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Take Comprehensive Sex Ed and Family Planning off the Chopping Block
Last week, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies voted to eliminate programs proven to reduce teen and unplanned pregnancy, reduce abortion, and save tax dollars in fiscal year 2016. By gutting funding to family planning services for low-income individuals and undermining comprehensive sexuality education, the appropriations bill would leave millions of Americans without information and services to keep themselves safe and healthy.
This Month in The Tent: Preparing for the High Holidays
The High Holidays are on their way, so before you head out for summer break, visit The Tent, the URJ’s online communication and collaboration forum, for a full list of tried-and-true High Holiday preparation suggestions, including these and other tips.
18+ Ways to Make LGBT Members Feel Welcome in Your Congregation
June is here, and in honor of LGBT Pride Month, we're sharing suggestions for welcoming LGBTQ members into your congregation and community. Do you have ideas to add to this list? Leave them in the comments below!
- Celebrate Gay Pride Month (June) with a special Shabbat service. Invite LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning/Queer) members to participate and include readings that speak to the experience of being both Jewish and LGBTQ. Consider having a guest speaker deliver a sermon or have a panel of congregants at the oneg to discuss how LGBTQ issues affect their congregational and personal lives.
- Phrase your congregational publicity in a way that is inviting to all people. In your congregational advertising, make sure that the LGBTQ population is specifically welcomed at all congregational events.
- Review your temple website to make sure that it is welcoming to LGBTQ Jews. Rather than using terms such as “alternative lifestyles” or “non-traditional families,” use language such as, “We proudly welcome members of the LGBTQ community,” or “We welcome LGBTQ Jews and their families.”
Remembering and Forgetting
Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt - how, undeterred by fear of God, he surprised you on the march, when you were famished and weary, and cut down all the stragglers in your rear.
NFTY Convention 2015 Resources
RAC Resources from NFTY Convention 2015 Ready to take the social justice lessons of NFTY Convention home with you?
Inspired by Sheryl Sandberg, Some Reflections on Mourning in the Jewish Tradition
Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg penned a powerful tribute this week to her late husband, Dave, who passed away unexpectedly in May.
Green Activity Cards for Summer Hiking and Gardening!
Summer is finally and fully upon us! This is the time of year when many of us most appreciate the natural world around us, either by simply spending more time outside in the sun or in home and congregational gardens, hiking, swimming and generally exploring. With summer here and the school year ending, camp season is also by now well underway. For many of us, including me, Jewish summer camp was an amazing opportunity to deeply connect both with the natural world and with our Jewish identities.
Why We Closed Our Synagogue’s Preschool and Started Over from Scratch
by Rachel Stein
As a former preschool teacher and director, I was enjoying my role as a parent and lay leader on the “other side” in our preschool at North Shore Congregation Israel in Glencoe, IL. As my two boys happily made their way through our small preschool, I chaired the parent committee and volunteered on our early childhood task force, which explored ways to expand the school and reach target families, many of whom were sending children to other area programs.
9 Jewish Education Lessons from the Field
by Michelle Shapiro Abraham
Director of program development for the URJ’s Campaign for Youth Engagement, Michelle Shapiro Abraham, is a 2015 recipient of the prestigious Covenant Award for Excellence in Jewish Education. Here, she draws on her extensive experience to offer this sound advice to educators and congregational leaders.
Every day I feel honored and humbled by the blessing of my work. Creating youth engagement opportunities for the URJ takes me from synagogues, classrooms, and offices, to camps, retreats, conferences, and preschool programs. The settings are varied but the goal is the same. Our purpose as Jewish educators is to connect, empower, and partner. To do this, we need to think beyond and between the traditional boundaries of formal and informal, children and adults, school and camp, and simply look for the best ways to touch minds, souls, and hearts.
Summer 2015: The Season’s Looking Bright
With just a week until the launch of the URJ’s 2015 camp season, there’s innovative programming on tap, all of which promises to make this summer the best ever! Throughout the season, we’ll engage 13,000+ campers and young adults from more than 660 congregations (along with 600 congregational clergy, educators, and youth professionals who will serve as faculty) in a wide assortment of initiatives – old favorites and creative newcomers – making this our eighth consecutive year of growth.
A few highlights…