“If poets ruled the planet, we’d still be living in caves, and we wouldn’t care about anything except writing.” —Janet R. Kirchheimer This was just one quotable line from Janet’s response to an email I sent to her, in which I confessed that I’d been writing poetry to procrastinate grading papers and answering emails. Janet, the CLAL teaching fellow who manages the LEAP program, is a poet, so I knew she’d understand my predicament. It’s been one week since I returned from Philadelphia, where I attended numerous lectures and seminars at the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. I crammed a lot of learning into three days, attending not only the LEAP program but also a lecture in the Religion and the Global … Read moreMorning Exercises: Poetry
In my recent post on the Rabbis Without Borders blog, I reflect on what I learned during the 2019 Point-in-Time Homelessness Count. Although I volunteered for the first time in 2017, and I blogged about that experience, this time was different for me. Then, I was assigned to a team that covered a few square miles of Alpharetta, where I’d never been. This year, I stayed within a few miles of my home in Sandy Springs: “This year, I volunteered to be on a team that would survey the area just west and north of my neighborhood in Sandy Springs. Because I encounter homeless people regularly, at least during daylight hours, I thought I’d be helpful finding where they seek warmth from the near-freezing temperatures at … Read moreHidden Figures: Homeless in Suburbia
“Our life is a walk in the night, we know not how great the distance to the dawn that awaits us. And the path is strewn with stumbling blocks and our bodies are grown tyrannous with weeping yet we lift our feet. We lift our feet.” —Rachel Kadish in The Weight of Ink, p. 51 This morning the mourners will get up from sitting shiva and take a walk around the block. This tradition, an act that literally propels the mourners outside and returns them to daily activities, is also symbolic of the change in a mourner’s spiritual state, from deep and overwhelming grief to a kind of sub-surface sorrow, one that allows for the return to daily life. I will not accompany them, as I … Read moreWalk around the Block
My recent post on the Rabbis Without Borders blog is a personal reflection on the spiritual journey I took in the desert in Arivaca, Arizona: Shortly after sunrise on the second morning of our visit at KBI’s retreat house, Father Pete Neely arrives to take us to Arivaca. There is frost on the windshield as we pile into our rental cars, but when we arrive at the Bueños Aires National Wildlife Refuge the temperature is reaching into the sixties. During the hour-long drive from Nogales we see vistas of wide-open desert, rugged mountains rising up along the horizon, towering cactus plants and yellow traffic signs warning us we’re traveling through an open range area. In Arivaca, a desert town of approximately 600 residents that was founded … Read moreWandering in the Desert
Bearing witness in the federal courthouse in Tucson, I begin to understand how complicated the issue of immigration is. The court proceedings of Operation Streamline may be efficient, but there is nothing easy about observing the criminal prosecution of frightened, desperate people. In Nogales we learned about the criminalization of immigration. We heard about the desperation of migrants that traversed dangerous terrain and entered the U.S. to find safe haven and freedom, who were being detained in Eloy Detention Center until their court hearing in Tucson, and then being deported as swiftly as possible. KBI’s educators had prepared us for this experience, explaining the intricacies of the law, encouraging us to take notes and jot down questions for the judge, who would meet with us … Read moreMy Day in Court
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offence. Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, That wants it down. —Robert Frost We begin our walking tour of downtown Nogales at the DeConcini Port, before crossing an overpass and gazing at the lines of cars and trucks waiting to cross into the U.S. on the highway below. We make our way toward the pedestrian waiting area to stand alongside the building and learn about the wall, and immediately notice the disparity between this port of entry and the beautifully renovated Mariposa checkpoint, where we travel between Mexico and the US with ease. The building looks like a … Read morePraying at the Wall
After parking our rental cars at the Shell gas station in Nogales, Arizona and walking across the border into Nogales, Sonora on the shoulder of the road, we arrive at the comedor (lit., dining room). At 9 a.m. the building is nearly empty, except for staff and volunteers wearing yellow vests, who are preparing the food and setting the tables that will soon be occupied by more than 100 migrants. I can’t imagine how we will all fit inside this room, let alone how anyone will manage to move once the room is filled with people. Our guide on this Monday morning is Joanna Williams, KBI‘s Director of Education and Advocacy, and she introduces us to Sister Cecilia and Victor. Sister Cecilia, who coordinates all programming … Read moreHands on Fire
In my recent post on the Rabbis Without Borders blog, I share some stories from a recent immersion experience with the Kino Border Initiative in Nogales: We are a group of ten rabbis and educators, organized by Rabbis Without Borders colleague Charles Arian and hosted by a Catholic organization whose vision is humane, just, workable migration between the U.S. and Mexico. We adopt the language of their mission and strive to fulfill it. Humanize is to recognize the humanity and individuality of each person we encounter at the border. Accompany is to be present with people on their journey. We cannot change their situations or solve their problems; we can listen, reassure them we care and they are not alone. Complicate is to acknowledge the … Read moreMission on the Border
My recent post on the Rabbis Without Borders blog is a reflection about beginning my tenure as a Rabbi Samuel T. Lachs fellow: This week I’m going back in time to my college days by taking a leap forward to become a student again in Philadelphia. Less than a month after celebrating the 25th anniversary of my ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary, I learned that I’d been accepted into the 2018-19 cohort of the LEAP Fellowship, created by CLAL and the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. The focus this year will be on the development of Jewish life, culture and thought in modern times across North Africa, the Levant, the Arabian Peninsula, and Central and South Asia. … Read moreTaking a LEAP
Many of you heard or read the story of my fall. Not the season; the incident involving two dogs, one leash, a fire hydrant and Hailey. In that story, I try to emphasize the uplifting encounter with Hailey and downplay the injury to my thumb. In this installment of the story, I will also attempt to focus on the positive outcomes of spending nearly three hours at the doctor’s office. First, the nurse asks what happened, and she takes notes on the intake form on her clipboard. I tell her about the fire hydrant and how tightly I grasped the leash to protect Luna. I give her the DVD with my X-rays from the emergency room, and she leaves to upload them. Another nurse arrives … Read moreThumbs Up for Resurgeons
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