How to Use the URJ Reflection Tool
How to Get into the High Holidays State of Mind
How to Turn Your Home into a Sanctuary for the High Holidays
Seeing Through the Darkness: Inside Charlottesville’s Synagogue One Week Later
May we continue to be inspired by Congregation Beth Israel to turn darkness into light, to turn fear into resolve, to turn xenophobia into acceptance, and to turn hatred into hope.
How a Day of Rest Can Save Your Life
Pretzel Challah
Cultivating a Culture of Inclusion: April Baskin's Remarks to the URJ Biennial 2017
As the Vice President of Audacious Hospitality, I deeply believe that every person should have a community where they feel fully supported and unconditionally accepted. One they can count on to be there for them over the course of their lives.
How One Congregation Responded to the California Fires with a Huge Shabbat Dinner
I was honored to have been asked to help people in need, and I love that our synagogue is always giving back to our community. This overflowing lovingkindness is the true meaning of being Jewish.
Read Rabbi Rick Jacobs' D'var Torah to the URJ Biennial 2017
This d'var Torah for Parashah Vayeishev was presented before the 74th Union for Reform Judaism Biennial convention on Saturday, December 9.
Getting to the Bimah in a Wheelchair
The bimah is the heart of a temple's sanctuary – a gathering place for life cycle events, the focus of our High Holiday worship rituals, and the site that draws us together when we seek comfort from pain.
In 2007, I was diagnosed with primary progressive multiple sclerosis. In my case, it has lived up to its name, and has progressively weakened my body from the waist down, leaving me wheelchair bound. With the loss of my mobility, I also lost the ability to be called for an aliyah, to see the open Torah scroll, to participate in Selichot services, and to join with family and friends for birthday and anniversary blessings. For those of us unable to be on the bimah because of a physical disability, it is easy to feel left out of the Jewish community.