RJ Blog

About 200 Jewish activists, rabbis, and communal leaders gathered in New York City for the Jewish Organizing Institute and Network for Justice’s (JOIN for Justice) recent National Summit. At the summit, JOIN for Justice honored the URJ’s Senior Vice President Rabbi Jonah Pesner with the Tekiah Social Justice Award. Rabbi Pesner was honored for his work as a pioneer in the field of Jewish organizing and particularly for founding Just Congregations, the URJ’s groundbreaking community organizing effort. During his 20-year career, he has engaged thousands of synagogue congregants to join together in successful campaigns for health care access, affordable housing, [...]

by Rabbi Jason Rosenberg Marriage equality has been in the news, pretty much non-stop, for a couple of days now. First, North Carolina passed Amendment 1, banning any kind of legal civil union, other than heterosexual marriage. Then, President Obama came out in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage, a first for a sitting U.S. President. It has been, to say the least, a busy few days in the marriage equality world. That makes this as good of a time as any for me to speak out in favor of marriage equality. It’s something I’ve done before, as have many of [...]

On Tuesday, May 8th, 2012, the state of North Carolina enshrined bigotry, ignorance, and hatred into their constitution. Many adults who hold the power to vote abused this opportunity by deciding to hurt others to protect their own feelings of morality.

It’s not too late to plan a Jubilee Shabbat event in your synagogue, community, or even for your home and family. This year’s Jubilee Shabbat weekend is taking place May 18-19, and it is co-sponsored by the Religious Action Center, American Jewish World Service, Tikkun, the Shalom Center and Rabbis for Human Rights-North America (RHR-NA). The weekend is just one opportunity to set aside time to pray, reflect, study, and act around issues of global inequality and poverty. Each week we set aside time to rest during Shabbat. But the Jubilee, which represents the seventh Sabbath cycle, reminds us to [...]

Last Sunday marked the 42nd annual Earth Day, a celebration of our natural world and recognition of the important role humans play in protecting it by living within our means. This year, Earth Day also happens to fall between Passover and Shavuot, holidays that draw heavily on the power and symbolism of the earth’s gifts to us in the form of food and agriculture.  Passover marks the beginning of the harvest season and Shavuot denotes the time when the season’s earliest fruits were brought by farmers to the Temple in Jerusalem. We are blessed to live on a planet that [...]

By Rabbi Stacey Blank In the midst of the modern State of Israel’s “High Holidays” – last week being Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) and this Wednesday being Yom HaZikaron (Memorial Day) which leads right into Yom HaAtzmaut (Independence Day), I am considering what it means to be a Zionist or a lover of Israel, what it means to be a citizen of the State of Israel, and what it means to live outside of Israel and feel a connection with this entity. I have been thinking about it in the context of my parents’ (who live in the US) [...]

by Missy Goldstein Last fall, as a junior attending the University of Florida (UF), I was considering all the possibilities for the upcoming spring break.   I know that typical UF students spend their spring breaks on cruises and at beaches, drinking and getting awkward tanlines.  I was not excited by the prospect of getting sunburned or putting myself in a bathing suit.  Sure I could visit my parents in Texas, but since it was a recent relocation, there would be no friends there for me and sitting on the couch all week just sounded boring. I thought about my Jewish [...]

April 20, 2010, began as an ordinary day for residents of the Gulf Coast. Fishermen woke up early to head out for the daily catch, and news outlets reported on the perils of the U.S. economy. Outside, the skies were overcast with temperatures in the high 60s, standard conditions before summer’s suffocating humidity settled in. But by the end of the day that began as so ordinary, the lives of Gulf residents would be changed forever.

by Vicky Farhi In early March of this year, my husband and I spend two weeks in Israel. Our guide Muki has been a friend for many years and I trust him to recommend learning experiences that will expand my understanding of Israel and Judaism. A week before we left for Israel, he suggested we try a “freedom ride,” a ride on the public bus that travels through Haredi neighborhoods in Jerusalem. These buses, funded by the government and provided for everyone, have been turned into buses with sex-segregated seating, with men in the front and women in the back. [...]

by Rabbi David M. Weis As Israel celebrates the 64th anniversary of its Declaration of Independence, I am celebrating my 57th birthday. I share that information, because my age tells a great deal about how Israel fits into my life and worldview. I was raised in the early years of the State of Israel. I was reared with a strong connection to the justice of the Jewish cause and the promise of Zionism’s mission to create a Jewish democratic state in Israel.