Monthly Archives: April 2026

“Some are guilty, but all are responsible.” Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

19 Sunday Apr 2026

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I comfort myself by knowing that the midterms are coming, that Democrats have consistently won off-year elections since Trump became President, that there are many hundreds of attorneys across the country filing law suits against illegal Trump executive orders and his cabinet illegalities, that the courts mostly have ruled against the Trump Administration, and that polls look good for the House to return to Democratic Party control and possibly the Senate, as well as state governor races and legislatures.

There are many ways to protest against illegal and heartless actions and policies of this government. They include joining protests against the building of concentration camps to house those arrested by ICE and reaching out to our neighbors who may be vulnerable to arrest by escorting their children to and from school and doing their shopping so they will not grabbed by ICE agents. Cable commentators, pod-casters, and journalists are speaking and writing truthfully now about everything that is happening. Politicians too are speaking out, and many of us are contributing financially to candidates we believe can flip Republican seats to worthy Democrats in the mid-term elections.

I was moved this morning by Heather Cox Richardson’s report (April 18, 2026) in which she wrote:

“Last night in Kansas, former secretary of transportation Pete Buttigieg, who is speaking across the country in support of Democratic candidates, explained to an audience why he is working so hard to restore American democracy. He said: “[W]hen you have one of those long nights, when you’re asking yourself, can I really do any more that I’ve already done? I want you to reach into whatever is your personal why.

“For me, the reason I make sure to hit the road and be with you on a night like this is actually, ironically, the very same thing that makes it a little bit harder than it used to be. When I woke up this morning before I headed to the airport, about 6:30 this morning, as usually happens, my first interaction was with a four-year-old boy. And I’m putting out the cereal for him and his sister. And he says, ‘Papa, can I come with you? On this trip?’ I said, ‘Well, I don’t think it’ll work out. I gotta go to Kansas. You gotta go to preschool, and…’ And then he walks up to me with, um, a Sonic the Hedgehog walkie-talkie. He tells me to put it in my briefcase. He says, ‘Take this with you. That way we can talk to each other.’

“I wasn’t sure whether I should explain how range works on walkie-talkies or not. Just gave him a big hug instead. But what I know is that it won’t be so long before he and his sister, who right now are asking me questions I can handle—like, the other day, I got: ‘Papa is a grapefruit bigger than a pineapple?’ I can handle that. But, what am I gonna do when they say, ‘Papa, back in the 2020s, did you do enough?’

“They’re gonna ask that, and I want to make sure we have a very good answer by the time they’re old enough to ask that question.”

Here are a few quotations about the sin of silence for your reflection:

“You shall not stand idly by while your neighbor bleeds.” (Leviticus 19:16 – 6th century B.C.E)

“One who is able to protest against a wrong that is being done in one’s family, city, nation or the world and doesn’t do so is held accountable for that wrong being done.” (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 54b – 6th century C.E.)

“It is not what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable.” (Moliere – 1622-1673)

“He who allows oppression, shares the crime.” (Erasmus Darwin – 1731-1802)

“A person may cause evil to others not only by one’s actions but by one’s inaction, and in either case that one is justly accountable to them for the injury.” (John Stuart Mill – 1806-1873)

“In a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible.” (Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel – 1907-1972)

“The most important thing that I learned under those tragic circumstances [i.e. the Nazi Holocaust] was that bigotry and hatred are not the most urgent problem. The most urgent, the most disgraceful, the most shameful and the most tragic problem is silence.” (Rabbi Joachim Prinz – 1902–1988)

“We will have to repent in this generation, not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people.” (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., –1929-1968)

“I found myself in a role to which I was not accustomed, and to which I did not aspire, but which was now required of all of us who were unwilling to stand idly by and watch the undoing of all we cherish, and that was the role of resistance.” (Senator Adam Schiff – b. 1960)

Pre-Order my New Book – “Finding Your Moral Compass – Jewish Values for the 21st Century”

13 Monday Apr 2026

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If we’re not careful, the world – as it has become – can corrupt our moral values. The number of wars and the consequential killing of hundreds of thousands of civilians around the world, the breakdown of social discourse and political polarization, the growth of hatred and intolerance, racism, misogyny, antisemitism, Islamophobia, and homophobia, the pervasive character of social media, AI, and the collapse of traditional news media, the denial of scientific and objective truth, all have a destructive impact on what it means to be a moral, just and compassionate human being. It is not an exaggeration to say that this period is as confusing and disheartening a time in our history that most of us alive today have never experienced before.

This is why I wrote Finding Your Moral Compass – Jewish Values for the 21st Century. (see below for link to the University of Toronto Press – Publication date – Late April)  

The book is composed of 40 short chapters on 40 foundational Jewish values in an easy-to-read and relatable format for every age group of Jews and non-Jews alike. It is a volume I hope will be included in people’s home libraries as a source book that can stimulate, provoke, inform, and inspire discussion around the dinner and kitchen tables, between parents and their teenage, college-age, and young adult children, in synagogue classes and book groups, in Jewish Community Centers and Jewish organizations, in high schools and universities, in churches and mosques, and in every appropriate group setting.

I wrote this book to affirm where I believe we ought to stand as responsible and accountable human beings. I wrote it as well because injustice and cruelty require an ethical, just and compassionate response. And I wrote it for those who wish to be vehicles for higher moral and spiritual purposes.

I address the values of faith, civility, wisdom, and courage; humility, gratitude, and compassion; repentance, forgiveness, and love. I write about the distortions to one’s values that excessive wealth and power can cause, of our necessary commitment to the stranger and the poor regardless of the other’s ethnic and national background based upon the principle that every human being is endowed with a divine spark and therefore worthy of dignity and respect. I consider Judaism’s historic commitment to social justice and moral leadership, and I conclude with essays about memory and hope as core Jewish values.

I apply each value to real life challenges that we face regularly based upon my more than 50 years leading synagogue communities, interacting with congregants of every age, ethnic, religious, and national background, studying and teaching Judaism, Jewish history, Jewish ethics, philosophy and theology, and I conclude each essay with thoughts by Jewish and non-Jewish thinkers, literary figures and social justice giants from across the centuries, as well as questions for individual reflection and group discussion.

I hope you will acquire and share this book and take heart that with a clear moral compass we can improve the quality of our lives and the moral character, open-heartedness and compassion of our communities.

Pre-Order Here (Paperback and Ebook – see Table of Contents) – https://utppublishing.com/doi/book/10.3138/9781487569273#

Trump’s Vulgar Redesign of Washington, D.C. in His Image

06 Monday Apr 2026

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In 1791, George Washington commissioned the French-born architect and engineer Pierre Charles L’Enfant to design the layout of the new nation’s capital city. The architect and designer created a Baroque-inspired plan featuring grand diagonal avenues, wide streets, and designated public spaces for our Capitol Building and Executive Mansion (as it was then called) with sweeping vistas and radial avenues superimposed over a grid as inspired by a European urban design. The layout was intended to reflect the simplicity, dignity, and majesty of the American people.

Below is the list of actions Trump has taken and intends to take to put his name and imprint on Washington, D.C., all without the approval of Congress, the National Park Service, the National Capital Planning Commission, the Commission of Fine Arts, and the Committee for the Preservation of the White House. Most of his actions are forbidden by the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), the primary U.S. federal law governing the protection of historic resources.

  • Trump fired the long-standing chair and board of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, put his own people on the Center’s Board and himself as chair, and compelled the board to add his name to the storied institution and building established as an act of Congress in 1964 as a memorial of the assassinated 35th President of the United States.
  • Trump announced plans to build a 250-foot arch near Arlington National Cemetery that would be the largest triumphal arch in the world, would overshadow the Lincoln Memorial and disrupt the sight-line between the Capitol Building and Arlington National Cemetery (presumably with his name on it – The “Trump Arch”).
  • Trump proposed a “National Garden of American Heroes” that would be located between the Lincoln Memorial and the Tidal Basin, that he intends to fill with hastily made statues of celebrities of his choosing near monuments dedicated to Presidents Jefferson and FDR and Dr. Martin Luther King (presumably with his name on it – The “Trump Garden of American Heroes”).
  • Trump has begun the process of ripping the beige Tennessee flagstone pavers out of the West Colonnade of the White House that connects the Oval Office and West Wing to the Executive Residence without approval of any of the groups and commissions noted above. He wants to replace them with black granite that will contrast with the gold decorations and gold-framed portraits in the “Presidential Walk of Fame” that he installed along the walk and ostentatiously everywhere in the Oval Office.
  • Trump demolished, without approval from the commissions and organizations above, the White House East Wing to construct his 90,000 square-foot ballroom in its place that would overshadow the White House Residence, disrupt the series of ellipses on the White House property, and interrupt the sight lines between the White House and Capitol Building (presumably with his name on it – the “Trump Ballroom”).
  • In Trump’s first term, he paved over the Rose Garden and the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden at the White House that were designed and installed by the former first lady with the approval of the necessary commissions.
  • Trump compelled the State Department to add his name to the “United States Institute for Peace (USIP)” that has operated since it was established in 1984 by Congress and signed into law by President Reagan (with his name on it – “The Trump Institute for Peace”).

In the late 1980s I lived and worked in Washington, D.C. and loved the city, the Smithsonian Museums, the Memorials, and the impression given by the wide streets and vistas. Last month in a quick visit to D.C., I was stunned to see hanging above the entrance of the once independent Justice Department, but now an agency committed to revenge against Trump’s critics, that a 30-40 foot high photograph of a scowling Donald Trump leered down malignantly upon all passersby like Orwell’s Big Brother, emblematic of what the Trump Administration is.

My hope is simple, that come January 2027 and two years later with a new president and a continuing Democratic majority in Congress, accompanied by independent, sober and unencumbered Republican congressional representatives, that everything above will be torn down and returned to what official Washington, D.C. was in the pre-Trump era.