This piece is part of AJWS’s Chag v’Chesed publication series. As Passover approaches, I am contemplating the ancient Israelites’ journey from slavery to freedom and thinking about the journeys that lie ahead of us. While today, American Jews aren’t facing the shackles or hard labor experienced by our ancestors in Egypt, our collective memory of …
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“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” These are the powerful words of Frederick Douglass, the 19th century African American who escaped slavery to become an historic leader of the abolitionist movement. His words bear repeating. I’ve been thinking again and again about their profound relevance today, when the need to make progress …
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For me, history is about footsteps. Moving from one place to another. From one reality to another. As Jews, our ancestors moved from slavery in Egypt toward freedom. They were not freed by standing still; they had to walk toward their redemption, one step at a time. For those of us today who wish to …
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When Donald Trump, Jr. callously compared Syrian refugees to poisoned pieces of Skittles, he further degraded our debased national conversation and firmly situated himself in a long American tradition of dehumanizing immigrants and refugees. Now is the time to counter this kind of hate and exclusion with love and inclusion. My grandparents were Lithuanian Jews …
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Grisela Mendez Gonzalez is mourning the tragic loss of her father, Bernardo Mendez, and I’m learning from her grief. The cause of his death? It all started with a silver mine. When a Canadian mining company arrived in their mountainous village in the Oaxaca region of Mexico, it quickly began guzzling the water local people …
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