Module 4:

It's Not fair and What Can We Do About It? The Jewish Tradition of Social Action

Going back to biblical times, the Jewish people have a long tradition of social action. This course will tell the students stories of great heroes of social action, starting with the biblical prophets and continuing to modern heroes for social justice such as Emma Goldman, Saul Alinsky, and Morris Winchevsky. The traditions continue to the present with food and support for the homeless in Toronto.

Module Leaders

This module will be co-taught by Richard Lee and Michael Wayne.

Richard Lee is a world-famous cultural anthropologist. He is a Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Toronto. Lee is also currently researching issues concerning the indigenous people of Botswana and Namibia, particularly their ecology and history. Known best for his work on the Ju'/hoansi, Lee won the 1980 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for his book The !Kung San: Men, Women, and Work in a Foraging Society. Richard is also a member of the School Advisory Committee and the father of a Morris Winchevsky School graduate.

Michael Wayne is a history Professor at the University of Toronto and the author of Death of an Overseer: Reopening a Murder Investigation from the Plantation South, published by Oxford University Press in 2001.  His first book, The Reshaping of Plantation Society: The Natchez District, 1860-1880 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1983), won the Francis Butler Simkins Award from the Southern Historical Association, among other prizes.