URJ Heller High

an image of an Israeli flag wrapped around a girl overlooking hills in Israel

How the Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting and Processing Grief Led Me to Heller High – and Changed My Life

October 19, 2023

I became bat mitzvah on October 27, 2018. It was both one of the best and worst days of my life. At the same time I was on the bima at my home congregation of Temple Emanuel in Greensboro, NC, a gunman at another community in Pittsburgh walked into the Tree of Life Synagogue and killed 11 Jewish people.

A view of Jerusalem and the Western Wall

Israel Programs

Building Deep Relationships with Israel: URJ Heller High and the People of Israel

Rabbi Loren Sykes

March 16, 2023

Heller High aims to build deep, lasting relationships between North American Jewish teens and Israel, developing the next generation of Reform Jewish Zionists. The Heller High program gives students the opportunity to learn from and get to know different groups of Israelis.

Two men holding doves in their hands while wearing bucket hats

Experiencing Israel

My Gap Year in Israel is the Best Decision I’ve Ever Made

Josh Glucksman

February 23, 2021

Israel is our home. It was in the Torah, and it is now. It sure isn’t perfect, and it might not be around forever, but that’s exactly why we need to come.

A group of Heller High students, including the author's daughter in the front row all the way to the left

URJ Heller High

4 Ways a Semester in Israel Prepared My Daughter for Life

Sara B. Charney

May 14, 2019

URJ Heller High integrates academic, social, and emotional learning, powerfully transforming teens’ Jewish identities. Learn how it prepared my daughter for her future.

Dachau concentration camp is visible in the distance behind a long barbed wire fence

URJ Heller High

Know Before Whom You Stand: A Poem for the 6 Million

Rabbi Loren Sykes and Ellie Sherman

April 19, 2017

This poem reflects the intensity of bearing witness at Majdanek, the Nazi extermination camp located in Lublin. The title, “Know Before Whom You Stand,” is a phrase that often appears above the Ark in the sanctuary of the synagogue.

URJ Heller High

How the Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting and Processing Grief Led Me to Heller High – and Changed My Life

Building Deep Relationships with Israel: URJ Heller High and the People of Israel

My Gap Year in Israel is the Best Decision I’ve Ever Made

4 Ways a Semester in Israel Prepared My Daughter for Life

Know Before Whom You Stand: A Poem for the 6 Million

Make a Special Passover Gift