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Petition in support of California's striking prisoners

This Yom Kippur, September 14th 2013, (10th of Tishrei 5774) will mark the 69th day of the California prisoner hunger strike. Extraordinarily, prisoners have massively organized throughout the state overcoming every race division, to end the various forms of brutal punishment and profiteering they suffer, beginning with long-term solitary confinement officially recognized internationally as torture. From California to Palestine to Guantanamo, prisoners are resisting the torturous conditions for which they were never sentenced.

Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement just following the Jewish New Year, and is traditionally observed with fast, prayer, reflection and action. It is a day of taking collective responsibility for injustice and committing oneself to repairing the harm in our world. We are Jews who relate to this holiday and this time in the calendar in a variety of ways - through religion and spirituality, through language and culture, through ethical and political histories.

Fight Greenwashing and Green Sunday

Beginning on the day that marks the New Year for Trees, Tuesday, February 3 is the Jewish holiday of Tu B'shvat, which honors the sacred miracle of trees. In many Jewish traditions, trees are celebrated as one of the most central symbols of life, and in Jewish law, there are strict prohibitions against destroying trees. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, leaders of the religious Zionist movement began a custom of planting trees in Jewish colonies in Palestine as part of a celebration of Tu B'shvat. In 1901, this tradition was then adopted by the Jewish National Fund (JNF) for its "Plant a Tree in Israel" Campaign. Since then, the JNF has shamelessly exploited Tu B'shvat as an opportunity to raise international funds and support for its tree plantings, which function to greenwash Israel's ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

Summer Updates from the UK

Stop the JNF and Prawer Plan IJAN UK is a founding member of the Stop the JNF Campaign and helped to prepare a submission (in consultation with lawyers working pro-bono) to the Charity Commissioners in the UK and making the case for the commission to investigate the Jewish National Fund's charitable status in the UK. ...