RJ Blog

In our super-connected, I-can’t-be-without-my-cell-phone world, we’ve all experienced technology woes. One day, it’s the battery in your phone. The next day, your laptop won’t boot up and all you get is the blue screen of death. A few months ago, I started collecting examples of a different kind of technology trouble: Jewish autocorrect. As I do with so many other things in my life, I’m happy to share my collection of auto-corrects and spell-checker suggestions. Some are hilarious, others befuddling, and still others just plain nonsensical. I hope they’ll make you chuckle – and prompt you to share your own [...]

A little more than two years ago, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously approved House Resolution 1522, designating the last week in September as National Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer (HBOC) Week and the last Wednesday of the month as National Previvor Day. Ironically, when Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-20) first introduced the resolution in July 2010, just weeks after I’d lost my mother to breast cancer, I didn’t even know what the HBOC community was, let alone that I, together with Rep. Wasserman Schultz, was among its ranks. That all changed in August 2010, when the results of a simple [...]

Early last week, I called my congregation in New York City to request a reciprocal ticket for my father. He, likewise, called his temple in New Jersey to request one for me. By the end of the week, we had them in hand—our own High Holy Day tickets along with the extra we’d each requested for the other. These tickets are courtesy of a Reform Movement policy in which URJ congregations typically welcome individuals who will be traveling during the High Holy Days – and who are members in good standing of other URJ congregations – to worship with them, [...]

Earlier today, this article, “Facebook and Religion Don’t Mix,” crossed my desk, telling me that “Americans seem to not mix their social networking and religious activities.” In spite of what it says, much of my own personal Facebook use focuses on the joys of being Jewish— something many of my Facebook friends and I share with each other on a regular basis. A few examples and anecdotes, I think, illustrate this point best.

If Shabbat is all about taking a divinely commanded breather from the work-a-day routine to celebrate God’s rest following creation, then surely this past Shabbat was nearly as good as it gets for me and a few of my friends. We had longstanding plans for a visit to Coney Island (a first for all of us) and so, at the appointed hour, we assembled on a specific corner in midtown’s Herald Square, descended into the subway and boarded a train bound for the southernmost tip of Brooklyn. At the end of the line, we emerged from the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue [...]

Late yesterday afternoon, I posted this update on Facebook: Gift-wrapped kosher wine: check; long skirt and boots: check; phone turned off: check; no talking between hand washing and motzi: check. I’m off on an adventure…Shabbat shalom! Based on my own experience (and that of several colleagues with whom I consulted beforehand), here are the top 10 dos and don’ts to keep in mind when visiting an Orthodox home as a Shabbat dinner guest:

Reading Rabbi Josh Strom’s recent blog post about the URJ’s Camp Harlam Institute for Living Judaism made me mad. No, I’m not mad at Rabbi Strom. I’m mad at the longtime rabbi of the congregation in which I grew up — where I was consecrated, became bat mitzvah, and was confirmed and married — and where my father is still a member and regular worshipper. Although I’m quite sure his actions (or perhaps more properly, his inactions) weren’t intentional, this rabbi chose not to engage at all with the Union, the CCAR or the College-Institute or to share the vast [...]

Jane Evans wasn’t a rabbi.  Nonetheless, she was quite a force in Reform Judaism, perhaps even its matriarch.  Beginning in 1933, and for the next 43 years, she was the executive director of what is now the Women of Reform Judaism.  From 1976 to 1979 she served as administrator of the Union’s building at 838 Fifth Avenue after which she was, until her death, an executive consultant on personnel, labor union and other functions for the Union. Although I could go on about her seven decades of devotion and diligence to Women of Reform Judaism, the Reform Movement, and her [...]

Inspired by Ima on (and off) the Bima‘s #BlogExodus initiative, this is the first in an occasional series of posts loosely tied to Passover. Once upon a time there was a beautiful wedding except that the bride walked down the aisle right into Mitzrayim.  Thankfully, she didn’t stay there quite as long as the Israelites, but sometimes it felt that long.  Sometimes it felt even longer. After they were married, the bride worked while the groom went to school.  He was studying to be a rocket scientist.  After class, he went to the gym.  Three nights a week he didn’t [...]

Dear The Mums, I know that I just wrote to you a week ago, but this past Sunday — and again on Monday — I was surrounded by so many things that you would love that I need to give you a quick update. On Sunday — thanks to Donnie C. Cutler’s mother, who invited me as her guest — I attended the annual luncheon of the Jewish Women’s Archive.  It was held in the big event room at the Museum of Jewish Heritage and had the weather been better (Did you forget to order up some good weather?), we [...]

Two years ago—long before breast cancer touched my life in a truly significant way—if someone had told me that one day I’d stand in front of a crowd of 50 in a synagogue and talk calmly and candidly about the journey that led me to a prophylactic bilateral mastectomy, I’d have looked at her as though she was fakakta.  And yet, that’s exactly what happened a week ago Monday at Temple Shaaray Tefila’s Beit Sefer Café, an annual, mid-winter adult education series that features congregants speaking, teaching and sharing their expertise on various Jewish topics. A fellow congregant who is [...]

If you attended the URJ’s recent Biennial convention, you were, as always, treated to an array of terrific Jewish music from the likes of David Broza, Josh Nelson, Julie Silver, Dan Nichols, Joe Black, Noah Aronson, Michelle Citrin, Peri Smilow, and a host of others.  These dedicated and talented musicians kept our toes tapping, our hands clapping, our bottoms dancing and our voices singing from one end of the Biennial convention to the other. Better than reading my words about the music, though, watch a few minutes (or the whole megillah) of the Kabbalat Shabbat Song Session to see and [...]

by JanetheWriter Two years ago, I wrote about my wish to hear Michael Oren speak at the Toronto Biennial–and to have him inscribe a copy of his most recent book, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present. Although my father did plow his way through the book, it remains, for a variety of reasons, both unread and un-inscribed on my living room bookshelf. With all due respect to Ambassador Oren, that won’t happen when Nancy Brinker, Susan G. Komen’s sister and founder of Komen for the Cure, joins us at this year’s Biennial as [...]

by JanetheWriter Earlier this week, I posted this status update on Facebook: It’s 21 Elul and the Rosh Hashana videos have begun. Here’s the first one that crossed my desk this morning: Temple Rodef Shalom, Falls Church, VA. Later the same day, a flyer from Temple Israel Reform Congregation of Staten Island landed on my desk.  It asks that when congregants come to temple for the High Holy Days they “wear something of a loved one who has passed–a pin, a scarf, a necklace, or bring a small picture in your pocket…. It will make their light shine again.” Indeed, [...]