RJ Blog

Growing up in the 21st century, it is hard for me to believe that the first woman rabbi was ordained only 40 short years ago. Three out of four rabbis at my temple are women, one of whom was ordained within the first year that women were allowed to do so.

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 [...]

The time has come! Today marks the start of the 2013 Youth Engagement Conference, and 130 participants – Reform Jewish professionals and lay leaders invested in youth work – have arrived in Los Angeles to kick off four and a half days of learning, teaching, experimenting, and relationship-building. We at the URJ view this conference as a laboratory for developing the field of youth engagement and a unique opportunity for dialogue, development, and networking. So what’s different about this year’s Youth Engagement Conference? Our staff imagined and crafted this year’s gathering to be, above all else, an opportunity for experimentation, [...]

by Rachel Kasten In a few hours, we’ll be hopping off a plane at LAX with a dream and a cardigan, but right now we’re a youth professional and an involved teen getting excited about attending the Youth Engagement Conference and NFTY Convention, respectively. I’m the Assistant Director of Education & Youth Programs at Isaac M. Wise Temple in Cincinnati, OH, attending the Youth Engagement Conference while Alyssa Weisman, a NFTY-Ohio Valley Regional Board member and a madricha at Wise Temple’s Religious School, attends NFTY Convention. This is my third time attending NFTY Convention – once as a student, and [...]

by Robin Messing Bogdanoff It started in August 2011 with, of all things, a shirt pocket. It was a very small pocket on a child’s striped tee shirt that caught my eye, because the shirt had been miraculously reinvented into a tote bag. What an inspired idea, to turn an iconic T-shirt into a bag! Strong and compact, yet expandable, colorful, playful, infinitely useful – and not difficult or expensive to make. For my $10 purchase, Massachusetts textile artist Crispina ffrench included instructions on how to make more bags and gave me permission to share the instructions with our synagogue community [...]

The sun is shining on the Pacific Ocean, palm trees are swaying in the wind, and close to 900 ecstatic teens are packing their bags to head to Los Angeles from all over the world. The Reform Movement is rolling out the red carpet to welcome them to Hollywood. The 2013 NFTY Convention is finally here, running concurrently with our Youth Engagement Conference for educators, clergy, and others who work with Jewish youth. NFTY Convention is where Reform Jewish teens gather to learn, pray, share ideas, dance and sing, hear from inspiring guest speakers, and present their vision and priorities [...]

by Steven Portnoy The mission of the Men of Reform Judaism’s (MRJ) Reform on Campus (ROC) committee is “to assist students in creating meaningful Reform Jewish experiences on campus that will lead them to being active and involved Reform Jews for life.” Because I have been an involved member of this committee for eight years, the last five of which I have served as chair, I am intimately familiar with the committee and its work.

Recently I had the good fortune to offer a workshop for educators that I called, “Parents as Partners: Working with Parents in Jewish Special Needs Education.” I was well aware, from the start of the workshop, that the educators assembled wanted pointers on how to handle difficult conversations with parents. They were eager to help their students, but seemed to feel great apprehension around how to potentially develop open and supportive communication with parents. Open and supportive communication with parents is essential for a successful Jewish supplemental school experience for any child, especially those with special learning needs. However, my [...]

by Jennifer B. Perlick Two years ago I realized, “Wow, my daughter’s bat mitzvah is coming up!” Of course, I wanted it to be special. I wanted it to be really meaningful for her – and for me and the whole family – but I wasn’t super-inspired by the b’nai mitzvah ceremonies I was attending at my synagogue. Don’t get me wrong, I love my congregation, Har HaShem in Boulder, CO. It offers the largest community of Jewish families in Boulder, its religious school is extremely well-run, and the rabbi and cantor are both young and hip. But the b’nai [...]

At Temple Beth-El, we are very fortunate to have a student in our program who is blind. Braille is one of the coolest things I have ever seen (no pun intended), and Hebrew Braille is even cooler. (Note: The Jewish Braille Institute, JBI, will put all of your materials, including textbooks, into Braille for free. They rock!) Facilitating this student’s Jewish education enables me to revisit both my personal and our congregation’s commitment to inclusion over and over again… and I couldn’t appreciate it more!” More than anything else, I have learned that simply accommodating a student’s needs is not [...]

The teenage girl puts her arm around the fourth grader. They both smile. The younger child feels warmth, love and a sense of “I matter” from her protector, a cool positive Jewish role model. The teen feels a sense of purpose, of meaning and a sense of “I matter” from a child who looks up to her as a positive Jewish role model. For which child’s benefit did my congregation, Congregation Or Ami, organize this three-day retreat? Ostensibly, for the younger child, as this weekend was designated a 4th- through 6th-grade retreat. Yet anyone who has witnessed the powerful effects [...]

by Rabbi Robin Nafshi Temple Beth Jacob in Concord, N.H., has a membership of about 210 families. And like all other communities both large and small, a number of our students have physical and/or cognitive disabilities. Our philosophy is to do all we can to provide maximum access for all of our members. One of our religious school students is Jacob, whose mother has said it’s fine to use his real name here. Jacob has detachment disorder, environmental autism, language delay, and rage issues – and he has been in our religious school since kindergarten. At no time have we [...]

by Becky Oliver Standing on the bimah in a pitch black sanctuary filled with 250 teenagers and another 50-some adults, I whispered in the rabbi’s ear, “I don’t think we can keep them here if we have no power, but the whole neighborhood is out so we probably can’t send them back to their host—” But before I could finish the sentence—in one of those moments that makes you believe in miracles—the power, including lights, microphones, air conditioning, all came back on…and the entire room could see my hal’luyah face. If that had been the most miraculous part of the [...]

Recently, Congregation Or Ami sponsored two teens – 10th graders Sophie Barnes and Josh Gellerman – to attend the NFTY NASHIR Songleading Weekend in Seattle, Washington. As Cantor Doug Cotler has made it a priority to nurture new Jewish songleaders, musicians, composers and singers, we were excited to send these musical teens for training. Both Josh and Sophie recently reflected on their experiences. Sophie writes: In early January, I attended a NFTY NASHIR Song leading weekend with about 30 teenagers from all over the country and Canada. We learned all about being a song leader in a Jewish community and [...]