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Dear Mrs. Obama,

I have admired you from afar since your husband emerged on the national stage. Now, in the wake of the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, I must challenge you to action.

Along with citizens--especially parents--throughout our nation and beyond, I am anguished at the death of the beautiful, innocent children of Sandy Hook School. I was deeply heartened by the sight of the President, a man of such dignity and reserve, moved to tears in contemplating the unspeakable tragedy we have witnessed.

Your husband was precisely right that the first days after the murders belong to the mourners, and must be filled with prayer and acts of love and kindness. But before long we all need to move into action. Many people will urge the President to fulfill his promise to undertake "meaningful action" toward "commonsense" gun control.

I am writing because I see a key role for you to play. The President and his allies will need to demonstrate a groundswell of support from the American people. We need a grassroots national campaign on a massive scale. I have begun to work in my own circle of influence, as a rabbi, among Jewish community leaders. We will need a broad multi-faith coalition of religious leaders supporting life-affirming gun control policies for our country. But we will also need organizations of parents, of grandparents, of mental health professionals, of educators, of health care professionals, of police officers, of veterans, and many others, to raise their voices to stop the carnage.

For far too long the loudest voices on this subject belonged to those who oppose sensible gun control. Such people are Americans, just as you and I are, and we must respect their views. But we neglect our responsibilities as citizens when we fail to make our voices heard.

Why am I writing to you? Because this massive campaign needs a face - a compelling, galvanizing leader. You are the best known, best loved, and most respected mother in America. You are obviously a person of boundless personal and professional gifts, and you have devoted your first four years in the White House to issues related to children's health.

I challenge you to step up and make gun control your issue. Make this your signature campaign. Commit to using the tremendous social capital you command to convene the far-ranging coalition that is needed to support your husband and Congressional leaders in doing the needed policy work.

Mrs. Obama, we need your leadership. Will you help?

Praying for comfort for all the bereaved families,
and wishing you strength, courage and determination for this role,
Rabbi Amy Eilberg
St. Paul, MN
(formerly posted at Huffington Post) 

I am heartsick over the news that Israeli and Hamas forces are once again hurling rockets at one another. Once again, in what feels like a nightmarish repeat of the war in Gaza four years ago, there are accusations and counter-accusations. People on both sides are dying, facing injury and unbearable loss, and living in unimaginable fear of the next attack. And as usual at times like this, my inbox is full of people screaming at one other.

I want to understand how this escalation happened. I know that hundreds of rockets were launched into southern Israel over the past weeks, and that no country can be asked to tolerate that terrifying reality being inflicted on its citizens without response. I know that in the past few days some Israeli, Palestinian, and Egyptian negotiators were working on a plan to de-escalate the hostilities. And now, bombs are flying in both directions. People have died on both sides of the border, including children.

At the same time, my inbox is filled with violence of a different kind. Some Jewish leaders call to lovers of Israel to grieve and pray for those affected, but only on our side of the border. Some in the pro-Palestinian camp have dusted off their familiar accusations of Israeli aggression, feigning ignorance of Hamas rocket fire. Thus, both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli voices are insisting that we suppress the natural response of the heart, to grieve death and loss among all members of the human family. We are being asked to cheer only for “our team,” essentially ignoring the reality that those on “the other side” are just as human, their blood just as red (to use a Talmudic metaphor) as our own.

As a religious leader and a person of faith, my heart yearns for quiet prayer. I want to pray for everyone in harm’s way, both in southern Israel and in Gaza, praying that the parties will soon turn away from the insanity of trying to defeat violence with violence or to defeat hate with hate. I want to pray for all of us who listen and watch from across the world who are also victims of secondary trauma as we suffer from far away, knowing that places and people we love are again drenched with blood and strewn with military debris.

What would happen, I wonder, if all of us who care passionately for that tiny sliver of land in the Middle East would join in a few moments of quiet prayer? What if we agreed to a ceasefire – of military, rhetorical, and electronic weaponry? If we could stop shooting missiles and words at each other for an hour or for a day, might the divine voice of peace somehow break through?
 

I admit it. I shop at Kowalski’s and Lunds and, though I buy things that are on sale whenever I can, if I really want something at the grocery store, I buy it. That includes tons of fruits and vegetables and lots of healthy, whole-grain foods, despite their higher price.

Last year, following the lead of a coalition of national Jewish, Christian and Muslim organizations, I “took the Food Stamp Challenge.” As an educational experiment, I bought just $31.50 worth of groceries (the national average benefit given to recipients of SNAP – Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, formerly called “food stamps”) and pledged to eat just that for a full week.

I failed to live up to my pledge. I ran out of food on the fifth day and capitulated. I am a person of privilege. I had money in my checking account that allowed me to go back to the grocery store and buy all the healthy foods I love.

But I learned a great deal. I was reminded yet again how incredibly fortunate I am to have the resources I need to live a comfortable life, and then some. I learned that I have no idea what it would be like to live in poverty, to worry all week about whether I’d have enough money to feed my children, much less buy the healthy foods I prefer. I gained a tiny glimpse of the experience of food insecurity, that afflicts millions (yes, millions) of Americans of all ages, races, religions, and educational backgrounds.

This year, many local Jewish, Christian and Muslim religious and community leaders will be taking the challenge, to deepen their own understanding of the issue of hunger and to galvanize support for anti-hunger efforts in Minnesota.

Sponsored by the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning at the University of St. Thomas and co-sponsored by 15 area religious organizations, clergy and community members will gather on Sunday, November 11th from 2-4 PM. Beginning at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 2730 East 31st St., in Minneapolis, we will head to a nearby Cub Foods and each buy $31.50 worth of groceries. Some of us will have promised to live on that small stash of groceries for the entire week.

On Sunday, November 18th, a small group of us will prepare and serve lunch to homeless families at The Family Place in St. Paul. From 12:30 to 2:30 p.m., participants will gather next door at First Baptist Church, 499 North Wacouta St., to hear from the pledge-takers what it was like to live on a $31.50 food budget. Most importantly, we will learn from experts about local efforts to combat hunger in Minnesota.

Truly, none of us should sleep comfortably at night when so many in our own community are hungry. Join us as we learn about the experience of hunger and how to engage in meaningful efforts to end hunger in Minnesota. More details on the program are available at http://www.stthomas.edu/jpc/files/United_Against_Hunge.pdf.
 

Like most everyone I know, I find the prospect of a nuclear Iran terrifying. I am afraid for Israel, for the stability of the Middle East, and for the world. I am afraid of a regime I believe to be extreme and dangerously unpredictable. Still, the bellicose rhetoric coming from Republican presidential candidates and some Israeli government officials makes me nervous. Our country certainly doesn’t need another war based on an excess of high emotion and a dearth of thoughtful analysis.

In the midst of the deafening calls preparing for war with Iran, I attended a remarkable meeting of leaders of the American Jewish community and the Iranian-American community. The dialogue was convened by NIAC, the National Iranian-American Council, a ten-year old organization dedicated to promoting Iranian-American engagement in American civic life. A range of Jewish leaders and academics and Iranian-American scholars of Iranian history, sociology, politics, literature and culture participated in the dialogue. The day was spent learning about one another’s communities, exchanging perspectives on the political challenges of the current moment in U.S.-Iran-Israel relations, and thinking together about how to avert a catastrophic war.

It was exhilarating to sit in a room with so many knowledgeable people, engaging in high-level political analysis. But as a rabbi, I swallowed my pride and asked my Iranian-American colleagues a simple question: Can you give me an uncomplicated, 60-second reason why my community can afford to be a bit less afraid of Iran? Incredibly, I received twelve replies to my question. I didn’t find all of them equally persuasive, and neither will all readers of this column. But together, they cast creative doubt on the commonly held premise that Iran poses such a serious existential threat to Israel and to the world that we dare not stop to think about the wisdom of various actions the U.S. government may take. These perspectives, interrupting the usual flow of alarming thoughts about the Iranian regime, may allow us to think more calmly about a wise course of action.

(1)Those in the know consistently report that Ahmadinejad, the bellicose president of Iran, actually has very little power in his own country. Even if he wanted to bomb Israel or American forces, he would not have the power to do so.
(2)Ahmadinejad’s term of office ends in 18 months, and Iranian law prevents him from running for another term. By 2013, we will at least be dealing with a different elected leader.
(3)The official position of the Islamic Republic of Iran is to use weapons of mass destruction only in response to attack.
(4)The people of Iran keenly remember the trauma of the Iran-Iraq war and would not readily invite that kind of destruction again.
(5)The Iranian people as a whole, heirs to a rich religious and literary tradition, detest war and deeply value education.
(6)Nuclear war would be suicidal for Iran, and the state’s leaders care about their own political survival more than they hate Israel or the U.S.
(7)Iran has long felt vulnerable as a non-Arab Shiite nation in a sea of Sunni Arabs, and hence uses rhetorical attacks on Israel to inflate its sense of power in the region.
(8)Internal political sensibilities would prevent Iran from bombing Israel. Killing large numbers of Palestinians and damaging Jerusalem, sacred in Islam as well as in Judaism, would be untenable in a Muslim nation.
(9)Iran seeks nuclear capability not to use the weapons but for deterrence value, given its fear of its neighboring nations.
(10)It is nationalist pride more than real hostility that moves Iran to develop its nuclear capacity.

I’m not completely convinced by all of these, and perhaps, neither are you. I certainly wouldn’t want either the U.S. or Israeli governments to grow complacent about the threats Iran may pose, but there is little chance of that. But this set of thoughts, offered by an erudite and sophisticated group of Iranian-American scholars, may calm us enough to allow us to stop and think before embarking on a truly terrible course of action. These perspectives run counter to the predominant narrative that casts Iran as a terrifying threat to the stability of the world, and it is always difficult to absorb a narrative different from the one most often repeated. But if my new colleagues’ insights could allow some policy makers to think more calmly and clearly, the world might benefit greatly.