Sanctification: From Jewish Activists to Activist Jews

Sanctification: From Jewish Activists to Activist Jews

Post-Holocaust American Judaism Collections

2015

Moshe Kornfield, Scott Meyer, Elias Sacks, Stephanie Yuhas, Andrew Violet, Jane Thaler

This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. In addition, no permission is required from the rights-holder(s) for educational uses. For other uses, you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Portable Document Format

English

Sanctification: From Jewish Activists to Activist Jews The Freedom Seder marked a crucial transition for Jews for Urban Justice. Building on the seder’s success, the group increasingly focused on integrating spirituality and politics. Jews for Urban Justice and Arthur Waskow challenged the American Jewish community for what they took to be its problematic politics and its superficial Judaism—for what they took to be the American Jewish community’s failure to fully support causes such as the civil rights movement, and for what they took to be this community’s failure to fully mine the religious and political possibilities offered by classical Jewish sources. By transforming a home-based ritual into an act of political activism, the Freedom Seder inspired activists who happened to be Jewish to embrace the Jewish tradition as a form of political involvement.