RJ Blog

by Ruby Macsai-Goren As a typical teenager, I do a lot of extra-curricular and academic activities, attend high school, and spend lots of time with my family and friends. However, I spend minimal to no time learning about Israel. I know very little about Israel; my knowledge is extended to what I have learned from my years in Hebrew school and what I know from my Middle Eastern History class. While I have had the limited opportunity to learn about Israeli politics, I have no idea what the culture and land itself is like. I am incredibly excited to travel [...]

by Bobby Harris Last week I was in Israel attending the Jewish Agency for Israel’s Summer Staff Seminar where, together with many of the URJ Camp Directors, I met with and helped to prepare the Israeli staff who have been hired to come and work at our  URJ camps this summer.  During the seminar, we provide the Israeli staff the opportunity to participate in a camp like Shabbat service that might take place at one of our camps. I was asked to present a D’var Torah, and I chose to relate the Parsha to everything that we have done at [...]

As we all know (I hope!), our thirteen Reform camps offer the most inspiring Judaism our children can experience. More than 10,000 youngsters had a taste of a Reform Jewish summer in 2011, and this year’s registration numbers are even better. I have the pleasure of serving as the Chair of the URJ Camp Harlam Council. Harlam is our camp located in the Pocono Mountains, northeast of Philadelphia. We serve nearly 1,000 campers and 225 staff each summer. Additionally, I am honored to be a Vice-Chair of the NAC, our Reform North American camping organization that has oversight for the [...]

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 Helaine Bach In case you didn’t know, May 4th was National Star Wars day. If you didn’t, chances are that by some means on that day, you found out. You may have been greeted with a “May the fourth be with you” or found out through posts on Facebook. The fourth of May this year happened to land on a Friday. I went to school, put up with the corny Star Wars puns, and when school let out figured I was done for the day. I was wrong. The rabbi of our congregation is a bit of a Star [...]

On Tuesday, May 8th, 2012, the state of North Carolina enshrined bigotry, ignorance, and hatred into their constitution. Many adults who hold the power to vote abused this opportunity by deciding to hurt others to protect their own feelings of morality.

by Andrew Paull Walking to the subway last week, I saw an elderly man collapse on the sidewalk only a few feet in front of me. Unsure of the severity of the circumstances, I went to his side and realized he appeared unconscious. After he did not come to, I knew this man needed medical attention. I saw a woman on her phone and asked if she was calling 911, which she thankfully already was. I checked his airway, breathing and circulation. He had a pulse and was breathing, but with difficulty. By this time, a sizable crowd had gathered [...]

by Susan Alexander One of my favorite weekends of the year is when I facilitate OSRUI’s Mother & Daughter Kallah. This is a program designed for mothers, grandmothers, aunts and the girls they love ages 5-12. The Mother & Daughter Kallah is open to mothers, grandmothers, and aunts, and the girls they love ages 5-12. The connection between mothers and daughters is probably the most profound of human connections. With today’s busy lifestyles, sometimes this relationship needs to be charged with something new to keep it alive and growing. This weekend is designed to deepen that bond between these women [...]

by Rabbi Ron Klotz Hoo boy, do I have a lot of kids! Spending thirty-seven years directing a URJ camp brings a lot of children into the family. Do you think I know a lot about parenting? Well, I know a lot about camp directing, and Jewish programming, and conflict resolution, and homesickness and more; but I never thought of myself as an expert in parenting. About eight years ago, our son Jeremy and our daughter-in-law Melissa brought Zoe into the world. Of course grand parenthood presented only wonderful opportunities to my wife and to me. But an unexpected opportunity [...]

By Melissa Frey Bully, the movie, which is to open on March 30, is a stark portrayal of bullying that crosses ethnic, socio-economic, and gender lines. It is a documentary that followed the lives of several pre-teens and teens who had been victims of bullying from 2009-2010. There has been interesting dialogue relative to the movie’s age-appropriate rating. There is controversy because of strong language and parts of the storyline focusing on teen suicide. While an R rating would preclude the majority of the target audience from seeing the film, ideally we would want adults to see this movie with [...]