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Creative Ideas for Mishloach Manot (Purim Gift Baskets)
Traditionally, mishloach manot (the traditional sending of food on Purim) are two food items (from different food groups) sent to at least two friends. On the hunt for creative ideas? Here are a few ideas to try.
Giving Thanks
Today, I am not posting this blog from my desk at the Religious Action Center in D.C. Instead, I’m posting it from my home in Los Angeles, where I have travelled to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday.
Happy Diwali!
On behalf of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, we wish the Hindu people a joyous and auspicious Diwali!
A House of Prayer for All Children
"Jews with disabilities are not invisible anymore," emphasizes Becca Hornstein, a consultant on disability and family-related issues and executive director of the Council for Jews with Special Needs. Twenty-six years ago, she began searching for religious education for her nine-year-old son who has autism and was told, "We're not aware of Jews with disabilities." At the time, the fledging special education program she soon helped launch at Temple Chai, Phoenix, Arizona instructed four students; today, 12% of the congregation's religious school children have a special need, and the temple is there to help.
“Poverty Would Outweigh Them All”: How to Protect the Poor while Reducing the Deficit
A month ago, I tempted you with a taste of current fiscal policy (warning: please read Sequestration Part 1 before this, or you will be very confused, not to mention less informed!).
At Home with Death
When my wife Merrily died of ovarian cancer last fall, we did something highly unusual in this age and place: we kept her body with us at home until the funeral. I am glad we did. The custom of watching over a body is ancient, both in Jewish culture and in many others.
Make Your Own Grogger (Noisemaker) for Purim
No m’gillah reading is complete without groggers! They're easy and fun to make at home.
The Passover Seder: A Night for Love
If I invited you to do a Jewish program for Passover and asked you to please bring a mattress, a bottle of wine, and some kind of aphrodisiac, you would probably look at me askance – maybe even consider having me investiga
A Mikveh of Our Own
Mikveh. Many Reform Jews think of the ritual bath as archaic, dirty, and anti-women. Why, then, did our congregation choose to construct one of only three Reform mikvehs in North America? And why would we recommend that other Reform temples follow suit?
10 Jewish LGBTQ+ Affirming Children’s Books
So many of us who identify as LGBTQ+ grew up with little to no queer/trans representation in the media we consumed. While there is still a long way to go in normalizing LGBTQ+ identities in children’s media, kids can now see themselves and their families represented in many ways, including in the books they read.