Related Blog Posts on Israel Programs, teens, Israel, Jewish Learning, and Jewish Values

new years day fireworks
Jewish Values

A Jewish Take on New Year’s Resolutions

Dasee Berkowitz
New Year's Day and the traditional resolutions that accompany it invite us to take stock of our lives. Are we living our lives to the fullest? Can we imagine a future in which the commitments we make for ourselves (e.g., healthier habits around eating and exercise) actually come true? What will it take this year to really change?
arnow_exodus
Jewish Values

Choosing Hope in Times of Trial

David Arnow
From Covid and climate change to the erosion of democratic norms and the decline of a shared sense of truth (and the list could go on), two things are clear. First, are we living in an age that tests our ability to sustain hope. Second, if despair dominates hope, we will be unable to meet the challenges that beset us.
Dasee Berkowitz family Hanukkah menorahs
Hanukkah

Reimagining Hanukkah Gift-Giving

Dasee Berkowitz
There are a lot of creative ways to make Hanukkah meaningful when we pause to ask ourselves a few good questions before automatically going into shopping mode.
Hand holding cell phone with icons visible
Jewish Values

Cultivating a Shmita Mindset with our Screens

Dasee Berkowitz
Limiting the time we are on our devices and setting an intention about what we do there are small steps that can alter our relationship to the digital world. By committing to these changes in our day-to-day lives, we can more readily guide our kids to do the same.
Person wearing a purple prayer shawl and holding a prayer book
Yom Kippur

The URJ Reflection Project: Go Deeper on “The Spiritual”

Rabbi Esther L. Lederman
Rabbi Leora Kaye
As part of the URJ Reflection Project, a new set of offerings and experiences for the High Holidays in a time of social distance, we’ve also developed three short essays that allow you to go deeper into the essence of Jewish wisdom that grounds these rituals. 
israel parilment building
Israel

Why Israel’s Next Government Gives Me Hope

Rabbi Josh Weinberg
On Sunday, Israel’s Knesset narrowly voted in Israel’s 36th government with Naftali Bennett as the nation’s 13th prime minister, unseating the incumbant Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel

The Ethical Conundrum of a Jewish and Democratic State

Rabbi David Ellenson
When the State of Israel was established in 1948, its secular founders envisioned a nation that would be both Jewish and attuned to the values of liberal democracy. They were confident that a country with an overwhelming Jewish majority could maintain a Jewish character and ensure civic equality for all its inhabitants.