RJ Blog

by Aaron Selkow I sat in a classroom last week with fellow URJ camp directors Rabbi Mark Covitz (GUCI) and Bobby Harris (Coleman), along with my colleague at Camp Harlam, Rabbi Vicki Tuckman. There was a graph mapped out on the floor with lots of different papers spread across it, and there were more than 40 Israeli staff (Shlichim, or “emissaries”) sitting around the room. These staff members will be travelling to work with our camps this summer, including 26 at Harlam, and the classroom was at Kibbutz Shefayim in Israel. This was my tenth time at the Summer Shlichim [...]

by Missy Goldstein Last fall, as a junior attending the University of Florida (UF), I was considering all the possibilities for the upcoming spring break.   I know that typical UF students spend their spring breaks on cruises and at beaches, drinking and getting awkward tanlines.  I was not excited by the prospect of getting sunburned or putting myself in a bathing suit.  Sure I could visit my parents in Texas, but since it was a recent relocation, there would be no friends there for me and sitting on the couch all week just sounded boring. I thought about my Jewish [...]

by Rabbi Wendi Geffen Much of the 20-30 year old Jewish population described instudies finds the synagogue unappealing because, in their minds, it translates toan institutional culture that previously proved unable to address their variedneeds/beliefs/values as individuals.  Assuch, not only is the future of synagogue affiliation a problem, but the dearthof an enduring line of synagogue leadership proves, in many ways, an evenlarger obstacle.  In early 2011, NorthShore Congregation Israel (NSCI) in suburban Chicago was awarded a URJIncubator Grant to create a program to address these challenges. B&B (Beyond and Back) is NSCI’s multi-facetedvalues and leadership development program for Jewish [...]

by Rabbi Joshua StromAssistant Rabbi, Temple Shaaray Tefila, New York, NY Can you hear it? They’re talking about us again. They’re theorizing and pontificating on us 20′s and 30′s, jumping to conclusions about our Jewish identity. They’re pointing to declining numbers in affiliation with synagogues and other institutions, and they’re afraid. Terrified, even. They’re worried to their core that Judaism just doesn’t mean that much to us, that tzedakah isn’t high on our list of priorities, that we don’t care enough for Israel. And because they don’t see us in the seats of our sanctuaries on Shabbat, they assume that, [...]