OHALAH: ASSOCIATION OF RABBIS FOR JEWISH RENEWAL

Declares 2009 (5769)

THE YEAR OF PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS

Members of the public are invited to join members of ALEPH, OHALAH and the Rabbinic Pastors Association in adding their name to the resolutions concerning TZEDEK, KOSHER MEAT BY UNKOSHER MEANS and NAME OF GAY-LESBIAN RIGHTS RESOLUTION GOES HERE.

To add your voice to these important efforts, please send the name of the resolution, your title (if any), your name as you wish it to appear, city and state or country to Rabbi Pam Frydman Baugh at pbfrydman@yahoo.com.

We also invite professionals to run THE PROFESSIONAL ETHICS ARTICLE, or a similar article in your newsletter, on your website, or as a handout in your congregation, clinic, agency, or business.

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Tzedek Tzedek Tirdof. Justice, justice pursue. Deuteronomy 16:20

Da Lifney Mi Atah Omed. Know before Whom you stand. Rabbi Eliezer.

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PROFESSIONAL ETHICS

Endorsed by ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal and

OHALAH: Association of Rabbis for Jewish Renewal.

Professionals may tailor this article to their needs & publish it in newsletters and on websites.

L'shem yichud kudsha brich hu ushechintey hamekadeshet umevarechet otanu beshalva vavetach. In the name of Oneness, blessed be, and the Shechina who blesses and sanctifies us with equanimity and safety.

There are people all over the world connected with one another through their professions and their faith in one another and in humanity. Doctors, nurses, therapists and others in the healing professions may work shoulder to shoulder to find cures at home and to treat patients on the front lines of disaster relief and human need. Teachers and clergy often reach across divides to help their students and congregants learn about others both at home and abroad.

All of us who work in these professions or enjoy the fruits of those who work in these professions can appreciate the importance of good boundaries to keep us safe and ensure that we and our loved ones are treated fairly.

Policies concerning privacy and confidentiality characterize the rights of students, congregants, patients and clients. The right to be treated fairly and honestly, equitably and respectfully is a right that is available in more and more venues and circumstances as professional standards evolve throughout the world.

OHALAH, the Association of Rabbis for Jewish Renewal, wishes to engage in consciousness-raising among our members and their congregants, constituents and students that one has recourse regarding the professionals in our lives, include the clergy in our lives, and also the professionals who treat us when we are ill and who teach and guide and counsel us and our children.

To this end, we have declared 2009 (5769) “THE YEAR OF PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS.” We invite you to share the information in this brief article in your newsletter, on your website and/or as a handout available to those who visit your community or institution.

We invite you and the members of your community to log onto the OHALAH website at http://www.ohalah.org/profstandyear.htm and sign our Tzedek Resolution TO HELP MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE.

We invite you to schedule a workshop in your community to better educate yourselves in the professional boundaries extant in the state, region or nation where you live concerning medical treatment, education and the practice of your faith. Learn about the offices and agencies available to respond to questions and receive complaints and concerns. Find ways to make this information available to your constituents both now and in the future.

Like many rabbinic associations and other associations of professionals, OHALAH's governing policies are available to the public. OHALAH policies are on our website at www.ohalah.org/guidelinesohalah.htm, including our policy regarding membership standards and our clergy code regarding sexual and financial ethics.

May the professional standards that affect our lives be stepping-stones to a safer and more equitable future for all.

Keyn yehi ratzon. So may it be.

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TZEDEK RESOLUTION

Endorsed by ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal and

OHALAH: Association of Rabbis for Jewish Renewal.

To add your voice to this resolution, please follow the instructions at the top of the page.

We, caring citizens of the world, sign our names to the resolution below to raise consciousness concerning health care, the global economy and the need to care for the most vulnerable among us.

HEALTH CARE - We applaud governments who provide access to health care for all of their citizens and residents. We beseech countries that do not yet provide health care for all of their citizens and residents to make every effort to do so as soon as humanly possible. This includes providing health care facilities and health care services in such as way as to render them affordable and accessible.

GREEN MARKET ECONOMY – We call your attention to the realities of global economic interdependence. See for example http://www.economywatch.com/market-economy/global-market-economy.html. We call for access to investment opportunities that support socially conscious commodities, such as food grown through healthy and organic means, energies that are environmentally friendly, and products and technologies that do not fund war.

CARING FOR THE MOST VULNERABLE AMONG US – We applaud the commitments of the world’s wealthy nations that help to relieve the indebtedness of poor and developing nations and that provide foreign aid in times of both natural and human disaster. In addition to these efforts, we call for an annual contribution by wealthy nations to a fund that would be monitored by a non-governmental agency with representation from all contributing nations with the purpose of distributing the funds to non-governmental agencies in poor and developing nations and among poor and underserved populations in developing nations to provide basic nutrition, preventative health care and disease control and treatment.

As the calendar turns in each culture and corner of the globe, hope and celebration touch the hearts of those who celebrate. As the calendar turns in your part of the world, please take steps to help make the world a better place for all the inhabitants of the world.

Eshet Hazon Matia Rania Angelou, Wayland, Massachusetts.

Rabbi Chava Bahle, Michigan

Rabbi Dennis Beck-Berman, Petersburg, VA

Rabbi Pamela Frydman Baugh, San Francisco, California

Rabbi Elisheva Beyer, Reno, Nevada

Rabbi Eli Cohen, Santa Cruz, California

Rabbi Howard Cohen, North Carolina

Rabbi Diane Elliot, Richmond, California

Rabbi Dan Goldblatt, Danville, California

Rabbi Chaya Gusfield, Oakland, California

Rabbi Shaya Isenberg, Gainesville, Florida

Rabbi Raachel Jurovics, Raleigh, North Carolina

Rabbi Laura Duhan Kaplan, Vancouver, Canada

Rabbi Lori Klein, Capitola, California

Rabbi Eyal Levinson, Givataim, Israel

Abbe Lyons, Ithaca, New York

Rabbi Paula Marcus, Santa Cruz, California

Rabbi Yocheved Mintz, Las Vegas, Nevada

Rabbi David Shneyer, Washington, D.C.

Ed Stafman, Tallahassee, Florida

Rabbi Shohama Wiener, New Rochelle, NY

Ora Weiss, Jerusalem, Israel

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KOSHER MEAT BY UNKOSHER MEANS

Endorsed by ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal

OHALAH: Association of Rabbis for Jewish Renewal and

The Rabbinic Pastors Association.

To add your voice to this resolution, please follow the instructions at the top of the page.

Traditional Jewish Law prescribes precise actions and conditions required in order for food to bear a “Kosher” label. Likewise, Jewish Law has precise guidelines for allowed and forbidden actions and conditions for the treatment of workers, including immigrant workers. In situations where Jewish Law regarding the treatment of workers has been violated in the process of their preparing of food for “Kosher” certification, we believe that food must be denied “Kosher” certification.

In The Fire Within, a biography of Rabbi Yisroel Salanter, the book's author, Rabbi Hillel Goldberg, relates that Rabbi Salanter advised his students that when they were preparing matzot for Passover, they should not overwork themselves or make excessive demands of the female workers who were kneading the dough and otherwise preparing for the matzah baking. That same account appears in a Hebrew volume titled Bikkurei Shai, written by a modern Israeli rabbi who has served as Chief Rabbi of Givatayim, Israel. If Chassidim making matzot for their own use and the use of the community must pay attention to worker rights, it is also incumbent upon us to treat immigrants the same under the Torah based halachah of treating the stranger as the home-born.

Reports arising from the May 12, 2008 Department of Homeland Security raid at the AgriProcessors Kosher Meat Packing Plant in Postville, Iowa, establish that there are credible allegations that the owners and management of AgriProcessors committed serious violations of Jewish Law against scores of immigrant workers at the plant including sexual assault and harassment, rape, abuse, and use of child labor.

Under these circumstances and credible allegations, we call upon our fellow clergy who provide Kashruth certification to suspend the certification of “Kosher” meat from AgriProcessors until the truthfulness of these allegations are determined in a proper legal forum where the workers, and the owners and management, have a hearing that complies with the requirements of due process of civil and Jewish laws.

We also call upon our fellow Jews to boycott meat from AgriProcessors until this determination. If these allegations are determined to be true, the “Kosher” decertification and boycott should continue until full t'shuva and tikkun is done by the owners and management of AgriProcessors, including apologies to the workers, full compensation for their injuries, and the implementation of procedures and systems with effective monitoring to ensure that abuse of AgriProcessors workers never occurs again.

Eshet Hazon Matia Rania Angelou, Wayland, Massachusetts

Rabbi Chava Bahle, Suttons Bay, Michigan

Rabbi Dennis Beck-Berman, Petersburg, VA

Rabbi Pamela Frydman Baugh, San Francisco, California

Rabbi Eli Cohen, Santa Cruz, California

Rabbi Howard Cohen, North Carolina

Rabbi Julie Hilton Danan, Chico, California.

John K. Diamond, Newport News, Virginia

Rabbi Diane Elliot, Richmond, California

Rabbinic Pastor Kate Shulamit Fagan, St. Petersburg Florida

Rabbinic Pastor Andrew Gold, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Rabbi Dan Goldblatt, Danville, California

Rabbi Mel Gottlieb, Ph.D, President Academy for Jewish Religion, Los Angeles, CA

Rabbi Chaya Gusfield, Oakland, California

Rabbi Naomi Mara Hyman, Easton, Maryland

Rabbi Raachel Jurovics, Raleigh, North Carolina

Rabbi Laura Duhan Kaplan, Vancouver, Canada

Ms. Marky Kelly, Portland, Oregon

Rabbi Lori Klein, Capitola, California

Rabbi Judith Kummer, Boston, Massachusetts

Rabbi Gilah Langner, Washington DC

Rabbi Michael Lerner, San Francisco, California

Rabbi Stan Levy, Los Angeles, California

Cantorial Student Abbe Lyons, Ithaca, New York

Rabbi Paula Marcus, Santa Cruz, California

Rabbi Yocheved Mintz, Las Vegas, Nevada

Rabbi David Roller, Gilbert, Arizona

Frederic C. Schultz, J.D., San Diego, CA

Rabbi David Shneyer, Washington, D.C.

Ed Stafman, Tallahassee, Florida

Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Hollace Westfeldt, Boulder, Colorado

Rabbi Shohama Wiener

Agriprocessors sells kosher meat under the brand names Aaron's, Aaron’s Best, Rubashkin's, Shor Habor, Iowa's Best Beef and Supreme Kosher.

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WE SUPPORT THE RIGHT TO MARRY

Endorsed by ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal and

OHALAH: Association of Rabbis for Jewish Renewal.

To add your voice to this resolution, please follow the instructions at the top of the page.

Marriage has been a protected human right since time immemorial. The time has come to extend that right to same sex couples. We are inspired by the example of Canada, The Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the State of California that extend the right of marriage to same sex couples. We applaud the leadership of Great Britain, Norway, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, Iceland, France, New Zealand and the States of Rhode Island, Vermont, Connecticut, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Oregon, Maine, Washington, Hawaii and the District of Columbia that provide support for same sex couples by sanctioning same-sex registered partnerships or civil unions or by providing some form of spousal rights for gay and lesbian couples. We call upon the people of California to vote in the November election in favor of same sex marriage, which is in danger of being outlawed once again in that state. We call upon Americans who live in other states where same sex marriage will be on the ballot to educate themselves, and to vote against measures that state that marriage is between a man and a woman because that language--although traditionally linguistically correct--denies the human rights of the gay, lesbian and bisexual members of the community.

Eshet Hazon Matia Rania Angelou, Wayland, Massachusetts

Rabbi Chava Bahle, Michigan

Rabbi Pamela Frydman Baugh, San Francisco, California

Rabbi Eli Cohen, Santa Cruz, California

Rabbi Howard Cohen, North Carolina

Rabbi Diane Elliot, Richmond, California

Rabbi Dan Goldblatt, Danville, California

Rabbi Chaya Gusfield, Oakland, California

Rabbi Shaya Isenberg, Gainesville, Florida

Rabbi Raachel Jurovics, Raleigh, North Carolina

Rabbi Lori Klein, Capitola, California

Rabbi Deb Kolodny, Washington, D.C.

Rabbi Eyal Levinson, Givataim, Israel

Rabbi Paula Marcus, Santa Cruz, California

Rabbi Yocheved Mintz, Las Vegas, Nevada

Rabbi David Mivasair, Vancouver British Columbia

Rabbi David Shneyer, Washington, D.C.

Rabbi Arnie Sleutelberg

Ed Stafman, Tallahassee, Florida

Rabbi Bridget Wynne, El Cerrito, California

POEMS AND QUOTES

Signed and Sealed

They came in Tuxes and gowns

Carrying flowers and cupcakes

Bare shoulders, sporting tattoos

With their children and parents

Some waiting a quarter century

Others even longer

For the second, third time

Before family and friends

In sickness and in health

Promises already kept

Through tears and laughter

We witnessed their love

“With the power vested in me

By the State of California”

We vow to ensure

That there’s no turning back.

- Rabbi Paula Marcus

June 2008, Santa Cruz, California

“The first couple who married with me here in Canada were a rabbi and a cantor from California who’d been together for eighteen years. The next couple were two Jewish guys from Seattle who were married here on their 30th (!!!) anniversary. The latest were a couple of Jewish women from Austin, TX. Every one of them absolutely deserves to be married just as much as my wife and I do.” Rabbi David Mivasair, June 2008, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

“Equality. It comes down to one concept – equality. All humans are deserving of equal treatment under the law. OHALAH gets it. Liberal Judaism gets it. It shouldn’t be that hard for everyone to understand.” Rabbi Arnie Sleutelberg, July 2008, Royal Oak, Michigan

OHALAH rabbis want to marry you! With delight, we join in this historic moment as people of all genders are free to choose marriage under California State Law. We look forward to accompany couples who are creating, affirming, and re-affirming their families through the act of sacred marriage as they walk to the chuppah as well as City Hall. We honor those who came before us who have paved the way for this important and precious time, begin the process of healing wounds that have waited a long time for healing. Rabbi Chaya Gusfield, June 2008, Oakland, California