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One of the great paradoxes of being an American Reform Jew who chose to make aliyah (move to Israel) is that the whole concept of majority and minority is turned on its head. One the one hand, as a...
It finally happened.
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I woke up bright and early on Monday morning to head to the Western Wall with my students, participants in the NFTY-EIE study abroad program in Israel. At 7:00 a.m. sharp (OK, maybe we were a few...
Rarely does a 16-year-old Jewish girl from suburban Massachusetts get the chance to look back on her day and recognize that she helped make history. She didn’t just talk about it or write about it;...
As a fall semester student in NFTY-EIE High School in Israel, I participated in a Rosh Chodesh service last month at the Kotel (Western Wall). Although no service at the Kotel is ordinary, by...
Rabbi Jill Maderer serves at Congregation Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia, Penn. This post originally appeared at BlogRS and is reposted with permission.When I prayed with Women of the Wall (WoW) in...
Weeks after I prayed at the Western Wall at the start of the new Hebrew month of Adar II, I still struggle to find meaning in the concept of Jewish peoplehood.
Last Friday, Women of the Wall outsmarted the Western Wall's gatekeepers when we managed to bring in a tiny Torah scroll to celebrate the first bat mitzvah at the Kotel in modern Jewish history....
Following a court ruling in their favor, leaders of an organization pushing for women's prayer rights at the Western Wall have withdrawn their endorsement of Natan Sharansky’s compromise proposal...
In Israel, “separate but equal” is used to justify limiting women's access to, and participation in, the public sphere. Often, such separation is tragic, painful, and illegal.
Learn what led Anat Hoffman to a career as a Jewish activist, and what keeps her there as executive director of the Israel Religious Action Center.
It has been nearly two weeks since Anat Hoffman’s arrest at the Kotel. This has been a trying time for Anat and for everyone who works at IRAC. For the last ten years, Anat has led this...
Yesterday four women were detained at the Western Wall, each for wearing a tallit. The authorities say they were disturbing the public peace according to regulation 201 A4 of the Israeli legal code...
There must be more than one way to liberate the Western Wall. It's not only a job for paratroopers, a test that ended in the Six Day War of 1967. The Wall as a national and religious site now needs...
I am announcing to you today that our struggle to make the Western Wall a welcoming place for all Jews is reaching a new phase. After so many years talking to everyone except the leaders in Israel...
Great news in our struggle against the exclusion of women in Israel: The Israel Religious Action Center has won our first class-action suit! This is the first class-action suit dealing with gender...
Shelly Lindauer is the Executive Director of Women of Reform Judaism. This post first appeared at RJ.org....
Every day feels like women's day at the Israel Religious Action Center. Yes, this is because 20 of our 24 staff members are women and there seems to be a never-ending line to our bathroom. But...
I have spent all day today running errands in Jerusalem. I went in and out of shops. In and out of offices. And the inescapable conclusion is that the Jewish state is completely enthralled with...
Israelis love to sing
Rabbi Stanley M. Davids is the Immediate Past President of ARZA. This post first appeared at RJ.org....
During the Days of Awe, we engage in a full accounting of our souls and our actions. Perhaps this process should be applied to our relationship with Israel as well.
"Wondrous God, in ancient days You led our people from bondage to freedom; redeem us now out of our exile from one another, making all Israel one united people!" -From the liturgy for Rosh Chodesh...
This morning, we went to the Western Wall to pray with Women of the Wall for Rosh Chodesh Sivan, the festival celebrating the new month. Though a large group of progressive Jews were present, there...
I don’t remember the first time I skimmed my skull with a bobby pin and pushed a circle of knitted white cloth and strands of hair into its metal clasp. Wearing a kippah felt like a natural...
During my first year as a rabbinical student, which was spent on the Jerusalem campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, I began to see my homeland in a new light, a light that...
This piece originally appeared in The Forward on October 22, 2012...
