I heard from a rabbi in our community that there was once a man who wrote down the Baal Shem Tov's torah - all that he had heard him teach. One day, the Baal Shem saw the man walking along,...
Wasn't it Thomas Edison who said: Success is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration? That may be true for some endeavors, but songwriting is different. When composing liturgical music I rely 100% on...
The sacred text of Sh’ma- V’ahavta, repeated daily in our liturgy, inspires and guides us to teach and share – diligently – these words of Torah. Music is the perfect means of expression for...
I could only see the tip of what was coming out of the woman’s shopping bag, but I knew it was going to be very special.In Spring 2006 I was emceeing what I call the Jewish Antiques Appraisal...
Beth Schafer has energized contemporary Jewish music, sweeping audiences into her world of ruach and song. Her sound has been described as a combination of Natalie Merchant’s clean, soulful voice...
Shira Kline, aka ShirLaLa, is an award winning New York-based performer and music educator. She travels across the country and internationally with her kiddie-rock band, delivering a dynamic,...
In his essay on closing hymns, Rabbi Richard Sarason enumerates the Maimonidean Thirteen Principles of Faith as rendered in Yigdal Elohim Chai (“May the living God be exalted”), the poem attributed...
Ellen Allard is synonymous with the very best in children’s music. She is a multi-award winning children’s Recording Artist, Composer, Performer and Early Childhood Music Educator, drawing on a...
Where are we going with the music of prayer of our Reform synagogues? Does some larger cultural process exist within the contemporary Jewish community that somehow will predetermine our sacred...
Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman, Barbara and Stephen Friedman Professor of Liturgy, Worship, and Ritual at HUC-JIR, edited We Have Sinned: Sin and Confession in Judaism-Ashamnu and Al Chet (Jewish Lights...
Maggie Anton was born in Los Angeles and raised in a secular, Socialist household. She grew up with little knowledge of the Jewish religion and discovered Judaism only as an adult.
It probably doesn't matter that Alice Herz Sommer didn't live to see the Academy Award ceremony that took place on Sunday, March 7, 2014. Sommer, who died on February 23, 2014, at the age of 110,...
The legacy of Milton Steinberg (1903-1950) is secure despite his tragically short life. He wrote his works of fiction and theology while serving as rabbi of the prestigious Park Avenue Synagogue in...
I saw on CNN that there was rioting in Washington Heights and I was concerned about you." Rioting in Washington Heights was news to me. Such are the joys of our globalized communications galaxy.
When I was a student at the Anshe Emet Day School in Chicago, Illinois, I had a Hebrew teacher who suggested that every night before we went to sleep, it would be meaningful to recite the last...
The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon is a compelling murder mystery and historical novel that uses the catastrophic events that overtook Spanish and Portuguese Jewry in the fifteenth century. These...
In The Provincials: a Personal History of Jews in the South, Eli Evans proves that American Southern Jews are not exempt from the complicated racial, religious, and political history of the...
Cantor Andrew Bernard is a member of the clergy team at Temple Beth El in Charlotte, North Carolina and volunteer chaplain at the Levine Children's Hospital.
In search of a unique Hanukkah gift for the social justice hero in your life? Look no further than this guide for all your gift-giving needs - with an emphasis on tikkun olam, the repair of our broken world.
Reform Zionism is a continuation of the early Zionist dream to foster a living, breathing national culture that represents the highest ideals of Jewish peoplehood.