RJ Blog

by Rabbi Elias Lieberman Like many congregations within the Reform Movement, our community of 310 households has many interfaith families. Some 65% of the children in our education program have a parent who is not a Jew. In every case, however, these interfaith couples have made a decision to raise their children as Jews and have turned to our synagogue to help them in that process. In the 22 years that I’ve been privileged to serve as rabbi of the Falmouth Jewish Congregation, I have witnessed firsthand a generation raised by interfaith parents come of age with strong Jewish identities. [...]

by Max J. Goodman It was October of 2010. I was standing in Bradford, Pennsylvania’s Beth Israel Cemetery at the base of my parents’ headstone. The wind was swirling, the temperature was falling, snow was coming.  I looked up at the dead tree leaning ominously over the headstone and thought, “Why doesn’t someone cut down that tree before it comes crashing down on my parents’ stone.” As I looked around, I realized I was the only one there, so that someone was me. With that in mind, I sent a letter to each of the 30 members of Temple Beth [...]

In preparation for the Campaign for Youth Engagement‘s launch at Biennial 2011, over 1,000 teens, educators, rabbis, youth workers, cantors, administrators, and lay leaders were involved in grassroots conversations about what engages teens and what does not. One theme clearly stood out: building meaningful relationships and a dynamic and engaged Jewish community is essential for youth and their families to commit to Jewish life. Rabbi Rachel Ackerman, posted on Facebook about an experience at her congregation that exemplifies the value of meaningful relationships and community. Rabbi Ackerman described the Temple Shalom teen community’s remarkable reaction to the tragic loss of [...]

What will the Reform Movement remember former URJ board member Dan Schechter for? In the category of “What have you done for me lately?” I suppose it will be for his role in the generation of Mishkan T’filah, the siddur he facilitated from its early idea stage, including securing the research grant from the Lilly Foundation and the Cummings Foundations to fund a three-year research study on Lay Involvement in Liturgical Change that guided the development of the trail-blazing prayer book. I never had the opportunity to discuss Mishkan T’filah with Dan at any length, but I feel sure that he [...]

I’ve been a mikveh guide for about a year. Because I work from my house and can make my own hours, I’ve been called on often for the many men who have used Mayyim Hayyim, Boston’s 21st-century mikveh, for a variety of reasons: upcoming weddings, conversions, bar mitzvahs, and marking special lifecycle events. I’ve been a guide for older men, younger men, middle-aged men, budding teens, young kids, and even babies; men and boys of all shapes and sizes, every denomination and non-affiliated, the learned and neophytes on a path. Some of the moments I’ve witnessed have been deeply spiritual, [...]

by Rabbi Andrew R. Sklarz, MSW It was hours before I would step on the bimah and conduct the Erev Rosh HaShanah service. As the nation was reeling from the cataclysmic events of 9/11, I lay upon the examination table of the cancer ward. Was it just weeks earlier that life was normal? Young, carefree, and naively certain of my invincibility, I had scheduled my annual physical. So smug was I upon entering my physician’s office, with no doubt that I would again be labeled “medically boring” and my doctor and I would wax philosophical about our lives, as usual. [...]

by Jason Fenster During my senior year of college, I was presented with an inspiring opportunity to fulfill an oft-spoken-of mitzvah that we rarely have firsthand experience with: pikuach nefesh, saving a life. I was contacted by the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Registry and told I was a potential match for someone in need of a bone marrow transplant. After some additional tests and the use of an impressive needle, my bone marrow was used to save the life of a 9-year-old girl with leukemia. The registration process is simple: no needles, no blood, just a cheek swab. From there, [...]

My husband Michael and I were big fans of the television show The West Wing. One could say that we watched it religiously. In the summer of 2001, one of the prominent storylines coursing through the weekly series was about President Jed Bartlet’s struggle with multiple sclerosis. It was while watching the show one night that summer that I turned to Michael and said, “Maybe I have multiple sclerosis.” For a number of months, I had not been feeling “like myself.” I was often bone-wearingly tired. When I looked down, stretching my neck, it felt like electric shocks were coursing [...]

by Rabbi Douglas Kohn My grandfather was looking at me through empty eyes. His scruffy mustache was unmoving; he was just staring. My dad was making simple, small talk, but grandpa was just staring. I couldn’t recall then – and I can’t recall now, 20 years later – when was the last time I’d had a meaningful conversation with him. Alzheimer’s disease and dementia does that to us: They can’t remember, while we remember the pains and losses. Our endeavors to address health and wellness issues in synagogues and Jewish institutional settings actually result from illness and being unwell. “Health [...]

Jewish tradition encourages us to make every effort to prevent and diminish human suffering. One way that individuals and congregations can work to accomplish this goal is to gain and share information about a number of genetic diseases that occur disproportionately within the Jewish community. The National Tay-Sachs and Allied Diseases Association (NTSAD) identifies genetic disease as “a disorder caused by an abnormality in DNA.” Educational efforts in the general community have increased awareness about some genetic diseases such as Tay-Sachs ( a deadly disease of the nervous system), but other genetic diseases for which testing is available are less well known. [...]

by Rabbi Evan Moffic “At times,” wrote Hans Zinnsser “the dead are closer to us than the living, and the wisdom and affection of the past stretch blessing hands over our lives, projecting a guardian care out of the shadows and helping us over hard places.” Last month we were are reminded of this truth by an extraordinary man and tragic ending. This man, Donald Liu, was a pediatric surgeon at University of Chicago. In early August Dr. Liu was at a beach with his family in Berrien County on Lake Michigan when he saw two children fall out of [...]

by Brad Meltzer During the High Holy Days, we are often asked to think about the content of our character. Have you stopped to think about how you will be remembered when you die? What will people say about you? What will they think? Were you good? Bad? Did you matter? Scary questions, right? They’re the ones I had to face directly when a reporter from the Wall Street Journal saw some charity work I had done and said, “That’s going to be in your obituary.” It caught me by surprise. I didn’t like people thinking about my death.

by Kim Phillips Originally posted on November 10, 2010 at Kim’s Little Blog. My mother died, and she wasn’t Jewish.  I am, and sometime after I converted, it occurred to me to wonder, “Do I sit shiva if my mom passes away?” The word shiva comes from the Hebrew word for “seven” and refers to the week of intense mourning just after a loved-one passes away. because my mother wasn’t Jewish, sitting shiva didn’t really make sense. Judaism has some fairly precise customs for mourning a parent. Sit shiva for a week, limit your activities for 30 days (in Hebrew, [...]

Today’s Forward editorial, “Our Forgotten Defenders,”reminds American Jews of the sacrifices our Jewish servicemen and women are making overseas – not just by serving in the IDF but by deploying to Iraq Afghanistan while serving in the U.S. military. The tally of American Jewish servicemen and women killed in these wars has risen to 50, though the National Museum of American Jewish Military History says there may be many more among the deceased whose religion isn’t known. The piece begins: In mid-August, 127 Americans flew to Israel with the intention of joining the Israel Defense Forces. They arrived at Ben-Gurion [...]