Rabbi Sari Goes to Sacramento: On Friday, Jan. 6, Stephen Wise Temple Rabbi Sari Laufer traveled to Sacramento to participate in a pre-inauguration interfaith unity celebration for California Governor Gavin Newsom at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. You can read her full remarks HERE.
Rabbi Yoshi Featured in LA Times Column: Following a week of torrential downpours that were both a blessing and a curse for many across Southern California, Los Angeles Times faith beat writer Deborah Netburn interviewed local faith leaders about their traditions’ views on rainfall.
From quenching the drought to causing mudslides, to millions of needed gallons of water washed out to sea because of the city’s civic engineering, Rabbi Yoshi addresses our people’s historic relationship with precipitation: “I don’t read the Noah story literally, but I do see it as a type of sacred myth that invites me to think about how human behavior can influence the larger world. We can connect that to climate change and we can also connect it to the way we are in the world and how that can affect our environment in every sense of the word.”
Read the full piece (subscription required) HERE.
Wise, Rabbi Ron Stern cited in Tablet: Rabbi Ron Stern was interviewed by Louis Sallerson about Wise’s efforts to help the homeless in this week’s news analysis piece, “What Would the Torah Say About Rent Control?” On the subject of solving the housing crisis, Rabbi Ron favors new development, rather than rent control, as the path forward: “We should be reducing the obstacles to building to make it more profitable for the real estate community,” he said. “The best thing the city could do would be to get out of their way and give them incentives.”
