RJ Blog

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 [...]

by Marv Kaminsky Okay, I’m an oddball: single, never been married, no children, live alone. I’m not even a doctor or a lawyer. My late father survived three concentration camps and went on to fight in Israel’s War of Independence. My brother’s an Orthodox rabbi. My Judaism – Reform Judaism – is the most important thing in my life. And I spent this high holiday season attending Reform services entirely online. There’s no Reform in the small city where I live; very little of any kind of Judaism. The nearest Reform congregation, 41 miles away, is ailing. I’m a member, [...]

by Seth KrollTemple Shalom, Newton, MA Youth are the best adopters of technology.  They generally seem to have a natural ability to conceptualize how technology works, implement it into everyday life, and then create new social norms for its use.  Last month the Youth Department at Temple Shalom (Newton, MA) threw away the “no cell phone” in class or service policy and in fact embraced the use of cell phones as an important tool and resources in learning and ritual efforts. The schedule of our High School program has been redesigned this year.  Students meet for class by grade three [...]

by Zion Ozeri(Originally posted on Jewels of Elul) For good or bad, digital communication has revolutionized and transformed our lives. We are now not merely spectators, but active participants empowered to reflect what we see and feel.  In the past, only a privileged few had the ability to influence mass media and movements.  Nowadays, amateurs and casual users have the ability to contribute content and impact society. The seminal founders of photography found true meaning through everyday encounters. Alfred Stieglitz photographed his lovers, Henri Cartier-Bresson tried to freeze a “decisive moment.” Ansel Adams studied nature; for Louis Hein it was [...]

by Bruce MaxwellPresident, Beth Chayim Chadashim I travel frequently, so occasionally find myself away from my community, BCC (Beth Chayim Chadashim), on special occasions. When that happens, friends will send me photos, and I’ll share my trip slideshow when I return. But sometimes there’s simply no way to capture the experience of being at BCC, which can be meaningful only in the moment. A few years ago on my way to Israel, I was on a stopover in Frankfurt, Germany, when my calendar reminded me it was Yom ha Shoah.  The irony of walking through the streets of the Third [...]

As the frigid temperatures that have gripped much of thecountry this winter ebb into the warmth of spring, it is finally time to getexcited about Passover. For me, every year Passover is about an Exodus: from my home to what my parents have long thought to be the Promised Land – LosAngeles. It is also about strict family tradition. For millions of Jews in North America, Passover is “the”home holiday.  We all eat the same foods, plus or minus something new fromsome magazine. We stuff our familyand friends into a space built for about a third of the people who [...]

by Rabbi Paul KipnesOriginally published on Or Am I? Not in order of importance… (cross posted on CCAR Convention Blog) 1. Six separate planned experiences of meeting with and conversing 1-to-1 (or in small groups) over important topics: visioning for the reform movement, creating new path for youth engagement, rabbis as techies, interfaith study of difficult texts with non-Jewish clergy, exploring real community and sharing what we would change about our URJ/CCAR/HUC. 2. I met, spoke with and learned from more colleagues than at any previous convention: younger colleagues (esp about deepening tech in the congregation), veteran colleagues (esp about [...]

by Jonathan Lam, Sean Thibault, Scott Hertz, and Jill PeltzmanURJ web team members Several of us on the URJ web team joined a few thousand other like-minded geeks in Washington, DC recently to attend NTC, the Nonprofit Technology Conference held by the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN). For three days, we immersed ourselves in learning about the myriad of ways that technology can be used for doing good. We were inspired by the conference itself, but an added benefit was spending an intensive amount of time with each other away from the office, networking, talking and thinking about what we do, [...]