COVENANT OF JUSTICE

Progressive social values sit at the heart of Jewish ethics, according to this heartfelt anthology.

The social justice NGO Women of Reform Judaism presents poems, songs, prayers, haiku, essays, and memories that examine sociopolitical issues through the lens of Jewish faith. The subjects run the gamut of progressive causes, including feminism and abortion rights; environmentalism and climate change; longings for a peaceful resolution to the Gaza war and the return of Israeli hostages; inclusion of marginalized gender and racial identities; the ongoing battle against antisemitism; and the perennial duty to, as Sherri Feuer’s militant poem “It’s Time” admonishes, “Stand up, speak out, take action / Protest, scream, and cry /…. Be boisterous and act boldly / Don’t just question why.” The contributors write in a wide range of styles and registers. Susan D. Pittelman indicts the gender pay gap with blunt statistical wonkery: “In 2002, women earned eighty cents to the [male] dollar. Progress? Yes. But in 2022, women earned only eighty-two cents for every dollar earned by men…Are we standing still or moving forward?” Gloria Tetewsky’s plangent, keening “Bilhah and Zilpah” explores the plight of unvalued women through the Torah story of Jacob’s concubines: “Was there that yearning in Bilhah and Zilpah for a share of his love? / A voice that said, ‘Notice me, I am a woman!’” Denise Sherer Jacobson delivers a tart, unsentimental take on living with cerebral palsy: “I don’t need pity or to be told I’m ‘such an inspiration!’ / Those words don’t lift my spirits / or help me feel accepted. / They just make me feel so little is expected of me.” And Rhoda Turitz London recites a limpid, tender kaddish for her mother, who led a life of social commitment: “She is a cherished memory: / An educator of minority children, / A role model for her three daughters, / A quiet seeker of justice, / A Jewish mother.” Readers will find here a stirring evocation of Reform Judaism’s moral core in a humble but tenacious mission to repair the world.

A luminous collection that locates spiritual fulfillment in a rapt engagement with earthly problems.