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These are search results for "simchat torah"
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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There were 14 Torah scrolls and hundreds of committed Jews standing with one goal: to hold an egalitarian service at the Kotel.
Remarkable unity characterized the Jewish people in the days before receiving Torah at Sinai. Today, such unity isn’t always visible in the Jewish world.
No thunder sounded. No lightening struck. -Judith Kaplan Eisenstein, recalling her bat mitzvah, March 18, 1922 - the first bat mitzvah in North America at which a girl read from the Torah. She was...
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;...
This is a prayer for Jews to love one another. I wrote it a year ago, but it echoes as a response to the violence perpetrated at the Kotel this week. Charlie Kalech and I were beaten after we...
In the 1970s, the annual conference of the Coalition on Alternatives in Jewish Education (CAJE) appeared on the North American scene and was seen as a revolution in Jewish education.
Israelis recently elected an assortment of representatives to parliament, but a coalition could not be formed, so the country will hold new elections in September.
My mixed impressions about Rosh Chodesh Adar will still take some time to settle, but I feel enriched and empowered knowing that each small step is meaningful in the ongoing struggle for all Jews...
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...
Jenny Baruchi challenged the Israeli economic system. She matriculated to Hebrew University and, in doing so, lost many rights afforded to her by the state as a destitute single mother.
Reform Judaism is playing a key role in efforts to reclaim something that has for too long been seen as the exclusive preserve of the Orthodox.
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 night, in both Phoenix and Jerusalem, those who benefit most from the status quo rallied to defend it, vilifying those seeking change and social progress.
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....
I sense the existence of one Am Yisrael – one Jewish people – on Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day).
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On the Shabbat before Purim, many congregations will read Parshat Zachor (Deuteronomy 25:17 - 20). In the three short verses of this parshah, we are commanded not once but twice to...
Despite a nasty response as the Reform community celebrated the ordination of the 100th Israeli Reform rabbi at the Kotel, we persisted, dancing with our Torah scrolls.
I love the sounds of Jerusalem. The voices, noises, and music all tell stories that are unparalleled in the Jewish world – and perhaps in the world at large.
I grew up in a home with my single mother and two sisters. My mother had one sister, two nieces, and one nephew. When my mother died, our synagogue shipped in the men of the traveling shiva minyan...
by Marc Rosenstein(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary)Joshua ben Perachiah says: Make yourself a teacher (rabbi) and get yourself a colleague (friend) and judge every...
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...
Today my heart is heavy as I write to you about the vandalism of a Reform synagogue this past Thursday in Ra'anana, Israel. This was the fifth time in four years in which such an act was carried...
This is liberal Judaism on the edge: Flinging doors open wide to those who would otherwise be left behind. The community is a voice of Judaism that is open to all who seek it.
I hear a great many people say “I am not religious” when what they actually mean is, “I am not observant.” What is the difference between the two?
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Hillel says: Do not separate yourself from the community…
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Recently, we attended still another wedding not conducted by a rabbi, but by a friend of the couple, or by a freelance “ceremony facilitator.” Although such ceremonies are not recognized by the...
Recently, Israel’s prime minister reneged on an agreement for an egalitarian prayer space at the Kotel. In the aftermath, what can we learn from the Talmud?
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.
I was excited to see the new issue of Reform Judaism magazine opening with Rabbi Rick Jacobs’s message on pluralism. Rabbi Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, writes of the...
A rabbi with a black hat and beard once told me that a black hat and beard don’t make a Chassid, a pious Jew who goes beyond the law in fulfilling their duties toward others and God – and a...
At the Kotel, I was confused as to why I was being completely rejected from the most central place of meaning in my religion. I didn’t know how to react.
The Israeli Defense Forces is one of the primary places in Israeli society where men and women from a plethora of backgrounds come together and partake in a cultural exchange. The Education Corps...
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...
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...
Last year our education center at Shorashim was asked by a high school in Haifa to help the staff there produce a day-long seminar for the 400 eleventh graders on Jewish pluralism and on what is...
A few months ago I wrote here about a high school that was considering an attractive offer of a free three-day seminar provided by an Orthodox institution, instead of a pluralistic program for...
Just as it is inaccurate to paint all progressive Jews with a broad brush, the same is true for Haredim, traditionally observant or ultra-Orthodox Jews.
by Marc Rosenstein(Originally published in Ten Minutes of Torah and Galilee Diary)Rabbi Abba said in the name of Samuel: for three years the School of Shammai and the School of Hillel were in...
“Hold it right there! Put your hands where I can see them!” Picture men running into your store, checking the food and the official Rrabbinate documents on the wall that certifies your...
I watched Nurit Melamed dance for the first time this week. Seeing her gracefully weave her feet is not something outside of the ordinary for Nurit, who is an accomplished choreographer and folk...
Three years ago, Zvi Ginsburg came to the Israel Religious Action Center after the death of his wife. Because the family did not want the usual burial ceremony in Israel, which is performed by...
Imagine a law that asserts that I am a woman: The Womanhood Act, a hypothetical piece of legislation. This law entitles me to the rights that women have and denies these rights to all non-women....
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 are used to being asked to open up their bags and backpacks for inspection almost wherever they go. When entering supermarkets, malls, bus stations. You name it. Usually, this...
As our wedding present to Dinah and Roi, the Israel Religious Action Center will be filing a lawsuit on their behalf against Sh’vilei Or mikveh for unlawful discrimination in public accommodations....
The Israeli government promised to come up with a plan for the Kotel deal's implementation by June 1st – but promises yielded to political pressure and procrastination. All the while,...
