Preregister Now for "HOW TO MOVE OUR MONEY:

Practicing Reparations in a Year of Release"

Online, Sundays March 6th through April 10th
5-6 pm ET / 4-5 pm CT / 3-4 pm MT / 2-3 pm PT

Offered by Ways of Peace and co-sponsored by the Fund for Reparations Now!, this unique nonsectarian course is designed for those who accept the basic ethical imperative of reparations — and who seek best practices for connecting that ethical imperative with their own economic privileges.

Through interactive presentations, discussions, action / reflection, and singing, we will inspire and support each other in committing to lifelong practice — especially in this sabbatical / release year that carries a promise of jubilee.

Limited to 24 participants. To preregister and/or learn more, please review this flyer and write to waysofpeace.org@gmail.com.

Kindness: A Leap of Faith for Two Years of Pandemic

Today is the 7th day of the Jewish month of Adar, a traditional time to lift up the hevra kadisha / sacred Jewish burial fellowship for its services of ultimate kindness throughout the year.

And because this is a leap year in the Jewish calendar, the entire month of Adar is doubled — so we have TWO opportunities to observe 7 Adar. The next 7 Adar will come in March, as we round out two years since the World Health Organization declaration of global pandemic AND the first confirmed COVID-19 death in NYC.

Whether your community maintains a sacred fellowship, is in the process of organizing one, or simply wants to grow further in the direction of kindness, please consider offering a program  during this season to help move your caring efforts forward. If you would like to bring WAYS OF PEACE to your community for a videoconference program, please contact us.

According to an ancient Jewish teaching, our world stands on a tripod of learning, worship / work, and caring actions. Yet caring actions are the only "leg" that can truly support us over the long term.

This is demonstrated by a related teaching about a man who asked the sage Hillel to teach him the entire Torah while standing on one foot. Hillel's response was decisive: "What is hateful to you, do not do to your counterpart. That is the entire Torah. The rest is commentary — go and learn!"

The 20th anniversary of the September 11th attacks reminds us of how caring actions can move just as decisively to the forefront of our concern. For days and weeks and months afterward, we reached out and supported each other "on one foot" of the global tripod. LEARN MORE

But the trauma of that time also increased hatred and violence within the U.S. as well as beyond our borders. Now we need to bear witness more deeply, to learn from our mistakes so that we can take steps toward real healing and justice.

Wally Gobetz - Battery Labyrinth (2007) 

Walker, your footprints are the path, and nothing else. / Walker, there is no path: we make the path by walking. — Antonio Machado

A labyrinth is one of the oldest contemplative tools in human history, a winding circular path that provides a continuous route to the center and then returns to where the walker began. It offers balance and perspective, reminding us that how we take each step — and navigate each turning point — is how we respond to life.

Today WAYS OF PEACE led an interfaith peace walk at the 9/11 Commemorative Labyrinth south of Ground Zero — moving through the 20th anniversary of tragedies that shook our communities, our cities, and our world. We shared our memories, our pain, our unanswered questions, our shared quest for healing. Walking the path together, we supported each other in bearing witness to shattering and brokenness. One step at a time, we recommitted ourselves to the still, small voices of peace and healing.

* This 20th anniversary peace walk was offered through How to Mourn AND Organize, an integrative project of WAYS OF PEACE. We are continuing these interfaith peace walks at the 9/11 Commemorative Labyrinth every 4-6 weeks. Please contact us for information about how to participate.

Outside the entrance to the Sunset Park disaster morgue, Brooklyn, NY. Photo credit: KIKI VALENTINE

“A Year of Vigil for the Pandemic Dead and Beyond” (Tricycle Magazine)

The one-year anniversary of our vigil has now come and gone. Our nation stumbles forward, grasping for daily life as we previously thought we knew it. The Medical Examiner’s office is proceeding with arrangements for transfer of more bodies to Hart Island, NYC’s municipal burial ground off the coast of the Bronx.

 

Yet the "Great Matter" of life and death has not changed — and will accompany us as we move on. (...) READ MORE

“NYC temporary morgue lingers, a reminder of pandemic’s pain” (Associated Press)

Rabbi Regina Sandler-Phillips — who has organized volunteers to keep at-home vigils for the dead around the world, especially the unclaimed and unnamed — ventures periodically to an unobtrusive spot near the temporary morgue. She goes to bear witness “to what is not seen, and those who are not named,” she says.

 

The pain surrounding the facility’s creation and continued use “highlights the difficulties of how we honor the dead,” she says. (...) READ MORE

“Keeping vigil for the bodies stored at Sunset Park” (Spectrum News NY1)

When she’s not holding vigil in person at the NYC disaster morgue, Rabbi Regina Sandler-Phillips honors the dead remotely at midnight. She’s been doing that every night since the beginning of the pandemic, not just for the bodies stored in the trucks along the Brooklyn waterfront, but for victims of coronavirus around the world....

 

This eventually blossomed into Share the Vigil, a network of 12 to 18 volunteers across the country who commit at least one hour a week to honor the deceased. The only requirement is time — vigil keepers may utilize that hour as they see fit. (...) READ MORE

Share the Vigil is a How to Mourn AND Organize initiative of WAYS OF PEACE.

Wednesday, January 13th, 2021 at 8 PM EST on Zoom*
Honoring the 20th Yahrtzeit of Irving Samuel Phillips z"l

"I would be remiss in thinking back through my mothers, if I did not also acknowledge and honor my fathers — Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and IRVING — Irving being my own father, Irving Samuel Phillips, my most immediate link to the chain of patriarchs."

Four of the biblical Twelve Tribes of Israel were descendents of servant-class wives. Our ambivalence about naming these mothers as ancestors is deep and longstanding.

This "caste study" will weave together ancient source texts (translations provided) with perspectives of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, James Baldwin, Isabel Wilkerson, and Sweet Honey in the Rock. Come and explore a more inclusive understanding of ancestral legacies, and practice a deeper listening to silences that we often take for granted — especially during these turbulent times.

All are welcome regardless of religious background or text study experience. Maybe you'll even sing along!

*Sponsored by Altshul Wednesdays. Please write to waysofpeace.org@gmail.com

no later than 5 PM on Wednesday 1/13 for Zoom access

WAYS OF PEACE works throughout the year to empower the practices of "just-giving" — simple, regular, and fair.

Like most non-profits, WAYS OF PEACE has been hit hard by the crises of the past year. Until now, we have held off on our own fundraising while supporting other organizations on the front lines of response. LEARN MORE

Now, in the spirit of mutual aid, we are reaching out. As you plan your year-end giving, we hope you will partner with WAYS OF PEACE in the ongoing work of transformation and healing.

Support WAYS OF PEACE with a donation today!

WAYS OF PEACE celebrates Giving Tuesday as the publication anniversary of Generous Justice: Jewish Wisdom for Just-Giving.

And Generous Justice has been updated for these times of crisis!

Our unique Jewish guide to social justice empowerment through personal finance now features a concluding section on "Charity, Clarity, and Solidarity" — along with resources for food justice, "Individual Reparations Accounts," and much more.*

Order Generous Justice TODAY to guide your giving!

*The updated edition of Generous Justice is the only one now available online.

Thich Nhat Hanh, 2019. Photo Credit: Linh Pham, The New York Times

"...and after the hurricane, an earthquake...and after the earthquake, a fire...and after the fire — a still, small voice." (First Kings 19:11-12)

A history professor who has correctly predicted the popular vote of every presidential election since 1984 has done so on the basis of principles derived from the study of natural disasters — especially earthquakes: "Everything we know about elections, we've already stolen from geophysics....Tremors of political change, seismic movements of the voters, volcanic elections, political earthquakes. It's all geophysics anyway."

As so many of us continue to reel from the fallout of current events and their media coverage, this could actually be good news. Lichtman's perspective suggests that we turn our attention away from momentary headlines toward deeper forces, long-term transformation — and our own personal daily choices.

Today is the 94th "Continuation Day" (birthday) of Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Zen master and peace worker known to tens of thousands of followers worldwide simply as Thay (Teacher). He has weathered more than a half-century of exile, the devastation of his homeland, the murders of close friends, and countless setbacks in his continual efforts to alleviate suffering.

Throughout his life, Thich Nhat Hanh has offered a still, small voice of sanity beyond the terrors of our world. Even in his silence following a severe stroke in 2014, Thay continues to offer spiritual guidance through the ways he lives each day fully and mindfully.

What might our communities and our world look like if we spent more time listening for all the still, small voices that can guide us toward the best each of us can be?

What if — beyond despair, rage, and holding our breaths for the next elections — we truly believed that Election Day is every day of our lives? LEARN MORE

In this season of change and uncertainty, may we remain mindful of all our miraculous, daily opportunities to make a world of difference. 

NYC Disaster Morgue, Brooklyn, NY. Photo Credit: Brendan Mcdermid / Reuters

Six months after the first confirmed COVID-19 death in NYC, WAYS OF PEACE returned to the chain link perimeter of the NYC disaster morgue in Sunset Park, Brooklyn — to bear witness to 19 years since the 9/11 attacks and 160 days of our remote vigil for the COVID-19 dead and beyond.

After the World Trade Center attacks, NYC volunteers sustained a vigil at the 9/11 disaster morgue for eight months around the clock. Share the Vigil extends this legacy of bearing witness into our current time of crisis.

Zen teachers sometimes invoke the paradox of a "seamless monument" in this broken world of ripped seams, violence, illness and death. Our 9/11 Share the Vigil witness was part of a nationwide week of memorial-making. Yet our memorial is "seamless" — an invisible awareness sustained over time and space, continually mindful of our connections with all those beyond our power to name. LEARN MORE

Share the Vigil is a "How to Mourn AND Organize" initiative of WAYS OF PEACE.

Emerging from the 9/11/01 disaster relief — and gathering momentum since the 2016 elections — How to Mourn AND Organize brings together timeless wisdom with contemporary best practices to foster progress toward social transformation.

Practicing Tzedakah as Reparations: From Charity to Clarity and Solidarity

Sunday, August 23rd at 1:00 PM Eastern Time on Zoom

WAYS OF PEACE is honored to participate in a nationwide, multi-generational day of learning for racial justice. Rabbi Regina Sandler-Phillips will introduce a time-honored Jewish empowerment process*—accessible to all, regardless of income—connecting historic anti-racist solidarity with contemporary “individual reparations accounts” and diverse movements for social justice. LEARN MORE

This online program is free and open to all, but the WAYS OF PEACE session is limited to 24 participants to facilitate sharing and interaction. If you find that registration is already closed, please contact us to discuss alternative program possibilities!

Eternal Vigilance, One Day at a Time

NYC Disaster Morgue, Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Photo Credit: Justin Heiman / Getty Images

"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance" was often quoted by abolitionist Frederick Douglass. We will discuss the historic solidarity of vigilance committees next Sunday, August 23rd.

WAYS OF PEACE continues to coordinate nationwide, multi-generational vigilance around the clock. We are approaching 135 days of our shared vigil, and always welcome others to join us in honoring all who have died due to to COVID-19, the ravages of racism, and and more during this time of crisis. LEARN MORE

Share the Vigil is a How to Mourn AND Organize initiative of WAYS OF PEACE.

*In our commitment to just-giving, WAYS OF PEACE donates at least 10 percent of net staff compensation to other organizations that uphold our core mandates of renewing justice and kindness across lines of diversity.

 Disaster Morgue Trailers, Brooklyn, NY. Photo Credit: Brendan Mcdermid / Reuters

Before U.S. Memorial Day, Naming The Lost brought together survivors, community activists, artists and faith leaders for a 24-hour reading of names to honor the COVID-19 dead. "One person shared with me that this was the first time their anger paused to mourn, and that it was liberating," reported vigil organizer Rafael Shimunov.

Eighteen years ago this past week, the post-9/11 recovery efforts were brought to a ceremonial close with an empty flag-draped stretcher carried out of Ground Zero. For the previous eight months, the human remains stored in refrigerated trucks outside the NYC medical examiner's office had been accompanied by a pluralistic rotation of more than 200 volunteers, keeping vigil around the clock. 

The unnamed and unclaimed dead will need our care and attention for many, many 24 hours to come. Pausing regularly to mourn the dead can help us continue to liberate our energies more effectively on behalf of the living.

Disaster Morgue Trailers, Brooklyn, NY. Photo Credit: Loudlabs News NYC.

Share the Vigil began at midnight eight weeks ago. We are grateful to all who continue to join this honor guard for the COVID-19 dead — morning, midday, and night — across generations, time zones, and faith traditions.

“I moved from focusing on NYC...to focusing on the whole nation — drawing myself into the middle of the country to connect with all the souls I could."

"We are sitting so that all the souls who are in a liminal space now, awaiting burial, can be tended to with love and care across all time zones."

Find out more here about how you can help to honor the COVID-19 dead on a regular basis:

SHARE THE VIGIL: Frequently Asked Questions

SHARE THE VIGIL: Experiences to Date

As we move through a renewed appreciation for Memorial Day, WAYS OF PEACE also offers blessings for the convergence of spiritual turning points over recent weeks: Vesak for Buddhists, Eid al-Fitr for Muslims, Shavuot for Jews, Pentecost for Christians. 

All of these festival days are sanctified by each precious day of life leading up to them. May we continue to make each day count through this global crisis.

“Share the Vigil” is a How to Mourn AND Organize initiative of WAYS OF PEACE. For more information, please visit Share the Vigil. To support or join the vigil, please write to SharetheVigil@gmail.com.

"I lost a family member to the virus; fortunately she was able to be buried that same day. My heart goes out to all those who do not have this privilege. Also just yesterday I passed by a temporary morgue stationed outside a hospital in my neighborhood and wondered what can I do? The opportunity to commit to sitting vigil and honoring those lost is very welcomed." 

WAYS OF PEACE is convening a growing interfaith network of hourly vigil-keepers across generations and time zones, honoring the COVID-19 dead and all who care for them around the clock.

Vigil-keeping is a simple yet profound meditation — one that can open our hearts to the full beauty of our fragile lives. Pausing to find stillness at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of our busy days, we are discovering "how to live now" as we honor all those whose deaths connect us intimately with our own humanity. LEARN MORE

"I appreciate having the accountability of sitting with/for the dead in the middle of the afternoon. Midday is a useful time for me to surrender my other activities and feel the reverberations of the prior hours, my mind-state, and my heart's intentions. I'm finding my way with it."

Across cultures and faith traditions — Jewish Omer, Muslim Ramadan, Christian Eastertide, Buddhist Vesak — this season of shared vigilance calls us to open our hearts more deeply to those near and far whose lives are being claimed by a global plague. Bearing witness through timeless rhythms of response, vigil-keeping is helping to restore the broken rhythms of community life.

You are warmly invited to join us. LEARN MORE

And when your body has become still,
reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
— Rev. Lynn Ungar, "Pandemic" (3/11/20)

"Share the Vigil" is a How to Mourn AND Organize initiative of WAYS OF PEACE.