For Kids of Intermarriage, Jewish College Experiences are Key
New studies show that for emerging adults, whatever their background, providing them with the opportunities to learn about and engage with Jewish life during the college year appears essential to their developing a meaningful adult Jewish identity.
Extreme Weather: El Niño and Climate Change
Although it is finally getting cold and starting to feel like winter, you may have noticed unseasonably warm temperatures and minimal snowfall last month.
Managing Millennials, Harnessing Power
America’s millennial generation now numbers 83.1 million. Understanding them is the latest buzz. But why does this matter to us as youth professionals?
Birthright Israel, Millennials, and the Reform Movement
If a peer Israel trip is the culminating experience of young adulthood, it is imperative for the Reform movement to figure out how to ensure that our youth participate in a Kesher Birthright trip and that after their Birthright experience, they are re-engaged with Judaism.
A Jew's Calling: Responding to the Refugee Crisis
A Blessing for Tu BiShvat
We who have become cynical,
Hard shelled,
Whom life has raised its tough first
Of despair and
Disappointment and heartache
And grief,
We who have learned to protect our souls
And toughen our hearts
To avoid more anguish
To stop the flow of tears
Were Shakespeare's Plays Actually Written By a Jewish Woman?
William Shakespeare's name appears on many of play, but no evidence demonstrates that he actually wrote them. Could they have actually been written by Aemelia Bassano?
On the Outside Looking In: Approaching Conversion
Next week at this time, I’ll be stepping into the mikveh, the Jewish ritual bath. It’s been a yearlong journey that will lead me to that holy space, one I’ll enter as a former Catholic/not-quite-Jew and exit as a Jewish woman – no longer an outsider.
My Father’s Journey on a Freedom Ride Bus
Jewish activism in the 1960s civil rights movement gained momentum when four Reform rabbis participated in the first Interfaith Freedom Ride on a Greyhound bus traveling from Washington, DC, through South Carolina, to Tallahassee from June 13-16, 1961. Freedom rides tested interstate public transportation hubs for racial segregation. The rabbis, Israel Dresner, Martin Freedman, Allan Levine, and my father Walter H. Plaut, were joined by eight white Protestant ministers, including prominent theologian Robert McAfee Brown, and six AME black ministers and NAACP activists.
David Bowie Was into Kabbalah: 5 Jewish Facts about the Late Icon
From his Ziggy Stardust alter ego to his latest album — a jazzy, avant-garde rock release called “Blackstar” released just two days before his death — Bowie racked up some interesting Jewish connections.