Connect with us

Uncategorized

Honoring Rabbi Arthur Waskow – activist, pioneer and prophet

At the 2014 Climate March in New York City, Rabbi Arthur Waskow, who passed away Monday at the venerable age of 92, rode atop a makeshift Noah’s Ark. The float was constructed by Auburn Seminary and a coalition of faith organizations to highlight the deep connections between religious values and environmentalism.  I was honored to be on that ark alongside him, and, looking out on the throngs of marchers, I snapped a photo and showed it to him. “The Rebbe and his legacy,” I said.

“What legacy?!” Reb Arthur responded, then a spry 80 years of age. “I’m still right here!”

This was Rabbi Arthur Waskow: prophetic, wise, cranky, witty, insightful, and decades ahead of his time. Like his contemporaries who have also recently left us — Rabbi Michael Lerner, for example — Reb Arthur (as his students called him) transformed how Jews understand themselves and their religion’s relationship to political engagement.

To an inner circle of Jewish social justice activists and Jewish Renewalniks, Rabbi Waskow was indeed one of our rebbes.  Together with his wife Phyllis Berman, he co-created a form of Jewish spirituality and consciousness that wove together progressive, even radical, political engagement with ritual and liturgical innovation. Paraphrasing what was once said about the Velvet Underground, there weren’t a lot of people in this inner circle, but all of them went on to become spiritual leaders and activists too.

But Reb Arthur’s legacy extends far beyond his fans to hundreds of thousands of Jews who don’t even know they’ve been influenced by him.

In 1969, Waskow created the “Freedom Seder,” a new version of the Passover Haggadah that, in his words, “connected the Jewish exodus from Egypt with the struggle for Civil Rights in America and Social Justice around the world.” This may seem banal today, but in 1969, it was unheard-of.  While there were plenty of radicals, hippies and artists who were Jewish (Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Allen Ginsberg, the list goes on and on), few embraced Judaism as such, as a religious and communal tradition with something worthwhile to teach. Meanwhile, while we’ve all seen that photo of Abraham Joshua Heschel marching with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in fact large segments of the Jewish community were antagonistic to antiwar activism, civil rights activism, and the array of left-wing political causes that animated that period known as the Sixties.

Rabbi Waskow brought these threads together. Well before doing so became a buzzword, Waskow made Judaism newly relevant to a generation of young American Jews.  He created new rituals on old foundations, and breathed new life into old words.  Just consider his book titles: The Bush is Burning! Radical Judaism faces the pharaohs of the modern superstate; Godwrestling; or one of his newest, Handbook for Heretics and Prophets: A New Torah for a New World. (Those are only three of twelve, I hasten to add.)

This work continued for decades, through the Shalom Center, which Waskow founded, and later in ALEPH: The Alliance for Jewish Renewal, which, for a while anyway, brought together Waskow’s political radicalism with the emergent spirituality of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and others.

Truthfully, though, there was always a tension — often productive, sometimes less so — between these two directions. (Waskow may have coined the phrase ‘Jewish Renewal’ in a 1979, but there are different versions of that story.)  Reb Arthur had little interest in meditation and mysticism; his was, in the words of another book title, a down-to-earth Judaism.  He loved Jewish ritual, wrote a book about Jewish holidays, and, with Berman, proposed to transform Jewish languages of prayer and of God.  Yet he had little patience when contemplative practice turned too inward, or turned away from the problems of justice toward mystical or theological speculation.

Conversely, Waskow’s radicalism often chafed against the sensibilities of many Jews. He was a left-wing activist long before he was a Jewish spiritual leader, and was outspoken from beginning to end.  The Freedom Seder cited not only Gandhi and King, but Nat Turner and Eldridge Cleaver; it was published in the leftist Ramparts magazine; it was first hosted by the left-wing Jews for Urban Justice.  His was not a polite liberalism.

One remarkable example: In 1969, Waskow delivered a Yom Kippur sermon at Washington’s Tifereth Israel synagogue demanding that congregants confess and atone for “paying soldiers to burn Vietnamese babies alive… supporting a system of grocery stores that starve some children into apathy and death… paying and applauding policemen who gas, shoot and beat Black people…” and many other sins. The response was just what you’d expect: in the words of one account, “a burst of indignation” from attendees who said he should focus more on issues that affect Jews. Ours is not the first time in which the Jewish Establishment has disowned and demonized Jewish Leftists.

And while Waskow may have mellowed somewhat with age, he didn’t mellow that much. In later years, he was excoriated for his criticisms of Israel’s actions in Lebanon and in the Occupied Territories; his peace work with Christian and Muslim leaders; and his opposition to the ADL and defense of the so-called ‘Ground Zero Mosque.’ Waskow was not always shaking his fist at the sky; after all, yet another of his books is called Seasons of our Joy. But he lived his life as a prophet, and prophets are rarely popular in their times — just ask Jeremiah.

Still, Waskow’s legacy — now I can use the term — runs deep and wide.  He helped create Jewish environmentalism; if your synagogue is reducing its carbon footprint, in part it has Reb Arthur to thank (though he would be the first to say that such steps are pointless without collective political action). He and Berman transformed Jewish liturgy in ways that rippled out well beyond progressive communities. And broadly speaking, Reb Arthur pioneered the entire notion that social activism and Jewish spirituality — not only Jewish identity and moral teaching, but also Jewish ritual and text and myth — enrich one another.

These teachings are still prophetic today. So, as Reb Arthur would surely insist, I will give him the last words, taken from the Dayenu liturgy in the original 1969 Freedom Seder:

The struggles for freedom that remain will be more dark and difficult than any we have met so far. For we must struggle for a freedom that enfolds stern justice, stern bravery, and stern love. Blessed art thou, O Lord our God! who hast confronted us with the necessity of choice and of creating our own book of thy Law. How many and how hard are the choices and the tasks the Almighty has set before us!

For if we were to end a single genocide but not to stop the other wars that kill men and women as we sit here, it would not be sufficient;

If we were to end those bloody wars but not disarm the nations of the weapons that could destroy all mankind, it would not be sufficient;

If we were to disarm the nations but not to end the brutality with which the police attack black people in some countries, brown people in others; Moslems in some countries, Hindus in other; Baptists in some countries, atheists in others; Communists in some countries, conservatives in others, it would not be sufficient;

If we were to end outright police brutality but not prevent some people from wallowing in luxury while others starved, it would not be sufficient;

If we were to make sure that no one starved but were not to free the daring poets from their jails, it would not be sufficient;

If we were to free the poets from their jails but to train the minds of people so that they could not understand the poets, it would not be sufficient;

If we educated all men and women to understand the free creative poets but forbade them to explore their own inner ecstasies, it would not be sufficient;

If we allowed men and women to explore their inner ecstasies but would not allow them to love one another and share in the human fraternity, it would not be sufficient.

How much then are we in duty bound to struggle, work, share, give, think, plan, feel, organize, sit-in, speak out, hope, and be on behalf of Mankind!

The post Honoring Rabbi Arthur Waskow – activist, pioneer and prophet appeared first on The Forward.

Continue Reading

Uncategorized

Syria Hopes for Full Lifting of US Sanctions in Coming Months

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa speaks during a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron after a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, May 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq/Pool

Syria hopes US sanctions will be fully lifted in the coming months and has started the process of restructuring billions of dollars of debt amassed during Bashar al-Assad’s rule, Economy Minister Mohammad Nidal al-Shaar said.

President Donald Trump ordered the lifting of most US sanctions on Syria in May after meeting President Ahmed al-Sharaa, but the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019 that authorizes them remains US law.

“We have to do some push and some lobbying to continue with this path that started in the right direction, and we’re hoping by the end of the year the bill [to scrap the act] will reach the president [Trump], and hopefully he’ll sign it,” al-Shaar told Reuters during a conference in London.

“And once that happens, then we are sanctions-free,” he said on the sidelines of the Future Resilience Forum.

HOPES FOR A REDUCTION OF US TARIFFS

The act’s removal will enable foreign investment, restore access to international banking, and help revive key industries.

Al-Shaar hopes Washington will reduce its 41 percent tariffs on trade with Syria and that US firms will invest in the country as the economy opens up.

Gulf countries have pledged support and Chinese firms have committed hundreds of millions of dollars, Al-Shaar said, for “big” new cement, plastic, and sugar factories.

The government is on course to introduce a new currency early next year, he said.

Sources said in August that new banknotes would be issued in December, removing two zeros – and Assad’s face – from the currency, to try to restore public confidence.

Syria‘s pound has lost over 99 percent of its value since the civil war began in 2011 but has been broadly stable in recent months.

“We’re consulting with many entities, international organizations, experts, and eventually it will come very soon,” al-Shaar said of the currency.

RECONSTRUCTION COSTS

A World Bank report on Tuesday estimated the cost of Syria‘s reconstruction at $216 billion, saying the figure was a “conservative best estimate.”

Al-Shaar said the amount could be over 1 trillion dollars if the rebuild brought infrastructure up to date but would be spread over a long time, with the rebuilding of houses alone likely to take 6-7 years.

Asked about plans to overhaul Syria‘s debt burden, al-Shaar said the process had started already.

“The sovereign debt that we have, which is not very big actually, will be restructured,” he said, adding that Syria would be asking for grace periods and other relief.

Assad left Syria in disarray when he was ousted last December and fighting continued in the oil-producing north until a ceasefire was struck this month.

“I’m hopeful that the next maybe few weeks, or maybe a month or two, we will reach some kind of an agreement with those who are controlling that part of Syria,” Al-Shaar said.

“Once that happens, I think we will have greater ability, financial, natural resources, to really start meaningful [investment] projects,” he said, predicting a “quantum leap in our GDP.”

Continue Reading

Uncategorized

Israel Urges Canadian PM Carney to Drop Pledge to Arrest Netanyahu

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks as he and US President Donald Trump (not pictured) meet in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, US, Oct. 7, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

Israel urged Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to drop his pledge to honor the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he traveled to the country.

Carney was asked in an interview with Bloomberg published last week if he would fulfil the commitment of his predecessor Justin Trudeau to arrest Netanyahu on war crimes charges if he came to Canada, to which he replied “yes.”

“We believe that Prime Minister Carney should, of course, reconsider this and welcome Prime Minister Netanyahu, the leader of the only Jewish state and democratic country in the Middle East, to Canada,” Israeli government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian told reporters.

The ICC issued arrest warrants last year for Netanyahu for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza conflict. Israel rejects the jurisdiction of the Hague-based court and denies war crimes in Gaza.

Bedrosian said Canada’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state was a “prize for terrorism” and it had “only poured fuel on an antisemitic fire in Canada.”

Continue Reading

Uncategorized

Daniel Naroditsky, Jewish chess grandmaster and influential streamer, dies at 29

Daniel Naroditsky, a Jewish chess grandmaster and former child prodigy who became one of the game’s most popular voices through his streaming, commentary and teaching, has died at 29.

Naroditsky’s death was announced Monday by the Charlotte Chess Center, a chess academy in North Carolina, where he worked as a head coach. Information on his survivors and a cause of death was not immediately available.

“It is great sadness that we share the unexpected passing of Daniel Naroditsky. Daniel was a talented chess player, commentator, and educator, and a cherished member of the chess community, admired and respected by fans and players around the world. He was also a loving son and brother, and a loyal friend to many,” the Naroditsky family wrote in a statement shared by the Charlotte Chess Center.

As a teenager, Naroditsky published books on chess strategy, including “Mastering Positional Chess” in 2010 and “Mastering Complex Endgames” in 2012.

Naroditsky earned his chess grandmaster title, the highest honor given to competitors by the International Chess Federation, in 2013 when he was 17 and had yet to graduate high school.

He was an active content creator on Twitch and Youtube, where he had nearly 500,000 subscribers.

Known as Danya, Naroditsky was born on Nov. 9, 1995, in San Mateo, California to Vladimir Naroditsky and Lena Schuman, Jewish immigrants who came to the United States from Ukraine and Azerbaijan, respectively. Naroditsky attended Ronald C. Wornick Jewish Day School in Foster City, California and was bar mitzvahed at Peninsula Temple Beth El in San Mateo in 2009.

In November 2007, Naroditsky was named the under-12 World Youth Chess Champion, telling J. The Jewish News of Northern California at the time that he “couldn’t play chess without loving it.”

“I played a rabbi,” a 10-year-old Naroditsky said after he earned the title. “He lost right away and instead of losing normally he threw all the pieces in the air and stormed out. I almost laughed.”

He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in history from Stanford University in 2019 after taking a year off to play in chess tournaments.

Naroditsky was introduced to the game by his brother, Alan, at just 6 years old and quickly developed an aptitude for the game.

“I think a lot of people want to imagine that it was love at first sight and that my brother couldn’t pull me away from the chessboard,” Naroditsky told the New York Times in 2022, when he was introduced as its chess columnist. “It was more of a gradual process, where chess slowly entered the battery of stuff we did to pass the time. A lot of my best memories are just doing stuff with my brother.”

In his last video uploaded to YouTube, titled “You Thought I Was Gone!? Speedrun Returns!,” Naroditsky told his fans that after a brief pause he was “back and better than ever.”

“I still can’t believe it and don’t want to believe it,” tweeted Dutch grandmaster Benjamin Bok about news of Naroditsky’s death. “It was always a privilege to play, train, and commentate with Danya, but above all, to call him my friend.”

At the time of his death, Naroditsky was ranked in the top 160 players in the world and the top 20 players in the United States, according to the International Chess Federation. He especially excelled at a fast-paced version of the game called blitz chess, for which he maintained a top 25 ranking throughout his adult career.

Naroditsky’s father, Vladimir, died in 2019.

“We ask for privacy for Daniel’s family during this extremely difficult time,” the statement from his family continued. “Let us remember Daniel for his passion and love for the game of chess, and for the joy and inspiration he brought to us every day.”


The post Daniel Naroditsky, Jewish chess grandmaster and influential streamer, dies at 29 appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Continue Reading

Copyright © 2017 - 2023 Jewish Post & News