How the Pursuit of Justice Helps Us Find Strength
How can we pursue acts of justice that help fulfill our vision of a world in which every person experiences wholeness, justice, and compassion?
Responding to Narrowness With Strength and Courage
Last night, in both Phoenix and Jerusalem, those who benefit most from the status quo rallied to defend it, vilifying those seeking change and social progress.
What are the Best Colleges for Jewish Students?
Headed to college this fall or thinking about what schools to apply to when the time comes? Either way, The Forward's first-ever college guide is a great place to start.
What's It Like to Be an Israeli Soldier at an American Summer Camp?
The madrichim are authority figures, to be sure, but their task pales in comparison to the army. It’s a huge cultural shift
This MLK Weekend, Observe Shabbat Tzedek in Your Community
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.
Startling Rise in Anti-Semitic Incidents Strengthens Our Resolve to Pursue Justice
In the weeks immediately following the most recent election, a startling jump in anti-Semitic incidents swept across the country.
A River Flows from Eden: Rabbi Rick Jacobs' Address to the URJ Biennial
This movement’s task, in this moment, is to nurture the natural waterways that connect us. To keep our congregations the strong sources of life they have always been and will always be.
The Enemy Within Our Military
For years, members of the United States military were fighting a silent, internal battle: sexual assault was rampant and the military was covering it up.
Title IX Protects Students
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, a comprehensive federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex under any educational program or activity receiving federal funding,
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 23rd, 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.