URJ Leadership Institute: Sessions for Leaders Before, During, and After Biennial
This fall, the URJ’s Leadership Institute is offering a series of three sessions about key concepts that we hope will inspire sacred action within congregations. Both virtually and in person at the URJ Biennial 2015, congregational lay and professional leaders have opportunities to study, engage, and converse with each other and with scholars who are well-versed in three topics
The Gift of Suffering
In February 2017, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Now that my treatment is over, I search for the meaning in the most traumatic experience of my life.
Where Was Sarah During the Akeidah (the Binding of Isaac)?
In Parashat Chayei Sarah (the life of Sarah), we learn that our biblical matriarch Sarah lived 127 years, she died, and Abraham purchased her burial cave in Hebron (Gen. 23:1-20). Sadly, the only Torah portion named after a woman provides few hints about her life or final days.
Children’s Initiative – Connecting to our Community; Bridges to Benefits
How Your Congregation Can Move Up the Change Continuum
The world around us is changing faster than ever. To stay relevant and thrive, change will be necessary in all congregations, even those that are doing well.
Another Miriam Worth Remembering
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in the United States this year, Rabbi Carole Balin, Ph.D., is sharing eight chapters of an "alternative Book of Numbers” designed to tell the stories of Jewish women who combined civic engagement with Jewish values in a 40-year struggle “in the wilderness” to pass the 19th Amendment.
Why I Am a Zionist for Black Lives Matter
As an Israeli citizen and white citizen of the United States, I believe that Black Lives Matter – and that no American of good conscience can simply opt out of engaging with the pervasive issue of racism in America. If we will it, it is no dream.
At the Intersection of Spiritual Practice and Poetry
I grew up in Chelmsford, MA, where we belonged to a small Reform Jewish community. For Judaism to exist there, you had to show up – so we showed up for everything.
HEAL: Homelessness Ends At Leo Baeck
I'm the Canary in My Family’s Genetic Coal Mine
I speak about my BRCA-related cancer to synagogue groups, Jewish day schools, and women who ask. I will continue to shout about it until everyone knows who is at risk.