RJ Blog

Despite the fact that summer, with its hopefully slower pace, is just around the corner, the last few weeks have been packed! At the end of April, I joined 117 congregational presidents who had gathered in Atlanta for the annual Scheidt Seminar, the URJ’s unique leadership training initiative specifically designed for current and incoming presidents. During the gathering, we honored with an aliyah those participants whose parents or grandparents also had served as presidents. In a moving tribute to these former leaders, 25% of the participants stepped forward, not only to recite the Torah blessings, but also to carry on [...]

The blogosphere, my Facebook page and my Twitter feed are abuzz with people’s memories and testimonies of the 25th anniversary of the National March on Washington for Soviet Jewry. Twenty-five years ago today, approximately one quarter of a million people descended on the National Mall in Washington to call for the freedoms of an open society in what was then the U.S.S.R. I grew up in Toronto, Canada, and in 1987, I was a student at a small Orthodox Jewish high school. While I didn’t know of anyone then who marched in Washington, we participated in our own way to [...]

Read about how KESHER Birthright alum Alexis Drattell found a home for herself in Israel, then carried her experiences with her as she discovers Reform Jewish life in Milan, Italy.

By Séverine Sokol Our parashah Eikev reminds us that God “upholds the cause of the fatherless and the widow, befriends the stranger, providing food and clothing – You too must befriend the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” (Deuteronomy 10:18-19) Scholars often note that the Israelite code of ethics was founded on the belief that God identifies with the vulnerable. This expression of concern for the oppressed, the poor, the stranger is not exclusive to the Book of Deuteronomy (see also verse 24:17). We find it also in Leviticus (19:9, 19:33- 34), Exodus (22:20), and Numbers [...]

What is Israel like today? Who lives there? What do they look like? What is the country like? Can we make a place in the land, our land given to us by God, even if it means conquering those who are already there? This was the charge of the 12 scouts or spies, one from each of the 12 tribes, to make sure that the entire Jewish people had a stake in the report and a reporter who was one of their own upon whom they could rely.

by Alden Solovy A prayer for the Jews of France after today’s violence in Toulouse. See also: “At the Hand of Anti-Semitism: A Yizkor Prayer.” Author of life, Man has turned violent, Cutting down children and their teachers In Toulouse, France, Our young and our leaders, Our brothers and sisters, Crushing lives, Upending dreams, Attacking hope with hatred. Source and Creator, Grant a perfect rest under your tabernacle of peace To the victims of murder in Toulouse Whose lives were cut off by violence, An act of witless aggression And calculated anti-Semitism. Remember the survivors of this horror, And the victims of [...]

by Jim Cherney I had the great pleasure to participate in the Beutel Seminar in Israel for 10 days in January. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the program, it is an education/ enrichment seminar sponsored by the Saltz Education Center of the World Union for Progressive Judaism.  Reform and Progressive Jews from throughout the world can apply to the program which is held in the first quarter every year in Israel. For participants, the cost is subsidized by a generous sustaining gift from Austin and Nani Beutel of Toronto; the program is only one example of their [...]

When the founders of modern Zionism hoped that having a country of their own would make Jews like all other nations, they didn’t think that the Jews would adopt any of the despicable traits of the anti-Semites among whom they lived in dispersion. The aim of Zionism was not only to liberate the Jews from their perilous existence as pariahs but also to enable them to live by the highest ideals of their tradition. Yet more than six decades after the establishment of the State of Israel that has indeed afforded Jews who settled here freedom from persecution  – and [...]

by James Cherney The upcoming Biennial will provide you and your fellow congregants and friends an unprecedented opportunity to experience the exciting development of Progressive Jewry in Israel and throughout the world. How? First, you can attend learning sessions on a whole range of topics: learn about developing Progressive communities in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, or travel and twinning opportunities for you and your congregations in Israel and elsewhere (South America, Europe, FSU).

by Tyler Benjamin Tyler Benjamin, a third year John V. Lombardi Scholar at the University of Florida, just returned from a three-week study opportunity in South Africa. Read Part One of his unforgettable Shabbat experience, and enjoy Part Two, below. Let me start out by saying the food was delicious and the company, excellent. But as always, it the conversation made the night. I present to you, the cast of characters from my chance Shabbat, an America in South Africa: Chips Chips’ real name is Ivan, but only his father ever called him that. All the friends and family he’s [...]

by Tyler Benjamin From mid-May to mid-June, good fortune and hard work granted me three weeks in South Africa on my school’s tab. I am a third year John V. Lombardi Scholar at the University of Florida and one of the perks of the four-year merit scholarship is travels and studies abroad each summer. This time around we were with Dr. Todd Leedy, associate director and lecturer in the Center for African studies at UF. We spent two weeks at the University of Pretoria studying history and political science and one week doing the tourist thing in Cape Town. I [...]

Zionism is the story of the modern liberation of the Jewish people restored and renewed to our homeland. It is also the story of remarkable individuals who carved a path for the growth of the Jewish State and a flourishing democracy in the Middle East. The leadership of Weitzman, Ben Gurion, Meir, Eban, and others is well known and well documented. However, the leadership of some of the practitioners and thinkers who played key roles in Israel’s growth is less well known. In his new memoir For the Sake of Zion: Reform Zionism–A Personal Mission, published by URJ Press and [...]

by Cantor Alane Katzew, URJ Music & Worship Specialist “Music speaks louder than words. It’s the only thing that the whole world listens to. When you sing, people understand.” These lyrics to the Peter, Paul and Mary song may iterate what we all know in our hearts: music is a great equalizer. Its styles vary and its interpretations may differ from place to place, but ultimately all who are endowed with the blessing of hearing can be drawn together by the power of music. Music can function as a fantastic tool for outreach and keruv, drawing people into the synagogue [...]

Gadi Ben Dov, Director of Short Term Israel Programs at the URJ, has been around the block and has seen some great things that we do in our work, but this was one of the highlights for him. In August 2010, a special Kesher Birthright-Israel group travelled to Israel with a group of young Progressive Jews from Suriname. Among their visits as part of the regular Birthright-Israel itinerary, they had the unique opportunity to experience a part of the Jewish history of Suriname while in Israel. Here, Gadi Ben recounts the unbelievable experience he witnessed. I want to share with [...]