Uri L'Tzedek

"Beef has the highest environmental costs of the foods we examined...For every 100 grams of protein a cow eats, less than 4 grams end up in the beef we eat."

The Hidden Environmental Costs of Food Damage to the natural world isn’t factored into the price of food. But some governments are experimenting with a new way of exposing the larger costs of what we eat.

Welcome to our new Rabbinic Intern, Marko Gasparovic!

Join us on Monday, September 16th at 5:00 PM ET for a free event on Zoom about workers rights and unions in collaboration with the Jewish Labor Committee!

Sign up here: https://form.jotform.com/242543589571163

Sorry to hear about the passing of Mr. James Earl Jones.

Yes, it was remarkable that he had one of the most famous voices in America (Darth Vader in Star Wars, Mufasa in Lion King, Coming to America, Field of Dreams, The Hunt for Red October, Sandlot, etc.) and that he had the versatility to be the menacing voice of a villain or the gentle voice and sweet laughter of a hero.

But what I found most remarkable is how he he overcome enormous obstacles to get there. It's a well known story but one worth repeating.

Due to trauma, that James experienced as a child coming out of Mississippi at age 5, he developed a significant stutter and his paralyzing fear of speaking left him almost entirely mute for man years. This all started to change when a teacher, in high school, enabled him to address his disability, requiring him to read his poems aloud.

James' greatest challenge became his greatest talent & he inspired us all in the process. Mr. Jones, may your memory be a blessing and may your voice continue to inspire us all to dream about how we can heal from traumas and convert our greatest weaknesses into our greatest strengths.

Native Boarding Schools Were Genocidal -- Healing Starts With Telling the Truth

https://scheerpost.com/2024/09/08/native-boarding-schools-were-genocidal-healing-starts-with-telling-the-truth/

"When I was in middle school, at a majority-white public school in Montana, I was given an assignment to interview a grandparent about their childhood. The questions were designed to help us better understand what we did and did not have in common with each other. When I interviewed my maternal grandmother, I asked her whether there was ever a bully at her school. Her answer surprised me; she said she was the bully. "I always had soap in my mouth," she said, punished for "talking back" to her teachers--and punished for speaking her first language: Blackfeet. My grandmother was a student at the St. Ignatius Mission and School, a church-run, assimilationist boarding school on the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana. She told me stories about the horrific punishments she endured simply for being Blackfeet and about her classmates who were buried on the school grounds. Unfortunately, my grandmother's story is not an anomaly."

Native Boarding Schools Were Genocidal — Healing Starts With Telling the Truth Recognizing the generational harm caused by Native “boarding schools” is just the beginning. True healing must center the Indigenous ways of being that these genocidal institutions tried to extingu…

Meet the most tortured creature on the planet.

Naturally chickens will live up to about 10 years, but today, with factory farming the average is 42 days. Over 70 billion chickens are tortured and killed for food each year (not counting those killed in the egg industry).

Do we need to be eating chicken?

Friends, not Food! Spend a few minutes with a chicken sometime soon and ask if the immeasurable pain to them is worth the small pleasure to us.

Join us TOMORROW for a conversation between Rabbi Yitz Greenberg and Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz about Rabbi Greenberg's new book!

Register HERE: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_LkpqCcZ5Sou6LvT79wdKQg

We are heartbroken to hear the devastating news that Israel recovered the bodies of the hostages Hersh, Eden, Carmel, Alex, Almog, and Ori that were murdered in Gaza. We are co-sponsoring a vigil tonight - Sunday, September 1, at 8pm - for a candlelight vigil at Columbus Circle. Together with the family members of the hostages we will call to Seal the Deal and Bring Them Home NOW. We cannot wait any longer.

There are those that are already marginalized. They suffer from exclusion and from a lack of privilege empowering them to climb out. Yet, there are often times still systems that try to account for these marginalized populations. Then there are the marginalized among the marginalized. These are the ones that, when the needs of the marginalized are addressed, are still often overlooked.

I think of our team's work down in various homeless encampments. Every unsheltered person is marginalized. But there are those who can get into a shelter and food lines and some support from the city, county, and non-profits. And then there are those that are the most marginalized among the homeless marginalized populations. These are the ones who are barred entry from so many spaces because they are ex-felons, are addicts, struggle with mental illness, and sometimes simply can't cooperate with required social norms.

We can't allow these human beings to fall through the cracks. Each person, no matter they're situation or how far they live beyond our societal norms, is created with infinite dignity and must be found and cared for and reminded that they matter.

Every person matters! It's not a belief or an ideology but rather an action & how we should strive to live. We can live as though the one who has been socially discarded matters as much as the wealthiest and most powerful in society.

May we have the strength and courage to live this truth!

At Uri L'Tzedek, we believe democracy thrives when every voice is heard and every vote is counted. We're partnering with the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and other nonpartisan groups to get out the vote this election season!

Join our 12-week virtual series, Every Voice, Every Vote: Every Week. Learn more and register at RAC.org/EveryWeek.

Yehuda Bauer stated this when reflecting on the Holocaust. He believed these should be added to the original Ten Commandments. Let's honor his words and remember to stand up against injustice.

Join us Monday, August 19th at 5:00 PM (ET) to learn with Rav Nati Helfgot about The Social Justice Vision of the Book of Devarim (Deuteronomy)!

Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_c_wfX9OBS6mpbMKVJoxv4w

Non-Jewish friends, the global Jewish community is now starting to mourn for 25 hours on our saddest day of the year called Tisha B'Av (which means it's the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av).

On this day, we mourn the Holocaust, the Crusades, pogroms, exiles, destructions, October 7th massacre and the missing hostages, and so much more. It is also a 25 hour fast day seeking to inspire teshuvah (introspection, repentance, & growth of character).

It's a day of sitting on the floor, crying, lamenting, and focusing on our sadness (although never despairing) with the goal of rebuilding hope and rekindling a vision of the world that is not simply angry and pessimistic or simply joyful and optimistic but is alive to the fullness of emotions, the total, complex and dynamic flow of life.

It is a day not of finger-pointing or blaming but for each of us to hold ourselves accountable for all the ways we bring more darkness than light, more harm than benefit. It is not a day to ultimately reinforce victimhood but to cultivate humility and responsibility for learning how to best do our unique part.

This year it is heavier as we await an enormous military violent attack that Iran has committed to inflict upon Jewish civilians. We are a family as a Jewish people and we feel fear, anxiety, and trauma together from our history, our memory, and from our lived experience. We're also a family as humanity, all created equally as G-d's children with G-d's image and light and we need to build bridges around our commonalities and cultivate empathy for each other's plights.

For all observing, I wish you strength. For all others, we'll see you on the other side and hopefully we'll all be better off in our collective work to heal this all too broken world together.

Man charged with hate crime in Brooklyn stabbing of Israeli yeshiva student Vincent Sumpter, 22, charged with eight felonies over attack in which he allegedly shouted 'Free Palestine'; victim says knife missed his heart by four centimeters

Join us for a conversation with Rabbi Yitz Greenberg on September 5th at 12:00 PM ET!

He will be discussing "The Triumph of Life: A Narrative Theology of Judaism," his magnum opus—a narrative of the relationship between God and humanity as expressed in the Jewish journey through modernity, the Holocaust, the creation of Israel, and the birth of Judaism’s next era.

Click here to register: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_LkpqCcZ5Sou6LvT79wdKQg

Join our lending team where 100% of the money goes into micro-loans. When loans are repaid, you can make new loans. Choose who to give to based on country, industry, gender, and more. It's easy, meaningful, and impactful!

Click the link below to join!

https://www.kiva.org/team/join/uri_ltzedek

As temperatures soar to a blistering 110 degrees, our outreach team is providing essential new shoes to the local unhoused population to protect their feet from the scorching ground!