Rabbi Maurice Harris 370 Ellie Lane Eugene, OR 97401 [email protected] 541-729-3188
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Rabbi Maurice Harris 370 Ellie Lane Eugene, OR 97401 [email protected] 541-729-3188 WORK AND EDUCATION Rabbi / Senior Educator, InterfaithFamily, September 2014 – December 2015. Worked with national staff of Boston-based Jewish non-profit organization dedicated to supporting interfaith families through education, advocacy, trainings, and resources. Wrote interactive guides to holidays and lifecycle events for interfaith families. Supervised national online clergy referral system with over 600 rabbis. Led workshops and presentations at conferences. Developed online resource center for clergy and new online resources for interfaith families. Adjunct Instructor, University of Oregon Judaic Studies Dept., 2007 – 2015. Courses: Introduction to Judaism; American Jewish Cultures; Israelis and Palestinians. Teacher, Florence Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning, 2013-present. Rabbi and Head of School, Temple Beth Israel, Eugene, OR. 2003 – 2011. Served as Associate Rabbi of synagogue with 375 member households. Supervised K – 10 religious school with an average of 130 students, including personally working closely with over 110 bar/bat mitzvah students. Headed and revitalized adult education program. Rabbinic Ordination and Master of Arts in Hebrew Letters at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Wyncote, PA 2003. Bachelor of Arts in English, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT 1992. PUBLISHED WRITING: BOOKS Moses: A Stranger among Us, Cascade Books, March 2012. Leviticus: You Have No Idea, Cascade Books, August, 2013. The Book of Joshua, Cascade Books, forthcoming 2016. SELECTED ARTICLES AND ESSAYS “Judaism and the Death Penalty,” June 2014, chapter in Interreligious Perspectives on the Death Penalty: A Collection of Essays, Steven Shankman and Taylor Smith, eds., University of Oregon / UNESCO. “Among LGBT Jews & Their Allies, Leviticus is a Dirty Word,” April 3, 2014, for www.myjewishlearning.com, online at www.myjewishlearning.com/keshet/among-lgbt-jews-their-allies- leviticus-is-a-dirty-word/ “Civil Disobedience and Passover,” April 2014, for www.ritualwell.org, online at: http://www.ritualwell.org/blog/civil-disobedience-and-passover-rabbi-maurice-harris. “The Most Hated Book in the Bible,” September 19, 2013, online: Progressive Christianity Network of Britain, http://www.pcnbritain.org.uk/blog/post/the_most_hated_book_in_the_bible. “'My Sister, My Bride' - A Look at Immigration,” Washington Jewish Week, Aug. 1, 2007. Re- published as “Abraham, Sarah, and the Arizona Immigration Law,” Jewish News of Greater Phoenix, April 30, 2010, Volume 62, No. 32, and in The Oregonian, May 3, 2010. "If We Can Handle Fires, We Can Handle Conflict," Peacebuilder Magazine, Summer 2007. "Peacebuilding: Learning to Cope with the Likelihood of Violence," Jewish Currents, Vol. 61, No. 1, January - February 2007. “Holocaust Denial Meeting beneath Islam,” Register-Guard, December 26, 2006. “Mideast Violence Is Misery for All,” Register-Guard, July 16, 2006. “Torture in Light of Jewish Values,” a 2005 sermon published by the Bay Area Religious Coalition against Torture, October 12, 2005. “Many Names Reflect Deep Connections to the Divine,” Register-Guard, Sept. 25, 2004. “Israel and Palestine: Phases of Interdependence: Why Israel's survival depends upon a long-term two-state solution with the Palestinians,” Palestine-Israel Journal of Politics, Economics and Culture, Vol. 5, No. 3/4, 1998. LECTURES, PRESENTATIONS, AND TEACHING ENGAGEMENTS Beit Am Congregation – Corvallis, OR Coalition for Jewish Learning – Milwaukee, WI Center for Jewish Life and Learning, Addison-Penzak JCC of Silicon Valley – Los Gatos, CA Church of the Resurrection (Episcopal) – Eugene, OR Congregation Beth David – Saratoga, CA Congregation Beth Hatikvah – Summit, NJ Congregation Beth Israel of Media – Media, PA Congregation Emek Shalom – Ashland, OR Congregation Kol Ami – Vancouver, WA Congregation Shaarei Shamayim – Madison, WI Eugene Mennonite Congregation First Christian Church of Eugene - Disciples of Christ First Congregational Church UCC of Eugene, OR First United Methodist Church, Eugene, OR Germantown Jewish Centre Philadelphia, PA Interfaith Forum on the Ethics of Torture & Human Rights - Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, Portland, OR Jewish Community Library of San Francisco Jewish Federation of Lane County – Eugene, OR Kehillat Israel – Pacific Palisades, CA Lane Community College Interfaith Panel on Religion & the LGBT Community – Eugene, OR Marist Catholic High School Interfaith Clergy Panel on the Death Penalty – Eugene, OR Congregation Mayim Rabim – Minneapolis, MN Michael-Ann Russell Jewish Community Center – N. Miami Beach, FL National Association of Temple Administrators Conference – Orlando, FL Or Shalom Jewish Community – San Francisco, CA Oregon Area Jewish Committee – Portland, OR Reconstructionist Rabbinical Assn Convention -Toronto, ON Reconstructionist Rabbinical College – Philadelphia, PA St. Martin’s Anglican Church –Calgary, AB Temple B’nai Tikvah – Calgary, AB Temple B’nai Tikvah – Bellevue, WA Temple Beth Hatfiloh – Olympia, WA Temple Beth Israel of Eugene, OR Temple Beth Israel of Macon, GA Temple Beth Sholom – Salem, OR The Bay Area Holocaust Oral History Project – San Francisco, CA The Unitarian Universalist Church of Eugene, OR United Lutheran Congregation – Eugene, OR University of Oregon Hillel – Eugene, OR The Wesley Center at the University of Oregon, Eugene, OR Transforming Faith: A Transgender Witness - Conference on Religion & Transgender Issues – Corvallis, OR UNESCO Chair’s Conference on Prisons, Compassion, and Peace – University of Oregon Vassar College - Poughkeepsie, NY Wesleyan University – Middletown, CT ACTIVITIES AND COMMITMENTS I blog as “The Accidental Rabbi” – www.theaccidentalrabbi.wordpress.com Member of J Street Rabbinic Cabinet Progressive Clergy Group – Eugene, Oregon. We organize various inter-faith projects and support healthy and productive cooperation across religious boundaries. Basic Rights Oregon – “50 Voices for Equality.” Participated in campaign for marriage equality and equal civil rights for LGBTQ community. Developed and co-facilitated community film/discussion series on Israel/Palestine with CALC – Community Alliance of Lane County. Studied at the Summer Peacebuilding Institute at Eastern Mennonite University. Participated in interfaith course entitled "Religion: Source of Conflict, Resource for Peace," examining the resources within Islam, Christianity and Judaism that promote violence and non-violence in conflict resolution. Harrisonburg, VA, June 2006. Former Board Member of T’ruah, formerly Rabbis for Human Rights – North America. Visited Bethlehem and toured holy sites, refugee camps, and separation wall with Palestinian Muslim non-violence advocate, Husam Jubran, June 2006. Returned to visit in June 2015. Solidarity Visit with Rabbis for Human Rights to Palestinian family after home demolition, 2001. Participated in Meretz Israel Symposium to Israel, West Bank, Gaza, and Jordan. Met with Israeli, Palestinian, and Jordanian government officials and peace activists. 1996. Visited the Bethlehem Arab Society for Rehabilitation. Toured Palestinian physical rehabilitation center with its Executive Director, Edmund Shehadeh, and wrote article about the visit for Jewish Currents magazine, 1994. Visited and have maintained a friendship with a death row inmate at San Quentin State Prison since 1998. (He has since had his sentence reduced to life and has been transferred to another prison). ADDITIONAL ITEMS OF IMPORTANCE My wife and I are the adoptive parents of two children who were previously in the Oregon state foster care system. Hunter and Clarice were ages five and seven, respectively, when they came to us in 2007. I left my rabbinic position in order to take more time to help parent our children effectively, and in order to do more writing and teaching. My mother is a Moroccan-Jewish woman whose entire family became refugees and had to flee Morocco in the middle of the night in 1956, when Jews in the country came under great persecution and many fled. I grew up cross-culturally, spending part of every summer with my working class, Moroccan-Jewish extended family in Tel Aviv, where most of my mom’s family ended up. My Hebrew language skills are strong. I‘ve participated in various kinds of Israeli-Palestinian peace & reconciliation work since 1990. My wife, Melissa Crabbe, served for 11 years as the Assistant National Director of the Inside- Out Prison Exchange Program. She has been involved in prison visitation and prison reform advocacy since before I met her. We actually had a pre-wedding “mini-wedding” in the visiting room of the Death Row at San Quentin State Prison in California. I have learned a lot about prison issues from her and her boss at Inside-Out, Lori Pompa. Several years ago I worked as part of a Restorative Justice process involving a young man who had been part of a neo-Nazi gang. He had been convicted of a violent crime against the synagogue I served. Over the course of a year’s worth of facilitated meetings, I and a group of others engaged in dialog and study with him. The experience helped me understand the religious teaching that every person is a manifestation of the Divine image. REFERENCES Jodi Bromberg, CEO, InterfaithFamily, Newton, MA. Jodi is available to describe the various contributions I made during my time with InterfaithFamily, and can give the most recent take on what it’s like to have me be a part of a mission-driven organization’s core staff.