Stop Cuts to Family Planning
Coming Full Circle: The NFTY in Israel Tikkun Olam Experience
Putting Down Roots: Why Our Jewish Family Needs a Yard Full of Trees
We celebrated the holiday of Tu BiShvat – the “Jewish Arbor Day” – way back in February, and we won’t celebrate it again until January. But no matter: I need to talk about the trees now.
What an Atheist Belgian Musician Taught Me about Judaism
As a teenager, I would sit on my bedroom floor listening to old records of Belgian singer-songwriter, poet, and performer Jacques Brel. I didn’t need to keep a journal, because his lyrics wove together everything I felt at the time. Brel had a fire within, and his anger, longing, passion, and truth blazed through every word he sang. His music, raw and real, transformed and fed my soul; it informed and shaped who I am today.
How Should Reform Jews Observe Tishah B'Av?
I had never even heard of Tishah B’Av until I was 12 years old and participating in the inaugural season of the Camp Institute for Living Judaism (later to renamed URJ Eisner Camp
Teaching Children About Visiting the Sick (Bikur Cholim)
Tishah B'Av: What's in a Name?
William Shakespeare wrote in Romeo and Juliet, “What’s in a name?” The holiday of Tishah B’Av, which literally translates to the “Ninth of (the month of) Av” is so named to remember the destruction of the ancient temples in Jerusalem (in 586 BCE and 70 CE) said to have occurred on that day.
How To Talk Politics at Your Family Seder Without Killing Each Other
Should we avoid prickly subjects at the seder? Steer clear of talk about candidates, platforms, policies and anything potentially objectionable for the sake of a happy holiday?
Teaching Children about Donating to Charity (Tzedakah)
Reform Judaism, the Former Soviet Union, and the Next Great Jewish Renaissance
Many of today’s North American Jews can trace their family roots to the vast expanse in between Vitebsk, Belarus, and Khabarovsk, Russia. Today, there are more than 40 Reform Jewish communities in this region, and that number is growing.