ARZA

By Rabbi Jackie Mates-Muchin Praying with the Women of the Wall is a very unique experience. On Rosh Chodesh Adar, I joined 200 other people packed into the very back part of the women’s section with a dozen men standing on chairs on the men’s side in order to participate in the service. Most of [...]

By Rabbi Jack Alan Luxemburg Adonai spoke to Moses, saying:  “Go and tell Pharaoh, King of Egypt, to let the Israelites depart from his land.” But Moses appealed to Adonai, saying: “The Israelites would not listen to me; how then should Pharaoh heed me, a man of impeded speech!” (Exodus 6:10-12) Rabbi Samuel Mohilever (1824-1898) [...]

by Rabbi Ira Youdavin My plane landed at  Ben Gurion Airport last Wednesday evening, four days before I would be joining the Jewish Council for Public Affairs National Leadership Mission, and 72 hours before the first night of Hanukkah. The early arrival was different from my usual pattern. Normally, I speed from the airport to [...]

Dear Members of ARZA and WRJ, While we on Kibbutz Lotan are geographically outside of the areas which are directly impacted by the violence stemming from Gaza, we of course are connected directly by family, friends and national interest in what is happening minute by minute.  Our prayers go to our children – soldiers on [...]

November 19, 2012 5 Kislev 5773 Dear Members of the HUC-JIR Community, In the days since my letter from Jerusalem to you on Friday, the situation in Israel remains a serious and challenging one. As all of you surely know, a rocket fell outside Jerusalem on Friday just as Shabbat began, and the threat of [...]

Just one hour after they were sent to the bomb shelter as rockets targeted the Jerusalem area (the missiles struck an area near an Arab village in Gush Etzion with no casualties), Reform Jews at Tzur Hadassa celebrated Shabbat with one another, as well as with Reform Jews throughout Israel and the world, by streaming [...]

Dear Friends, I write these words from Jerusalem, Israel. I am here with Jackie, in a city very close to our hearts and in a country we regard as dearly as our own. It has been a week filled with events promising a great future for Israel set against events that mark war and conflict. [...]

It warms our hearts to know that Jews around the world care about us, and that the ARZA agenda is, as always, supportive and empathic. Our Kehillah in Gedera is on the edge of the attacked area.  We are around 35 km (21.75 miles) from the Gaza Strip.  In comparison with other areas in the [...]

There is an old Chinese saying: women hold up half the sky. It would seem that, in this world view, women and their contributions to life are of equal importance to those of men. This does not really speak to the nature of those contributions, if they are the same or different efforts, but that [...]

Last week, Anat Hoffman, leader of Women of the Wall and Executive Director of the Israel Religious Action Center was arrested at the Western Wall. Anat was praying with more than 200 women when she was taken into custody for wearing a tallit and disturbing public order by praying out loud. Her arrest and the [...]