Sh’ma Blog: Struggling to connect with the UN

BY: RACHEL PETROFF KESSLER
A few years ago I took a tour of the United Nations. I took a lot of pictures and recall having a generally enjoyable afternoon. But to be perfectly honest, deep thoughts about the United Nations cross my mind approximately once every blue moon. I am probably one of the people Steven [...]

Sh’ma Blog: “Garments of Reconciliation”

BY: ANDI ARNOVITZ
“Garments of Reconciliation” (2009)
A series meant to provoke dialogue and foster co-existence.
Materials: black Egyptian cotton, digital scans on linen, cotton embroidery thread.
My concept was to take quintessential, symbolic garments of two people at conflict and combine them. I used the colorful embroidered insets that Palestinian women wear on their long black dresses and [...]

Sh’ma Blog: Israel and Palestine-A New Jew’s Perspective

BY: ERIKA DAVIS
I’ve been thinking a lot about Israel as of late.  Because of a scholarship and the generous donations and support of readers on my personal blog, I will be leaving for Israel on November 8th for a 10-day trip with LGBTQ groups, Keshet, Nehirim, and A Wider Bridge.  The trip [...]

Sh’ma Blog: September’s Dread

BY: ZOE JICK
I’ve never felt so close to politics. Literally: close. My office is at 41st and 3rd, the UN at 42nd and 1st. I noticed the enhanced police presence on my way to work for the entire week of September 20th. I suffered from the traffic chaos, crowded commutes and blocked streets. I fielded [...]

Sh’ma Blog: The United Nations

BY: EMILY GOLDBERG
Since the formation of the Bible, our Jewish progenitors have always been searching for ways to maintain a community. From the Israelite census in the book of Bamidbar to the compiling of the Talmud after the Temple’s destruction, Jews created laws in order to preserve a tight Jewish community among the surrounding polytheistic [...]

Sh’ma Blog: A Tale of One City – With Two Songs.

BY: MATT BAR
It is said you can’t truly understand a subject until you can teach it. Consequently, I have always had difficulty teaching my students about Israel as there are so many layers to this country and its people. It’s a tight knot. I highly encourage you to closely examine this month’s [...]

Sh’ma Blog: Created In God’s Image: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

BY: RACHEL KAHN TROSTER
When I started working for Rabbis for Human Rights-North America over four years ago, I was told by our then Chairperson Rabbi Gerry Serotta that one of the goals of the organization was to make December 10, International Human Rights Day, a day of yom tov for the Jewish community. RHR-NA uses [...]

Sh’ma Blog: Where is Hope?

BY: JULIE PELC ADLER
Sh’ma’s subtitle, “A Journal of Jewish Responsibility”, reminds us that it’s a Jewish obligation to care what goes on in the world around us. In a socio-cultural milieu wherein individualism is an ever-increasingly powerful god and our concern for others is dictated mainly by how it affects us, the belief that [...]

Sh’ma Blog: “Towards a Perpetual Peace”

BY: JUAN MEJIA
One of the most difficult texts I had to encounter as a Philosophy undergrad in my native Colombia was Immanuel Kant´s “Towards a Perpetual Peace”:  the Prussian philosopher´s master plan for a cosmopolitan league of republics that would, in time, guarantee universal understanding, hospitality and friendship.  As with [...]

Sh’ma Blog: Who Wins, and Why: Rome or Persia?

BY: ALEX BRAVER
Somehow, I was not surprised when the first thing that came to mind after hearing that this month’s issue of Sh’ma would be about “Israel and the UN” was the Talmud…..

Rabbah b. Bar Hana in the name of R. Johanan, on the authority of R. Judah b. Illa’i, said: Rome is designed to fall into the hands of Persia….
Rab said: Persia will fall into the hands of Rome. Thereupon R. Kahana and R. Assi asked of Rab: (Shall) the builders fall into the hands of the destroyers? He said to them: Yes, it is the decree of the King. Others say: He replied to them: They [the Persians] too are guilty for they destroyed the synagogues.