Tikkun Olam

The Reform Jewish tradition of social action in the pursuit of justice is sometimes defined as “Repairing the World”.

Bridge Project fulfills Terry Fear’s wish to recognize historic injustice in Vigo County

By Ken Turetzky
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Injustice haunted Terry Fear and opposing injustice consumed her. She passed away Dec. 13, 2020, in the midst of a vigil to protest executions at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute.

Terry found no shortage of social justice causes in the present era — an oil pipeline on sacred Native American land in North Dakota, violent white supremacists in Charlottesville, migrant children detained in Florida — but died before she could help commemorate a sudden, brutal sequence of historic injustices perpetrated by citizens of her own community 120 years ago.

The violence claimed two victims — Ida Finkelstein, a Jewish schoolteacher just days short of her 21st birthday, and George Ward, a Black family man and foundry worker who was 25, according to census records.

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A mob lynched his great-grandfather. Now, Terry Ward says, ‘I just want to love’

By Ken Turetzky
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George Ward’s death by the vigilante injustice of lynching left a legacy of broken families and financial struggle. Only three generations later could great-grandson Terry Ward break the pattern, with the support of the nation’s social safety net.

But unexpected violence followed Terry Ward and invoked a reckoning of its own, almost a century later.

“I was born and raised in Terre Haute. I lived here for 18 years,” said Ward, 67, lingering in Fairbanks Park following the George Ward Historical Marker Dedication Sept. 26.

He tells his story patiently, unhurried, as he allows the listener to absorb his message. “We’ll try our best to be factual and truthful about all things,” he said.

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We are better than vengeance, better than a death penalty system skewed to racial injustice

By Terry Fear
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Thirteen minutes is the amount of time it takes me to drive to Starbucks. For Orlando Hall, sitting on death row, 13 minutes sealed his execution.

Had those 13 minutes passed and the clock struck midnight, Orlando Hall’s stay of execution would have extended for 90 days. But a last-minute Supreme Court decision (6-3) vacated the stay.

At 11:47 p.m. EST Thursday, Nov. 19, Orlando Hall was pronounced dead at the U.S. Federal Penitentiary in Terre Haute. His official cause of death was “legal homicide”. He was 49 years old.

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Never Again means Never Again for everyone

By Terry Fear
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People in crisis should take precedence over narrow points of law or politics. But too often, compassion for human beings created in God’s image is left out of legal or geopolitical solutions.

I have become increasingly alarmed concerning the humanitarian crisis at America’s southern border. My husband Steve and I are firm believers in putting our beliefs into action.

On July 4, we were in Florida and made the three-hour drive to Homestead to find the federal detention center and protest on behalf of the migrant children held inside.

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