|
ALEPH considers Tikkun Olam (the healing of the world) and Tikkun HaLev (the healing of the heart) two inseparable aspects of its work.
ALEPH initiates independent tikkun olam projects and also endorses other Jewish, non-sectarian or inter-faith initiatives. The ALEPH board welcomes invitations from other organizations for endorsements that are consistent with our mission and Statement of Principles. The procedure for submitting a proposal to ALEPH for endorsement is described in the ALEPH Policy on Endorsements.
In addition to our own projects, ALEPH is active in many interfaith and Jewish community wide efforts to heal the planet, seek peace and work for justice. ALEPH participates in the following efforts, either through direct action, endorsements or sponsorship. The list is always growing:
Pursuing Peace:
 Rodef Shalom School for Peace, an ALEPH project, is designed to empower Jews to work as peace builders in their communities. The program offers six weeks of training: two-week long sessions, twice a year, held over a period of three years.
Interfaith Fast for Peace, October 8, 2007: ALEPH endorsed the Interfaith Fast to End the War in Iraq.
Peace Every Day Initiative: ALEPH endorses the Peace Every Day Initiative. The ALEPH board invites anyone who currently has a meditation practice, as well as anyone looking for an inspiration to start a regular daily practice, to join with this initiative. Launched in November 2003, the goal of Peace Every Day.org is to unite a minimum of 8,000 people (while holding the vision of 144,000 or more people) to meditate/pray by becoming the vibration of peace for 40 minutes or more each day at sunrise or sunset.
Healing the Planet:
COEJL A Light Among Nations Campaign --Endorsed October 2006
The Shalom Center Green Menorah Covenant --Endorsed October 2006
Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief, At its September 7th, 2004 meeting the ALEPH Board voted unanimously to accept the invitation to join the Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief as a general member. The JCDR coordinates the responses of a broad coalition of Jewish organizations to natural or human-made disasters, on a non-sectarian basis. ALEPH urges its affiliated communities, members and visitors to support the combined Jewish efforts to respond to worldwide emergencies by participating in the campaigns posted below:
URGENT ACTION FOR MYANMAR: Donate to the JCDR's campaign for aid to the cyclone victims in Myanmar, and read the full report on the situation there. You can also read about and contribute to their ongoing relief efforts in Darfur.
If they call you rebbe... Reb Daniel Siegel the ALEPH Director of Spiritual Resources provides us with an important and insightful essay on the Rebbe/Hasid relationship. He teaches, "Both those who believe in the greater significance of the teaching over the teacher as well as those who favor the indispensable need for a living teacher to impart the teaching, have much in common with one another. All share the pain of confronting the reality of abuses of power that occur within the larger worlds in which Torah is taught and, indeed, in the whole world of spiritual practice."
The Sacred Foods Project, an interfaith effort to promote greater understanding about how to grow, process and market food according to religions teachings and ethics was sponsored by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation under a three year grant from 2004-2007.
Serving as a forum for religious, civic and business leaders to bring a faith perspective to modern concerns about health, society, sustainability and animal welfare, the Sacred Foods Project expanded the market for ethically produced foods among communities of faith and religious institutions.
Learn more about the Sacred Foods Project, it's accomplishments and resources.
Working for Justice:
National Religious Leadership Roundtable for GLBT Equality
Mazon: working to end hunger
And you shall love your friend as yourself (Leviticus 19:18) --Same-Sex Kidushin v-Nisu’in
ALEPH proudly announces the publication of a ground-breaking paper on same-sex marriage by rabbinical student Eyal Levinson. Working within the parameters of halachic discussion, particularly as described by Rabbi Eliezer Berkovits in his book "Not In Heaven," Levinson develops an argument which draws on classical sources even as it demonstrates the necessity of going beyond them in the service of the ethical. The paper, which includes a suggested k'tubah / marriage contract for same-sex couples and a special afterward by Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, is available from the ALEPH ReSources Catalog.
Funds raised for Memorial to 19th Century Woman Rebbe. --With the inspiration of our founder, Reb Zalman, funds were raised to purchase a stone for the recently discovered Jerusalem gravesite of Hannah Rachel Verbermacher, better known as "The Maiden of Ludmir,” Hannah Rachel was one of the few woman rebbes in the history of the Hasidic movement and is an inspiration to women today.Full article
Reb Zalman’s address to a two-day academic conference, “Tibet in the Contemporary World,” held at the University of British Columbia, April 19 and 20, 2004. --ALEPH is proud to post this address, a message of hope and healing, given by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi at a roundtable of international visionary thinkers including the Dalia Lama and Nobel Laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Dr. Shirin Ebadi as well as former president of the Czech Republic Vaclav Havel, and Dr. Jo-ann Archibald of Canada’s First Nations community.
|
