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Celebrating Rosh Chodesh in Your Congregation

Cantor Annice M. Benamy

Rosh Chodesh means “head of the month.” When the new moon appears, the first of each Jewish month begins. In contemporary practice, Rosh Chodesh celebrations begin theShabbat before the new month with the Rosh Chodesh prayer at the conclusion of the Torah reading.

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.

This Month in The Tent: Resources for the High Holidays and Beyond

As congregations gear up for the start of 5776 and a new year of activities, programming, and policies and procedures, these conversations in The Tent, the URJ’s online communication and collaboration forum, may prove particularly helpful in planning for the High Holiday season and beyond.

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.

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).

Two teenage boys blowing shofars on a beach

High Holidays Opportunities for Reform Jewish Teens

NFTY: The Reform Jewish Youth Movement

Join Reform Jewish teens for a meaningful, month-long High Holidays experience! Through fun and engaging virtual programming, we will focus on the core theme of betterment – of yourself, your community, and the world.

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.

4 Ideas for Engaging Families with Young Children in Jewish Life

Cathy Rolland, RJE

Every new parent understands the pressure and stress associated with finding the best ways to create a rich and fulfilling future for their children.

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.