RJ Blog

Despite the fact that summer, with its hopefully slower pace, is just around the corner, the last few weeks have been packed! At the end of April, I joined 117 congregational presidents who had gathered in Atlanta for the annual Scheidt Seminar, the URJ’s unique leadership training initiative specifically designed for current and incoming presidents. During the gathering, we honored with an aliyah those participants whose parents or grandparents also had served as presidents. In a moving tribute to these former leaders, 25% of the participants stepped forward, not only to recite the Torah blessings, but also to carry on [...]

Reform Jewish leaders from across the world issued a statement yesterday remembering the 11 Israeli victims of the 1972 terror attacks at the Munich Olympics. The 13 signatories issued their support for a moment of silence at the upcoming Olympics’ opening ceremony and asked Reform congregations worldwide to conduct their own memorials for the victims. Haaretz has more about the Munich massacre and the push for a moment of silence at the London Olympic games. The Reform Movement’s statement reads:

by James Cherney The upcoming Biennial will provide you and your fellow congregants and friends an unprecedented opportunity to experience the exciting development of Progressive Jewry in Israel and throughout the world. How? First, you can attend learning sessions on a whole range of topics: learn about developing Progressive communities in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, or travel and twinning opportunities for you and your congregations in Israel and elsewhere (South America, Europe, FSU).

by Tyler Benjamin Tyler Benjamin, a third year John V. Lombardi Scholar at the University of Florida, just returned from a three-week study opportunity in South Africa. Read Part One of his unforgettable Shabbat experience, and enjoy Part Two, below. Let me start out by saying the food was delicious and the company, excellent. But as always, it the conversation made the night. I present to you, the cast of characters from my chance Shabbat, an America in South Africa: Chips Chips’ real name is Ivan, but only his father ever called him that. All the friends and family he’s [...]

by Tyler Benjamin From mid-May to mid-June, good fortune and hard work granted me three weeks in South Africa on my school’s tab. I am a third year John V. Lombardi Scholar at the University of Florida and one of the perks of the four-year merit scholarship is travels and studies abroad each summer. This time around we were with Dr. Todd Leedy, associate director and lecturer in the Center for African studies at UF. We spent two weeks at the University of Pretoria studying history and political science and one week doing the tourist thing in Cape Town. I [...]

Zionism is the story of the modern liberation of the Jewish people restored and renewed to our homeland. It is also the story of remarkable individuals who carved a path for the growth of the Jewish State and a flourishing democracy in the Middle East. The leadership of Weitzman, Ben Gurion, Meir, Eban, and others is well known and well documented. However, the leadership of some of the practitioners and thinkers who played key roles in Israel’s growth is less well known. In his new memoir For the Sake of Zion: Reform Zionism–A Personal Mission, published by URJ Press and [...]

by Cantor Alane Katzew, URJ Music & Worship Specialist “Music speaks louder than words. It’s the only thing that the whole world listens to. When you sing, people understand.” These lyrics to the Peter, Paul and Mary song may iterate what we all know in our hearts: music is a great equalizer. Its styles vary and its interpretations may differ from place to place, but ultimately all who are endowed with the blessing of hearing can be drawn together by the power of music. Music can function as a fantastic tool for outreach and keruv, drawing people into the synagogue [...]

Gadi Ben Dov, Director of Short Term Israel Programs at the URJ, has been around the block and has seen some great things that we do in our work, but this was one of the highlights for him. In August 2010, a special Kesher Birthright-Israel group travelled to Israel with a group of young Progressive Jews from Suriname. Among their visits as part of the regular Birthright-Israel itinerary, they had the unique opportunity to experience a part of the Jewish history of Suriname while in Israel. Here, Gadi Ben recounts the unbelievable experience he witnessed. I want to share with [...]

A highlight of any trip abroad is the chance to get off the tourist route and into the homes of locals. We’ve accomplished that in Israel by traveling with organized Reform movement groups, which typically includes Erev Shabbat services at a Progressive congregation, followed by dinner at the home of a member of the congregation. While that opportunity was available to us on our trip this past June, we chose the other option, attending services at a fledgling congregation in downtown Tel Aviv, followed by potluck supper with the congregants. It was the right decision! Our Kabbalat Shabbat was at [...]

Almost two years ago, I asked the readers of this blog to advise me on what to see on a fifth trip to Israel. As it happened, the trip we were then planning didn’t happen until just now, and turned out to be built around the World Zionist Congress instead of around the World Union for Progressive Judaism’s Connections 2009 biennial.  (Side note:  we – and you – have another crack at a WUPJ Connections this coming February in San Francisco.)As I explained in that earlier post, on our four previous trips we had seen the obligatory tourist sites along with enjoying a [...]

by Rita FrumanCoordinator, Netzer FSU A few days ago I returned from a trip to the U.S., where I was fortunate enough to visit a Jewish youth camp URJ Goldman Union Camp Institute (GUCI). This trip was another step in the development of professional and friendly ties between Netzer the youth department of WUPJ in the FSU and the GUCI Jewish summer camp. In February of this year, the GUCI camp director Rabbi Ron Klotz and his assistant Max Klaben were invited to take part in a regional seminar for Netzer leadership in Moscow. The seminar demonstrated that despite the [...]

ARZA Executive Director Rabbi Daniel Allen and URJ Senior Vice President Rabbi Daniel Freelander report from Tel Aviv on a high-level meeting regarding the controversial Rotem conversion bill. Yesterday morning, Natan Sharansky, Chairman of the Executive of the Jewish Agency for Israel, hosted a meeting of leaders of the Reform and Conservative movements, several Israeli government ministers, and leaders of the North American Federation system. Representing our movement in addition to the two of us was Rabbi Gilad Kariv, Executive Director of the IMPJ; Joan Garson, Chairperson of ARZENU, and Rabbi Richard Hirsch, immediate past Chairman of the World Zionist Organization. Ministers [...]

ARZA, URJ, and WUPJ senior lay and professional leadership experienced the fullness of our Reform Movement in Tel Aviv on Friday June 18, 2010. What follows is from Rabbi Daniel Allen, Executive Director of ARZA, reflecting on the Friday experience of the leadership.   The fence was proposed to be built between two schools in Jaffa; one with Arab students and Arab Israeli curriculum and the other with Jewish students and some Arab Students with and Israeli National curriculum, the standard “secular” school. The fence would have divided the joint playground used during recess. The Weizman school had been struggling. Very [...]

The 36th World Zionist Congress runs from June 15 to June 17, 2010. Rabbi Danny Allen, Executive Director of the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA), is in Jerusalem attending the Congress. This is the 4th and final blog of his series of dispatches. It may well be true that 90% of life is showing up. ARZA has been showing up at the World Zionist Congresses every four years for three decades. This congress was led by the incoming President of the Israel Progressive Movement (IMPJ) Yaron Shavit, a first for our movement. Our accomplishments through the resolutions process [...]