Righteous Indignation - Table of Contents

Our second book, Righteous Indignation: A Jewish Call for Justice, is divided into the following sections. Each chapter will be linked to the corresponding post as we progress through the book.

With nearly 40 separate essays, it would take us close to a year to finish if we only read one per week. So for starters we'll aim for two a week, and we can adjust the pace as needed.

Forward/Introduction (p ix-x, xiii-xviii)

Part 1 -- Judaism, Justice and American Life

• Can Social Justice Save the American Jewish Soul? (p 3)
• What Does Tikkun Olam Actually Mean? (p 15)
• Divine Limitation and Human Responsibility (p 23)
• Preaching What I Practice (p 31)
• The Legacy of Abraham Joshua Heschel (p 38)
• Religious Leadership and Politics (p 45)

Part 2 -- Renewing Creation: Judaism and the Environment

• Rereading Genesis (p 55)
  
• Jewish Textual Practice and Sustainable Culture (p 60)
• Wonder and Restraint (p 67)
  
• Toxic Waste and the Talmud (p 76)
• Judaism, Oil and Renewable Energy (p 79)

Part 3 -- The Temple of the Spirit: The Human Body

• Redemption for Radicals (p 87)
• The Blood of our Neighbors (p 94)
• The Global AIDS Crisis (p 102)
• A Jewish View of Embryonic Stem Cell Research (p 110)
• The Brownsville Legacy (p 120)
• Looking Inward (p 126)

Part 4 -- The Yoke of Oppression: Social and Economic Justice

• Hearing the Voice of the Poor (p 135)
• A Jewish Vision for Economic Justice (p 147)
• Why a Labor Movement Matters (p 155)
• And If Not Together, How? (p 163)
• Gracious Giver of Wisdom (p 169)
• The Possibility of Change (p 175)

Part 5 -- Klal Yisrael: Creating an Inclusive Community

• The Significance of Sex (p 185)
• Beyond Same-Sex Marriage (p 195)
• Priority Lists (p 206)
• Created Beings of Our Own (p 214)
• Multiracial Jewish Families (p 222)
• Differently Abled (p 229)

Part 6 -- Seeking Peace: Israel, Palestine, and American Jewry

• Warriors, Prophets, Peacemakers, and Disciples (p 237)
• Plotting the Middle Path to Israeli-Palestinian Peace (p 249)
• Imitatio Dei and/as Shared Space (p 260)
• Everything Falls Apart (p 270)
• The Challenge of Making Peace (p 275)

Part 7 -- The Seventy Nations: Global Concerns

• Am I My Brother's Keeper If My Brother Lives Halfway Around the World? (p 281)
• A Jewish Response to Globalization (p 293)
• Silence is Akin to Assent (p 303)
• Once Again: Genocide in Darfur (p 308)
• How to Split the Sea: Anti-Semitism and Social Change (p 312)
• Reopening the Tent of Abraham (p 319)

Info: Next Book

This summer has been busy--started two jobs, moved to a new city, traveled quite a bit. But now things should be calming down, so posts will be coming weekly again.

Also, I've chosen the next book we'll read after The Irresistible Revolution. The short list included Disruptive Religion, Sub-merge, Jesus for President, and Compassion, Justice and the Christian Life. But I've chosen...

Righteous Indignation: A Jewish Call for Justice (Editors: Rabbi Or N. Rose, Jo Ellen Green Kaiser, and Margie Klein).

Here's the Amazon.com description from Publishers Weekly:

"Seeking to provide a set of intellectual and spiritual resources to encourage a sophisticated conversation about Judaism, social justice and environmental responsibility, this book more than meets its mark. The contributors, who are activists, intellectuals and spiritual leaders, broadly interpret their mission, touching on topics such as social justice, toxic waste, renewable energy, stem cell research, domestic violence and Middle East peace. Unsurprisingly, many touch on the Jewish imperative, tikkun olam—mending the world—and how we might better accomplish our part. However, those authors' focus on mending the world doesn't stop with recommendations for service but centers just as much, if not more, on far-reaching reform—changing social systems for the better. While written for progressive Jews and their communities, anyone struggling with the age-old conundrum of ...but what can I do? should sample this wonderful buffet of ideas, replete not just with tradition but with innovative interpretations suited to a 21st-century approach toward social action and reform."