnet.com>
To: thistle@MIT.EDU
Date: Fri, 08 Dec 2000 13:30:59 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Chomsky Talk on Palestine
"The current crises in the Middle East: What can we do?"
A lecture by MIT Professor Noam Chomsky
World-renowned linguist, scholar and political analyst
Thursday, December 14th
4:00-6:00 PM
Kresge Auditorium
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Middle East has been a prime policy concern for the US for half a
century, and throughout this period, the US has had a major impact on
developments there. Current crises are many and ominous. Of particular
significance are those concerning Israel-Palestine. Here the US role
has been, and will continue to be, decisive in shaping the course of
events. Of all the complex factors involved, this is the one that we
can directly influence. To face the responsibilities and opportunities
constructively it is crucial to understand what US policies have been
and what they are today. The human consequences of action, or inaction,
are likely to be very great.
For more info, including the broadcast and webcast:
http://www.media.mit.edu/~nitin/mideast/chomsky.html
Lecture Sponsored by
Alliance for a Secular and Democratic South Asia
Arab Students Organization at MIT
Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights
Trans-Arab Research Institute
3.--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: CHoffman@CI.Cambridge.MA.US (Catherine B. Hoffman)
Date: Wed, 6 Dec 2000 09:58:26 -0500
Subject: (Fwd) Rabbis for Human Rights Visit
Human Rights and Israel:
` The Current Crisis
with Rabbi Arik Ascherman,
Executive Director of Rabbis for Human Rights
Hebrew College Auditorium
43 Hawes Street, Brookline, MA
7:30-9:00 PM
Thursday, Dec. 14, 2000
Admission Free. Donations to RHR would be encouraged.
For more information, call (617) 984-0532
Rabbi Arik Ascherman is Executive Director of Rabbis for Human Rights
(RHR),
an Israeli organization concerned specifically with giving voice to the
Jewish religious tradition of human rights. A graduate of Harvard
University who was ordained by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of
Religion (HUC-JIR), he has served as Rabbi at congregations and Hillels
in
the US and Israel. At RHR, Rabbi Ascherman continues to express his
commitment to social justice by bringing specific human rights grievances
to
the attention of the Israeli public and pressuring the authorities for
their
redress. Rabbi Ascherman has participated with RHR and other Israeli
peace
groups in non-violent resistance to the Israeli government's demolition
of
Palestinian homes. In the face of recent attacks by settlers, and despite
closure, RHR has provided cover and support to make it possible for
Palestinians in Harres (near Ariel) to harvest their olives.
Rabbis for Human Rights was founded in 1988, in response to abuses of
Palestinian human rights. The founders felt that human rights abuses were
not
compatible with the Jewish tradition of compassion and moral
responsibility
or the Biblical concern for "The stranger in your midst." RHR has also
concerned itself with foreign workers, the Israeli health care system,
the
status of women and Ethiopian Jews, and developing an Israeli bill of
rights.
Frequently quoted in the Israeli media, RHR is widely respected by
journalists and by other human rights organizations. RHR is the only
Israeli
rabbinical organization comprised of Rabbis from all forms of Judaism -
Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist. RHR is the
rabbinical
voice of conscience in Israel.
Organized with assistance from Visions of Peace with Justice in
Israel/Palestine.
SHOMREI MISHPAT - NEW DIRECTIONS, OLD DIRECTIONS
Rabbi Yehiel Grenimann
Our organization has been primarily concerned with human rights
violations against the non - Jewish minority in our midst, particularly
those
against the Palestinians across "the green line".
This concern is what was behind the initiative of David Forman and
other
colleagues back then in the dark days of the intifada. Our relatively
intense
involvement in the issue of home demolition in "the territories" led by
our
dedicated executive director, Arik Ascherman, is a natural outcome and
continuation of that concern.
In recent times we have also been involved in the struggle to protect
the
rights of the Jahalin Bedouin, an issue that Jeremy Milgrom has devoted
himself to with some success. We have over the past few years (with my
urging) been involved also in the issue of the rights of foreign workers,
particularly in the area of health care.
Underlying these concerns is our desire to balance the apparent
distortion of Israeli Judaism by ultra-nationalism, chauvinism and even
racism, with an alternative vision. These negative phenomena seem to have
increased in the context of the Jewish "return to power" and the reality
of
having become an occupying power locked in a bitter conflict with the
indigenous Palestinian population.
Seething below the surface of apparent Jewish insensitivity to the
rights
of "the other" in this country is also the traumatic memory of the Nazi
Holocaust, and the continuing tendency, despite a radically changed
reality,
of Israeli and Diaspora Jews to see themselves as the victim.
This view of our existential situation is spiritually destructive, as
well as serving as a basis for unfortunate rationalizations of unethical
and
immoral behavior toward non -- Jewish minorities in Israel.
Members of our organization, whether Reform, Reconstructionist,
Conservative or Orthodox, have a common goal to present a different,
humane,
face to Israeli Judaism and the conviction that this is authentically
part of
our religious teaching.
We believe that when our texts speak of the people of Israel as a
"light
unto the nations" or say of the seed of Abraham that "in you all the
families
of the Earth will be blessed", they are to be understood in a broad
universalistic sense, and not narrowly interpreted as a justification for
selfish tribalism.
The sometimes brutal reality of human rights violations in this
country
deeply shocks our religious sensibility, and what we do, with our limited
resources of time, energy and money, is, we hope, truly "kiddush Hashem".
Nevertheless, we must also make room for concern with the rights of
fellow
Jews, particularly their social rights in a society that is increasingly
more
materialistic and insensitive to the rights and needs of the poor and
powerless.
The distinction between individual human rights and the social rights
of
the relatively powerless is not the predominant approach of classical
Jewish
texts. In most texts the emphasis is on "duties", not "rights". The duty
to
protect and defend the rights of the socially disadvantaged is repeatedly
emphasized in both biblical and talmudic texts.
The message is clear.
We are responsible for "the widow, the stranger in our midst and the
orphan.
We are responsible for the well-being of those who work for us. In these
matters the distinction between Jews and non-Jews is not significant.
Unfortunately, the signing of peace agreements with neighboring Arab
states and the ongoing negotiations with the Palestinians have not
brought
with them any significant change in the area of human rights.
Our work is cut out for us. May we, with G-d's help, continue
striving to
realize the prophetic dream of a world where the wolf and the sheep shall
live together in peace and swords will indeed be turned into
ploughshares. It
is not ours to complete the work, but neither are we permitted to desist
from
it!
Yours, in Peace,
Yehiel Grenimann
Rabbi Grenimann became chairperson of RHR in November 1999
Yitzhak Elhanan 2, Jerusalem, Israel 92141 Tel 972 2 5637731 Fax 972 2
5662815 info@rhr.israel.net
e-mail forum rhr-subscribe@onelist.com site hosted by actcom: active
communications
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experiences
Rabbi Arik W. Ascherman was born in Erie Pennsylvania. He graduated from
Harvard University in 1981 and from 1981-1983 worked for Interns For
Peace,
a community work program in which Israeli Jews and Arabs as well as Jews
from around the world, work together to bring Israeli Jews and Arabs
together in positive interaction. For most of this time Rabbi Ascherman
lived in the Israeli Arab village of Tamra. Rabbi Ascherman was ordained
by
HUC-JIR in New York in 1989. During his rabbinical training he took a
leave
of absence to return to Israel, where he studied in the Schwartz Program
for
community center directors at Hebrew University. During his rabbinic
school
years Rabbi Ascherman was also instrumental in setting up a
student/faculty
run soup kitchen and was active in homeless shelters and advocacy for the
homeless. After ordination, Rabbi Ascherman spend two years as the
Rabbi/Director of UC Davis Hillel, and three years as the Rabbi of Beth
Hillel in Richmond California, where he also set up a homeless shelter
which
rotated between churches and synagogues. In 1991 Rabbi Ascherman and his
wife, Rabbi Einat Ramon, spent 2 weeks in the former Soviet Union working
with nascent liberal congregations and schools. After returning to
Israel
in 1994, Rabbi Ascherman served for three years as the director of
Congregation Mevakshei Derech, and three years as the part time rabbi of
Kibbutz Yahel, a Reform kibbutz near Eilat. Beginning in 1995 Rabbi
Ascherman served as co-director of Rabbis For Human Rights, becoming
executive director in 1998. Rabbi
Ascherman is married to Rabbi Einat Ramon, the first Israeli born woman
to
ordained as a rabbi. To date, they are Israel's only rabbinic couple.
Rabbis For Human Rights
info@rhr.israel.net
Tel. 972 2 563-7731
Fax: 972 2 566-2815
Mobile: 972 50 607034
Website: www:/rhr.israel.net
------- End of forwarded message -------
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