RJ Blog

by Micah Lapidus

Jewish day school sustainability is about more than survival. It’s about maintaining a diverse, vibrant, dynamic, healthy, growing school community. The best way to achieve day school sustainability is by ensuring that we’re fully engaging our human resources.  What does it look like to fully engage our human resources? Here’s a case study.

My school, The Alfred and Adele Davis Academy, Atlanta’s Reform Jewish Day School, is a school that loves Jewish music. Jewish singing permeates our school, most noticeably at holiday celebrations and at our weekly Kabbalat Shabbat gatherings. When I came to Davis five years ago I began writing and composing Jewish music—it seemed like a natural thing to do given my musical background and the role of music at Davis. Our head of school and I decided it would be awesome if we could utilize my songwriting knack to shine a light on Davis’ love for Jewish music. The result is The Davis Academy’s first album of original Jewish rock: Be a Blessing. Read more…

This week the RAC hosted Imam Umer Ahmed Ilyasi, Chief Imam of the All India Imam Organization. The All India Imam Organization is the largest imam organization in the world, representing half a million religious leaders and over two hundred million Muslims living in India. Imam Ilyasi has distinguished himself as a leader who powerfully addresses issues of religious extremism and global terrorism and frequently reaches out across religious lines. In particular, he has done considerable work bringing together Muslim and Jewish leaders in the Middle East and around the world and has been recognized internationally for his achievements in peace building and interreligious affairs.

Read more…

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 years to come. Read more…

Still not clear on the details of the ongoing dispute regarding women’s prayer at the Western Wall in Israel? Been following along so closely that you want to know even more about it? Last week, Rabbi Jacqueline Koch Ellenson, director of the Women’s Rabbinic Network, was interviewed by Timothy Michael Law, founder, publisher, and editor-in-chief of The Marginalia Review of Books. The Women’s Rabbinic Network is the international support and advocacy organization for women in the Reform rabbinate.

Just before Rabbi Ellenson’s scheduled appearance with Marginalia, the Jerusalem District Court ruled that recent detention of members of Women of the Wall members for their prayer activities at the Western Wall was unjustified. In their 27-minute conversation, which you can watch below, Ellenson and Law discuss the implications of this ruling and what it may mean for the future of egalitarian prayer at the Kotel.

In the six months since Superstorm Sandy devastated coastal communities in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, the Reform Jewish community has rallied to support the rebuilding effort, our synagogues, and the millions of people who were – and continue to be – impacted by the storm.

Although much of the Reform Movement’s work has been behind the scenes – raising and allocating funds, coordinating volunteers, and keeping abreast of the rebuilding efforts two of our synagogues are undertaking – our members have risen to the occasion. Countless volunteer hours have been applied to the cause, entire trailers of donated goods have been sent by our synagogues to some of the hardest-hit communities, and the URJ’s Disaster Relief Fund, which opened just after the storm passed, raised nearly $1 million for relief efforts.

Here’s are 10 ways the Reform Movement has aided in relief efforts during the last six months: Read more…

Throughout its history, Women of Reform Judaism has supported the next generation of the Reform Movement. In celebration of WRJ’s Centennial and the significant role that WRJ has played in the life of NFTY, the current National Board members and a staff member of the North American Federation of Temple Youth share their reflections on this vital relationship.

Evan Traylor, NFTY President: Women of Reform Judaism (WRJ) was instrumental in the founding of the North American Federation of Temple Youth (NFTY) in 1939, and since that date has continued to provide enormous financial and moral support to the organization. WRJ has made it possible for generations of Reform Jewish teens across North America to engage in and create meaningful Jewish experiences with their unwavering support. On any given weekend throughout the year, hundreds – often thousands – of Reform Jewish teens gather with their local Temple Youth Group or NFTY region to engage in Jewish activities and events. They have the opportunity to understand their Jewish identity, create powerful relationships, and contribute to the present and future of Reform Judaism. Through enormous partnerships between temple youth groups and URJ congregations, these teens will learn from and develop relationships with vital role models.  Read more…

During his trip to Houston earlier this month, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, sat down for an interview with Texas’s Jewish Herald-Voice. Here’s a quick excerpt:

JHV: What sort of narrative, if any, drives the Reform Movement today?

Jacobs: What drives our narrative is this incredible moment in Jewish history. We are currently the largest movement in Jewish life in the United States. What are we going to be as we go forward?

The early founders of the movement articulated something so compelling, that there was a change and uniqueness to the Jewish narrative. It was about shaping a more just and fairer world, where we placed an emphasis on ethics over ritual. It was a narrative that said we are, in our essence, a religious community, not simply an ethnic group. And, they believed honestly, with all their hearts, that they were on the verge of this new, almost messianic time. Read more…

The question was so simple. “What drives you to do social justice?”  But the answer was so complex and varied.  The themes were similar: family role models, personal experiences of injustice, a sense of responsibility and moral obligation.  But each one of us had a story to tell, a piece to uncover, a truth to reveal.  After 15 months of knowing the people in the room with me, I realized that maybe I didn’t really know them that well at all.  And all it takes, to really get to know a person, is to ask a simple question and let their story unfold.

I just returned from the Religious Action Center’s Consultation on Conscience. As a 2012-2013 Brickner Rabbinic Fellow, this was the culminating event to months of study, prayer, and exploration on social advocacy, as it pertains to being a rabbi. But it was more than that.  It was the culmination of months of being in relationship with a great group that helped me realize what it means to be passionate about social justice, to rely on one another professionally to help better our world, and to live with holy intention in the work that we do. Read more…

Leaders of the Reform Movement issued a statement today about a recent ruling from the Jerusalem District Court that determined that recent detention of Women of the Wall members for their activities at the Western Wall was unjustified and for denying local police requests for restraining orders against the group. Haaretz has more on the ruling and its implications.

URJ President Rabbi Rick Jacobs said of the ruling,

We were especially pleased to hear the judge state that the Law of Holy Places, which gives visitors to the Kotel the opportunity to pray according to ‘local custom,’ does not mandate that these be Orthodox customs. We expect local authorities to respect the court’s decision and let non-Orthodox Jews pray at this holy site according to their own customs without fear of police detention or restraint. Read more…

by Loui Dobin

As I am writing these words, I am on a plane home from Israel. We took off a couple of hours ago and have just crossed the coast of France. Now that we are “feet-wet” over the North Atlantic, I have had a little time to think about my trip.

I landed on the eve of Yom Ha’atzmaut and was picked up at the airport by Amira Bar-Shalom, during Yom Hazikaron (Israeli memorial day) just in time to stand in silence as all of the sirens in Israel sounded for two minutes to commemorate those who had died.

That evening, I found my way on the roof of the apartment of Mike and Sally, two of MY camp friends from way back at Eisner, proving that camp friends last FOREVER! We got to see an incredible fireworks show over Jerusalem. After that, it was to the huge street party at the bottom of Ben Yehuda Street in Jerusalem with thousands of people listening to live Israeli rock and spraying whipped crème over everyone in sight. The next day, it was off to Tel Aviv and another party complete with “al ha eysh” (or “grilling” to you and me). Read more…

By Rabbi Edwin Goldberg

Part One: Don’t “Bury the Lead,” or Why We Have Placed the Shofar Service into Three Parts of the Service

The traditional High Holy Day prayer book, as opposed to the Reform versions produced in the last century and more, includes a service, musaf, that evokes the ancient sacrifices.  Reform Judaism abandoned this service, due to its musty connotations of “barbarian” rites but a key element of this service on Rosh Hashanah, the sounding of the shofar was maintained.  Sounding of the shofar was retained no doubt because the very essence of Rosh Hashanah is bound up in the peal of the shofar.  Can you imagine Rosh Hashanah without it?

When our core editorial team for the new machzor first sat down to work on the book, and we began with Rosh Hashanah morning, we wanted to make sure that the essence of the day was front and center.  We all agreed that the shofar sounding was the most important element of the day for so many worshipers.  We realized that the placement of the shofar service, towards the end of the morning worship, left something to be desired.  After all why would something to integral to the morning be only introduced near the end?  Read more…

Last week, I attended a Malaria 101 briefing on Capitol Hill here in Washington, D.C. We heard from a panel of experts from the President’s Malaria Initiative, the Peace Corps, and the Center for Disease Control, all of whom are embedded in the fight to combat the spread of malaria. I’d heard a lot of facts before, many of which were focused on the details of the disease (you’ve probably heard them to if you’ve been keeping with our renewed partnership with Nothing But Nets!). The panel covered points such as

• A child dies every 60 seconds from malaria.
• Over 600,000 people die each year from the disease, crippling Africa’s economy by costing the continent $12 billion annually.

Read more…

As concerned as we are about economic justice, the American Jewish community has failed to understand, on a gut level, a glaring reality: Adults with disabilities in the U.S. disproportionately experience poverty. According the census bureau, about one in five Americans has a disability. That means 20% of us.

Eighty percent of adults with disabilities are unemployed or under employed not because they cannot work, but because they are denied the opportunity to work at jobs they are qualified to do. Employment discrimination makes people poor!

With unemployment rates consistently double that of the general population, people with disabilities experience poverty rates at twice the national average as well. In the wealthiest nation in the world, this is not only morally intolerable, but also economically inexcusable.  Read more…

The entire American Jewish world, it seems, is focused on how to engage or reengage the younger generations of Jews. Foundations are funding, denominations are discussing, and Federations and synagogues are searching for the latest and greatest strategies to engaging these lost generations. Our own Union for Reform Judaism kicked off its Campaign for Youth Engagement, on the theory that unless we engage young people in their early years, we surely will lose them in their later high school years and beyond.

While the solution to this contemporary challenge necessarily needs to be multi-pronged and multi-focal, at Congregation Or Ami in Calabasas, CA we have stumbled upon some success in the most unlikely of places: at the A.T.M. Read more…