Related Blog Posts on Author Interviews, Transgender Inclusion, Audacious Hospitality, books, Family Activities, High Holidays, Jewish Values, and Parenting

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. 

A Conversation with Best-Selling Cookbook Author Jake Cohen

Aron Hirt-Manheimer
Jake Cohen’s debut cookbook, jew-ish: Reinvented Recipes from a Modern Mensch (HMH), is a New York Times bestseller. Jake is a former food staffer at Saveur, food editor of Tasting Table and Time Out New York, and most recently the editorial and test kitchen director of FeedFeed (@thefeedfeed).

How to Observe Shavuot from Home This Year

C.E. Harrison
The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted so much of how we engage Jewishly, but Shavuot is a fantastic holiday for families to celebrate from the safety of their homes. Here are a few ways you and your family can observe this rich, festive Jewish holiday this year.

My Black Son is a Baby, But He Won’t Always Be

AK Neer
Being Black in America is its own journey within the journey of just being human, living and discovering who you really are on a soul level. Then there’s being Black and Jewish. And then there’s being Black, Jewish, married to a white Jew, and having bi-ethnic Jewish kids. It’s another journey, not an easy one at times, and instead of getting easier as I get older, we seem to be facing more challenges.

On Yom HaShoah, Hear the Message of the Saved Remnant

Aron Hirt-Manheimer
My mother’s answer to hate is love. When I asked her what she wishes for herself and for the world, she said, “For myself good health, so I can be good to others. For the world, peace not war. No bad person wins in the end. What did Hitler achieve?”