- Kindness and compassion. Rabbi Arthur Gross Schaefer says that as Jews we are to practice acts of mercy, acts of chesed, even when it may not be convenient. "As God has dealt with us in mercy, so should we deal with others. Show mercy and compassion, every one to your neighbor." (Zach 7:9). (pp. 12-13)
- That there is one God who represents what is ethically good and right and who requires human beings to live their lives accordingly. Says Rabbi Jack Stern: "It was a message of personal morality, person to person: do not cheat, do not exploit, do not lie, do not abuse. It was a message of social morality, person to society: transform God's shabby world into God's moral world, a world in which the weak and the poor are protected and unoppressed." The Jewish people would provide the model of personal and social morality and thus become a light unto the nations. (pp. 17-18)
- Current Religious Action Center director Rabbi David Saperstein. Last August, when President Bill Clinton announced new guidelines for the exercise of religion in the workplace, he paid tribute to Rabbi Saperstein for his leadership on this issue as well as on behalf of religious social action in the nation's capital. (p. 25)
- The Puttermesser Papers. RJ literary editor Steven Schnur calls this collection of five loosely interwoven tales about one Ruth Puttermesser "wonderfully inventive, mordantly comic, and infused with the wry, insightful observations of a powerful intellect and masterful storyteller." (p. 54)
- Among the groundbreaking statements, the platform asserts:
- The Sinai covenant ordained a unique religious purpose for the Jewish people, and therefore, Israel, the Jewish state, is unlike all other states. Its obligation is to strive toward the attainment of the Jewish people's highest moral ideals.
- While the Land of Israel is sacred, Reform Zionism insists that the sanctity of Jewish life takes precedence over the sanctity of Jewish land.
- Israel and world Jewry are interdependent, responsible for one another and partners in the shaping of Jewish destiny.
- Hebrew, the language of the Jewish people, is indispensable both in the study of Judaism and in fostering Jewish solidarity, and thus we commit ourselves to intensify Hebrew education.
- While affirming the authenticity and necessity of a creative and vibrant Diaspora Jewry, aliyah (immigration to Israel) is encouraged. (p. 65)
- This July the UAHC joined a small but growing group of companies that offer medical and dental insurance to the domestic partners of employees. The policy represents a milestone for its insurance carrier, The Guardian; the UAHC is their first policyholder to implement this coverage. (p. 75)
- The 11 Core Jewish Values are: honesty, integrity, brit, loyalty,
tzedakah, chesed, respect for human dignity, respect for law, accountability, taking responsibility, tikkun olam. (p. 14)
- With all the promise of the personal, says Rabbi Stern, we must be cautious that "Judaism should not become totally personal, totally consumed with me. When it comes to spirituality, however personally the spiritual self may connect to the Divine presence, if that connection does not prod the question, 'and now what does that God call upon me to do outside of my inner self as a moral member of a moral Jewish people,' then, by Jewish definition, it is bogus spirituality. So too, if a seeker of community stops with himself/herself feeling affirmed and does not reach out to some other isolated person, to the larger Jewish community, and to the community of humanity, then, by Jewish definition, it is less than authentic community." (p. 20)
- According to Germany-based writer Michael Lawton, "in Germany, everything Jewish, both positive and negative, is extraordinarily popular. Klezmer music is a hit, Jewish food is in, and books on the Shoah are bestsellers. Moreover, many non-Jews dedicate themselves to righting past wrongs by restoring cemeteries, researching Jewish history, joining Jewish-Christian associations, protesting neo-Nazis, and working on kibbutzim in Israel. At the same time, however, the German government has refused to pay restitution to Jews and other victims of Nazism living in Eastern Europe, several major profitable German companies have failed to give pension rights to their former slave laborers, and there is occasional resistance to changing the name of a street named after a Nazi bigwig." (p. 34)
- If private schools were to receive public funds, says Rabinove, "'with the king's purse eventually comes the king.' Public dollars would arrive with strings attached, with possible serious implications for the independence of private schools. For instance, would Jewish day schools be willing to hire non-Jewish teachers and enroll non-Jewish students? If so, at what cost to their Jewish educational mission?" (p. 69)
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