Jewish Values

Top of Washington Monument against a blue sky with pink cherry blossoms blooming in the foreground

Awakening to the Moral Imperatives of this Moment

Rabbi Rick Jacobs

January 8, 2021

This is a moment that requires extraordinary courage to do the hardest and most transformative social change work. It is for all Americans of conscience to build a more just and compassionate future by facing the truth of our history and our present.

View of the Washington Monument through the columns of the Lincoln Memorial

L'Taken Seminars

Democracy Is a Promise We Renew Every Day

Barbara Weinstein

January 8, 2021

Democracy is, indeed, a promise we renew not just on election day, but every day. Democracy does not exist independent of our contributions to it. Citizens and immigrants, voters, and presidents – all of us build democracy.

The author sitting on a mountain rock next to the young man who rescued her

COVID-19

I Fell Off a Mountain – and Lived to Thank the Man Who Rescued Me

Paula Kaplan-Reiss

January 4, 2021

During this pandemic, I was determined that my hero receive his medal in person – and I could think of no better location for his medal presentation than the top of the mountain where he rescued me,

Beach with 2020 written in the sand and a wave coming to wipe it out

Secular Holidays

10 Jewish Quotes for the Lessons We Learned in 2020

Rabbi Jordana Schuster Battis

December 30, 2020

In 2020, we learned the extent to which the fate of every single one of us is in each other’s hands. We are woven together inextricably. We need each other. We depend on each other. We must be here for each other.

Group of Volunteers for Israel volunteers in IDF uniforms

Israel Programs

Viewing Israel’s Defense Forces through the Eyes of an American Volunteer

Aron Hirt-Manheimer

December 28, 2020

Mark Werner is a retired attorney in Raleigh, N.C., who for the past 18 years has devoted two or three weeks every summer to volunteering on Israeli military bases through Volunteers For Israel, the U.S. partner of Israeli organization Sar-el.