RJ Blog

I had a difficult childhood. I joined a synagogue when I was 30, and I attended services fairly regularly, but I hated God. For me, God was the Old Man in the Sky, distant and remote, and constantly demanding praise. How could I pray? How could I thank a God who had given me my particular childhood? When I was 40, I moved to Sacramento. My son was in fifth grade at the time, and my daughter was 2. Every Sunday morning, I would drive my son to religious school – it seemed like it was 100 miles from our [...]

by Michael Rankin, M.D.Capt., MC, USN (Ret) Yom Kippur, 1965, I was a Navy medical officer stationed aboard a destroyer off the coast of Vietnam.  The ship’s captain had promised us an hour or two to hold a service Kol Nidre evening, but late in the afternoon the ship went to battle stations.  An Australian base camp south of Hue was under attack from a North Vietnamese unit, and we were to fire around the perimeter of the camp to drive them away. The firing continued all Kol Nidre night and through most of the next day.  After much loss [...]

by Lori Freedman Temple Beth Shalom, Austin, TX During the Yamim Noraim, the Days of Awe, it is customary to go to the cemetery to pay respects, or as I say, ‘visit’ those you love. This year, during this time, I was fortunate to be in the same city where my dad is buried.  December will mark the 25th anniversary of my father’s death. I mentioned to my husband that, thinking back on that awful time and now living in the Austin Jewish Community, I can see what community means at a time like that. I did not have the [...]

by John E. Hirsch, PhD I wrote this drash in honor of (or is it in memory of) the fiftieth anniversary of my bar mitzvah on 21 September 1957 at Temple Beth Israel in Macon, Georgia. At not quite 13 – my birthday was the next day, the 22nd -  it was, for so many reasons, one of the great defining moments of my life. Bar mitzvahs were relatively new at our very old classically Reform congregation – founded by German Jews in 1859. That Shabbat morning, Temple Beth Israel had both a new Rabbi and its first air conditioning [...]

by Barbara Shuman Ever since I was a young adult, I have felt called to wrestle with Jewish texts and ideas. I yearned to understand how to live a good life in relation to others, to experience the transcendent mystery we call God, and know the profound joy of  “aha moments.”  I believed that meaning could be found not only in my college psychology textbooks, but in the sacred texts of Judaism. I also believed these answers would be found outside of myself, in the hundreds of books that lined the shelves of my home library, in the numerous classes [...]

by Janine PrestonTemple Or Rishon, Orangevale, CA Anyone who really, really knows me was not surprised to receive the announcement of my conversion to Judaism. When I very seriously told my two best friends from college about my decision last fall, they started to laugh. “Janine,” they said, “you have been talking about this since 1985 — we would only have been surprised if you had decided not to make this official!” I was first introduced to Judaism by a boyfriend back in college. I started studying about this religion that made him so happy, that created a framework for [...]

by Stephanie Seiberg Temple Emanuel, Kensington, MD When I decided to convert I wondered often if I would ever really feel Jewish? I never could have anticipated that the death of my non-Jewish father would be the event that would take me there. I had married a Jewish man several years before my father died. Prior to marriage, we agreed to raise our children Jewish, but at that point I considered myself a non-religious person and had never really considered conversion. Events in my life, including my father’s illness, over the years led me to feel a void with my [...]

by Aya Betensky In the early ’80s, in New Jersey, we “converted” from Conservative to Reform Judaism (a story in itself) and started going to Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple in New Brunswick. At our first Friday night ser­vice, we were amazed to find a woman cantor with a beautiful voice, who welcomed us by stepping down from the bimah and teaching the congregation a new song that would be sung later in the service. Lee Coopersmith imbued us with an aura of Shabbat beauty and community that we had been missing before. At these Friday night services I heard familiar [...]

by Suzi NeftTemple Sinai, Pittsburgh, PA I was scared to death! Coming from a violent marriage with a young son, Alex, who I was trying to protect and educate Jewishly. We practiced Jewish traditions at home and attended High Holiday services at my mother’s Conservative synagogue. Alex’s father, a non-Jew, agreed before marriage that our children would be raised Jewish, and Alex had been, until the end of the marriage. His father, who practiced no religion, suddenly began taking our child to church. Alex was confused and upset because he felt Jewish.   I had little money and was looking for [...]

by Amanda FrohmanHoly Blossom Temple, Toronto Ontario To touch someone’s life, to have one’s heart be touched…how often I longed to feel that special spark, to feel touched by God’s grace. In my imagination, a spiritual moment would assume the form of Divine intervention. But in my reflection, it was a simple class trip and the kindness and compassion of tender hearts that made me feel the aura of a Holy presence that has stayed with me forever. I was a French teacher in an International school which, from its inception, was in the vanguard of girls’ education. I taught [...]

by Deborah BaberTemple Emanuel, New York, NY At the end of October in 1984, I left Birmingham, Alabama after a fabulous, two-month stint working on a bound-for-Broadway musical while staying with my mother who resided there. Mom and I had been estranged for many years. But this visit was a breakthrough! We spent hours together talking, eating, laughing, living… and loving! Two weeks later on November 16, 1984 at 2:30 am I had been asleep for hours. I was a single woman, an actress (a bartender, a hostess, a waitress!), living alone in New York City… and my phone rang. My [...]

by Leon AdatoOriginally published on The Edible Torah For a long time, I carried around with me a very depressing mental image for the Beatles song “Blackbird”. I would relate it here, but I’ve been told by enough people that it ruined their enjoyment of the song so I usually just keep it to myself. Not that my mental image inhibited my own love of the song. I took a fond, if somewhat morbidly melancholy, pleasure in singing it and hearing it performed. But it was never a happy song. Then, when my son Joram (who is now 10) was [...]

by Carol Gunnerson Prelude to the dawn: Without an alarm clock, I have a habit of waking up early… between 4:30 a.m. and 6:30 a.m.  I do this because I love the peace and silence of those wee hours. I move about stealthfully… consciously… fixing tea without a sound. I don’t want any noises to disturb the gift of peace that is mine to savor!  I take my tea and sit outside in the stillness, opening to the Oneness I find there.  I am home in the Oneness. For me, this is the time when the very essence of creative [...]

by Rabbi Gary M. Bretton-Granatoor Vice President – Philanthropy, World Union for Progressive Judaism All stories that teach a lesson are “true,”but some are also factual.This story is true and factual…Based on an event that occurred in 1999   Although my role as Program Chair of the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations (IJCIC) placed several responsibilities on my shoulders, my wife had one very important mission for me on my most recent trip to the Vatican. A co-worker and her husband were about to have a baby, and since they were devout Catholics, my wife thought it appropriate for [...]