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In March 2010, two months after the devastating 7.0 earthquake, I walked the streets of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. In every inch of available space - empty lots, front lawns, sidewalks, even in the...
Every year, nearly 2,000 high school-aged Reform Jewish students participate in the Religious Action Center's L'Taken Seminar in Washington, D.C. At the beginning of December, Rabbi Greg Litcofsky,...
…Be strong and of good courage; be not frightened, neither be dismayed; for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. -Joshua 1:9A few days before our recent election for...
…There was a great and mighty wind, splitting mountains and shattering rocks by the power of the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind – an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the...
The voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hands are the hands of Esau. -Genesis 27:22I recently attended a meeting of the Reform rabbis of the north, at the Leo Baeck School, to...
Purim is almost here! It’s loud, it’s raucous, it’s festive, it’s colorful, and the food is great. It’s no wonder the rabbis of the Talmud saw Purim as such a high point in the calendar that they...
The assimilationists shied away from our Jewish holidays as obstacles on the road to their submergence among the majority because they were ashamed of anything which would identify them as a...
A few years ago, I found myself in a bit of a Purim predicament specifically pertaining to the “to tell or not to tell” dilemma regarding Vashti, one of the oft forgotten players in our Purim tale....
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's not the roar that makes the lion, it's the pride." This is the conclusion at which musician Benjamin Scheuer arrives after taking us on his coming-of-age journey. Only in his early thirties,...
We often think about the cycle of the year-the change of the air in the fall, or the blossoming of new life in the spring-and we see a circle. But we sometimes fail to recognize that while each...
February 2009: While most of Israel was consumed by the election for a new Prime Minister, I was engaged in a very different political and dramatic pursuit: Touring the country in Israel Musical's...
Tonight we celebrate Rosh HaShanah, one of my favorite Jewish holidays - though each is my favorite in its own way.
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I had the recent pleasure to be invited by a friend on a hike in Los Liones Canyon of Pacific Palisades. It was gorgeous summer day and the trail was steep. We pretty much hightailed it up as fast...
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...
Ah, fall! In many parts of the country, the temperature has dropped, the leaves have turned shades of red, orange and yellow and are falling off the trees. It's time for Thanksgiving in the. For...
According to Tevye from "Fiddler on the Roof," it's not the Shema that's the watchword of our faith.
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There is a well-known Talmudic debate (Shabbat 21b) between rabbis Shamai and Hillel about the correct way to light the Hanukkah candles. According to Shamai, the candles should be lit in a...
We all know that eating Chinese food on Christmas Eve is a sacred Jewish tradition. Chinese restaurants became a favorite eatery for Jews who emigrated from Eastern Europe to the United States and...
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...
On the coat-tails of the recent civil unrest in Ferguson, MO, we see racial tension that was perhaps lurking just below the surface stirred up into a national battle-cry for accountability and...
I recently made my fourth journey to Israel. Each trip has had a large impact on my Judaism and my connection to Israel.
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Without a doubt, Jacob Rader Marcus (1896-1995) has a rightful place in the pantheon of American Reform Judaism's most brilliant luminaries. After receiving his rabbinical ordination in 1920 from...
Shabbat Shirah is on January 30th this year, and is another name for the week we read the Torah portion called B'shalach. In this portion, the Israelites have just been freed from Egypt and we read...
I have often felt rather lonely in my work in peace-building through interreligious dialogue in Israel. Last week I was privileged to be part of a larger group of Jews and Palestinians who have not...
I remember the day as if it was yesterday. In an online forum, I read an advertisement that said that the Children’s Museum in Holon was looking for deaf guides, fluent in sign language, for “an...
This article first appeared in the JTA on February 21, 1928, and is part of the JTA Archive. For today's Jewish news, sign up for the JTA Daily Briefing at www.jta.org/subscribe.
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Cruelty and bloodshed abound in the Bible as, for example, the Pharaoh's ruthless treatment of his Israelite slaves and Moses' vengeful slaying of the Egyptian taskmaster in the Passover story. But...
Adah Isaacs Menken (1835-1868), the original Jewish American superstar and beautiful sensation of the Victorian era, revolutionized a woman's role on stage and in private life. Adah's heartfelt...
Orthodox Judaism claims that its only platform is the Torah itself. The Conservative movement was in existence for three generations before it finally created its only set of principles in 1988....
Today the Union for Reform Judaism is engaged in a variety of activities that include theReligious Action Center, camping, and assistance to its member congregations. But when it was formed back in...
Growing up in rural Massachusetts, Judaism held a much different context in my life than it does now. Until college, I did Judaism, mimicking the motions of being a "good Jew." I didn't combine...
It is perhaps fitting that in the United States, where Jews have found unprecedented freedom, Passover is the one holiday that a vast majority of American Jews celebrate. The level of observance...
Nearly 150 Jews have played Major League Baseball. As Martin Abramowitz, the president of Jewish Major Leaguers, Inc., points out, these Jewish big leaguers have combined for 22,000 hits, compiled...
In the spring of 2000, I spent a few weeks in India. Upon my return, a non-Jewish acquaintance, who was raised in South America, asked me what it was like to be surrounded by so many people who are...
Dr. Gary P. Zola, executive director of the American Jewish Archives (AJA), organized a trip in 2000 to Charleston, S.C., for a group of adults interested in the firsthand study of American Jewish...
Global leadership. This combination of two words sounds so spectacular and intimidating. I am fortunate to be participating in the Roswell Klal Yisrael Fellowship, which prepares young Jewish...
As we celebrate LGBT (Lesbian, Gay Bisexual, Transgender) Pride Month this June, the Reform Jewish community has a lot to be proud of. For decades the Reform Movement has been one of the leading...
Yesterday, we reflected on the pride our Reform Jewish community should have for the great advocacy work we have done on behalf of LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) rights over the...
Most Americans know of Orville and Wilbur Wright, the Dayton, OH, brothers who in 1903 became the first to fly. Far fewer know of Arthur Welsh, the first Jewish aviator.
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A banquet recently held in New York City's historic Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue caught the attention of many foodies. The fact that 20 of the attendees got violently ill from the food is still...
I did not know that June is LGBT Pride Month. I'm not gay, which may or may not be a valid excuse. That being said, gay rights is one of the critical issues in these beginning years of the 21st...
I have been in Europe these past two weeks talking with people in Germany, England and now Holland. I love having the opportunity to meet with communities and people across the globe and to share...
If a feel-good book about cancer sounds like an oxymoron, just pick up a copy of New Beginnings: The Triumphs of 120 Cancer Survivors by Bill Aron (Skyhorse Publishing), a tour de force...
This month ushers in one of the great human migrations: back-to-school season.
It began on July 23, 1938, almost a year before the outbreak of World War II in Europe, when David and Liza Kurtz of Brooklyn boarded the Nieuw Amsterdam on a vacation journey with friends to...
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Hugo Gernsback (1884-1967), a German-Jewish immigrant from Luxemburg, was fascinated by electrical technology. In 1908, shortly after he arrived in America, he formed the Electro Importing Company,...
