For Immediate Release:
Announcing the publication of Peace in Our Cities:
Rabbis Against Gun Violence.
With a Foreword by Rabbi Jill Jacobs, Executive Director of T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights; Introduction by Pastor Michael McBride, Director, PICO Network's Lifelines to Healing Campaign and spiritual leader of The Way Christian Center in Berkeley, CA; an Afterword by Teny Oded Gross, Executive Director, Institute for the Practice and Study of Nonviolence; and edited by Rabbi Menachem Creditor, the spiritual leader of Congregation Netivot Shalom in Berkeley, CA.
On January 29, 2013, nine rabbis from across the United States joined the Pico Networks Lifelines to Healing Clergy gathering at the White House. More than 80 faith leaders raised up their voices and prayers for a moral response to the scourge of gun violence plaguing the country, especially in the inner-cities. From that gathering, Peace in Our Cities: Rabbis Against Gun Violence was born.
The collection of 21 essays, by some of the leading voices in rabbinic social justice call for the recognition that we cannot stand idly by in a country where thousands of people lose their lives to gun violence each year.
The prophet Jeremiah told the weary and heart-broken exiles of Jerusalem that they should "seek the peace of the city." Rabbis, along with faith leaders of every tradition, teach that a broken society is one in which we fail to take care of others. This book asks some very hard questions of America in the midst of a Gun Violence epidemic, and presents a passionate, hopeful, healing response to a moment of national pain and fragility. The rabbis in this collection ask: How many innocent deaths will it take for our elected officials to respond with moral conviction? How long must America wait to acknowledge that we lose 30+ American lives to Gun Violence every day, scarring our national life? How many tears must be shed? Learn, connect, and be inspired with the voices of today's rabbinic leaders.