Rabbi David Rosenn with our host Hannah Meholick
Our Guest:
Our guest is Rabbi David Rosenn, executive director of the Hebrew Free Loan Society, which since 1892 has offered interest-free loans to New Yorkers needing immediate financial help or wanting to invest in their futures, but who can’t afford or do not qualify for commercial credit. We talk with Rabbi Rosenn about the moral motivation of faith in coming to the financial aid of our neighbors in need.
Highlights:
What is “Economic Justice”?: “I think Economic Justice is a set of social arrangements where everyone has the opportunity to acquire what they need to live a decent and dignified life.”
How do religious traditions speak to issues of poverty and economic inequality? “Poverty is disastrous from a religious point of view because it tends to obscure the image of God in people who are poor … and even more tragically, prevents people who are poor from seeing themselves in the image of God…Working to end poverty is working to restore the image of God.”
What is “Moral Imagination”? “Picturing the way that the world might be, and considering our responsibility to help get it there, and how we partner with God in that ongoing act of creating the world.”
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Podcast Questions? Comments?
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“Interfaith Matters” is hosted by Hannah Meholick, and engineered and edited by Jeff Berman. Learn more about Hannah and Jeff on our website.
Intro and outro music for this episode are edited excerpts of “Maximum Relax” by Lee Rosevere, used under CC BY 4.0 / Edited from original.