New Wiki for Learning & Teaching About Social Justice

As I prepare to teach at CBI's Tikkun Leyl Shavuot on Heksher Tzedek/Magen Tzedek, I noticed an email from American Jewish World Service about a new wiki they created. On1foot.org is a searchable database of Jewish Social Justice texts. This is how AJWS described it in an email I received:

As we prepare to celebrate Shavuot, the holiday that marks the receiving of the Torah, AJWS is proud to present On1Foot (www.On1Foot.org), an educational resource that will help the Jewish community apply the Torah's wisdom to the pursuit of social justice.

On1Foot is an online, open source database of Jewish social justice texts. We invite you to visit www.On1Foot.org to explore this exciting new resource for Jewish social justice education.

On1Foot allows users to:
* Search and browse hundreds of biblical, rabbinic and contemporary Jewish texts about social justice
* Upload new texts
* Comment on existing texts
* Create custom source sheets using the texts and suggested discussion questions

We hope that On1Foot enriches your learning and teaching about Judaism and social justice and look forward to your active participation on the site!

On1Foot is a project of American Jewish World Service and is co-sponsored by AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps, Hazon, Tzedek, Mechon Hadar and Uri L'Tzedek.

After a short time of use, I am hooked. I offered a few suggestions and have already loaded three sources. Check it out!

Opportunity for Jews to Send Blessings to President Obama

I intended to post yesterday but haven't had time yet. Between sick kids, meetings about construction and watching news most of yesterday, I haven't done more than post status changes on Facebook.

This Shabbat, I am slated to offer the Dvar Torah at our synagogue, CBI. In honor of President Obama Inauguration, I will be talking about the history of Jewish prayers for the government (with a focus on those written for Americans). There is a lot of information about this topic and it is taking more time than I expected to arrange it.

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For now, I want to alert you to an opportunity that ends this Friday to offer blessings to President Obama through judaism.com . They are creating a Megillat Brachot / Scroll of Blessing which will have inscribed on it individual blessings from members of the Jewish community.

I hope to add mine tonight.
Don't miss the deadline for this interesting opportunity.
RB

PS. A funny thing happened during dinner tonight. I mentioned President Barack Obama. At some point, Maayan started saying what we heard as "I Obama Baby" over and over. What she meant was that she has a Bamba baby toy. Once when I was attending at KosherFest (the largest Kosher food trade show), I won a plastic Bamba baby. Since then, it is a favorite in our household. She heard "Bamba Baby" and wanted to make sure we knew that she had one. I will try to get a picture of the doll up at some point. Until then, you can learn more about the Bamba baby at the company's web site and see a picture here. (I mentioned this as a status update on Facebook but this should be clearer).

Liberal Sofrim Article Mentions Focuses on Rabbi Linda Motzkin

Check out an article about Ruhi's mom and two-time Smith Hillel Scholar-in-Residence, Rabbi Linda Motzkin.

Also mentioned in the blog post, Florence resident (and CBI member) Rabbi Kevin Hale.

Rabbi Bruce