Como ha quedado sola la ciudad populosa
La grande entre las naciones se ha vuelto como viuda, 
La señora de provincias ha sido hecha tributaria. 
Amargamente llora en la noche,
y us lagrimas estan en sus mejillas.
No tiene quien la consuele de todos sus amantes Todos sus amigos le faltaron
se le volvieron enemigo. 

The city destroyed by war sits alone, 
Once full of people,
​A great city among the nations. 

Now she weeps alone in the night with none to comfort her. 
Her young are crushed and burnt with fire. 
Her buildings have become rubble. 
Only sorrow remains. 
Remember what has happened in a city destroyed by war, 
the once beautiful city, a gem among the cities of the earth
lays in ruins.
May we who sleep peacefully in our beds
Light a candle that illuminates justice 
May we who do not fear hunger
Set a table where everyone is welcome and no one is afraid
May we who walk the streets under a blue sky
Take actions that repair the harm quickly in our day. Amen. 

I begin with gratitude. Lilacs, vegetable gardens, ancient sugar maples, a porcupine sighting, sunny weather and spring’s emerald canopy graced my eleven day tour in Western Massachusetts and Boston. A big shout out to Woolman Retreat Center, Ollie Schwartz, Darla Stabler, Earnest Vener, Liat Melnick, Joshua Blaine, Rabbi Leora Ableson, the Jewish Liberation Fund and my dear friends Rebecca and Carolyn for the considerable effort it took to make a six gig tour feel like a work vacation!  

The L’Shem Kedushat retreat brought together queer Jews who are engaged in learning how to process and create diaspora Torah scrolls. I was especially impressed with the way people across the spectrum of attitudes and beliefs about Palestine/Israel and Jewish chalacha created a loving and accepting environment in pursuit of learning how to prepare Torah scrolls from fleshing the animal to getting it ready to be written upon. My role was facilitating Jewish dance, sharing circles and of course, telling stories.These cultural/artistic components of Jewish tradition helped us forge a Mishkan at Woolman Retreat Center in Deerfield, MA.

It was delightful to stay at Woolman in order to welcome another cohort of aspiring and veteran Jewish storytellers for a two day retreat. Each person workshopped stories that spanned long jokes, biblical and rabbinic folktales, Hasidic tales and personal accounts. In particular, we were moved by Jules Pashal’s story of a young girl’s struggle as a fat activist in ways that lifted up their beauty and agency and concluded with an image of a bird flying over their body floating effortlessly in a pond. Such an expansive and healing tale. After a week immersed in people seeking to expand their Jewish artisanship skills, I headed to a sold out performance in Northampton of Magida on Sacred Ground. Moving on to a wedding at a Jewish summer camp for the weekend, I was moved once again to realize how important it is to so manyJewish people that recognition of the genocide of Palestinians is part of everything we do during Jewish ceremony and gathering times. Boston was also wonderful - especially being in a multi-faith community working at building the movement for interfaith solidarity with Palestine.  I am grateful for the interest in Replanting Seeds of Jewish Revolutionary Nonviolence as a path forward.  

Jewish storytelling in a shomeret shalom framework of values was a dynamic success. Storytellers workshopped beautiful stories and learned the art of the craft through performance opportunities.  Members of Patreon and the Guild will have access to resources provided by Guild subscribers to Patreon and the Jewish storytellers google group from August - December2024.

The Pilgrimage Holiday Shavuot celebrates the giving of Torah. In June 2024, when Israel is committing genocide and Netanyahu is quoting scriptures in Hebrew to assure his voters that apart from a temporary ceasefire to return hostages, the genocide will continue, how do we read Torah? Clearly there are sections of the bible which are genocidal. We cannot ignore violent biblical passages that provide fodder for Israeli state brutality. How do we counter and resist the genocidal and supremacists parts of Torah?

A shomeret shalom adopts rabbinic and folk traditions that reject the violence of the bible by imposing an interpretive framework that emphasizes peace, active love, upholding human dignity, pursuit of equity and nonviolence as core principles of Torah. When use of the Torah causes harm, we are instructed to actively repair the harm in ways that lead to the end of harm and the establishment of healing peace.         According to Hasidic Masters, the ultimate purpose of Torah is “to make peace in the world…this is the function of Torah: to introduce a unity of peaceful purpose to the diverse forces and peoples of creation, uniting them all in the harmonious endeavor of serving the divine objective:the establishment of peace.”
As a shomeret shalom, I feel accountable to the harm being perpetrated in my name by those who have weaponized torah and turned it into a document of Jewish supremacy. As a counter measure, I devote my actions, time and resources to organizing for freedom through movement building to end the genocidal violence being waged against the children of Palestine in the name of Jewish people.Stopping genocide is in our hands. 

On Shavuot, the holy day devoted to the study of Torah, a shomeret shalom turns to this question:  Is learning/study greater or are deeds greater


“Rabbi Tarfon answered, ‘Deeds are greater.’ Rabbi Eliezer responded, ‘Learning is greater.’ Then someone else responded to both of them and said,  Learning is only greater if and when  learning leads to deeds.”  (BT Kiddushin 40b)

תלמודגדול או מעשה גדול  נענה רבי טרפוןואמר  מעשה גדול  נענה ר"ע ואמר  תלמוד גדול נענו כולם ואמרו  תלמוד גדולשהתלמוד מביא לידי מעשה

Many cities throughout Turtle Island and the world are manifesting interfaith coalitions in pursuit of stopping the genocide of Palestinians by Israel and the US. I’d love to hear about your citiesi nterfaith Ceasefire coalitions. In the Bay Area, our interfaith network is demanding Senator Alex Padilla use his voice to stop the forced starvation and killing of children. In February 2024, Senator Padilla voted in favor of additional $14 billion for arms to Israel, on top of the $3.8 billion US provides to Israel annually. He also voted against Senator Sanders’ resolution that would have asked the State Department to investigate if any human rights violations occurred using US equipment in Israel’s military campaign. Targeted nonviolent campaigns against individual decision makers is critical at this time. Campaigns target an individual decision maker by making an achievable demand. Campaigns are a series of escalating tactics until a win is achieved ,in this case: Stop Arming Israel with our tax dollars!