RJ Blog

by Rabbi Dan Medwin Last week, I was given a wonderfully challenging task as the CCAR rabbinic staff member at the NFTY Convention:  Take fifty participants from the Youth Engagement Conference and a two-hour prayer lab session, and plan multiple services for about 900 NFTY Convention participants.  While seemingly impossible, I jumped at the opportunity.   After all, we produce Visual T’filah and all the prayer books for the Reform Movement – I could do this! Working with my colleague Rabbi Noam Katz and Jewish musician Dan Nichols (and joined by rabbis Erin Mason and Ana Bonheim), we were tempted to [...]

At home, we sometimes used to struggle to feed balanced meals to our three teenagers. Imagine trying to feed 1,000 as these Jewish teens sat together to for Shabbat dinner. And that was only the beginning. We are gathered at a hotel in Los Angeles for the NFTY Convention, perhaps the largest Jewish teen gathering around. NFTY, of which our synagogue’s kids are third-generation members, has brought together teens from all over the US and Canada (and also, I heard, teens from Israel and a half dozen other countries) for five days of fun, socializing, Jewish learning, energetic music, teen [...]

by Rabbi Jeffrey Brown Our temple, in the southern Westchester County suburbs of New York City, first began addressing the implications of the forecasted blizzard (Winter Storm Nemo) during the day on Thursday, February 7th. Our weekend schedule was to have included 8pm Erev Shabbat services on Friday night, a Shabbat morning service and b’naei mitzvah (which was to include our entire board and Communal Worship Committee, in conjunction with a lunch and study discussion we were hoping to have later on Saturday). We also had a program scheduled to take place in a congregant’s home Saturday evening, plus religious [...]

by Maggie Freed Climate change is the greatest challenge our earth faces—and the longer we wait, the more difficult it will be to turn it around. Scientists agree that we are causing extreme weather by our greenhouse gas emissions, particularly from burning coal. If we don’t get serious about it, island nations will disappear, coastal cities will be inundated, hundred-year storms will occur every 10 or 20 years, droughts and fires will become more frequent and severe, and we will be leaving our children and grandchildren with an unlivable world. Physicians for Social Responsibility warns of the devastating health effects [...]

by Rabbi Gary Glickstein Rav A.I. Kook, the former Chief Rabbi of Palestine, often remarked that our role as Jews is to fulfill the vision that “The old shall be renewed, and the new shall be made holy.” (Letters vol. I, p. 214) Last month The New York Times reported on a high-tech High Holiday service led by a young rabbi, Amy Morrison, in Miami Beach. I am proud to say that Rabbi Morrison is a relatively recent addition to our rabbinical team at Temple Beth Sholom. The service, which took place at the Jewish Museum of Florida, was one [...]

by Leonard Slutsky In the story of Exodus, Moses advocated for freedom for the Israelites from Egypt. As a shepherd, his repertoire was limited to his staff and the Lord’s word. Not only was his trek treacherous, hiking through miles of desert, the first nine plagues failed to free the Jews. However, when the Israelites worked together and painted lamb’s blood on their doorposts, the Pharaoh saw their power in numbers and released the enslaved people. Ew, lamb’s blood! Without sacrificing animals, how can we take action, advocate for civil liberties, spread awareness and build alliances? How can 21st century Reform [...]

In just a few years, the use of social media has gone from being the exclusive domain of a few innovative organizations to a required aspect of any organization’s communication plan. One of the greatest challenges, and what has kept many synagogues from greater engagement with social media, has been the lack of guidelines. With the Social Media Policy Workbook for Jewish Organizations, congregations now have at their fingertips the resource for creating those guidelines. The Union for Reform Judaism is proud to be one of the sponsors, along with other leading Jewish organizations, of this Workbook. Partnering with experts [...]

When the Jewish High Holy Days arrive, is it necessarily more appropriate to log out of our social media apps, or can social media enhance the spiritual experience of these traditional days? Must Twitter, Facebook, and texting just pull us back into our own private (even narcissistic) world, or can they provide individual connections to a communal religious experience? Recently, the New York Times reported “For Young Jews, a Services says ‘Please Do Text’” on one synagogue’s experimentation in a service for Jews in their 20s and 30s. Congregation Or Ami, always open to innovation, similarly experimented with Facebook, Twitter, and texting [...]

by Deborah Niederman I am grateful for the way that Dr. Charles Edelsberg frames his piece on education in the Reform Movement. Too often, what is written about Jewish education is merely a critique and sometimes an outright attack. We often read that Jewish education, especially complementary education through our congregations, is in crisis. But the truth is that we have always been reading articles that make such claims, and there has always been great innovation in congregational education, especially in the Reform Movement. (Innovative projects such as the Experiment in Congregational Education of the Rhea Hirsch School of Education [...]

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.

Whether writing a d’var on a Torah portion, looking for guidance on Jewish ceremonies, studying Hebrew, or seeking a community in which they will receive a warm welcome, Jews and those who wish to learn about Judaism turn first to the Internet, where all the world’s resources are available with a few keystrokes. A number of factors may keep individuals from attending on-site Shabbat services – temporary or long-term illness, disability, location. Enter streaming video, which allows home-bound Jews to tune into services even when they can’t make it to a synagogue to do so in person. For members of [...]

So What Is Prayer? It doesn’t have to be services or words, though it can be both. It can be a feeling that God is present. It doesn’t have to include asking for anything. It can be just awe or wonder, or a wave of affection breaking over you. It can be like plugging into an electric current. It can change while you’re praying. It can be surprise. It can be… Fill in the rest from your own experience. — Rabbi Lionel Blue and Rabbi Jonathan Magonet On Monday, I taught a lesson on tefilah to the students in our [...]

by Rabbi Dan Medwin Prayer can be challenging.  But fortunately, we have some great tools as Jews to help us reach those moments of prayerfulness and connection to God.  We have our liturgy, passed down and refined over generations, with themes that speak to our human experiences.  In more recent history, thanks to a man named Gutenberg, we’re able to capture these inspirational words and put them in the hands of each member of the community in the form of a book.

by Robin Riegelhaupt I recently went to the website of a musical revival that just opened on Broadway. When I clicked on the cast bios, I was delighted to see that not only could I learn what other shows each cast member had been in (which is typically listed in the Playbill), but I could learn fun facts about them, like what they sang for their audition. This gave me a feel for the cast’s personality and it also said something about the show: this show is about community and people connecting with people. That’s the personality reflected by the [...]