Jewish Homelessness in History: What It Teaches Us Now

This week, Joshua Stanton, Founding co-Editor of the Journal of Inter-Religious Dialogue, reflects on how the Jewish historical experience of homelessness informs his understanding of housing as a fundamental human need.

I first saw a Judería when walking in the streets of Segovia, a small Spanish city just a couple of hours outside of Madrid. Though not a Jewish “ghetto” in being so tightly sealed as the Jewish areas of Venice or Rome, it delimited the section of the city in which Jews could settle.

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"Our Sanctuaries Have Windows": A Reflection from Rabbi Suzanne Singer

In our September 2nd post, we looked at a Taslich ceremony celebrating Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year and the first of the Jewish High Holidays.

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Tashlich and Social Action

In our August 20th post, “Religious Services and Social Action,” we began to speak about ways that different denominations and communities connect communal religious practices to social action in their religious services.

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Religious Services and Social Action

In past posts, we have considered the extent to which faith can or should shape action in the public sphere. This week we’ll consider a related issue—the relationship between social action and communal religious practices.

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Finding Common Ground

In past posts, we have considered the question of the extent to which religious differences can or should affect interfaith social action efforts.

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Compassion and World Religions

This week, on May 24, The New York Times published an opinion piece by Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, entitled “Many Faiths, One Truth.”

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Rabbi Jill Jacobs and Tikkun Olam

As an interfaith initiative, Social Action Ministries recognizes that people come to the work of ending homelessness with a variety of ways of understanding the relationship between faith and social action. This week we will look at a Jewish concept that has made its way beyond solely Jewish circles: the concept of tikkun olam.




Rabbi Jill Jacobs speaks about tikkun olam (posted by JInsider)


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Tikkun Olam: A Reflection from an Interfaith Forum in Waltham, MA

On March 25, 2010, members of faith communities, service providers, and others concerned about the issue of homelessness gathered in Waltham, MA, for “An Interfaith Call to Action: Community Forum on Housing and Homelessness.”

During the opening prayers, Susan Landau, Brandeis University Class of 2010 and entering rabbinical student, shared this reflection about the call in Judaism to build a world in which everyone has food and a home.

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