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Practices for Defending Democracy

What can each of us do to protect democracy in the United States? Review multiple perspectives from Rabbi Nancy Fuchs Kreimer, Rabbi David Teutsch, Sabrina Sojourner, Rabbi Mordechai Liebling, Rabbi Sid Schwarz, Rabbi Michael Pollack, Rabbi Alex Weissman, Ruth Messinger, Andy Levin and more. 

Symposium on Democracy.
“We are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism or communism.” — Timothy Snyder
We should do what we can to make paying taxes an uplifting experience.
We should not change our behavior just because we think it might help us avoid trouble.
When I give to JStreet, the message of commitment to Palestinian rights alongside Israeli security comes through with every contribution.
I wanted to see a society struggling to put itself together after 30 years of violence.
We need to be sensitive to groupthink.
How do our Jewish symbols maintain or expand tyranny? In what ways are they hastening and hatching wholeness?
Creating communities of practice where accountability and ethical conversation are norms of everyday life.
No one could have guessed that Itamar Ben-Gvir, a convicted felon and terrorism supporter, would be put in charge of the police.
I would err on the side of balancing the right to bear arms with the Jewish principle of piku’akh nefesh.
I know that I don’t owe anyone an explanation as to why I am present or how I’m Jewish.
Knowing and interacting with neighbors can be hard.
Small human connections are the relational glue that can determine whether our communities and societies fracture under a tyrant or resist tyranny.
Most of us are not giving enough!
Beware of imprecise and heavily ideological misuses of any word.
Esther’s caution served her well in the end, when she was able to “come out” on her own terms.
“We need to become citizens who produce democracy."
It is easier than you think to find market-rate funds that align with our values.
When it matters, we often know enough to step into the breach.
Recent developments simply add to the wholesale assault on democracy that threatens America’s future.
Kaplan was committed to democracy as an intrinsically good way of life.
It is possible to resist creeping fascism without assuming that it is genocide that we are fending off.
Truth is not always what one wants it to be.
Words are real, and nearly tangible, in many corners of the Jewish textual tradition.
Reconstructionist thinkers embraced democracy as both a key strategy and an ultimate truth.
“Faith is taking the first step, even when you can’t see the whole staircase.” (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.)
We need to be on the lookout for the dangerous usage of language. Words themselves are not dangerous.
We need to act within our capacity.

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