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 [...]

Once, a man threw a party and invited his friend Kamtza. The messenger made a mistake and delivered the invitation to the man’s enemy Bar-Kamtza. When Bar-Kamtza showed up the host tried to convince him to leave and Bar Kamtza tried to convince the host to let him stay; in the end he was forcibly evicted. He said: “Since the leaders of the community were present and didn’t intervene, I’ll get my revenge on the whole community by inciting the emperor against them.” And so he did; thus was the destruction of the Temple and the loss of our sovereignty [...]

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 Micha’el and Nechama Namal Lag BaOmer was completely off our radar when we lived in the United States. We never had any real exposure to it until we made Aliyah, and now its approach is easily recognizable by kids walking down the street, schlepping huge pieces of wood, old furniture, sticks, and anything else that burns. In a nutshell, Lag BaOmer, in modern Israeli culture, is a time of bonfires, baked potatoes, kids staying up all night, and lots of trash! We didn’t feel badly that we weren’t able to explain why Lag BaOmer was celebrated; most Israelis probably [...]

Lag BaOmer is a break, a time out, a moment to recall an ancient plague that may or may not have occurred, and perhaps a moment for reflection. It comes just past the middle of the 50 days which we count from the liberation to the responsibility of law, from Pesach to Shavuot. And perhaps, it comes to remind us that every now and then one must step back to reflect on what has been accomplished in the journey. In 1983, in his book The Land of Israel, Amos Oz wrote the following: “Perhaps it was a lunatic promise: to turn, [...]

by Sharon Mann I am Israeli, a Reform Jew, and still a little American after 20 years of living in Israel. I feel that I can be me as a member of Emet VeShalom, a progressive, multi-cultural, warm and welcoming congregation in Nahariya. I joined Emet VeShalom when my son, now 18, received his Torah during a special celebration in one of the many Orthodox neighborhood synagogues – he was to begin studying Bible in the local public elementary school in second grade. At that moment, I realized that it would be important to me to raise my children as [...]

by Rabbi Stacey Blank Last week, I was invited to speak before the “Ami-Chai” Pre-Army Preparation Course of the Zionist Council of Israel, based on Kibbutz Keramim. It is becoming more popular in Israel to delay the mandatory army service which begins at age 18 for one year and to participate in a Pre-Army Preparation Course which generally combines service in the community with study and leadership training for the army.

The simple answer is yes, but the reasons are more involved and the process of our involvement a bit arcane. Politics is the only contact sport in Israel. Our movement is a non partisan player in that game through our Israel Reform Movement and ARZA as part of the WZO. We want the Government of Israel to support our values just as we support their security and sovereignty. Yes, we care who governs Israel and so we care about their elections as well. ARZA and our Movement access the public square in Israel in many ways. The organizational path is [...]

What bring a person to act violently against another person? Does it derive from rationalized thinking that brutality allows one to impose his will on others or change a certain situation to his favor, or is it just an uncontrollable emotional outburst?