When Good and Holy Things Become Idolatry

Join Congregation Nevei Kodesh in welcoming Rabbi Arik Ascherman for a Shabbat Lunch and Learn on Saturday, March 14th. Rabbi Arik’s topic is “When Good and Holy Things Become Idolatry.”

Saturday, March 14: 12:15-1:30 pm, following our musical Jewish Renewal Shabbat morning service, 10:00 am -12 noon.

$10 for lunch

Rabbi Arik will form connections between the weekly Torah portion – Ki Tissa, detailing the story of the Golden Calf – plus the work of his Israeli NGO Torat Tzedek, and meta-questions of idolatry and the use and abuse of power.

This is a really wonderful opportunity to study and connect with a long time changemaker in Israel-Palestine.

About the Rabbi

Rabbi Arik Ascherman graduated from Harvard University in 1981 and was ordained as a rabbi by HUC-JIR in New York in 1989. He made aliyah to Israel in 1994.

After a varied career including serving as a congregational and a kibbutz rabbi, as well as serving homeless populations and Jews from the former Soviet Union, from 1995 onwards Rabbi Ascherman served as the co-director of Rabbis For Human Rights (Israel), becoming executive director from 1998-2010, and then President and Senior Rabbi.

About Torat Tzedek

In September 2017, Rabbi Ascherman founded a new Israeli human rights organization, “Torat Tzedek” – Torah of Justice.

Rabbi Ascherman is a symbol of hope to many Israelis and Palestinians, and is internationally recognized as a leading advocate for human rights and social justice as a religious, Jewish and Zionist obligation.

He has often put himself at physical risk, and several times stood trial for acts of civil disobedience. Rabbi Ascherman has received numerous awards and recognitions for his human rights work, as did Rabbis For Human Rights under his leadership. He is frequently quoted in the press, writes numerous op-eds, is a sought-after lecturer, and has contributed chapters to several books.

Under Rabbi Ascherman’s leadership, RHR grew in size influence and scope, expanding beyond Palestinian human rights to fight for economic justice for Israelis and create educational programs challenging young Israelis regarding Judaism and human rights. Rabbi Ascherman and RHR helped stop the Israeli Wisconsin Plan (Welfare to work plan increasing poverty), reverse decades of government policy to eliminate public housing, improve Israeli health care, freeze plans to destroy the El Bustan neighborhood of East Jerusalem and make Sheikh Jarakh an international issue, create the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions, save homes and generate international concern, place volunteers as human shields to protect Palestinian farmers and win an Israeli High Court case giving Palestinians army protected access to long-denied olive groves, return lands taken over by settlers and prevent additional takeovers, protect the Jahalin Bedouin, freeze the “Prawer-Begin Bill” that would have led to massive destruction of entire villages, and the transfer and dispossession of the Negev Bedouin.

Believing that every human being is created in God’s Image, Torat Tzedek will defend the human rights of all Israelis and those under Israeli control, advocating for Palestinians, socioeconomic justice for Israelis, African asylum seekers, and Israel’s Negev Bedouin citizens.

Rabbi Ascherman is married to Dr. Einat Ramon. They have two children.