Tag Archives: Visits

Bringing the Torah of Human Rights to the Field

RHR Begins Its Palestinian Shepard Accompaniment Project in the Jordan Valley with a Fact Finding Tour, led by RHR’s Human Rights in the OPT Department Director, Rabbi Elhanan Miller.

In a new project for RHR we will now regularly bring teams of rabbis to the northern Jordan Valley to work with Palestinian shepherds regularly under threat of harassment and violence by settlers and the security forces as they eke out their traditional livelihood of tending to theirflocks.

In order to engage with our growing membership and to learn more about the increasingly untenable situation for Palestinians in the Jordan Valley we conducted this fact finding tour and look forward to contributing to the protection of Palestinian human rights in Area C via activism in the field and through advocacy!

If you would like to donate to BFRHR, you can find more information on the Donations page

Avi Dabush: Reflections on being Jewish and Human Rights

Avi Dabush, Executive Director of Rabbis for Human Rights, spoke at the British Friends of Rabbis for Human Rights AGM last December. This speech, discussing peacefully bringing together the different cultures and peoples of Israel, is reproduced here with his kind permission.

Avi also wrote a reflective piece on Human Rights, on the occasion of Tu B’Shvat this year, before RHR went out to plant olive trees in the West Bank where they had previously been burnt and uprooted. Read In the Shadow of an Uprooted Olive Tree here. Continue reading →

Welcome for RHR’s New President

Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman

Rabbis for Human Rights have announced their new president, Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman. Founder of Congregation Kol Haneshama, a centre for progressive Jewish life in Jerusalem, he has also previously served RHR as Chair. Rabbi Weiman-Kelman teaches at the Hebrew Union College Jerusalem, and frequently lectures in Israel and abroad on Jewish spirituality and prayer.

We hope to bring Rabbi Weiman-Kalman to the UK after the chagim. Read the full statement from RHR here.

Rabbi Arik Ascherman in Manchester

Rabbi Warren Elf reports on Rabbi Arik Ascherman’s visit of Manchester in December 2012.

In Manchester, the Forum for Discussion on Israel and Palestine organised two meetings with Rabbi Arik Ascherman, one of the founders of Rabbis for Human Rights and currently Director of Special Projects and External Relations: one at the Islamic Cultural Centre and one at the Menorah Synagogue in Jacksons Row.

The majority of the audience at the Islamic Cultural Centre were Muslim and most of them were regulars at the Altrincham mosque. Their Imam and the mosque have a good pedigree of participation in interfaith matters locally, but hosting Arik, a rabbi and an Israeli, talking on Israel, was a definite first for them. There were also a few Christians from different groups, as well as a few members from two Reform synagogues and two Orthodox synagogues present. Arik talked about the ethos and work of Rabbis for Human Rights in Israel and the situations he faces and deals with on a regular basis. As always, he was open and honest, raising many difficult issues in a way that left his listeners spellbound. When he finished his initial talk, the Imam of Altrincham Mosque thanked him warmly and sincerely, embracing the fact that this was the first time the members of the mosque had been able to engage on this topic with Jews, and hear about the real issues in such a frank and personal manner.

The audience at Jackson’s Row was smaller, but again it comprised Jews (primarily from JR), Christians and Muslims. Arik gave a very similar talk but the atmosphere was more informal with participants sitting in a large circle. The talk was again well received and there were some even more difficult questions to answer, which again Arik was happy to grapple with and answer as openly and engagingly as only he can.