Strengthening Congregations
The Terrific Jewish Life We Found in Rural Alabama
There aren’t many people out there willing to uproot their entire lives to relocate to Dothan, Alabama. Read what prompted one family to do just that.
How the Gym Helped Me Prepare for Synagogue
The rabbi invited me to help with hagbah, an honor usually reserved for a strong man because some scrolls are extremely heavy – and the last thing anyone wants is for a Torah scroll to fall or be dropped.
Pikuach Nefesh: Mental Health and Our Responsibility as Jews
With serendipity, I stumbled upon my youth Hebrew school lessons of pikuach nefesh, the concept of saving a life. It's our obligation to save lives whenever possible, even above observing the mitzvot or commandments.
At the Local Mosque, Sharing Love with our Muslim Neighbors
We wanted to let our Muslim neighbors know that as Jews, as Americans, and along with other faith groups, we embrace shared ethics of diversity, multiculturalism, and religious freedom.
A Ruckus on the Bimah on Rosh HaShanah
The early American synagogue occasionally reflected its frontier environment. Fist fights, defending the honor of women congregants, and even duels were not unheard of. Perhaps the best known of these riotous events involved a rabbi and the president of the synagogue in Albany, New York, in 1850. And not just any rabbi, but the future founder of the American Reform Movement, Isaac Mayer Wise! The president was Louis Spanier, wealthy, charismatic, and the brother-in-law of Samuel Mayer, the chief rabbi of Hanover in northern Germany.
