Rabbi David Rudin, former Chief Rabbi of Ireland and head of the Council of World Religions for Peace spoke last night at Auburn. I was asked to deliver an invocation: The father of many, Abraham, dug wells, and a desert thirst was quenched with those waters. But as time went on, the wells were not taken care of and they became clogged. So, we read this week that Isaac dug anew the wells of his father, drawing fresh water from…
I had the great honor of giving the sermon during the services today at Union Theological Seminary. I was asked to speak on Isaiah 65…..here goes: “I create Jerusalem a rejoicing” – Isaiah 65 If there is peace in Pittsburgh, the residents of Squirrel Hill will rejoice – as will residents all around the three rivers, the suburbs, and much of Western Pennsylvania. If there is peace in Belfast, not only Northern Ireland, but all of Ireland, indeed all of…
I’ll be hanging out with Jenna Weissman Joselit tonight at an event at the JCC. She’s a visiting prof at Princeton and writes for the New Republic. Her book Wonders of America is a brilliant romp on assimilation.
Tickets are now on sale for Vital Signs Play Festival, which features Driving School of America – my new one-act – running December 1-5.
I met yesterday with Rev. Chris Leighton of the National Institute of Jewish-Christian Studies down in Baltimore. He was up speaking with the Presbyterains Concerned for Jewish- Christian Relations, the group which continues to work on the recent anti-Israel actions of the Presbyterian general assembly.
This past Sunday night I watched the Nir Bergman film Broken Wings — a new Israeli film that speaks in a simple, raw emotional language. The film has shades of the Ice Storm and In America — focusing on family tragedy and the search for something to hold onto when everything is lost. Stunning.
I spent the first part of the week out in LA at the Faith, Fear and Indifference Conference at USC, which focused on how teenagers, post 9-11 think about religion. Moralistic Theraputic Deism was the big theme. But the highlights were Brother John from Taize and Amira Quraishi speaking on the Muslim Youth Camp. We had dinner with USC’s president, who spoke about the unique role private schools have in fostering religious identity. It was inspiring.
Poetry is not my life Ferllenghtti sits perched atop the bathroom radiator And I savor a page every time my body recycles Thanking God for the openings and the hollow places And the subtlety of uncapitalized letters Though a dozen boxes of notebooks with scribbled fragments of verse will crush you if you attempt to open my closet door Poetry is not my life Though there was a time When I left my cozy air conditioned world rode a beat…
In the big news department — My latest play, Driving School of America has been accepted in Vital Signs 9 – a festival of one acts at the VitalTheater in New York. The theater is on 42nd street next to Playwright’s Horizons and the run begins December 1st!!!!
I spoke to a delegation of Russian Muslims last week as part of a U.S. State Department visit. Here’s a photo and brief description. When I spoke about Beslan and the horror I felt when seeing the killing of children in the school seige one of the women asked why Americans do not feel horror about the killing of Iraqi children by U.S. artillery. Intense moment.