RJ Blog

By Rabbi Leon A. Morris

There was a time, more than century and a half ago, when piyutim were seen largely as a kind of cultural burden to be cast aside in order to make the service shorter and more meaningful. Early liturgical reformers argued that the siddur and machzor had grown too lengthy and no longer inspired modern Jews. Piyutim – medieval poetic extensions of the traditional prayers, with allusions incomprehensible to the average congregant – were first on the chopping block. The irony, however, lies in the fact that the piyut was itself a sort of liturgical reform. While earlier generations of Jews were unable to change the statutory service itself, piuyutim allowed for an imaginative embellishment of that same service. It highlighted and expanded particular parts of the liturgy. It added additional opportunities for congregational singing. It was, in short, an early version of the “creative service.”  Read more…

by Rabbi Jonathan Biatch

Editor’s Note:  This post is the second of two about Congregation Emet VeShalom.  Read the complementary post.

The double air-kiss; you’ve gotta love it!  It is a European custom becoming more widespread in Israel, and it’s quite contagious.  You’ve seen it: once on the right side, then once on the left.  By the conclusion of my first worship service at Emet VeShalom, I had received many such kisses of warmth and friendship.  I quickly learned that the relatively small size of Emet VeShalom says nothing about its welcoming spirit, or its obvious passion, or its members’ love for liberal Judaism.

Some of those qualities drew me toward the congregation when first I met Sharon Mann five years ago on a brief visit to her synagogue.  And since then, notwithstanding the ups and downs of the temple realities to which Sharon refers, and despite the challenges of life in a country whose very existence is of daily concern, the spirit of community at Emet VeShalom remains strong.

The congregants know the worship backward and forward, and they help guide the service leader through the worship.  The mother tongues of the members are Hebrew, English, and Spanish, and it is wonderful to hear each of the three languages used during announcements and the informal parts of the service.  And some of the music, ably provided by a talented keyboardist, includes many tunes that would be very familiar to American Jews, such as Debbie Friedman’s Mishebeirach (with Hebrew lyrics!) or Moshe Rothblum’s Veshamru.  There are many new ones, too; be ready to be pleasantly surprised!

It is obvious that the adult members of the congregation have passed on their Jewish passions to their children.  During each service, the children participate in the prayers: sometimes with laughter—as tweens and teenagers will do—but always with joy.  And when I share Shabbat meals with the members, the children demonstrate a clear commitment to progressive Judaism by their knowledge of and presence for table rituals, and their respect for the way progressive Jews celebrate Shabbat.

In my second d’var Torah I spoke of the human, spiritual need to expand the definition of “Shabbat rest” that is free of the religious coercion so commonly experienced here.  I spoke of activities such as traveling to visit relatives, watching a favorite movie, or eating at a special restaurant (there are many restaurants open on Shabbat in this part of the country).  Many members expressed appreciation for the encouragement to enjoy these contemporary forms of Shabbat observance.

This is clearly a congregation infused with the spirit of liberal Judaism!

In addition to serving some of the needs of Emet VeShalom, my Israeli sabbatical time consisted of performing other volunteer work in the Western Galilee, as well as living for five weeks in a kibbutz that sits 500 meters from the Lebanese border.  Even during these cautious times here, the nation exudes that familiar Israeli confidence of living life completely despite the uncertainty of what the next day will bring.

In evaluating my time with Emet VeShalom, one thing is clear.  Small Israeli progressive congregations are at a financial disadvantage.  The economics of Israeli synagogue life are quite different from what they are in America, and until the government of Israel funds equally all expressions of Judaism, we who are outside of Israel can and should help.

We can join as auxiliary members of these small communities.  Congregational groups visiting Israel can spend time with members—not only on Shabbat, by the way—to get to know our Reform cousins.  And rabbis who visit alone or with a group can volunteer for one, two, three, or more Shabbatot.  They will be glad they did, as was I.

As a member of the Reform rabbinate, I feel privileged to benefit from all the experiences of a sabbatical.  I thank my home congregation, Temple Beth El, Madison, Wisconsin, for their consideration and affection.  And I thank Emet VeShalom for hosting me in such a warm fashion.

Rabbi Jonathan Biatch is the spiritual leader of Temple Beth El, Madison, Wisconsin.  He is an ordainee of Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion and a member of the Central Conference of American Rabbis.

Despite the fact that summer, with its hopefully slower pace, is just around the corner, the last few weeks have been packed!

At the end of April, I joined 117 congregational presidents who had gathered in Atlanta for the annual Scheidt Seminar, the URJ’s unique leadership training initiative specifically designed for current and incoming presidents. During the gathering, we honored with an aliyah those participants whose parents or grandparents also had served as presidents. In a moving tribute to these former leaders, 25% of the participants stepped forward, not only to recite the Torah blessings, but also to carry on their families’ tradition of leadership l’dor v’dor.

From Atlanta, I headed to Jerusalem together with 33 other North American delegates to attend the World Union for Progressive Judaism’s Connections conference. During the five-day gathering, 200 leaders from around the world participated in workshops, worship and discussions, all of which focused on our commitment to building and sustaining vibrant, Progressive Jewish communities throughout the world. Read more…

by Michele Gelman and Sheila Gold

Michele Gelman is a native of New Orleans.  By comparison, Sheila Gold is a relative “newcomer,” having been actively involved with her congregation for only 23 years.  Despite this difference, these two women share many things:  friendship, commitment to their respective synagogues, devotion to the Jewish community, and a love of pedicures.

Michele:  We met nearly seven years ago.  We were both enrolled in a two-year leadership development program through the New Orleans Federation and a mutual friend, before we enrolled in the Federation program, invited us to dinner at the Chef’s Table at Emeril’s Restaurant.  I left that night knowing my husband and I would be friends with the Golds, but I had no idea that our friendship would develop through our Jewish journey together.

Sheila:  As part of the program, we traveled together in Israel.  We literally spent 24 hours a day together for 10 days.   The trip was designed to bond our group and it certainly did!  Spending so much time together, we learned a lot about each other and the families we’d left back in New Orleans. Our husbands were on the trip as well and they too developed a nice friendship.  Our girls are “stair-stepped” in age at 10, 11, 12 and 13 years old.  They all attend the same school and spend summers at URJ Henry S. Jacobs Camp in Utica, MS.  Our older two girls, who have spent the last several years in the same cabin, have their own strong friendship, which has its roots in Jewish learning and commitment.

Michele:  Both of us devote so much of our Jewish volunteer energy to synagogue life that we always have something to talk about.  I’m a member of Congregation Gates of Prayer; Sheila belongs to Temple Sinai.  Even though they’re “competing synagogues,” they often face many of the same challenges and questions—especially as synagogue life and membership become an increasingly hard-sell.

Sheila:  Over time, as our friendship grew, so did our leadership skills and our commitment to our own temples.  Several years ago, each of us was nominated to an executive board position, putting us on track to be the congregation’s president.  As we got more involved in our leadership posts, we began to share ideas and troubleshoot synagogue issues that were especially tricky or troubling.  While the age and demographics of our respective congregations may vary, the universal issues of membership, budget and engagement remain the same.  It is not unusual for us to use the other as a sounding-board around related topics.

Michele:  Many folks are surprised by our alliance—not the friendship part as much as the fact that we use each other as a support system and a sounding board for the leadership challenges we each face.  We find this funny and reject all together the notion of competition.

Sheila:  Luckily, our board meetings are on different nights of the week so we’re available to each other for “consultations.”  For instance, last Tuesday night, the night of Michele’s board meetings, she sent me a text that said, “What is your social media policy?” We had a bit of back and forth, all while she was at the meeting.

Michele:  And a few weeks before that, on a Monday night, Sheila texted me this question:  “Do you have members underwrite religious school events?”  I filled her in on the policy at Gates of Prayer, which helped her temple’s leadership devise their own guidelines.

Sheila:  Although, of course, there’s not going to be a merger anytime soon, we think it is crucially important for the Jewish community to function in a way that blurs lines and unifies communities, strengthening the Jewish people.

Michele:  I intentionally chose to have my presidency coincide with Sheila’s installation as president.  Why not?  We support the Jewish community and the Jewish people, and both work for the collective good.  If our friendship can be a symbol for something greater, all the better—for us, for our congregations and for the community-at-large.

Sheila: Michele and I always stand and speak shoulder to shoulder, in strong, steady voices.  As we set off down the road toward our respective presidencies, our conversations (and our texts) certainly will continue!

Michele Mohre Gelman is a third generation lifetime member of Congregation Gates of Prayer, where she serves as executive vice president.  Her two-year term as president will begin on July 1, 2013.  Thanks to her two daughters and very devoted husband she is able to dedicate time to serving the congregation and the Jewish community.

Sheila Korones Gold is incoming president of Temple Sinai. An active member of the congregation for 23 years, she is—compared to Michele—a relative newcomer to New Orleans.  Sheila’s heritage includes past temple leaders, and she hopes to pass the tradition on to her two daughters.  When she’s not volunteering in the Jewish community, Sheila spends time with her daughters and her incredibly supportive husband, all of whom allow her the time and space to give Jewishly.

by Sharon Mann

Editor’s Note:  This post is the first of two about Congregation Emet VeShalom.  Read the complementary post.

Reform Judaism and religious pluralism, which are taken for granted in the United States, are not axiomatic in Israel. As a member of Emet VeShalom—a Reform congregation in Nahariya, a peripheral area of Israel eight miles from Lebanon’s border—I know maintaining a non-Orthodox congregation is fraught with challenges. At present, one major challenge facing ours is that we do not have a rabbi serving as spiritual leader of our community. Our members are facing this challenge by stepping up and taking on the different roles of leading our Kabbalat Shabbat (Friday evening) services on a weekly basis, in addition to many of their other voluntary activities for our congregation.

Our Ritual Committee Chairperson and President work tirelessly to keep our congregation going and flowing from week to week by arranging a monthly schedule of participants. Each week, one person acts as leader of the services (or “coordinator,” as we refer to the position); one or more act as chazan (cantor), and a third member gives the drasha (discussion of the weekly Torah portion). Still, as Emet VeShalom is a relatively small congregation, it is not easy to fill all these roles and provide the spiritual nourishment that all seek at services. Read more…

by Ruben Arquilevich

“Camp Newman helps us feel closer to God”.    This is how I opened my dialogue with our 2013 leadership staff at our annual Spring retreat. You could have imagined the response. Even some of our Rabbinic students felt uneasy about this language and its timing (opening conversation). “God” talk is scary for many of us. It is not common language and many of us are just not comfortable with the term “God”. We are not alone and have a long history of struggling with this concept – after all, the term “Israel” means to “wrestle with God”. As Reform, progressive Jews, we do not strictly define God, so the sentiment of “closer to God” might feel foreign. Yet, the belief in God is a central pillar of Reform Judaism and of Camp Newman. Read more…

Here are just a few of the recent stories from across the webosphere that speak directly to (and about) Reform Jews. What Jewish stories have you been reading recently? Leave a comment and let us know!

• “Modern-Day Rabbi Must Be CEO, Teacher, and Spiritual Leader at Once,” Forward
  Are rabbis the new CEOs? Anne Cohen reports that “expectations have changed.” Rabbis are now required to read a spreadsheet as well as the Gemara. They need to be accessible, media-savvy public speakers; business-oriented entrepreneurs; fundraisers; program generators, and in touch with popular trends. To prepare rabbinical students for the challenges ahead, seminaries are reassessing their curriculum to focus more on professional development and pastoral skills than ever before. Read more…

By Rabbi Richard Sarason

In the traditional liturgy, the special character of each holiday is particularly conveyed by the piyyutim (hymns, liturgical poems) that are recited or chanted on that day. Most of these piyyutim have been omitted in Reform liturgies since the nineteenth century, out of a sense that their Hebrew diction is too arcane and their theology too medieval. Yet, some of these poems have routinely been retained in Reform High Holy Day prayer books, particularly for Yom Kippur.^{1 Read more…}

Here are just a few of the recent stories from across the webosphere that speak directly to (and about) Reform Jews. What Jewish stories have you been reading recently? Leave a comment and let us know!

• “His Father’s Murder Drives a Rabbi’s Pursuit of Gun Control,” New York Times
  This piece is actually a couple of weeks old, but it deserves ongoing attention. Rabbi Joel Mosbacher’s father was shot to death in a petty robbery in 1999. “I’ve carried this story with me, this anger, every day for the last 14 years,” says the rabbi, who serves Beth Haverim Shir Shalom in Mahwah, N.J., and now advocates for stricter gun laws. Read more…

For a long time the common refrain has been that “religious values” meant “conservative or traditional.” With the decline of the so-called Religious Right the monopoly on terms like “Values Voters” or descriptions that equate religion with only one set of beliefs and values about some contentious issues in civil society. So, when I saw this video from the Center for American Progress, I wondered if there’s a rising set of religious leaders who are asserting their values in the public sphere. Take a look after the jump.

By Cantor Hayley Kobilinsky

Tekiah! Teruah! Shevarim! Tekiah Gedolah!

If these words do not evoke within you a sense of excitement that is at the core of the High Holy Days, then surely the unmistakable blast of the shofar, the ram’s horn, will.  I can still remember the anticipation of hearing the shofar blown at services as a child.  I would count the pages remaining until that moment.  I would close my eyes as though doing so would let the sound absorb more deeply into my heart.  If my family was running late that morning, I dreaded the thought of missing it.  No blast was more exciting than Tekiah Gedolah – the longest blast, preceded by the biggest breath, and followed by a collective sigh or nervous giggle by the “Jews in the pews.”  Hearing the shofar blown, be it a clear, strong tone, or one which sputtered and wavered, was a visceral sensory experience that has never left me, along with the sight of the Torah scrolls dressed in white, the scent of the ushers’ white carnation boutonnieres, and the taste of apples dipped in sweet honey.  Read more…

By Allison K.

Allison recently wrote this letter to her daughter, Logan. Allison’s daughter is a freshman in NFTY-TOR, the same region she grew up in over 25 years ago. 

Dear Logan,

After dropping you off for your Freshman Spring Kallah, I was overcome with emotions. I was trying to sort through them and knew I needed to write them down to share with you.

• Joy – For your enthusiastic energy towards getting to go to this place of utter comfort.
• Excitement – You can hangout with incredible teens that truly know you.
• Pride – Watching you grow as a leader.
• Love – For your shining spirit.
• Happiness – Knowing these events, these people will help you define what Judiasm means to you. Read more…

As a fellow Eisendrath Legislative Assistant, Raechel Banks, wrote yesterday, “There are many ways to ‘share our bread with the hungry’ (Isaiah 58:7).” She discussed a very tangible  way of helping to combat hunger in our midst (I still have blisters on my fingers from cutting potatoes for 3 hours straight). Today, however, I want to talk about a way of sharing with the hungry that is more difficult to conceptualize, but has no less of an impact on millions of lives – international food aid.

There are nearly one billion people around the world with insufficient access to food. That number is greater than the populations of the United States, Canada and the European Union combined. One in seven people go to bed hungry each night and hunger is the leading cause of severe health problems and death worldwide.

Read more…

I just returned from two weeks in Israel focusing on the intersection of Israel and youth engagement… and eating lots of delicious hummus! A dynamic connection to Israel is a critical strategy in all our youth engagement work.

One of the key Israel intersections occurs at the URJ camps. URJ camps host more than 200 Israelis (Shlichim) over the summer creating a unique engagement opportunity for our North American campers to interact with, learn from, and learn about Israel. I was able to spend several days with the URJ Camp Directors and Educators during the training of the Shlichim. The training incorporated innovative experiential and expeditionary techniques that enhance and deepen Israel educational experiences at camp, and another training track provided educators with new approaches and methodologies. A special thank you goes to the Legacy Heritage Foundation for partnering with the URJ for the last five years to ensure Israel is front and center at our camps. Read more…