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Dear <<First Name>>,

I hope this email finds you well and that 2021 has started for you, your loved ones, and your endeavors with safety and sanity. I hope you find this update of some of my doings connecting and inspiring. I welcome any response, reflection or idea you have from reading it. I am praying for continual healing and clarity all around.

Rami Avraham Efal
Weaving the Great Tapestry: Following presenting in the One World Bearing Witness '20 Meditation Vigil and during the Ohalah Jewish Clergy conference in January '21, I wrote the following reflection on personal lineages and planetary ancestral peacemaking. Read the blog here. (Art above painted at Machu Picchu, Peru, May 2019)
 
Combatants for Peace and the Forum for Bereaved Families will hold the Joint Memorial day online on April 13th, 2021. These are folks struck by the death of their loved ones, or those who were actively involved in the armed conflict on either side. They have decided to put down their rifles, or their grudge. They turn their ears and hearts to one another and create a portal of raw, pained love. Both Palestinian and Israeli organizers are challenged by their own communities - this event is highly controversial, precisely because it is a radical act of peacemaking and a beacon of hope to the world. I have the privilege to know some of the organizers, and I aim to make this event a success. I am proud that both my rabbinic ordination program Aleph: Alliance for Jewish Renewal, as well as Lab/Shul will be endorsers of the event. The event is free and open to anyone. Support, join and see what humans are capable of at our very best.
You can donate to the Facebook fundraiser here
Or donate directly at American Friends of Combatants for Peace website

 
During Winter and now during Spring, I have lead a contemplative practice series at Lab/Shul called Glow Up. These weave Jewish meditation, prayer, and chanting with contemplative art practices. Read a summary of the winter's series. Art above was created during a Glow Up session by Georgia Von Schlieffen. and the summary show more of her other participant's art.

This was my invitation to the Spring series, a retelling of a moment I leaned on my meditation training when I entered into Palestine to meet a friend's family. There are two more session in the spring series, please feel welcome to join. Jewish, multi-religious space. and open to all. Art below was painted by me at Mount Scopus in Israel, overlooking the West bank.
DISCLAIMER ON CULTURAL HUMILITY: As I learn to honor my own Hebrew heritage and part of my own counter-racist and counter-colonialist effort, I have been in ongoing conversation with my Buddhist lineage and experience, that relate to how show up in Buddhist circles, how I offer teachings, and how I relate to my art that was inspired by Buddhist and Asian cultures. I wrote the following, with help of my friend Ariel Pliskin:

I acknowledge with gratitude and humility that I have inherited transformative Buddhist Dharma teachings and practices from mostly male and some female ancestors from culturally Buddhist countries such as Japan, China, Korea, Burma, India and more. I acknowledge that I and many others joined Buddhist communities as adults. I was not born into a family that practiced Buddhism in a way that was embedded within a broader regional or national culture. My dharma ancestors adapted expressions of the dharma according to their cultures & eras. As I bear witness to the Buddhadharma continuing its 2500-year unfolding around the planet, I continue that tradition of adaptation. As I do that, I change customs that were specific to other times and places. I acknowledge the larger historic and ethnic context in which Buddhism emerged. Therefore, I aim to practice cultural humility in honoring the Buddhist teachings' origins, today's descendants of those who stewarded them to me and to be in a continuous relationship with a variety of Buddhist cultures and experiences. 

Back in 2010, I published an award-nominated graphic novel The lantern and the Wave. It was created while being an artist-in-residence at the Zen Center of New York City and its stream-of-consciousness nature was the fruit of my relationship, at that time, with Israel-Palestine, non-binary gender identity, and forgiveness. Read here more about the book, reviews, and links to buy.

“…Acknowledging that man-made horrors exist, and will continue to exist, but that each of us still holds the ability to choose not to let these horrors define us. Stunning and dynamic, demonstrating a keen sense of composition, cinematography and lighting… Efal takes the narrative equivalent of a deep, cleansing breath… one of the most impressive, thoughtful debut graphic novels.“ – The Comics Journal

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