Has the Time for Spiritual Protests Passed?

The tragic death of George Floyd struck a chord with many Americans because it, yet again, placed the reality of racially motivated police brutality so squarely in our sights. The video of Mr. Floyd taking his last breaths disturbed and appalled me because I, like so many black men in America, could see myself in a similar scenario: detained, actively not resisting, and still being treated as a criminal. These stirring images moved me in a way I had not expected. As a political conservative, I tend not to participate in social protests, which, more often than not, are spearheaded by liberal activists. However, understanding the gravity of this past month's events, I felt it was wrong to not join the protests that were taking place near me.   The diverse crowd of protesters, earlier this month,...

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Sandra Lawson (NC): ‘If It Stops Being on the News, People Will Stop Caring’

Rabbi Sandra Lawson serves as Jewish educator and associate chaplain for Jewish life at Elon University near Burlington, North Carolina. Since September, Lawson has been a participant in our Jewish Political Voices Project, where Moment is exploring the views of American Jewish voters in the months leading up to the 2020 presidential election. Moment contributor Dan Freedman spoke with Lawson about the recent events surrounding the murder of George Floyd and the protests that followed. 

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Beit Shemesh Rhapsody

Does Freddie Mercury have the power to heal religious and sociopolitical tensions? A group of 250 women and girls in Beit Shemesh tested the premise Friday afternoon by forming a flash mob and dancing to Queen's song "Don't Stop Me Now" as part of the Israeli city's protests following an incident in which a group of Haredi men spat on an 8-year-old girl wearing what they deemed not-modest-enough clothing. Inherent awkwardness aside (can a group of people attempting to perform an ensemble dance ever not be a little embarrassing?), there is something unexpectedly moving about watching the group--some in skirts, some in jeans, some still in grade school, some old enough to be their grandmothers--bewilder onlookers in support of the right of children to walk to school unassailed.

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A Golden Opportunity for Livni

By Niv Elis It’s not clear why the Israeli left has shied away from putting economic arguments for peace front and center.  But the recent explosion of economically driven populist angst may change all that. For nearly two weeks, Israeli citizens have protested en masse in the streets of Tel Aviv, building tent cities along its main drag, Rothschild Boulevard, and across the country.   Though popular disaffection with consumer prices, particularly housing, are at the heart of the the protests, growing economic inequality (persistent through strong general growth) and the neighboring protests of the Arab spring have fueled them.  Because the protests represent a significant challenge for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his economic policies, they also provides an opportunity for the opposition leader, Tzipi Livni. Sitting atop the largest party in the Knesset, which was thrust into...

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Cairo is Burning; Is Egyptian-Israeli Peace Next?

By Niv Elis As the world watches the unprecedented protests in Cairo unfold live on Al Jazeera, America and Israel face an intractable dilemma over who to support.  To  lovers of democracy and human rights, the Egyptian people’s uprising is a phenomenon to be encouraged; the Egyptian regime is a police state (though milder than, say, Iran or Saudi Arabia), which for nearly 60 years has held an iron grip on the country’s political institutions, limiting the media and sweeping aside opposition rights.  Like all people, Egyptians deserve better, and it seems incomprehensible that Western governments would fail to support them. Yet for decades, Egypt’s autocracy has contributed a modicum of geopolitical stability to the region. Having established itself as the leader of the Arab world during the Cold War, Egypt made waves when it broke from...

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