RJ Blog

by Deborah Belsky I started learning Braille Hebrew when I was 9 years old. I was taught by Reverend Harry J. Sutcliffe, a blind Episcopalian minister, who taught Hebrew to many blind students in Brooklyn in the early 1960s. Hebrew Braille is easy because most of the letters have the same dot configuration as English letters. The vowels are other Braille symbols that are not used as consonants, so the Hebrew student learns them in the context of the Hebrew. For example, an “ah” sound is a Braille “C” which is not used in Hebrew. This is close to what [...]

Walking into PARTY’s BART Shabbat event last Friday, I had no idea what to expect. Little did I know, I was about to witness the coming-together of seven Broward Country reform congregations in food, in song, in prayer, and in welcoming a very special guest.

Jews young and old are searching for innovative and contemporary ways to explore their heritage. Reform congregations have been experimenting with different liturgical melodies for years, and urban minyanim experiences like the Riverway Project in Boston are fostering new and dynamic worship and learning experiences. WAREHOUSE ATX, March 15th at the South by Southwest Festival (SXSW) in Austin, TX, is an alternative Shabbat experience using music and new media produced by ROI Community member Josh Nelson in partnership with the Union for Reform Judaism. The Warehouse seeks to reengage young Jews by hosting Shabbat events in unconventional spaces.

My teenage son recently attended NFTY Convention in Los Angeles and one of his text messages home told us he wanted to re-string mom’s guitar. Looking at the video from the convention, it is evident why the music was so inspiring. Teens were playing guitar and the Dan Nichols concert looked more exciting than The Boss at Madison Square Garden! This got me thinking about music and what an integral part it is of how we worship and involve our congregants at Temple B’nai Torah: we have a band and a youth, teen, and adult choirs; a congregant plays violin [...]

by Rabbi Dan Medwin Last week, I was given a wonderfully challenging task as the CCAR rabbinic staff member at the NFTY Convention:  Take fifty participants from the Youth Engagement Conference and a two-hour prayer lab session, and plan multiple services for about 900 NFTY Convention participants.  While seemingly impossible, I jumped at the opportunity.   After all, we produce Visual T’filah and all the prayer books for the Reform Movement – I could do this! Working with my colleague Rabbi Noam Katz and Jewish musician Dan Nichols (and joined by rabbis Erin Mason and Ana Bonheim), we were tempted to [...]

by Barb Shimansky, MSW I knew going into the Youth Engagement Conference that our Sunday morning trip to the First African Methodist Episcopal (FAME) Church would be a highlight of the weekend. Learning how another faith organization engages their youth would surely provide some insight into how we as Jewish professionals can do the same. As we walked into the service, we were struck by church members who warmly greeted us outside on the sidewalk. This seemed like a no-brainer for creating a welcoming atmosphere until I put it into context for my own congregation in Wisconsin; standing outside the [...]

by Rabbi Jeffrey Brown Our temple, in the southern Westchester County suburbs of New York City, first began addressing the implications of the forecasted blizzard (Winter Storm Nemo) during the day on Thursday, February 7th. Our weekend schedule was to have included 8pm Erev Shabbat services on Friday night, a Shabbat morning service and b’naei mitzvah (which was to include our entire board and Communal Worship Committee, in conjunction with a lunch and study discussion we were hoping to have later on Saturday). We also had a program scheduled to take place in a congregant’s home Saturday evening, plus religious [...]

Scouting has been in the news lately as the Boy Scouts of America reconsider a longtime ban on gay scouts and leaders. A recent New York Times article describes in detail the discussions and opinions on this decision from various national leadership, and the Huffington Post reports that Boys Scouts of America is delaying a decision on the ban. This issue and its negative press aside, scouting has had a positive effect on the youth of my congregation, as evidenced by an event that took place just this month. In early February, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts from Nassau County [...]

Keeping the temple calendar up-to-date is like trying to change the tires on a moving car. On Friday, January 11, it seemed that the calendar was moving at lightning speed and running behind it with a marker trying to add more events was our temple administrator. On our calendar, Tot Shabbat is on the second Friday of every month.  January 11 was the second Friday of the month.  The traditional Shabbat service also was scheduled for January 11.  This date was the one selected for the indoor picnic as well.  Tot Shabbat would begin at 5:30 p.m., the picnic at [...]

In 1998, when my children were 11, Saving Private Ryan was released. At the time, my boys were too young to see such a difficult movie, but I watched it on video with them a few years later. I wanted to emphasize that their freedom had been bought with many lives and that each of us has an obligation to honor that sacrifice by involvement in our communities. It came as a surprise to me when my son Joel chose to become a nuclear technician, or a “nuke,” in the United States Navy – but it’s a decision I was [...]

by Harold S. Geller Just a week after the unspeakable mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, I traveled to Newtown, CT, to help organize a musical evening of remembrance and healing in support of the community. This event took place at Congregation Adath Israel, Newtown’s Conservative synagogue, and featured artists and cantors from throughout the country. More than 200 people attended. Rabbi Shaul Praver of Congregation Adath Israel started the evening with a Havdalah ceremony, offering a moving description of the elements of the service: With the candle we bring new light, and new hope, at a moment where [...]

By Liz Piper-Goldberg Quick! It’s Tuesday! If you act now, there’s still time to participate in the beautiful ritual of Havdalah, the ceremony marking the end of Shabbat. According to Jewish tradition, the Havdalah service may be recited through the following Tuesday. Nevertheless, Havdalah is most often observed on Saturday evening, marking the end of the day of rest. Havdalah is a Hebrew word meaning “division” or “separation” and is the name of this ritual that formally ends Shabbat, “separating” it from the beginning of the new week. Havdalah is a short, participatory service infused with music, symbols, and meaning. The [...]

Shabbat is a time to unplug. Otherwise, there will be no Shabbat. Many, many Reform Jews have had no Shabbat for a very long time. Even when we want to be attentive to the holy, we can’t seem to do it. In our sophisticated, highly educated community, the pace of our lives has long been cranked up to a level that could not have been imagined 50 years ago. Shabbat is usually a time for more work, or a time to engage in a hectic whirlwind of errands. And then technology came along and made everything worse. Technology stalks us. [...]

by Tanya Schevitz Observing Shabbat was not something Sabbath Manifesto creator Dan Rollman grew up with and he wasn’t really interested in doing it in his adult life – until a few years ago, when he attended a weekend retreat to talk about making Jewish traditions and rituals relevant to a new generation. As the sun set for Shabbat, he began to think of how dependent – or addicted – he was to technology, and that this connectedness never allowed him a moment of pause. With the launch of his Universal Record Database (now RecordSetter.com), an open platform for world [...]