{ "clip_details": { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "four-questions-through-lens-food-justice", "title": "Four Questions Through the Lens of Food Justice", "author": "Ritualwell", "author_handle": "ritualwell", "author_initials": "RI", "covertext": "Why do we eat much on this night and others eat little? Why do we eat the unleavened bread and throw our leavened bread...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/113999/conversions/logo_cmyk_tagline_url-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/113999/logo_cmyk_tagline_url.jpg", "body": "<p>Why do we eat much on this night and others eat little?<br />\nWhy do we eat the unleavened bread and throw our leavened bread away instead of donating it to the food pantry?<br />\nWhy do we dip our food into sauce and salt andcharosetwhile others may not even havea crumb to dip?<br />\nWhy do we lay back, relax and eat the food that comes to us so easily while others work to buy bread for their family?</p>\n\n<p>This clip originally appeared on <a href=\"http://www.ritualwell.org/ritual/food-justice-seder-additions\">Ritualwell.org. </a></p>\n", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "Jessica Steinberg, Ritualwell.org", "featured": 1, "featuredIn": { "title": "A Haggadah for Justice ", "slug": "haggadah-justice", "author": "Haggadot" }, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "-- Four Questions", "slug": "four-questions" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 283, "tags": [ { "tag": "Food", "slug": "food" }, { "tag": "Justice", "slug": "justice" } ], "themes": [ { "theme": "Food", "slug": "food" } ], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Four Questions Through the Lens of Food Justice | Passover haggadah by Ritualwell", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/four-questions-through-lens-food-justice", "og:title": "Four Questions Through the Lens of Food Justice | Passover haggadah by Ritualwell", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, "contributed_by": { "author": "Ritualwell", "handle": "ritualwell", "author_initials": "RI", "total_books": 0, "total_clips": 7, "total_followers": 0, "is_following": 0 }, "user_book": { "title": "A Haggadah for Justice ", "reading_length": 103, "author": "Haggadot", "author_initials": "HA", "table_of_content": { "Introduction": [ "Human Rights Quote", "Introduction", "Human Trafficking Today", "Introduction", "Freedom - by Emory Douglas", "March on Washington, 1963", "\"Седер на Песах\". авторка Зоя Черкаська-Ннаді", "#MyKeshetSeder", "WHO SITS WITH US AT OUR SEDER??" ], "Commentary / Readings": [ "Praise the Contrary and Its Defenders", "Four Cups of Wine: Social Justice Readings for Your Seder", "Then they came", "Poetry - Reading The Haggadah Backwards ", "The Brutality of Corrective Rape", "Liberation in God's Image. Progressive Islam as an Islamic Humanism", "The Ten Plagues of Domestic Poverty", "The Banana on the Seder Plate: A Ritual to Reflect the Refugee Crisis", "Reflection Questions/Preguntas Para Reflexionar" ], "Bareich": [ "Social Justice Blessing", "The Third Cup: Transformation", "Pour Out Your Wrath" ], "-- Ten Plagues": [ "Heschel Quote", "Ten Modern Plagues", "Gentrification: \"It's Not About Race...”", "LGBT Stats", "Ten Plagues Facing Refugees in the U.S. and Worldwide" ], "": [ "Human Rights Prayer" ], "Yachatz": [ "Breaking the matzah - hunger", "Let All Who are Hungry, Come and Eat—A Reading for The Passover Seder - A Supplement from AJWS", "Matzah" ], "Maggid - Beginning": [ "Child Labor in the Cocoa Fields", "Adding Fair Trade Chocolate to the Seder Plate", "Rabbis Organizing Rabbis Immigration Seder Ritual", "The Thesis Statement of the Haggadah", "Tomato on the Seder Plate" ], "-- Four Questions": [ "4 Questions", "The 5th Question", "Ask the Fifth Question", "The Four Questions: What Questions Must We Ask Tonight?", "Four Questions Through the Lens of Food Justice", "Four Questions: Human Trafficking", "Four Questions: Worker's Rights" ], "-- Four Children": [ "5th Question", "Four Children Through the Lens of Food Justice", "The Four Children: A Racial Justice Haggadah Insert", "An anti-racist passover resource" ], "-- Exodus Story": [ "Social Justice - Modern Slavery", "Maggid & Persecution of Native Americans", "Heschel on Selma", "Stand With Refugees This Passover", "Ruby Bridges", "Justice For All", "The Statue of Liberty Reimagined", "Bread and Roses" ], "-- Cup #2 & Dayenu": [ "Dayenu intro", "What Does 'Dayenu' Mean Today? ", "Miriam's Cup - Winona LaDuke, Native American Activist", "Being LGBTQ and Enough: A Queer Dayeinu", "Dayenu" ], "Rachtzah": [ "Rachtzah: A Deeper Washing" ], "Motzi-Matzah": [ "Dissatisfied..." ], "Maror": [ "Rights for All Workers", "Maror" ], "Hallel": [ "Hallel Prayer for Children of Pilgrims, Slaves & Native American Peoples" ], "Songs": [ "L'Internationale", "A Social Justice Commentary on Chad Gadya" ] } }, "clips_by_author": [ { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "kosi-rvayah-my-cup-runneth-over", "title": "Kosi R'vayah-My Cup Runneth Over", "author": "Ritualwell", "author_handle": "ritualwell", "author_initials": "RI", "covertext": "This chant is intended to focus our attention on each of the four cups of wine during the Passover seder. As you pour ea...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/113999/conversions/logo_cmyk_tagline_url-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/113999/logo_cmyk_tagline_url.jpg", "body": "<p>This chant is intended to focus our attention on each of the four cups of wine during the Passover seder. As you pour each cup, chant the following words from <a href=\"http://www.ritualwell.org/ritual/psalm-23\">Psalm 23 </a>– \" <em>Kosi R'vayah,</em> \" translated as \"my cup runneth over\" or \"my cup is overflowing.\" The brimming cups and music create a beautiful <em>seder</em> ritual.</p>\n\n<p>You can learn the three parts of this chant by listening to them separately and together on <a href=\"http://www.ritualwell.org/ritual/kosi-rvayah-my-cup-runneth-over\">Ritualwell.org</a>.</p>\n\n<p>Kosi R'vayah is available on the Chanscendence CD by <a href=\"http://www.rabbishefagold.com/\">Rabbi Shefa Gold</a>.</p>\n\n<p>This clip originally appeared on <a href=\"http://www.ritualwell.org/ritual/kosi-rvayah-my-cup-runneth-over\">Ritualwell.org</a>.</p>\n", "cliptype": "video", "clipsource": "Ritualwell.org", "featured": 1, "featuredIn": { "title": "Women's Seder", "slug": "womens-seder-1", "author": "Haggadot" }, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4Uta54LnHA" }, "thumbnail": "https://assets.haggadot.com/clips/391684/conversions/hqdefault-cover.jpg", "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Kadesh", "slug": "kadesh" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 492, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Kosi R'vayah-My Cup Runneth Over | Passover haggadah by Ritualwell", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/kosi-rvayah-my-cup-runneth-over", "og:title": "Kosi R'vayah-My Cup Runneth Over | Passover haggadah by Ritualwell", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "difference-karpas", "title": "The Difference of Karpas", "author": "Ritualwell", "author_handle": "ritualwell", "author_initials": "RI", "covertext": "The karpas, the green vegetable, is the first part of the seder that makes this night different from all other night...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/113999/conversions/logo_cmyk_tagline_url-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/113999/logo_cmyk_tagline_url.jpg", "body": "<p>The <em>karpas</em>, the green vegetable, is the first part of the <em><a href=\"http://www.ritualwell.org/glossary/4/letters#term326\">seder</a></em> that makes this night different from all other nights. So far, the first glass of wine and the hand washing, though significant, do not serve to mark any sort of difference; they are regular parts of meals. The karpas, however, is not. As a night marked by difference, that difference starts now. Tonight, we celebrate difference with the karpas. Here, difference brings us hope, joy, and renewed life.</p>\n\n<p>We also know that with difference can come pain and tears. We have shed these tears ourselves and we have caused others to shed tears. Some say we dip the karpas in salt water to remind ourselves of <a href=\"http://www.ritualwell.org/glossary/4/letterj#term237\">Joseph</a>, whose brothers sold him into slavery and then dipped his fabulous, technicolor dream coat into blood to bring back to their father, <a href=\"http://www.ritualwell.org/glossary/4/letterj#term235\">Jacob</a>. Difference can also be dangerous.</p>\n\n<p>Tonight, we dip the karpas into salt water, and as we taste it, we taste both the fresh, celebratory hope of difference and the painful blood and tears that have come with it.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Together we say</strong>:</p>\n\n<p> <em>Brukha at <a href=\"http://www.ritualwell.org/glossary/4/lettery#term384\">Yah</a> eloheynu ruakh ha'olam boreit p'ri ha'adamah.</em> </p>\n\n<p>You are Blessed, Our God, Spirit of the World, who creates the fruit of the earth.</p>\n\n<p>This clip originally appeared on <a href=\"http://www.ritualwell.org/ritual/difference-karpas\">Ritualwell.org</a>.</p>\n", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "Alex Weissman, Ritualwell.org", "featured": 1, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Karpas", "slug": "karpas" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 377, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "The Difference of Karpas | Passover haggadah by Ritualwell", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/difference-karpas", "og:title": "The Difference of Karpas | Passover haggadah by Ritualwell", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "looking-towards-pesakh", "title": "Looking Towards Pesakh", "author": "Ritualwell", "author_handle": "ritualwell", "author_initials": "RI", "covertext": "We’ve been bound by a hardened heart And our inability to see ourselves in each other. We have been puffed up by ego and...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/113999/conversions/logo_cmyk_tagline_url-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/113999/logo_cmyk_tagline_url.jpg", "body": "<p>We’ve been bound by a hardened heart<br />\nAnd our inability to see ourselves in each other.<br />\nWe have been puffed up by ego and pride.<br />\nEnslaved by how things have always been.<br />\nAnd now it is time to go.<br />\nBut fear threatens to paralyze.<br />\nHow can we possibly exist any other way?<br />\nOur imagination falters<br />\nThe attachment to what we know is so great<br />\nIt doesn’t matter that it causes us so much pain.<br />\nWe dig in.<br />\nWe will not be moved.<br />\nBut the season tells us it is time to go.<br />\nMaybe we can depart without<br />\nCausing too much suffering.<br />\nMaybe we can go without destroying what is left behind.<br />\nCan we find new ways out of narrowness?<br />\nOut of the confines of habits that restrict our growth<br />\nAnd bind our spirit?<br />\nDelicate white flowers rise out of hard ground.<br />\nTrees broken by ice begin to bloom.<br />\nThe season tells us it is time to go.<br />\nThe journey starts with one step.<br />\nA simple step,<br />\nA momentary willingness,<br />\nA slight turn.<br />\nGreen shoots are scattered among long fallen leaves<br />\nThe way forward is uncertain<br />\nThe path has not yet been cleared.<br />\nBut the season tells us,<br />\nAll of us together,<br />\nIt is time to go.</p>\n\n<p>This poem originally appeared on <a href=\"http://www.ritualwell.org/ritual/looking-toward-pesakh\">Ritualwell.org</a>.</p>", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "Rabbi Yael Levy", "featured": 1, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Introduction", "slug": "introduction" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 350, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Looking Towards Pesakh | Passover haggadah by Ritualwell", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/looking-towards-pesakh", "og:title": "Looking Towards Pesakh | Passover haggadah by Ritualwell", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "four-children-through-lens-food-justice", "title": "Four Children Through the Lens of Food Justice", "author": "Ritualwell", "author_handle": "ritualwell", "author_initials": "RI", "covertext": "The Generous Child The generous child knows all about food justice and donates much of their monthly allowance to charit...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/113999/conversions/logo_cmyk_tagline_url-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/113999/logo_cmyk_tagline_url.jpg", "body": "<p><u>The Generous Child</u><br />\nThe generous child knows all about food justice and donates much of their monthly allowance to charity. This child encourages their parents to volunteer, brings the most cans in during school food drives, and never eats too much.</p>\n\n<p><u>The Spoiled Child</u><br />\nThe spoiled child knows and understands food justice, but chooses not to care. This child is selfish, easily upset by not getting what they want, and is likely a picky eater. This child's catch phrases are “So what?!” and “That’s not my problem.”</p>\n\n<p><u>The Stoical Child</u><br />\nThe stoical child may know something about food justice, may care, but does absolutely nothing to help. This is the kid who writes \"bring in cans\" every day during the fundraiser in their planner, but forgets each time.</p>\n\n<p><u>The Child Who Doesn’t Know</u><br />\nThe child who doesn’t know is the kid who lives life happily and ignorantly with absolutely no clue that there are people who don’t/can’t do the same. This child may have an overprotective parent that shelters them from the challenges of life.</p>\n\n<p>This clip originally appeared on <a href=\"http://www.ritualwell.org/ritual/food-justice-seder-additions\">Ritualwell.org</a>.</p>\n", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "Jessica Steinberg, Ritualwell.org", "featured": 1, "featuredIn": { "title": "A Haggadah for Justice ", "slug": "haggadah-justice", "author": "Haggadot" }, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "-- Four Children", "slug": "four-children" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 346, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "Four Children Through the Lens of Food Justice | Passover haggadah by Ritualwell", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/four-children-through-lens-food-justice", "og:title": "Four Children Through the Lens of Food Justice | Passover haggadah by Ritualwell", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "lock-and-key-seder-plate", "title": "A Lock And Key On the Seder Plate", "author": "Ritualwell", "author_handle": "ritualwell", "author_initials": "RI", "covertext": "By Rabbi Melissa Klein, Rabbi Joanna Katz, Rabbi Julie Greenberg, Rabbi Jo Hirschmann, Susan Kaplow, Rabbi Sue Levi Elwe...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/113999/conversions/logo_cmyk_tagline_url-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/113999/logo_cmyk_tagline_url.jpg", "body": "<p>By Rabbi Melissa Klein, Rabbi Joanna Katz, Rabbi Julie Greenberg, Rabbi Jo Hirschmann, Susan Kaplow, Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell</p>\n\n<p>This year, we add a padlock and a key to our seder plate.</p>\n\n<p>Those of us who are blessed to live in our own homes tend to associate locks and keys with protection and access. Many of us have homes that keep us safe and that allow us to go in and out as we please. In contrast, for more than two million individuals who are incarcerated in the United States — the majority of whom are people of color — the lock represents the reality of being locked up and then locked out. Upon leaving prison with a felony conviction, these Americans “enter a hidden underworld of legalized discrimination and permanent social exclusion” (Michelle Alexander, <em>The New Jim Crow</em>, p. 13). They are locked out of jobs, housing opportunities, and in many places, voting rights. In Michelle Alexander’s words, “Today a criminal freed from prison has scarcely more rights, and arguably less respect, than a freed slave or a black person living ‘free’ in Mississippi at the height of Jim Crow” ( <em>The New Jim Crow</em>, p. 141).</p>\n\n<p>We place the lock and key on our seder plate tonight to ally ourselves with those who are behind bars, with those who are labelled as felons in the community, and with the parents, children, and other family members of those who are locked up and locked out. The key represents our commitment, as Jews who know a history of oppression, to join the movement to end mass incarceration in the United States. The key reminds us of our potential to partner with the Source of Liberation to unlock a more promising, dignified future for us all.</p>\n\n<p>The task may seem overwhelming, yet each of us can do our part to help transform the criminal justice system here in the United States. The first step to transformation is awareness, and thus we ask questions and learn from one another this seder night.</p>\n\n<p>-----------------------</p>\n\n<p>The material in this haggadah supplement may be challenging to process. We recommend allowing each person at the seder table to share reactions and feelings, as well as personal experiences, without interruption or judgment. By sharing in this way, we make the seder table a sacred space for connection and deepened understanding.</p>\n\n<p>To view the full  <em>Passover Haggadah Supplement: Crying Out Against Mass Incarceration</em>, <a href=\"http://jewishcurrents.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Haggadah-Supplement-final.pdf\">click here</a>.</p>\n\n<p>This clip is provided by <a href=\"http://www.ritualwell.org/ritual/lock-and-key-seder-plate\">Ritualwell</a>.</p>", "cliptype": "text", "clipsource": "Ritualwell.org", "featured": 1, "featuredIn": null, "is_public": 1, "is_published": 1, "media": { "image": null, "audio": null, "video": null }, "thumbnail": null, "clip_section": [ { "haggadah_section": "Yachatz", "slug": "yachatz" } ], "likes": 0, "downloads": 294, "tags": [], "themes": [], "language": "0", "is_bookmarked": "0", "is_liked": 0, "meta_tags": { "title": "A Lock And Key On the Seder Plate | Passover haggadah by Ritualwell", "description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "keywords": "", "og:type": "article", "og:url": "https://www.haggadot.com/clip/lock-and-key-seder-plate", "og:title": "A Lock And Key On the Seder Plate | Passover haggadah by Ritualwell", "og:description": "Our simple platform allows you to create a custom Passover Haggadah, with access to unique content contributed by our community. Find artwork, family", "og:image": "" } } }, { "clip": { "is_admin": 0, "is_owner": 0, "handle": "four-questions-what-questions-must-we-ask-tonight", "title": "The Four Questions: What Questions Must We Ask Tonight?", "author": "Ritualwell", "author_handle": "ritualwell", "author_initials": "RI", "covertext": "The answers to the first three questions are drawn from Michelle Alexander’s groundbreaking book, The New Jim Crow: Mas...", "user_image": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/113999/conversions/logo_cmyk_tagline_url-thumb.jpg", "user_image_original": "https://assets.haggadot.com/users/113999/logo_cmyk_tagline_url.jpg", "body": "<p>The answers to the first three questions are drawn from Michelle Alexander’s groundbreaking book, <em>The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness </em> (2010). Excerpts are cited with <em>“NJC” </em> and the page number.</p>\n\n<p><u>Question #1</u></p>\n\n<p><strong>Why does America have the highest incarceration rate of any developed nation in the world? </strong></p>\n\n<p>Many factors have increased the incarceration rate, including the War on Drugs, the imposition of mandatory minimum sentencing, and privatization of prisons, which creates financial incentives for keeping people in prison.</p>\n\n<p>“The impact of the drug war has been astounding. In less than thirty years, the U.S. penal population exploded from around 300,000 to more than 2 million, with drug convictions accounting for the majority of the increase. The United States now by far has the highest incarceration rate in the world.” (NJC, p. 6)</p>\n\n<p>Incarceration is a tool of social control.</p>\n\n<p>“[D]rug crime was declining, not rising, when a drug war was declared in 1972. From a historical perspective, however, the lack of correlation between crime and punishment is nothing new. Sociologists have frequently observed that governments use punishment primarily as a tool of social control, and thus the extent or severity of punishment is often unrelated to actual crime patterns.” (NJC, p. 7)</p>\n\n<p><u>Question #2</u></p>\n\n<p><strong>Who is being locked up in the United States? </strong></p>\n\n<p>There is a strong racial dimension to the pattern of incarceration.</p>\n\n<p>“No other country in the world imprisons so many of its racial or ethnic minorities. The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid. In Washington, D.C., our nation’s capitol, it is estimated that three out of four young black men (and nearly all those in the poorest neighborhoods) can expect to serve time in prison. Similar rates of incarceration can be found in black communities across America.</p>\n\n<p>“These stark racial disparities cannot be explained by rates of drug crime. Studies show that people of all colors use and sell illegal drugs at remarkably similar rates . . . This is not what one would guess, however, when entering our nation’s prisons and jails, which are overflowing with black and brown drug offenders.” (NJC, p. 6)</p>\n\n<p>The Egyptians dealt harshly with us and oppressed us; they imposed heavy labor upon us. (Deuteronomy 26:6, Haggadah)</p>\n\n<p><strong>Two Personal Stories </strong></p>\n\n<p>Michelle Alexander describes two experiences of harsh treatment in the criminal justice system:</p>\n\n<p>“Imagine you are Emma Faye Stewart, a thirty-year-old, single African-American mother of two who was arrested as part of a drug sweep in Hearne, Texas. All but one of those people arrested were African- American. You are innocent. After a week in jail, you have no one to care for your two small children and are eager to get home. Your court-appointed attorney urges you to plead guilty to a drug distribution charge, saying the prosecutor has offered probation. You refuse, steadfastly proclaiming your innocence. Finally, after almost a month in jail, you decide to plead guilty so you can return home to your children. Unwilling to risk a trial and years of imprisonment, you are sentenced to ten years probation and ordered to pay $1,000 in fines, as well as court and probation costs. You are also now branded a drug felon. You are no longer eligible for food stamps; you may be discriminated against in employment; you cannot vote for at least twelve years; and you are about to be evicted from public housing. Once homeless, your children will be taken away from you and put in foster care.</p>\n\n<p>“A judge eventually dismisses all cases against the defendants who did not plead guilty. At trial, the judge finds that the entire sweep was based on the testimony of a single informant who lied to the prosecution. You, however, are still a drug felon, homeless, and desperate to regain custody of your children.</p>\n\n<p>“Now place yourself in the shoes of Clifford Runoalds, another African-American victim of the Hearne drug bust. You returned home to Bryan, Texas, to attend the funeral of your eighteen-month-old daughter. Before the funeral services begin, the police show up and handcuff you. You beg the officers to let you take one last look at your daughter before she is buried. The police refuse. You are told by prosecutors that you are needed to testify against one of the defendants in a recent drug bust. You deny witnessing any drug transaction; you don’t know what they are talking about. Because of your refusal to cooperate, you are indicted on felony charges. After a month of being held in jail, the charges against you are dropped. You are technically free, but as a result of your arrest and period of incarceration, you lose your job, your apartment, your furniture, and your car. Not to mention the chance to say good-bye to your baby girl.” (NJC, pp. 97-98)</p>\n\n<p><u>Question #3</u></p>\n\n<p><strong>Why are so many African Americans, as well as other people of color, being treated like criminals? </strong></p>\n\n<p>Mass incarceration is a tool to reinforce a racial caste system in the United States.</p>\n\n<p>“Slavery defined what it meant to be black (a slave), and Jim Crow defined what it meant to be black (a second-class citizen). Today mass incarceration defines the meaning of blackness in America: black people, especially black men, are criminals. That is what it means to be black.</p>\n\n<p>“The temptation is to insist that black men ‘choose’ to be criminals; the system does not make them criminals, at least not in the way that slavery made blacks slaves or Jim Crow made them second-class citizens. The myth of choice here is seductive, but it should be resisted. African Americans are not significantly more likely to use or sell prohibited drugs than whites, but they are made criminals at drastically higher rates for precisely the same conduct. In fact, studies suggest that white professionals may be the most likely of any group to have engaged in illegal drug activity in their lifetime, yet they are the least likely to be made criminals. . . . Black people have been made criminals by the War on Drugs to a degree that dwarfs its effect on other racial and ethnic groups, especially whites. And the process of making them criminals has produced racial stigma. (NJC, pp. 196-197)</p>\n\n<p><u>Question #4</u><br />\n<strong>Why do we, as Jews and friends of Jews, ask these questions on this seder night? </strong></p>\n\n<p>We cried out to the Eternal One, the God of our ancestors, who heard our plea and saw our plight, our misery, and our oppression. (Deuteronomy 26:7, Haggadah)</p>\n\n<p>There are Jews of color who have personal stories to tell about experiencing racism; there are Jews of all colors who have personal stories to tell about incarceration and the criminal justice system. But the issue affects us all, whether or not we have personal stories to tell. As the people of the Exodus, we are called to witness the suffering of our neighbors, to open ours eyes and to cry out in the name of justice.</p>\n\n<p>Then the Eternal One freed us from Egypt by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm and awesome power, and signs and portents. (Deuteronomy 26:8, Haggadah)</p>\n\n<p>Dismantling the system of mass incarceration and creating a system of justice and dignity for all Americans calls for wisdom, perseverance, hard work, and faith. We must raise our voices and build alliances. We pray for the ability to see clearly, to act with compassion, and to forgive ourselves for the ways we have unknowingly been agents of oppression. We pray for courage, guidance, and strength as we celebrate Passover, our festival of freedom.</p>\n\n<p>We read together the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr, from his letter from a Birmingham, Alabama jail on April 16, 1963:</p>\n\n<p>“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. 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