Arthur Waskow Papers

Arthur Ocean Waskow was born on October 12, 1933 in Baltimore, MD. He received a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University in 1954, and an M.A. (1956) and PhD (1963) in United States history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. As a student, from 1959-1961, he worked as assistant to Robert Kastenmeier, a Congressman from Wisconsin. In 1963, together with Richard Barnet and Marcus Raskin, Arthur Waskow helped found the Institute for Policy Studies. For the next 14 years, he served as Resident Fellow. From 1977 to 1982, Waskow was a Fellow of the Public Resource Center in Washington, D.C.

As an activist, Waskow was arrested for sit-ins and protests against racial discrimination, South African Apartheid, and the Vietnam War. Waskow was also involved with social justice and civil rights groups, such as Breira, Jews for Urban Justice, and the New Jewish Agenda. In 1969, he wrote the Freedom Seder, a Passover haggadah that addressed contemporary issues, such as the civil rights and women's movements.

In 1982, Arthur Waskow moved to Philadelphia, and in 1983, founded the Shalom Center, a progressive and liberal organization focusing on ecology reflected through the mirror of Judaism, the civil rights movement, interfaith relations, the Middle East Peace process, lesbian and gay rights, and immigrant rights. Arthur Waskow was also a faculty member at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and taught courses on modern day theology and practical rabbinics. He also taught at Vassar College, Temple University, Swarthmore College, and Drew University. In 1993, the Shalom Center merged with P'nai Or, founded by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, to form ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal, an organization that works to raise awareness of the Jewish Renewal movement. In 2005, the Shalom Center separated from ALEPH and became an independent organization once more.

Arthur Waskow is a prolific writer who has written numerous articles and essays as well as larger scale works, most notably Godwrestling (1978), Seasons of Our Joy (1982), Down-to-Earth Judaism: Food, Money, Sex, and the Rest of Life (1995), and Godwrestling — Round 2: Ancient Wisdom, Future Paths (1996).