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Making the High Holidays Inclusive and Meaningful

As the High Holidays approach once again, we have created a number of resources for individuals and congregations to utilize as we mark these most important days in the Jewish calendar. We know we will be a stronger, more vibrant Jewish community when we fully incorporate the diversity that is the reality of modern Jewish life. We hope that each of these materials will help your High Holiday experiences and programming serve a wide range of identities and help you create communities of belonging.

An Elul Letter of Gratitude to our Clergy, Administrators, and Educators

Rabbi Emily Langowitz

Every year I look forward to this time as a reset button, and a chance to truly evaluate who I am and who I am becoming. I also know, from my time as a congregational rabbi, that for those of us working in the Jewish world, Elul takes on its own strange character.

Stuff

Lynn S. Denton

This is not going to be a sad story, I promise. But it does start out with the process of going through my parents’ condo after their passing.

Northeastern University’s Answer to Food Insecurity – A Community Fridge

Danny Stein

This Elul, what comes to mind as I think about my own growth and what empowers me towards religious action is the work of Northeastern University’s Community Fridge.

Blame Ourselves, Not God

Rabbi Rick Jacobs

Blaming God for such tragedies is theologically problematic; blaming God for failed human policies is blasphemous. This idea is worth considering as we cope with the devastating aftermath of the multiple disasters confronting us.

Man facing away from the camera with his arms raised as he looks out from a mountaintop

The Relationship Between Prayer and Your Imagination

Aron Hirt-Manheimer

When the words of liturgy are taken too literally, the sacred power of prayer is often lost. In his latest book, Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman offers a way worshipers can transcend the limitations imposed by language.

Discovering Israel Beyond Its Borders

Rachael Brill

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 milk and meat in my house because my father told me not to.

More Than Words on a Page: Social Justice in our Prayer Books

When I left for college my freshman year, I was nervous about exploring a new Jewish community. However, I immediately felt at home as I walked into my university’s Hillel’s Conservative Friday night services and saw the Siddur Sim Shalom, the prayer book that I had grown up with. The siddur offered me a sense of comfort and familiarity in an otherwise completely new setting.

What Does Eliijah Have to Do with Blowing the Shofar on Yom Kippur?

Rabbi Stephen Lewis Fuchs

It is for good reason that Jews close Yom Kippur — just before the blowing of the shofar — with the triumphant cry from the wonderful passage (First Kings, Chapter 19) in which Elijah vanquishes the prophets of Ba

children eating lunch in school cafeteria

The Undesired Fast

Tyler Dratch

For many Jews, the Yom Kippur fast is one of the hardest and most meaningful Jewish acts they will perform during the year.