Bring Rabbi Lerner to Your Community, University, Church, Synagogue, or Mosque

Rabbi Lerner is available in 2012 and 2013 to come to your city to talk about his new book, Embracing Israel/Palestine, or about any other aspect of the Tikkun vision. In the past he has frequently served as a visiting scholar at universities or as scholar or rabbi in residence at synagogues and churches for a weekend or a week. He has also spoken at many universities, city clubs, community organizations, and religious institutions. Now that he has recovered from cancer, he is available again. Of course, we can’t afford to send him unless he raises some money. But many churches, synagogues, and colleges have found that they can bundle together enough funds to subsidize his visit since he is willing to do many different talks over the course of a day or two.

Here is what some people have said about Rabbi Lerner’s latest book:

This book would change the world if there were enough people who would open their eyes and read it. Lerner uses Israel/Palestine as a prism to look at the world as a whole—rife with conflicts of many kinds, a number of which involve the United States. He comes to the wildly “utopian” conclusion that the solution to these conflicts can only come by following the biblical injunctions to love the stranger. Far from being utopian or unrealistic, Lerner shows that this will be the only practical way to keep the alliance of nationalism and capitalism that rules the world today from destroying the fabric of natural and social life. I hope this book will be used widely in courses in political science and sociology in our universities, and not only in courses about the Middle East.

—Robert Bellah, professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley; author of Religion in Human Evolution; and coauthor of Habits of the Heart

Michael Lerner takes a courageous, enlightening position in Embracing Israel/Palestine, not only in speaking as an American Jewish rabbi who cares about both countries, but also in his conviction that only real attention to the suffering and historical traumas of both sides can bring about peace. The intellectual clarity and psychological sophistication of his presentation is matched by his passionate plea for the transformation of religion from a tool for political partisanship to a basis for genuine renewal of commitment to justice and recognition of all peoples. His argument breaks the conventional splitting between the pragmatic and the idealistic, making a convincing case that only respect for the needs of all peoples will bring about the will and the possibility of resolution.

—Jessica Benjamin, psychoanalyst and author of The Bonds of Love

Rabbi Michael Lerner is one of America’s most significant progressive intellectuals and political leaders, and Embracing Israel/Palestine is not only a great conceptual breakthrough in dealing with the Middle East but also demonstrates a methodology for how best to think about global and domestic U.S. politics. For many decades, Muslims around the world have been cheered by Rabbi Lerner’s challenge to the media’s demeaning of our religion and dismissal of the rights of Palestinians, just as they have been challenged by his insistence that they recognize the importance of truly and deeply accepting Israel’s right to exist in peace and security. I hope my colleagues on Capitol Hill, the cynical media, and leaders in Israel, Palestine, and throughout the world are pushed by ordinary readers to grapple with the brilliant path to peace and reconciliation put forward in this book. Rabbi Lerner’s commitment to nonviolence and a path of love and generosity should not be dismissed as utopian. My experience in the Congress leads me to believe, on the contrary, that it is precisely his way of thinking that is the only path that will give Israel, Palestine, and the United States the peace, security, and well-being all three deserve!

—Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the first elected Muslim to the U.S. Congress and chair of the Progressive Caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives

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