Tales of Spirit Rising and Sometimes Falling: An Activist Life

A modern prophet looks back on seven decades of activism.

Ask an expert who are the 5 most influential American Jewish leaders of the last century and Rabbi Arthur Waskow will make most of the lists. The author of the original Freedom Seder and legendary social justice activist is now in his 90s, and has recorded significant memories, relationships, and events of the last seventy years. Beginning with an anecdote about Gloria Steinem and the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968, Waskow plunges the reader into the counter-culture that has defined his life and work.

“But in the summer of 1968, I didn’t have the language of Spirit,” Waskow writes, and this becomes a chronicle of blending active resistance to tyranny with a gradual discovery of what Waskow calls very simply “Love.” Thus comes the title of this memoir, as these are personal accounts and encounters of Spirit rising—in an extraordinary life.

Rabbi Arthur Ocean Waskow, PhD, founded and directed The Shalom Center in Philadelphia, PA a prophetic-activist voice in Jewish, multireligious, and American life. He wrote many books, including the The Freedom Seder (1969), the groundbreaking work of Jewish spiritual activism Godwrestling, and Seasons of Our Joy. He lived most of his life in Philadelphia, PA, and died on October 20, 2025 at the age of 92.