How to Occupy Rosh Chodesh

Prepared by Rabbi Ezra Weinberg and Shuli Passow

  1. Organize a planning team. This can be as small as two people, but it will be helpful to have others on board for tweeting/facebooking/promotion.
  2. Decide on the goals of the event. As an example, here is what we determined for Kislev RC in New York:
    1. Ongoing Jewish presence at OWS that links the tradition to what’s going on down there.
    2. Educate people about Rosh Chodesh.
    3. Build community.
  3. Decide on the flavor of the prayer. Two directions one could go in:
    1. Traditional egalitarian primarily in Hebrew.
    2. More of a prayer/study experience primarily in English - accessible for people who are not familiar with traditional Judaism.
  4. Decide on logistical issues:
    1. How many people do you need as a minimum to run the program?
    2. How long will it be (if it’s a colder month, no more than one hour.
  5. Determine plan for promotion:
    1. Where will you advertise? It’s a good idea to send out to your local Occupy Judaism listserv, as well as the national listserv. Many folks on these lists are eager to post far and wide.
    2. Recruit 5-6 people to spread the word on Facebook and Twitter.
    3. Consider reaching out to Moving Traditions, whose program, Rosh Chodesh: It’s A Girl Thing, connects with hundreds of girls, women, and synagogues around the country.
  6. Develop your program, assign roles and general time frame for each piece. Here are two potential scenarios:
    • Option A: Traditional service (things to prepare)
      1. Borrow a Torah.
      2. Get someone to layn (4 Aliyot).
      3. Get a Table for Torah reading.
      4. Make a rain plan – can’t have Torah out in the rain.
      5. Find competent davening leaders – give them time restraints.
      6. Find extra siddurim - hopefully with transliteration.
      7. Come up with a few places to create Kavanot to explicitly connect the prayers to Occupy movement (ie: making the link from prayer to justice) and to explain how this is a traditional service.
      8. Consider themed group Aliyot to tie in themes of OWS.
      9. Find someone to call out page numbers.
      10. Ask someone to be an usher to help bring in new faces and people who show up late.
    • Option B: (one example of a non-traditional service)
      1. Opening, 10 minutes: Welcome, What is Rosh Chodesh, framing that links RH to these themes.
      2. Woman’s holidays - claiming space for marginalized. Themes of renewal.
      3. Round of introductions, 5 minutes - depends on who’s there, how many (ie: won’t do large group introductions if there’s a huge crowd)
      4. Framing and lead into Hallel, 10 minutes:
        • Celebrate the beginning of the month - Not so in gregorian (paying rent).
        • Rosh Chodesh as celebration.
        • Protest as celebration.
        • Protest as song.
        • Thanksgiving reflection - Hallel Praise that evokes gratitude.
      5. Hallel-15-20 minutes (traditional supplementary prayers of praise sung on Rosh Chodesh).
        • Full Hebrew Hallel might be difficult - not accessible, consider doing an abridged version with introductions/kavanot (intention) before each song sung.
        • Need to make xerox’d copies.
        • Musical instruments - guitar and drums and major plus – ask specific people to bring instruments.
      6. Hevruta Text studies that lead into a discussion - Prepare source sheets that bring together sources on Rosh Chodesh (see Exodus Ch 12 for first mention of Rosh Chodesh), and another theme that you are interested in exploring. Provide the sources with discussion questions for people to explore in pairs at the event. It’s a good idea to provide English translation for any Hebrew you provide. Check Wikipedia for ideas on certain themes that have historically come to be connection to Rosh Chodesh.
      7. Closing remarks and Song-5 minutes.

After Raid, Occupy’s Ideas Live On

by Daniel Sieradski, co-organizer Occupy Judaism
The Forward, Nov. 25, 2011 · Source

Occupy Wall Street is in exile. Her benches, once bountiful, lay barren. Her sidewalks — a wasteland. Where there were tents bustling with life, there is breeze. As the Book of Lamentations wonders, “How does the city sit solitary that was full of people?”

Under cover of night, eschewing the eye of moral scrutiny, Titus Bloomberg’s centurions sacked and overwhelmed the weary Zealots of Zuccotti Park, razing the golden city and carting off its holy vessels and vestments. Many pursuers of peace were beaten and taken captive. Many more were dispersed, left to seek refuge elsewhere in the land.

Perhaps it is so that the Occupiers had sinned. Perhaps this curse befell us because of inexperience and infighting, needless hatred towards one another, immoral conduct, or inadequate ambition to embody our best selves. Some say the Shekhinah (the Divine Spirit) had left days before the fulfillment of the decree, as word came that darkness had descended on the encampment.

Perhaps we were merely the victims of Sodom, whose men (and mayor) wax haughtily: “Why should we suffer wayfarers, who come to us only to deplete our wealth. Come, let us abolish the practice of traveling in our land.”

Either way, the jig would have been up eventually.

As Jews we know: Exile is not nearly the end.

Rabbi Michael Lerner wrote in a public email Sunday that the community is “festishizing the tents” — that they’re beside the point.

And it’s true. Occupy Wall Street long ago transcended mere physicality. Whether or not the occupation stays in Zuccotti Park, whether there are tents and a People’s Kitchen, the movement’s Yohanan Ben Zakkais have already redacted its collective and mutable knowledge and carried it forth to 1,500 diaspora communities spread around the world. Each has been endowed with the gifts of radical iconoclasm, personal and collective empowerment, horizontalism, mutual aid, consensus-based decision making and, of course, the fearsome people’s mic (also known as the human microphone).

They are prepared and preparing to mic check injustice everywhere. As the occupiers have so well put it, “You cannot evict an idea whose time has come.”

This past Sunday, my friend and teacher Douglas Rushkoff gave a talk at the People’s Library in Zuccotti Park. He concluded:

“Remember that you have already won.

“Whatever happens in this square, the day you leave is not the day you have lost. It is not the day you have surrendered. It is the day you have spread out. It is the day you have declared a bigger battlefield. It is the day you teachers and we students become the same.

“It is the day we Occupy the World.”

Though, pending the court’s decision, we may no longer have the physical space of Zuccotti Park in which to pilgrimage and fulfill our obligations, the people of Occupy live. In retelling our story (“We are the 99%”), recounting our values (“social and economic justice for all”) and carrying forth our tradition unto the four corners of the Earth (“Occupy Everywhere”) we are empowered to bring the spirit of the occupation into every facet of our lives, occupying not only physical spaces, but also frames of mind and moments in time.

While our hearts may always harken to Zuccotti, so long as the occupation endures in our spirits, the taste of redemption that was the blessed geulahdik anarchy of Occupy Wall Street shall stay forever fresh on our tongues. May we ever forget, shall those tongues cleave to our palettes and our right hands wither.

Statement on Eviction of Liberty Square

Occupy Wall Street has been exiled from Zuccotti Park. As Jews, we know that exile is not the end. Occupy Judaism stands shoulder to shoulder with the Occupy Wall Street protesters. We are outraged by Mayor Bloomberg’s contempt for the rights of American citizens and his use of public health and safety to justify beating and macing nonviolent protesters. The mayor’s actions reflect neither Jewish, nor American, nor human values. You cannot evict an idea thats time has come. You cannot evict 99% of America. You cannot evict 99% of humanity.

OWS Official Statement Against Anti-Semitism

The following statement was approved by the NYC General Assembly November 12, 2011.

Friday’s anti-Semitic, racist acts that occurred on Ocean Parkway in the Midwood Section of Brooklyn and the attempt by the Daily News to link Occupy Wall Street (OWS) to these heinous acts have compelled us to release this statement. When an act of violence and bigotry occurs in our community, we, as a group, need to take a leadership role and stand with other community leaders and fellow New Yorkers to speak out in opposition to these acts. History teaches us that silence can be interpreted as approving or condoning the bigotry.

Today we condemn the reported acts of “torching three cars and defacing other property with anti-Semitic messages.” Specifically, it has been reported that “eight nearby benches were sprayed with Nazi swastikas, SS, KKK symbols, and other inflammatory remarks.”The media has attempted to implicate OWS in these criminal acts while offering zero evidence to support their claims. This ignores the fact that OWS’s values and daily activities demonstrate openness, inclusiveness, and equality. We represent a wide array of political beliefs, races, religions, and sexual orientations. OWS strives to mirror the diversity of our city. We are growing, and highly inclusive, and these aspects make it possible for some to mischaracterize, defame, and vilify this movement.

Consequently, we are inviting all New Yorkers to march with us tomorrow in solidarity against anti-Semitism, racism, bigotry and hate. We will meet at noon tomorrow, Sunday November 13, 2011, on Ocean Parkway and Avenue J in the Midwood section of Brooklyn. Let’s stand together and show the world that acts like this will not be tolerated in our community.

Occupy Shabbat this weekend!

Occupy Shabbat is happening in four cities this weekend!

Want to Occupy Shabbat in your community? Here’s how!

    Shabbat is a reflection of a redeemed world – a taste of the World to Come. In that time, writes the rabbinic sage Rambam, humanity will be free “without anyone to oppress or disturb them. In that era there will be neither famine nor war, neither envy nor competition, for good things will flow in abundance and all delights will be as freely available as dust.”

    With the aspiration in mind of an abundant world for everyone, this weekend is AJWS’s Global Hunger Shabbat – “a weekend of nationwide solidarity, learning and reflection around food justice. The learning and exploring of Global Hunger Shabbat is designed as a springboard into meaningful action over the following weeks and months, as we mobilize the American Jewish community in the fight for food justice.”

    The issue of food justice is deeply entwined with the issue of economic justice being pursued by the protesters at Occupy Wall Street and at occupations around the nation and the world. Learn more about the Global Hunger Shabbat here and consider printing some of the resources to read and share with others over dinner.