By Mark D. Zimmerman
MELVILLE, New York — Rabbi Arthur Waskow died last month at the age of 92. His original professional life was in the political world, as a legislative assistant to Congressman Robert Kastenmeier of Wisconsin, and later as a founder of the Institute for Policy Studies. He was an alternate delegate to the Democratic Convention in 1968 in support of Robert F. Kennedy, but following Kennedy’s assassination, he nominated the Reverend Channing Phillips for president, the first Black American to be nominated at a major party convention.
He became more active in Jewish and progressive political life, publishing the Freedom Seder Haggadah in 1969, which focused not only on the Exodus from Egypt, but also on the modern civil rights and women’s rights movements. Said Waskow, “a Freedom Seder should be not only a ritual remembrance, not only a shared promise for the future, but itself a political act.” He was active in the anti-Viet Nam war movement, attending many sit-ins and being arrested multiple times. He also protested the treatment of Soviet Jews, apartheid in South Africa, and the Iraq War.
By the 1970s, he became a leader in the Jewish renewal movement, first by founding the Fabrangen Havurah and later founding the Shalom Center and ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal. In 1995 he was ordained as a rabbi by a bet din comprising Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Rabbi Laura Geller, and two other Jewish authorities. He wrote multiple books, advocated for LGBT rights, promoted a two state solution for Israel and Palestinians, and co-created “Kol Nidre in the Streets” as part of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations. He was honored as one of the Forward Fifty, Newsweek’s Most Influential Rabbis, and T’Ruah’s Lifetime Achievement Human Rights Hero, and he received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.
In his Freedom Seder Haggadah, Rabbi Waskow included the song Let My People Go, to which he added an additional verse which ended with what words?
A. Join UP, People – Freedom in every land, Tell ALL Pharaohs: Let My creation grow!
B. Stand UP, People – Spread love across the land, Tell ALL Pharaohs: Let My creation grow!
C. Rise UP, People – Rise up in every land, Tell ALL Pharaohs: Let My creation grow!
D. Raise UP, People – Peace be with everyone, Tell ALL Pharaohs: Let My creation grow!
E. Explore NEW Worlds – Live long and prosper too, Tell ALL Klingons: Let My starship grow!
Link to answer: https://rrrjewishtrivia.com/rabbi-arthur-waskow-z-l-answer.html
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Mark D. Zimmerman is an author and freelance writer based in Melville, New York.