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"You shall make Me a sanctuary so that I may dwell among them (Exodus 25:8)" - Creating a sanctuary and safe space for parents of children with disabilities.
Our life changed the day our grandson Sam was diagnosed with familial dysautonomia. My husband and I are both in our sixties, still working but with the freedom to visit our out-of-town...
I do not have enough fingers and toes on which to count the various kinds of Passover seders I have participated in or led. So many have been close to my heart, building and reinforcing my Jewish...
Reform Judaism's deep commitment to outreach and inclusion, both of Jews–by–choice and interfaith and multi–cultural families, is a core value rooted in the historic development of our Movement....
My parents raised my brothers and me to have a strong identity as Reform Jews. We were clear about our Jewish ancestry. We fully embraced our connection to and responsibility toward synagogue life....
Each year on the 27th day of Nisan, a two-minute siren is sounded throughout Israel. The entire State of Israel comes to a complete halt. Even in the minutes before the siren is sounded, the busy...
History demonstrates that the events of the Holocaust served as an impetus for the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. For this reason, Israel’s civil calendar first acknowledges Yom...
On Shavuot, every spring, we return to Sinai. We stand at the foot of the mountain enveloped in cloud and fire, the mountain hanging over our heads as if dangling from the Heavens themselves1, and...
As we approach the Festival of Shavuot this coming week, tens of thousands of American Reform Jews will be fondly recalling a milestone moment in their own personal religious lives - their...
Rosh Chodesh, like many things in Judaism, has three hands.
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I started a new congregational position this year. The job, which is part-time, is at a wonderful congregation that meets in a 315-year old Presbyterian church. Since my working hours are limited,...
When my mother was alive, she neither checked email nor opened snail mail on Shabbat. Whatever missives – real or virtual – awaited her, she knew, would still be there once Shabbat had ended. This...
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel once wrote, "Judaism is a religion of time aiming at the sanctification of time...Judaism teaches us to be attached to holiness in time, to be attached to sacred events...
My fondest memories of childhood existed within the confines of my grandmother's kitchen. I'd enter her apartment to the smells of traditional Argentine and Jewish cuisine, and it is through her...
Our sage, Rabbi Hillel, asks, "If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?" (Ethics of the Fathers 1:14)
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URJ Mitzvah Corps connects Reform Jewish teens with immersive social action opportunities across North America. Alongside a group of committed peers and our dedicated staff, teens volunteer with...
A few weeks ago, I had to plead with the people I called on my cell phone. As my calls went through, they answered but couldn't seem to hear my voice. Each time, I called out, louder and louder, ...
One of the most distinctive dimensions of the High Holy Days in our tradition is that among the major observances of the Jewish calendar, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are experienced primarily in...
I have had the pleasure of writing about some very unique holiday experiences that took place in my home when I was growing up. Passover seders with Jesuit priests, discovering the connection...
Just as God's relationships with key characters in the Torah (e.g., Moses, our forefathers and foremothers) are unique, so are our relationships to Jewish music vastly different in the way we each...
A few weekends ago, I brought 20 congregants, mostly of the teenage variety, to New York City for a "Jewish New York" experience. We went to two different Reform synagogues, visited Jewish museums,...
The Hebrew word hanukkah means "dedication," and refers to the rededication of the second temple to the service of God during the successful revolt of the Maccabees against the Seleucid rulers of...
There has been a great deal of interest surrounding the unusual confluence of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah this year. The hype of the "Thanksgivukkah" craze, with humorous ideas for joint holiday...
In 2003, Rabbi Eric Yoffie launched Ten Minutes of Torah, a project of the Union for Reform Judaism, with these words:
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It seems to be the time of year for lists, and 2013 was an exciting year in the Jewish world. From the Pew study to the Sharansky plan, check out our picks of the top 10 Reform Jewish moments...
Each year at this time we honor the life and work of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – and more broadly, the civil rights movement. As Jews working toward a more just society, we know that the...
Gay and lesbian couples love to get married. Again and again. Rather than marrying other people each time, we tend to marry the same people again and again. As some same-sex couples have moved from...
This post is part of #JDAMblogs, a series of blog posts throughout the Jewish community during the month of February in honor of Jewish Disability Awareness Month (JDAM). #JDAMblogs is the...
Sometimes it is a seemingly innocuous comment that can be the beginning of something amazing.
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As we approach the celebration of Passover this year, a new resource and opportunity to experience the timeless meaning of our Festival of Freedom will be available for American Reform Jews. In...
Zachor. A powerful imperative to remember. An anthem in opposition to forgetting. A symbol of the Jewish approach to history: zachor, remember, remember as if you experienced it yourself.
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How do you give your country a gift?
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Have you seen the Ten Commandments lately? Not the 1956 Cecil B. DeMille blockbuster, but the Decalogue: the biblical guidelines Moses brought down from Mt. Sinai and a cause for Jewish celebration...
We got married on a Wednesday. August 14, 2013: the ninth anniversary of the day on which we stood under a chuppah to sign our ketubah, (Jewish contract of marriage) exchange rings, sanctify our...
As we approach Father's Day 2014, I reflect on my father, now deceased, and my relationship with him, and his relationship with me. I also reflect on the men who have become father figures to me,...
Our Mortality
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Our tradition gives life to journeying. The Torah affirms wandering.
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Picture this: The setting was a dining room on the East Coast on Friday, October 31st, sometime in the late 1990s. It was dinnertime, and the father of the family was seated at the head of the...
It's rare that everyone in my family is together for Shabbat. I wanted to make this one special so, on Black Friday, my daughter and I made our first challah. On Facebook, I had seen beautiful...
There is one Purim that will always have a special place in my heart. It was a Saturday night, and I suddenly emerged as Elvis Presley, taking the stage for the first time in Charleston, S.C., and...
I choose to believe that we all have been enslaved at some point in our lives. Perhaps we have been chained to our fears, worries, and doubts. We may have faced addictions, coped with hardship, and...
We live in a world in which we are constantly overworked, overtired, and overstressed, leaving us with the feeling that we have so much to accomplish and not enough time to do it all. Often, we...
There is so much left at the end of the day for which I have no time or energy that I often wonder if I'll be able to get to some of the projects on my to-do list before Pesach. The day at the...
This post is part of #JDAMblogs, a series of blog posts throughout the Jewish community during the month of February in honor of Jewish Disability Awareness Month (JDAM). #JDAMblogs is the...
After the recent passing of Israeli President Shimon Peres, z"l, I'm remembering the time I sat down with him in a Manhattan midtown hotel in 1994 at the beginning of the Oslo process to discuss...
As a teenager in Flint, MI, most of my peers spent their Friday evenings at the movies with friends or at high school football games. When I told my friends why I couldn't join them, they were...
