With a Strong Hand and an Outstretched Arm

Presented by the Jewish Community Education Forum

What do Jewish texts and traditions have to teach us about dealing with threats to our civil liberties and physical safety? Jewish Community Education Forum presents a webinar to discuss this crucial subject. Our presenter will be Reform Rabbi Cary Kozberg, who lives in Ohio. 

Recent attacks on Jewish institutions and individual Jews have brought the concern for physical safety to the forefront of Jewish communal concerns.  Increasing violence against Jews and Jewish venues have made it necessary to rediscover what Judaism teaches about defending ourselves and others. This presentation intends to give participants some knowledge about the ethics and morality of personal self-defense as taught in traditional Jewish texts. 

We will focus on what these sacred texts teach about defending oneself and others from physical attack.  Jewish tradition teaches that our lives are given to us by G-d, and therefore we have an obligation to keep them healthy and safe.  If physical force is necessary, is it permitted and if so, when and what are the limits to what kind of and how much physical force may be used?