Arthur Waskow Papers
As a scholar, author, and activist, Rabbi Arthur Waskow (1933-) has been a leading figure in American Jewish life since 1969 when he published his groundbreaking work, The Freedom Seder, which infused the traditional Passover meal with contemporary issues of civil rights, social justice, and nonviolence. Waskow integrated the knowledge and experience he gained in Washington, D.C., where he worked from 1959 to 1982 on policy issues such as civil rights, nuclear disarmament, nonviolence, renewable energy, and similar topics, to help infuse an activist spirit into the Jewish Renewal movement. In addition to writing numerous books on Judaism, in whichÌýhe developed his theology of eco-Judaism, Waskow foundedÌýfounded a Havurah community in 1971, helped found the Board of the National Havurah Committee in 1978, andÌý served as editor of the journal Menorah: Sparks of Jewish Renewal, which later became New Menorah. In 1983 he founded the Shalom Center, an organization that works to promote peace in the middle east, interfaith dialogues, and interfaith responses to global climate change. In 1993, he and Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi merged the Shalom Center with the P’nai Or organization to create ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal, though, in 2005, The Shalom Center became an independent entity once again. In 1995, after five years of study, Waskow was ordained as a rabbi through ALEPH, and has continued in this capacity to teach theology and rabbinics at numerous colleges and institutes, spreading his visions of eco-Judaism and of peace between Israel and Palestine.
Rabbi Waskow was a featured speaker at the Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ Boulder Program in Jewish Studies 2015 Embodied Judaism Symposium:ÌýFreedom Seder: American Judaism and Social Justice.Ìý
Gift ofÌýRabbi Arthur Waskow in 2013.