Reform Movement Allocates $125k for Typhoon Haiyan Relief Efforts
Reform Jewish Movement Applauds Implementation of State-Paid Salaries for Reform Rabbis in Israel
It Takes a Village (and a Little URJ Help) to Build a Congregational Website
This Ain’t Your Father’s Reform Judaism
One Friday night in December, I prayed at a Baptist-style, tent-revival, amen/hallelujah, neo-Hasidic Jewish service. Yes, that was Shabbat at the URJ Biennial, and although I was prepared for the spirit of it, based on my years in youth group, I wasn’t quite prepared for the spirituality of it. I grew up in the Reform Movement, through URJ Eisner Camp, URJ Kutz Camp, and NFTY, but something shifted in me while in university, and I felt myself move slowly away. Maybe it was going to Brandeis and meeting all those deeply committed Conservative and Orthodox students, while my Reform friends drifted away and stopped coming to services, stopped celebrating Shabbat. Maybe it was the year in Israel where I studied in yeshiva and went to the Western Wall regularly and davened in traditional circles.
Planting a Seed
By Joshua Weinberg
“And when you come into the Land, and have planted all manner of food bearing trees… (Lev. 19:23) The Holy one Blessed be he said to the people Israel: Even though you have found [the land] full of plenty, you shall not say: We shall sit and not plant, rather proceed with caution in your planting… For as you have entered and found the fruits of others’ labor, you so shall plant for your children. (Midrash Tanhuma)
If you’re like me, then you may remember that pivotal moment of Jewish education when you received your very own Jewish National Fund (JNF) certificate for a tree planted in Israel. Whether it was for a birth, birthday, bar/bat mitzvah, or in memory of a loved one, a tree was planted in Israel to mark the occasion. The message was clear: with every passing milestone we want to connect Jews to the Land of Israel and to the Zionist enterprise. All of us who were the fortunate recipients of such trees knew in the recesses of our mind that somewhere in that strip of land, in some forest, was our tree, our little piece of Israel. As the certificates read, the JNF wished us the following: “We wish you the fortune of seeing it grow with much pleasure and ease.”
The Music of Yizkor
Reform Movement Mourns the Death of Ariel Sharon
“Fostering Wholehearted Loyalty to the Synagogue & Jewish Ideals”: Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of NFTY
By Dr. Gary P. Zola
In the opening verses of this week’s sedra, we come upon a detail in our narrative that is frequently overlooked. Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, brought Moses’ two sons (Gershom and Eliezer) and his wife (Zipporah) to meet him in the wilderness. At first, this incident seems unremarkable. It makes sense that Moses would want to have his children and wife accompany him. Yet, our sages found an important lesson in this detail, for, according to the Midrash, Moses had more in mind than keeping his family close at hand. The rabbis taught that Moses wanted his children brought to him in the wilderness before he took the Israelites to receive the law at Mt. Sinai. We learn in this midrash that Jethro questioned Moses’ judgment. Why, Jethro wondered, would he bring his children from a safe location into the unknown and threatening wilderness? Moses answered: “U’vanai, lo yishme’u?” – “Shall not my own children also hear [the words of Torah]?”1 Moses wanted his children to participate in the Sinaitic experience and the remarkable Jewish journey that was about to unfold.Mourning Former Israeli PM Ariel Sharon
On January 4, 2006, while serving as prime minister, just two-and-a-half months shy of elections that he was expected to win in a landslide, Sharon suffered a devastating stroke and never recovered. Sharon lost the final battle and died on Shabbat January 11, 2014 at the age of 85.
He is survived by his older sister Dita, his two living sons, Omri and Gilad, his daughter-in-law Inbal, and his six grandchildren.
Ariel Sharon was a farmer, warrior, and politician. His was a life that embodied the early Zionist ethos of labor and agriculture along with self-defense. Sharon's early military career began in the Palmach, and it was David Ben Gurion who turned the Eastern European sounding Ariel Sheinerman to the more Israeli Sharon.