Multi-Faith Vigil: LA Voice

Amid ICE raids and ballistic missiles, here’s what I saw from the stage at a multifaith vigil in downtown Los Angeles, what I heard from my Iranian friend who yearns for home, and why I believe our most audacious dreams must be born in the darkest times.

What do the book of Ecclesiastes and the work of Arthur Brooks, happiness columnist for The Atlantic, have in common? More than we would think. Though centuries separate them, they both engage deeply in attempting to answer the question: what makes us truly happy? In this short Zoom course we will explore some of their findings, and apply them to our own lives and ideals.

This Pride Shabbat, we need to reckon with the current landscape for our trans siblings. We need to understand that trans people are being used as a wedge to divide Americans, and as a test case for increasing authoritarianism. What does our parsha teach us about the dangers of callousness, and what brighter, more beautiful future can we imagine?

CLICK HERE TO PLAY VIDEO “What’s happening in these attacks is a painful irony because people are conflating and holding every jew responsible for the actions or decisions of the Israeli government, which most American Jews actually oppose. And that is purely and simply racism. Antisemitism is a form of racism. And if you cannot condemn unequivocally attacks against Jews because you hold them collectively responsible for the decisions of Benjamin Netanyahu or Bezalel Smotrich or Itamar Ben-Gvir, the most hard-right ministers in Israel’s history, then you are not anti-war, anti-racist, or anti-genocide, you are just an antisemite. And it’s important for us to get really clear on that before more people are even harmed or God forbid killed.”