with author Amy Schiller
and Rabbi Mordechai Liebling
Tuesday, September 17, 2024
The High Holidays are a time associated with reflection, repentance, and renewal.
The Unetanah Tokef prayer, recited on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur morning, suggests that one of the ways to improve our return to community in the reality of our mistakes is through tzedakah. While the act of sharing is good for an individual, how can we give tzedakah that creates the most impact for others?
Is all charity equal in its aims of social improvement? Is there a genuine way to bridge the wealth gap through philanthropy, or is it merely a symbolic ritual devoid? Join author Amy Schiller and Rabbi Mordechai Liebling as they explore ways to improve the ethics of American charity practices.
Amy Schiller is a writer and political philosopher. She is currently a Visiting Scholar at Dartmouth College. She has held additional fellowships at Stanford University, Bard College and City University of New York, where she received her Ph.D.
Schiller’s debut book, The Price of Humanity: How Philanthropy Went Wrong and How to Fix It, is forthcoming from Melville House in December 2023. Her writing has been published in The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Nation, and The Daily Beast, and has been quoted in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Bloomberg, and Slate. She has also had a 15-year career in major gift fundraising consulting in a wide range of settings, from a major New York City dance company to international humanitarian nonprofits.
Rabbi Mordechai Liebling is the Director of the Reflection and Renewal Process at POWER, the largest faith-based community organizing group in Pennsylvania, and is part of the Faith in Action Network (PICO). He came to POWER from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College where he founded and directed the Social Justice Organizing Program for 10 years for the purpose of training the next generation of social justice rabbis.
He previously served as the Executive Vice-President of Jewish Funds for Justice and the Executive Director of the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation. He has published articles in Tikkun, Evolve, Jewish Currents and The Reconstructionist.