After One-Hundred-and-Twenty: Reflecting on Death, Mourning, and the Afterlife in the Jewish Tradition
I know I’m not alone in wrestling with my own mortality. I was asked these questions many times during my rabbinic career as people aged and as loved ones died – but never did I think they related to me personally. Now I find myself looking for answers to these questions, and I’ve found answers in Hillel Halkin’s After One-Hundred-and-Twenty: Reflecting on Death, Mourning, and the Afterlife in the Jewish Tradition.
The Hue and Cry at Our House: A Year Remembered
A prism on a kitchen windowsill performs the miracle of fracturing sunlight into the complete spectrum, throwing rainbows on mundane surfaces, elevating them to something celestial and rare. Benjamin Taylor, in his compact and precise memoir, The Hue and Cry at Our House: A Year Remembered (Penguin, 2017), performs the same miracle. His last year of childhood in Forth Worth, TX, explodes into multicolored fragments, illuminating intersecting themes from the Kennedy assassination to Taylor’s homosexuality and eventual diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome.
The Netanyahu Years
On November 21, 2016, Benjamin Netanyahu surpassed David Ben Gurion’s record of longest continuous service as prime minister of Israel. Though Netanyahu’s years in power have been marked by scandal and political intrigue, his popularity with the Israeli electorate over the past seven years has grown, allowing him to do practically anything he wants.
The Shoah Through Muslim Eyes
A Pakistan-born Muslim woman with a Ph.D. from a South African university who directs the Holocaust, Genocide and Interfaith Education Center at Manhattan College, a New York City Catholic school, has written a pioneering and courageous book about the Shoah (Holocaust).
Fellowship Gives 100+ Jewish College Students Invaluable Leadership Skills
April 4, 2013, Philadelphia, PA -- Today more than 100 college freshman and sophomores who work at five Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) overnight camps are gathering in the City of Brotherly Love for a sp
Reform Movement Applauds Jerusalem District Court's Ruling Regarding Women of the Wall
URJ Responds to Accusations Reportedly Made By Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas
Union for Reform Judaism President Rabbi Rick Jacobs issued the following statement reacting to reports of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ invocation of the classic anti-Semitic canard of water poisoning:
It is deplorable that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas engaged in spreading libelous accusations against Israeli rabbis in his remarks to the European parliament today. This persistent lie dates back thousands of years and is no more true today than it was in medieval ages.
URJ Responds To UUA Rejection of Divestment From Israel
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, President of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), issued the following statement today reacting to a vote taken on June 25th at the General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association defeating a resolution to support Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel:
Reform Movement Leader on UNESCO's Hebron Resolution
Rabbi Rick Jacobs: It’s hard to fathom how UNESCO can, once again, vote to delegitimize what is demonstrated Jewish history at an ancient holy site. The place where Judaism’s patriarchs and matriarchs rest must not become a political pawn.