10:08 AM
Gil Student
Gerald Blidstein, "Tikkun Olam" in David Shatz ed., Tikkun Olam: Social Responsibility in Jewish Thought, p. 57:
Since the Jew is able - as individual and perhaps as community - to participate in the processes that govern democratic societies as a whole, his silence and inaction reflect an acquiescence in the evils and abuses to which other human beings are subject. This raises the issue of hillul ha-Shem in an overall sense, as we project an image of apathy to suffering. No less acute, though, is the fact that this image is true to reality, that our passivity in the face of societal challenges means that we do condone evil and that we do not really care about our fellow human beings. What happens to the divine image within us if we remain unmoved by indecency, if we are not outraged by wrong?
