RJ Blog

May is Jewish American Heritage Month, which is a great impetus to talk about congregational heritage preservation. These days, communities are rapidly changing and Jewish communities are no exceptions: Congregations that were once large and thriving now find themselves with dwindling membership rolls; meanwhile other congregations are experiencing unexpected growth and are faced with the positive challenge of growing their physical space along with their membership size. With all of these changes, it is more important than ever to implement an archiving plan to ensure the rich history and traditions of your synagogue endure after all the changes and for [...]

Every camper has their own spark, something that makes them tick, their burning passion. An ineffable desire that makes them excited to wake up each morning. One action item for the counselors is to help each camper find and ignite their spark.

by Rabbi Everett Gendler An e-mail arrived from the indefatigable Art Waskow reminding us that April 4th was the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The reminder included a photo from a demonstration at the Arlington National Cemetery along with valuable excerpts from King’s prophetic remarks about Vietnam delivered at Riverside Church. The photo showed Rabbi Heschel to one side of King, and this prompted me to look at another photo of that demonstration. In this fuller one, King is flanked on the other side by Rev. Ralph Abernathy and Rabbi Maurice Eisendrath carrying a Torah, [...]

by Rabbi Yair D. Robinson Last Shabbat, we commemorated the birthday of someone very special. A red-headed and red-bearded rabbi, a scholar, a prince of the Reform Movement who is inarguably one of the most important Reform rabbis — nay, one of the most important rabbis, period — of North America. Amazingly, I’m not speaking about myself (though last Shabbat was my birthday, too), but rather of Isaac Mayer Wise, founder of the Reform Movement we take for granted, who was born March 29, 1819. Wise was a great publisher of scholarly texts, a Jewish paper, the American Israelite, still published [...]

By Rabbi Jan Katzew At the 100th anniversary celebration held in Cincinnati, OH, WRJ leaders were hosted for dinner at the American Jewish Archives. As we each were asked to introduce ourselves, I said that I felt it appropriate to bring another person into the room, someone not physically present, but whose presence helped to make the centenary celebration possible – Jane Evans. Everyone agreed. Jane was there. Jane Evans was my friend, and therefore, what follows is more memory than history, more of a subjective portrait than a verbal photograph. Jane was a diminutive giant. She was living proof [...]

by Livia D. Thompson, FTA “And when Israel saw the wondrous power which the Eternal had wielded against the Egyptians, the people feared the Eternal; they had faith in the Eternal and in God’s servant Moses. Then Moses and the Israelites sang this [Shirot Hayam] song to the Eternal.” B’shalach (Exodus 14:31—15:1) “With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed. Consequently he who molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions,” (Abraham Lincoln during one of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, August 21, 1858, according to Lincoln on Leadership) Moses and Lincoln, while separated [...]

by Rabbi Ron Symons There are certain verses that were placed as foundation stones of the Jew I aspire to be.  Growing up in Temple Emanu-el of Lynbrook, NY, under the leadership of Rabbi Harold Saperstein z’l, I learned that “You (plural) shall be holy, for I, Adonai your God, am holy” (Leviticus 19) serves as the foundation for the sacred community in which I grew up and towards which I lovingly labor to build on a daily basis with hundreds of members of our community. My professors at the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion in Jerusalem and New York taught me that [...]

by Stacey Zisook Robinson This poem was written in memory of Kristallnacht (Nov. 9-10, 1938) in honor of those who suffered. Stars littered the ground Crystal fire Shards of ice Glass The smoke of a thousand thousand years Ascended Coiling upwards, twisted With the memory of a People Chosen once in light Chosen again In darkness In ashes and in blood

by Rabbi Donald Kunstadt I’ve come to the conclusion we need to change the date of Simchat Torah. Our Jewish festivals must be re-envisioned as inspirational community gatherings of joyful spiritual Jewish celebration.  Every single festival needs to be a time of great community involvement and meaning. To not maximize that possibility is a mistake that can easily be fixed. Here are the basics. Though the pilgrimage festivals originally had agrarian roots, we are no longer an agrarian people. Exactly how many Jewish farmers do you know? With all due respect to the kibbutz movement in Israel, and to the [...]

by Rabbi Marci Bellows Story A: After a long day of work, the woman paid her fare and sat in an empty seat on the bus. As the bus traveled along its route, more and more seats filled up. The bus driver approached the woman and demanded that she move towards the back of the bus so that the people entering the bus could sit. Three passengers near the woman did as they were told and moved back. Yet, this day, the woman was asked, “Why don’t you get up?” She responded. “I don’t think I should have to stand [...]

Earlier this month, I traveled to St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands for a week-long family vacation. Before leaving my home in Dallas, I contacted the Rabbi Shimon Moch, the spiritual leader at Hebrew Congregation of St. Thomas, and inquired about coming to Shabbat services while I was there. With just over 110 members units, Hebrew Congregation is small in size but large in passion, and its community is very welcoming to those who are vacationing in the islands. With a real pride in the history of their community, its members are quick to let you know that their [...]

by Rabbi Donald Kunstadt Why would a rabbi want to travel to Berlin, Germany? Certainly there are more pleasant places to visit, from Tahiti to Hong Kong, on the bucket list of life. Well, for one, Germany is closer. Second, I must admit a curiosity as to what modern-day Berlin is like. It has a reputation for being über hip. After traveling there, I don’t know if I would characterize it in that way; however, it certainly is a progressive city by American standards. Third, my father leaving Vienna at the age of 16 as a refugee from the Nazis [...]

I was recently going through some old files. To be honest, they were very old files. Amongst reports from high school, I found two Erev Sabbath service outlines. They dated back to when I was the president of my templeyouth group (Temple Judea in the Bronx). They were titled “Folk Sabbath Services” and were dated 1976 and 1977. Many of us in the youth group were veterans of regional NFTY events, including Shabbatons at Kutz Camp in Warwick, New York. In youth group events such as shul-ins, and especially at Kutz, we discovered a different type of Jewish worship. The [...]

by Sheila Klatzky When I left the Copper Country of Upper Michigan for college in the Pacific Northwest in the early 1960’s, little did I realize that almost 50 years later, I would become involved with the effort to rescue Temple Jacob, the small historic brick synagogue with its beautiful stained glass windows and copper dome to which my family had belonged so long ago. Nor did I realize that the fundraising effort would be so personally rewarding. I was intrigued by the fact that this tiny congregation (17 members, as of last count) had managed to maintain a continuously [...]