February is Jewish Disability Awareness Month
Tomorrow marks the start of Jewish Disability Awareness Month, a time when the North American Jewish community comes together to raise awareness and support efforts to foster inclusion of people with disabilities and their families in Jewish communities worldwide.
Getting Married... Again
Gay and lesbian couples love to get married. Again and again. Rather than marrying other people each time, we tend to marry the same people again and again.
Turning a Super Bowl Bet into a "Super Mitzvah"
Rabbi Joe Black is the senior rabbi of Temple Emanuel in Denver, CO. His friend and colleague, Rabbi Daniel A. Weiner, is senior rabbi of Temple DeHirsch Sinai of Seattle, WA.
The Torah In Haiku: T'rumah
Exodus 25:16 - And you shall put into the ark the testimony which I shall give you.
What Pete Seeger Did for Israeli Folk Songs
Pete Seeger was our country's greatest champion of authentic American folk music. He sang traditional ballads, songs of working people, protest songs, songs to save the Hudson River.
Galilee Diary: The Identity Marketplace
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 shared – and what are the conflicts – among the various "streams" of Judaism.
A Broken Wrist, a Little Perspective, and a Wish for 2014
I broke my wrist. Bummer. Major bummer. I didn’t do it with any kind of grace or with anything close to a great story attached to it. I tripped over a curb at the Mobile station. Great story. Did I mention I broke my right wrist, and that I am right-handed?
Reform Rabbis in Israel Receive State Salaries for First Time
Tuesday's announcement that four non-Orthodox communal rabbis have received state-paid salaries represents a major step forward for religious pluralism in Israel. Although we continue to believe that the goal of full and equal recognition of non-Orthodox Jewry and their rabbis must be fulfilled as soon as possible, we welcome the long-overdue state compensation for Rabbis Miri Gold of the Gezer Regional Council, Stacey Blank of the Mateh Yehuda Regional Council, Gadi Raviv of the Misgav Regional Council, and Benji Gruber of Hevel Eliot Regional Council. While the state continues to fund religious services, including rabbis' salaries, this funding must be provided on an equal basis for all denominations.