Debbie Niederman

Debbie Niederman, RJE, is the associate director of the Union for Reform Judaism's Leadership Institute.

Torrah and Kippah
B'chukotai

Seeking a Shared Dream, a Shared Path, a Shared Fate

D'Var Torah By: Rabbi Ben Spratt
The mathematician Steven Strogatz writes: At the heart of the universe is a steady, insistent beat; the sound of cycles in sync. It pervades nature at every scale from the nucleus to the cosmos. Every night along the tidal rivers of Malaysia, thousands of fireflies congregate in the mangroves and
Torrah and Kippah
Pinchas

Our True Passion

D'Var Torah By: Debbie Niederman
Focal Point Adonai spoke to Moses, saying, "Phinehas, son of Eleazar son of Aaron the priest, has turned back My wrath from the Israelites by displaying among them his passion for Me, so that I did not wipe out the Israelite people in My passion." (Numbers 25:10-11) D'var Torah Parashat
Torrah and Kippah
Tazria

Reading an Ancient Practice

D'Var Torah By: William Cutter
Is Tazria a parashah that indexes Jewish connections between purity and community health? Jackie Mason might say that the Jewish fixation with health originated in this parashah: You begin with a spot on your skin, and you wind up with a bad back! Imagine what the Israeli comic Gil Kopetch
Torrah and Kippah
Vayeira

Ethics versus Ritual

D'Var Torah By: Evan Moffic
One of the great modern teachers of Judaism, Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf, zichrono livrachah,urged Reform Jews to ritualize the ethical and ethicize the ritual. Rabbi Wolf's point was that Jewish tradition does not differentiate between ethical and ritual law. (See essay "Back to the Future: On Rediscovering the Commandments," in
Shavuot
Sh'mini Atzeret and Simchat Torah

Drawing Near to Torah

Debbie Niederman

I did not have a typical Reform Movement upbringing, and would say that the three years I lived on an island in Alaska are probably most emblematic of that. People often ask me, "What did you do in Alaska?" And my answer is, "I went to junior high." This means