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Honey dipper dripping honey over a small glass bowl of honey

How to Use the URJ Reflection Tool

Rabbi Esther L. Lederman

Rabbi Leora Kaye

We recently introduced the URJ Reflection Project, a tool for the High Holidays that can be found at reflect.reformjudaism.org. Here, we share suggestions of how to use its many ideas with your congregation.

Mourning Ruth Bader Ginsburg: The Jewish Perspective

Rabbi Rick Jacobs

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death on Rosh HaShanah has triggered a tidal wave of grief. That she left us at the start of the new year has brought to mind the Jewish belief that righteous souls die on Jewish holy days.

The late Honey and Rudi Scheidt sitting together at the 2016 Scheidt Seminar

Remembering Helen “Honey” Scheidt, Of Blessed Memory

Rabbi Rick Jacobs

This past Shabbat, the Reform Jewish Movement lost an extraordinary soul, Helen “Honey” Scheidt. Her beloved husband, Rudi E. Scheidt, Sr., z”l, died just five months before.

Six very green trees against blue a bright blue sky

How to Plan a Tu BiSh'vat Seder

Resa Davids

Everyone loves to participate in a Pesach seder. But did you know that there is an opportunity to celebrate a different seder about two months earlier?

Headshots of Danielle Gold and Jesse Irizarry

JewV’Nation Fellowship Focus: Danielle Gold and Jesse Irizarry

Toby Singer

Danielle and Jesse created focused young adult Jewish programming on the neighborhood level, calling it the Queens Jewish Project (QJP).

White heart-shaped flowers hanging from a stem

Mishkan HaLev: Trying Out the New Selichot Service

Rabbi Stacy Offner

Selichot is the overture for our High Holidays, a chance to focus on meaning, tradition, faith, and striving to reach that spot in the heart where no one else can go.

URJ Announces 12 JewV’Nation Fellows: New Interfaith Outreach Incubator Selects First Cohort of Emerging Jewish Leaders

The Union for Reform Judaism has selected twelve fellowship recipients for the launch cohort of the JewV’Nation (pronounced “juvination”) Fellowship, an innovative year-long project incubator and leadership development program supporting emerging and accomplished Jewish leaders and creative interfaith outreach initiatives.

This MLK Weekend, Observe Shabbat Tzedek in Your Community

Marissa Solomon

Shabbat Tzedek, observed annually the weekend before Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, is an opportunity for congregations and members to celebrate the achievements of movements for racial justice, and to look toward the challenges ahead.

Outraged Reform Jewish Leaders to Israeli PM: Denounce Degrading Body Searches of Female Rabbinic Students at Kotel

Senior leadership of the Reform Movement, the largest movement in Jewish life, sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in response to unnecessary and demeaning body searches imposed on female rabbinic students at the Western Wall in Jerusalem:

Dear Prime Minister Netanyahu,

We are writing to express our outrage and dismay about the humiliation of a cohort of Reform rabbinic students, all of whom are the future leadership of the Jewish people, at the entrance to the Kotel on August 23^rd, Rosh Hodesh Elul.

Two of our female rabbinic students, who are spending their first year of studies in Israel, were stopped at the entrance to the Kotel. After they passed through a metal detector (which clearly indicated that they were not posing any security threat), they were asked to lift their skirts and shirts in a demeaning way, an action that completely defied the decisions the Supreme Court reached on this matter.

Jewish Ideas for Your March Signs

Michelle Shapiro Abraham, MAJE, RJE

In the early 1980s, I was a camper in the UAHC (now URJ) Camp Swig Hevrah unit. In addition to the usual fun camp activities, this particular unit at camp focused on social justice. Our theme that summer was Soviet Jewry, and during our three weeks we learned the ins and outs of the issues, heard stories about Soviet Jews, and explored what we could do to make a difference. During the last few days of the session, we traveled to San Francisco to march in solidarity with Soviet Jews, equipped with “Save Soviet Jewry” banners and t-shirts, ready to perform, sing, and make our voices heard.