October 21, 2009

Are we our brother’s and sister’s keepers? Last week I joined a group of distinguished community leaders in a resounding affirmative response to this timeless question. We gathered together at the University of Southern California in “Belief Behind Bars: A Call for Human Rights and Religious Freedom in Iran,” co-sponsored by the USC Office of Religious Life, the Levan Institute for Humanities and Ethics, and the Los Angeles Baha’i Center. We were a large assemblage of faith leaders and celebrities, musicians and dancers, human rights activists and university officials, faculty and students.

A new level of uneasiness now dominates our general society and, more directly, the Jewish community. We are living in one of the most transformative moments in history, resulting in the reshaping of the human condition, where the global enterprise is undergoing a major technology and communications revolution, the reconfiguration of political power, the creation of a world economic order, and a significant generational shift in cultural attitudes and social behaviors and norms.