Chocolate Smooths Transitions into High Holidays
How I Try to Create Jewish Memories for my Grandkids
What are your earliest memories of “doing Jewish”? I have a smattering of recollections from when I was 5, 6, and 7, though not much before that. Even from those years, I can only call up bits and pieces: moments, vignettes, colors, flavors.
The Torah In Haiku: Vayeilech
Vayeilech is the shortest portion in the Torah - just one chapter consisting of 30 verses. But it includes an important commandment, part of which is included at the beginning of the Torah service in Mishkan T'filah, the Reform Movement's siddur.
Three Great Congregational Programs that Tackle the Challenge of Demographic Diversity
Three Reform congregations received URJ Belin Awards or honorable mentions for the ways they’re “meeting people where they are” – creatively adapting their engagement strategies in response to local community needs, thereby enabling their congregations to successfully meet and engage people where they live and work.
Darkened Skies, Blue Skies: A September 11th Reflection
It was a beautiful August morning, the temperature a comfortable 70 degrees. I was riding on my favorite flat, a road that extends for miles along the shoreline. My legs felt strong, and despite the gusting head wind, I was setting a fast pace.
Three Congregational Programs that Prove We’re Stronger Together
In Jewish tradition, the theme of partnership is one that arises again and again: Adam seeks an appropriate partner from among God’s creations; Moses and Aaron are two brothers whose strengths and leadership skills complement each other; King Saul and King David both depend on Samuel the prophet
This Yom Kippur, Let Your Emotions Serve as "Radical Blessings"
How America's Journey for Justice Helped Me Truly Understand Reform Jewish Values
Two rabbis, a Methodist theologian, and a synagogue’s brotherhood president walk into a national social action event…
Yes, it sounds like the beginning of a joke, but there is no punchline.
22,202 CE: A Year With No Rosh HaShanah
Soon, Jews around the world will celebrate the beginning of the Jewish new year, 5781, and many of us will do so not from our synagogues as usual, but rather from our homes, looking into our computer sc
A Monthly Social Justice Initiative Helps One Congregation Thrive
Belin Award-winning Temple Beth-El in San Antonio, TX, applied the idea of breath and soul (nefesh) to monthly learning opportunities around social justice themes.