Rabbi's Week in Review Blog

This coming Monday we celebrate Labor Day. I think about the long history of Jewish involvement with the worker movement, the formation of unions in order to gain what we now take for granted as basic rights for workers. Yet these rights are at risk, and the fight for workers to make a living wage, have access to quality healthcare that should be everyone’s right, and just to have time with family without the need to hold down multiple...Read more...

Most everyone knows by now of the power grab going on in Texas, gerrymandering congressional districts to cheat Black and Brown predominant districts out of representation; a direct threat to the democratic process.  We now know that Missouri is the next target, the Missouri governor and legislature seeking to gerrymander the person I and the majority of people in this Kansas City predominant district voted for, Congressman Emanuel...Read more...

As I write this week’s blog, it has been 667 days since the brutal attack on Israelis at a kibbutz near the Gaza border and at a music festival. About 1,200 were killed. Of the hostages taken, it is estimated that 50 are still held by Hamas, with 27 of those dead. Gaza is in rubble, with virtually every hospital, school, university, and mosque destroyed. Approximately 60,000 Palestinians have been killed; of those, about 20,000 were...Read more...

Last week, I had the honor of being one of the speakers at a program honoring the late Congressman John Lewis.  He was the civil rights leader who famously and courageously crossed the Edmund Pettis bridge in Alabama, suffering physical harm to fight against racism in the south, and coining the now famous phrase - “Good Trouble.”  Last Thursday was his “Yahrzeit.” I was gratified to see so many different, diverse communities...Read more...

This week, I’m sharing two important pieces that speak to current issues in our country.

First is a letter recently published in the Kansas City Star, written by the board of Missouri Faith Voices—on which I serve—and addressed to Senator Josh Hawley. The letter speaks to the deep harm that will result from legislation passed by Congress last week. I believe it expresses the feelings and fears shared by many. Read the...Read more...