Peace & Community

History was made yesterday. And I was there to witness it. My colleague, Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, was invited to stand before the congregation of an Orthodox Jewish synagogue in Tehran, Iran. And as I should have realized she would, Lynn claimed the prophetic mantle.

On the afternoon of our first day here in Tehran, five of us within the Fellowship of Reconciliation's 7th interfaith peace delegation to Iran were interviewed by a young adult-focused television program.

It is 5 p.m. in Iran, 8 and 1/2 hours east of New York, and I am sending a first brief report from our civilian diplomacy delegation. It has been an exhausting and invigorating two days, only a few hours of which have actually been spent here in the country.

U.S. Civilian Diplomacy Delegation Departs for Iran;
Woman Rabbi Makes Historic Visit for Peace
April 28, 2008 -- For Immediate Release

In the wake of comments on April 21st by U.S. presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton, who responded to a question of a theoretical future attack by Iran on Israel by saying, “I want the Iranians to know that if I’m the president, we will attack Iran,” a 21-person interfaith peace delegation to Iran will depart New York on Tuesday, April 29, 2008. The two-week delegation is organized by the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), the oldest and largest interfaith peace organization in the United States, and is FOR’s seventh fact-finding and friendship delegation to Iran.

LeAnne Clausen's prison cell: Drawn by LeAnneI just received another set of letters from prison, written by LeAnne Clausen. (Actually, they are e-mails typed up by friends of hers, based on her correspondence from prison, and sent out via a group created on the social networking web site Facebook, but no matter!) LeAnne is one of the 11 peace and justice activists who were arrested last November for "crossing the line" at the School of the Americas Watch in Columbus, GA, at the annual protest there. (She also participated in FOR's December 2007 peace delegation to Iran, and has traveled to Iraq and other countries with groups like the Christian Peacemaker Teams.)

Yesterday, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) -- of which the Fellowship of Reconciliation has been a participating national member since its inception two years ago -- sent out an action alert to its supporters. With the recent revelations that top Administration officials approved torture tactics of detainees, NRCAT has organized two ways for people to act concretely to oppose torture in the coming weeks.

This coming weekend, communities across North America will participate in the annual "Days of Prayer and Action for Colombia." It is an opportunity to show solidarity with the Colombian people, who continue to endure war, violence, displacement, and political unrest. Indeed, another massive scandal struck the Colombian government this week, as President Alvaro Uribe's cousin and confidant, Mario Uribe, was accused by prosecutors in that country of ties to right-wing paramilitary death squads.

Today's headlines report that former President Jimmy Carter has secured from Hamas leadership a commitment to respect a Palestinian state, if created by a referendum among Palestinians. This is a major victory for those seeking a lasting peace in Israel/Palestine.

Yesterday, I joined the annual Tax Day protest coordinated by the Rockland Coalition for Peace & Justice -- it was one of dozens of such vigils being held around the country. For a day, I was a "celebrity." An article had been published on the front page of the day's regional newspaper, "Money Talks for Peace Activists -- Taxes: Residents Say They Won't Pay for War" -- and my spouse and I were featured in the piece.

Tibet protest on the Golden Gate BridgeThis week, two peace actions in the San Francisco Bay Area are showcasing the ability of peace activists to organize creative and highly-visible symbolic events -- even at a time when some people claim that activism (esp