I was recently asked by someone I very much respect to address "the" question.So I started to write the answer in a post...about five times without any luck. The "Why does a 20-something join a Reform Congregation" question.I have no kids and am Jewishly connected in my life, so why join a congregation? Some may say it is a legitimate question.I say you are missing the point of congregational life.
The myth that young Reform Jews are not joining a temple because they don't find it useful or meaningful is bunk. The real issue is that Reform Jews as a whole aren't joining congregations because they don't find something useful or meaningful within membership. In many communities within our Movement, synagogues have become bar and bat mitzvah factories.We are, in fact, in great danger of becoming what our more conservative and closed-minded co-religionists call "Judaism Lite."If we challenge our communities to learn, grow and take responsibility, my bet is we will see some more folks filling the seats on Shabbat.
I originally joined Temple Shaaray Tefila in New York City for three reasons. 1) I needed a place for the High Holy Days and my sister couldn't get me into Hillel services at Columbia anymore.2) The location is three blocks from my apartment. 3) The congregation values young people making a commitment to the community so much that they set membership costs for people in their 20s at only $18 a year. (For a few years...)
by Virginia Avniel Spatz Member of Temple Micah, Washington, DC
How does one receive the Torah? Not in a mystical, Standing-at-Sinai sense or even in an educational sense. In a physical sense: What is a Jew to do when the Torah scroll is in physical proximity?
This topic was raised recently by Larry Kaufman's post, "Going Round in Circles," and it arises frequently on Shabbat mornings. During the hakafah [procession circling the congregation before and/or after the reading], some worshippers in our congregation actively approach the scroll to touch it, and some visibly draw back. On the bima, some participants comfortably handle the sefer Torah [the scroll], while some cringe through awkward moments of access. Our temple's Hebrew poetry group recently discussed, in the context of a Yehuda Amichai poem about childhood synagogue experiences, the concept of the scroll being "dressed" and "naked."
I recalled one week when a young person -- in the regular bar/bat mitzvah pre-reading hakafah -- held the scroll at a strange angle, so the cover was dangling off, leaving the parchment exposed. My seat was at the end of the procession, so I had to watch as a "naked" scroll was carried through the congregation before I could reach out to tuck in the cover and then touch the "dressed" scroll with my tzitzit [fringe of the prayer shawl].
by Victor Appell and Vicky Farhi URJ Outreach Specialists
Does offering programming designed for a specific segment of a congregation's population isolate those congregants from their larger congregational community? Our congregations program for many populations - Women of Reform Judaism, Men of Reform Judaism, adult education, interfaith families, Jews by choice, non-Jewish parents, senior members, younger parents, the list continues. And our congregations have been expanding their programming to extend that welcome to LGBT Jews.
So today's question is: should temples hold separate events to welcome LGBT Jews?
At the URJ, we've done extensive work over the years to help congregations welcome members of this community. Some of these efforts were focused on sensitizing congregations to the needs of the LGBT community, which itself is not homogenous, and to the needs of their extended families. Other efforts included programming to welcome the LGBT Jews to our congregations. Does it separate them from the larger synagogue family or welcome them into their synagogue family? RJ magazine's recent issue presented an argument for both sides, and a poll asking readers to vote. What's your opinion?
As a leader of a liberal religious movement, I spend much of my time fighting the forces of religious fundamentalism in my own tradition. An epic battle between fundamentalist religion and progressive religion is raging in America and throughout the world; it is found in Christianity, Islam and Judaism. In the last few months in particular I have been consumed with a struggle, played out on many fronts, with those in the Jewish community who oppose modernity, resist reason, and reject as inauthentic the progressive religious values that I espouse.
At times like this -- in fact, especially at times like this -- I find myself searching for common threads that bind me to those who are known as ultra-Orthodox or Haredi ("God fearing") Jews. I find myself asking: What do I admire in those whose Jewish practice and belief are, in so many ways, radically different from my own?
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 T'filat HaLev, Prayer of the Heart, a congregation that was launched last year at Rosh Hashanah by HUC-Jerusalem rabbinic student Or Zohar, and that has met approximately monthly since. T'filat HaLev meets in a dance studio in downtown Tel Aviv, off Allenby Street - and the dance studio director plays an integral part in the service as she relaxes the congregation with a variety of motion exercises. The service is very musical - Or's primary vocations are radio broadcaster and musician, and he leads services with his guitar while his wife Feliza, who describes herself as a musician and voice movement therapist, functions as the cantor, singing and playing the harmonium. This video provides a feel for what the service is like. (This was not filmed the night we were there, but it captures the "vibe" we experienced.)
The news on July 16th of the demise of the American Jewish Congress was accompanied by an excellent article in eJewish Philanthropy recounting the storied history of this once-important organization. I'd like to add a few footnotes, covering things outside the scope of Jerome Chanes's excellent article.
AJC folded, even as it was deep in discussion about merger with the other AJC, the American Jewish Committee, and the article does a good job discussing the differences between the two organizations, both of which began with missions relating to fighting anti-Semitism: the Committee was, back in the day, German-Jewish, non-Zionist, and essentially committed to a shah-shtil behind-closed-doors approach to its work, while the Congress was more Eastern European in its membership, Zionist, and more in-your-face and in-the-courts in its methods.
My friend Stanley Lehrer was a partner in the New York law firm of Squadron, Ellenoff, Plesent and Lehrer, and I once discussed with him the irony of Howard Squadron, who served for many years as President of the American Jewish Congress, and Ted (Theodore) Ellenoff, who occupied a similar role with the American Jewish Committee, being law partners, given the contrasting approaches of their two competitive organizations. The modus operandi of the two AJCs was mirrored, Stanley told me, in the way each practiced law - Ellenoff's instinct was to negotiate, Squadron's to litigate.
For each of the last five Shabbatot, a friend or two has accompanied me to kabbalat Shabbat services where I've been going to say kaddish for my mother, who died peacefully and pain-free over Memorial Day weekend after seven weeks in the hospital and 11 days in hospice. At the conclusion of each service (and still wondering at the surrealism of it all), I dry my tear-stained face, we visit briefly with a few others at the oneg Shabbat and then head out for a bite to eat.
Two weeks ago, I kicked things up a notch and ventured alone to the congregation's weekly Shabbat minyan, which is followed by an hour of Torah study. (I'd decided ahead of time that my comfort level at the former would determine whether or not I'd stay for the latter.) Arriving at the synagogue a few minutes early, I was directed to the small chapel on the second floor where I chose an aisle seat toward the back. "Regulars," it appeared, greeted each other with waves, smiles, and "Shabbat shaloms." A few "Hope you're feeling better" and "Welcome backs" were thrown into the mix as well.
by Kate Bigam Press Secretary, Religious Action Center Originally posted in Ten Minutes of Torah and the RACBlog
Time for a quick history lesson: In 1655, the colony of New Amsterdam passed an ordinance forbidding Jewish residents to enlist in the colony's militia, ruling that Jews were instead required to pay a monthly contribution for this exemption from service. Insistent upon military service, Jewish colonist Asser Levy refused to pay and instead rallied others in petitioning for the right to enlist. Their petition, though initially rejected, was ultimately successful, and Levy and other Jewish residents were eventually permitted to serve alongside their fellow colonists. Levy, a proud veteran and prominent businessman, went on to become an advocate for religious equality and a defender of Jewish rights in the colony.
More than 350 years later, Jews worldwide continue to serve in the military in times of war and peace, risking - and sacrificing - their lives to protect their fellow countrymen. Thousands of Jews have been awarded medals for their wartime service; still thousands more have died in combat or been wounded. Jewish members of the United States Armed Forces fought in the Civil War, both World Wars, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Persian Gulf War. They continue to serve today in Iraq and Afghanistan.
by Rabbi Paul Kipnes Originally posted on Or Am I?
You spend a year or two leading the temple, being involved in every major (and often minor) decision that is made. You meet weekly with the rabbi, help determine policy at the head of the board, and enjoy greeting congregants at services, programs and on the High Holy Days. And then, your successor is nominated, elected and inaugurated and soon, you end up feeling like chopped liver. Such can be the life of a Temple President.
After enjoying working with two very successful past presidents, and sadly facing the conclusion of another successful president's terms, I decided it was time to put some thought into what makes for a successful past presidency.
This document, 10+ Commandments for a Successful Past Presidency, represents the collaboration with Congregation Or Ami's current president Susan Gould, with input from past presidents Michael Kaplan and Alice Goldsobel and president-nominee Lucille Goldin.
My feet hurt. So do my kids' feet. I'm guessing that there are about another 1,998 other pair of feet in Los Angeles that are still hurting right now.
That's what you get when you try to make a statement on a world-wide scale about morality and genocide. I suppose it is also what happens when you spend a morning Walking to End Genocide. Standing up to take a stand sometimes leaves you feeling your morals secure and your feet sore.
It all started this morning in Warner Center Park as about 2000 of us
gathered for Jewish World Watch's annual Walk to End Genocide. It was a
diverse group: adults and children, parents, grandparents and
grandchildren, teens from NFTY and USY, high schoolers from New Jewish
Community High School (among others), a bunch of college students from
Hillel. And members of Jewish synagogues from Orange County up through
Santa Barbara County. It was also an interfaith gathering: Jews,
Christians, Muslims and more came together to speak out. We all
gathered in the hot sun to make a statement, loudly but firmly: that
this world has no place, and we have absolutely no tolerance, for
genocide in any of its forms or mutations. read MORE
"There is movement in this room," said Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), in summary of a two-day meeting I attended in Atlanta. "There is movement in this room," he repeated, to emphasize the depth of conversations and experiences shared by the participants, who are leaders of 25 of the largest congregations in the URJ. Every two years, this meeting of large congregations is convened, to focus our efforts on the biggest challenges we face as the primary address of progressive Jewish life in North America.
The themes brought out at the conference included:
The challenge of demographics - our adult population is aging and the generation under 50 is not necessarily affiliating at the same rate
The challenge of financial stability - our operating expenses rise faster than our revenues, so we need to find multiple avenues to achieve the revenue needed
The challenge of articulating clearly the value of synagogue membership (to a generation with many choices and few barriers) and the value of the Union itself.
Recently, forty-nine educators from URJ congregations across the United States came together for the tenth annual conference of Early Childhood Educators of Reform Judaism (ECE-RJ), Take the Lead In Your Own Growth: A Leadership Intensive, held March 7-9, 2010 in Dallas Texas.
For two and a half inspiring days, the group focused on how early childhood centers within the Reform movement discover and express their core ideals and values in many areas of early childhood administration, from building a vision of community to the importance of the budget process. We considered challenges and issues in our field and studied innovative program ideas. The conference scholar-in-residence was Lyndall Miller, Director of Jewish Early Childhood Education and the Legacy Heritage Institute for Jewish Early Childhood Educators, at Gratz College in Elkins Park, PA.
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In this week's Torah portion, Ki Tisa, the Israelites begin to worry that Moses will not return from Mt. Sinai, and in their fear encourage Aaron to create an idol, a molten calf. Aaron said to them "Men, take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me."
According to Pirkei de Rabbi Eliezer 45, the women heard about the making of the Golden Calf and refused to give their jewelry to their husbands. The women argued that the molten image was an abomination, and they would not participate. God rewards the women with a holiday, Rosh Chodesh, acknowledging their independence, wisdom, and piety. Rabbi Eliezer tells us the women were to observe more new moons in this world than the men, and in the next world they would be renewed like the moon.
Men and women have different responses to stress, and reacted quite differently to the anxiety generated by waiting for Moses to return. While men tend to have a "fight or flight" reaction, women - in the words of psychologist Shelley E. Taylor - approach stressful situations with a "tend and befriend" response. During times of stress women take care of themselves and their children (tending) and form strong group bonds (befriending).
On Sunday, 2/28/2010, my guest editorial on voting and accountability appeared in the El Paso Times. Among the online comments to the editorial were a handful in the "way-to-go-Rabbi" vein, a "shut-up-Rabbi-this-is-a-Christian-country" remark, and one that I thought worthy of a reply. Here's what the (anonymous, of course!) poster had to say:
Your beliefs and they are not really traditional JEWISH. A friend told me the real Rabbi's [sic] are located on Thunderbird and Westwind. They tell me you run a MAKE me Feel good Temple and not adhere to the laws of God. PLease make me understand your beliefs. America was built on JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN VIRTURES.
It's worth noting as well that the remark was directed at "Mr. Bach."
I decided to respond in the online forum, as follows:
When I was first getting involved in synagogue life, my rabbi had a cartoon pasted to the door of his study, showing a group of men sitting around a boardroom table -n those days, temple boards were all men -- as the president of the congregation announces, "We have only two items on our agenda this evening, the leak in the men's room ceiling and the future of American Judaism."
When we talk about the future of American Judaism, a number of recurrent themes come immediately to mind -- building Jewish identity, developing a new generation of leaders, the differences between the generations, creating ties with worldwide Jewry and especially with Israel, and the place of Reform Judaism in the big picture
How interesting it was, therefore, to participate the other day in an international conference call of the Committee on the Former Soviet Union of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, and to hear a report from Rita Furman, the Netzer (Youth) Coordinator for the FSU, about a leadership seminar recently conducted at the Moscow Center for Progressive Judaism, and devoted to our exciting Reform camping programs in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. Possibly the most important message to emerge from Rita's report was that the issues that confront American Judaism are equally if not more important in Eastern Europe, except that we have a lot more resources than they do for dealing with them.
Jeffrey and Claudia Frankel want for their son Sam what all parents want -- that he have a valued place in the community. Sam has Down's Syndrome, with major difficulties learning and communicating, so they weren't sure how that goal would be realized.
This past weekend, they got their answer, as Sam, who will turn 13 on Feb. 20, celebrated becoming a bar mitzva at Temple Emanu-El in Westfield, where they live. Sam's achievement came in three separate episodes.
Discussing it with NJ Jewish News on Feb. 7, the Frankels said they were probably most nervous the Friday evening before. Sam, seated alongside Cantor Martha Novick, was slated to say the blessing over the candles at the musical Hallelu service. The congregation was celebrating the 60th anniversary of its founding, and there were about 500 people in the sanctuary. There was no knowing how Sam might react to that crowd.
"We were on the edge of our seats," his mother said.
It is no secret to those of us who live much (or most or even too much) of our Judaism online that there needs to be a fundamental change in the way we understand community and peoplehood in North America.
It is also not surprising that people often overreact--in both directions--saying that we must come back to the synagogue-old-world model and abandon this new-fangled-interwebs or that we should move to some new idea that uses a bunch of hyphens and words like "post" and "neo" or "proto" all strung together and pretends to be meaningful.
But like everything, there needs to be a balance. And there needs to be a way for those who are coming out of the old-world model to integrate the new with what they already know.
Almost Rabbi Melissa Zalkin Stollman, a friend of mine and rabbinic student at HUC in New York, has published her thesis online to address peoplehood and identity (and a few other things) through the lens of the "new" Judaism at the same time as asking these questions from a Reform Jewish perspective. The site looks at peoplehood, ritual, resources, media and music, and (of course) sports a blog.
I learned about Max when I met his group home supervisor, Jenny, at a disability services convention. She told me about a Jewish man who lived in the group home who suddenly decided that he wanted to be buried near his parents. She didn't know how to find out where his parents were buried. Complicating the matter, Max, who had been institutionalized at the age of 12, could not remember the name of either his mother or father.
I went to visit Max at home. He sat in his Lazy Boy lounge chair, wearing a Yankees baseball cap. Max looked like someone's Zadie. He loved his Jewish visitor. In my very limited Yiddish, we spoke. He cried as he remembered his "Mama."
A volunteer from JFCS went to Max's home and provided our newly developed "Basics of Judaism" for the group home so Max could share his traditions with his housemates and staff.
One Monday evening, Max attended the community-wide Seder for Adults with Disabilities. He loved every minute of it--the musical Hagadah, the food, the other Jews who attended. He loved it so much that every Monday for weeks he would get his shoes on and when asked where he was going, he'd reply, "to the seder."
When you walk into Temple Beth-El in Hillsborough, New Jersey on a Sunday morning, you are likely to see a familiar scene. On any given Sunday, one might notice various programs taking place, parents stopping into the building and socializing with one another, children scurrying past on their way to Religious School classes, and enthusiastic, committed young teenagers serving as madrichim (classroom assistants). However, at Temple Beth-El, if you look closely at a few of these madrichim, you will see something truly unique. You will see the Jewish soul of a young adult who many thought wouldn't even become a bar/bat mitzvah. Yet here they are, still coming to temple every Sunday morning to serve in the Religious School. The reason for this is the cutting-edge special needs programming offered by Temple Beth-El's Religious School.
"David" was a student with a significant learning disability and attention issues. When he was in fifth grade, members of the Child Study Team at David's public school suggested that David not attempt to learn a foreign language. That wasn't an acceptable option for his parents, who wanted David to both learn and love Hebrew. David transitioned into Temple Beth-El's Special Needs program where his instruction was individualized and he learned to read Hebrew beautifully. His bar mitzvah was a highly meaningful experience as he read from the Torah and led the congregation in prayer. But this was not an ending; rather, this is where David's story begins. At temple, everyone always knew that David could learn Hebrew and become bar mitzvah; he just needed to be educated appropriately. What is truly significant is that David continued his Jewish education beyond his bar mitzvah. It was powerful and moving to sit in the sanctuary as he joined with his peers to lead the congregation in prayer as a Confirmand. David also became an active member of the senior youth group, serving on its board, and became an active member of NFTY, as well. This is the success story! Without Temple Beth-El's Special Needs programs, David would have been that frustrated boy who fought coming to Hebrew School every step of the way, barely limping through grade seven. Instead, David's handsome face shone from the bimah as he confirmed his faith and commitment to lead a Jewish life.
I was gratified to read the constructive comments about my previous blog, "Progressive Judaism: the Un-'official' Alternative," January 7, 2010. I hope that the dialogue sparks action. In 2006, my husband and I spent two months in South Africa shortly after the "Chief Rabbi" refused to participate in a memorial service for Yitzhak Rabin either because - we heard variously - a Reform rabbi was participating and/or a girl's chorus was singing. This issue obviously is very much alive and not just troubling but debilitating.
Now we have just returned from three weeks in Argentina, where the state does not support religion. While the Jewish community of course has many different kinds of problems and issues, in Buenos Aires - largely as a result of its history - it is not controlled by the Orthodox. The oldest congregation in the country, La Congregación Israelita de la República Argentina, is affiliated with the World Union for Progressive Judaism.
My name is Sharon. I have Cerebral Palsy. I grew up in a small town in North Dakota. My mom would take me to synagogue. I remember snuggling up close to her side, sitting amongst the stained glass windows, listening as she sang the prayers and I would sing along, too. Never thinking where I would be today on my spiritual journey.
I joined Bet Shalom Congregation nine years ago and love it every minute. I even had my Bat Mitzvah which was a big milestone in my life. Here it's going on the 5th anniversary. When I think about it and how much work went in it, it just blows my mind! But I did it and I'm so very proud!
by Mark Pelavin Associate Director, RAC (Originally posted on RACblog)
Here's an interesting idea. 31 of them actually.
Daniel Sieradski, who might best be thought as a Jewish communal techo-provacteur (is that OK Daniel?), has a fascinating project going on this month. Over at 31 Days, 31 Ideas he is posting a new idea for the Jewish community every day for the month of January. In his explanation of the project, he notes that
What I hope to achieve in doing so is to attract collaborators, executors, funders and general community support for these ideas so that wherever interest lies, we, collectively, can move forward in seeing these ideas manifest. I also hope to spark an open discussion about innovation, addressing the emerging needs of 21st century Jewry, and the role of establishment Jewish organizations in providing for the needs of the Jewish public.
Imagine this: You're the only Jewish student at your suburban Ohio high
school of 2,000. The synagogue your family attends holds Shabbat
services only twice a month, because there aren't enough Jews in the
area to generate weekly interest. You became a bat mitzvah
like other young Jews do, but your ceremony was held at the local
country club because your tiny temple didn't have the capacity - or the
air conditioning! - to accommodate your large August service.
I
don't have to imagine it, because growing up, that was my life. Don't
get me wrong: I have always been and felt Jewish. My mother instilled
in me Jewish values from a very young age, even when we were
celebrating Christmas with my gentile father, and I've always felt
connected to my Jewish identity. My mom fed this connection by assuring
me that even if I didn't have the strong ties to the community that
others had - the youth group experience, the summer camping adventures
- that I had "a Jewish soul."
At age 20, following the death
of a close friend, I began attending a university near my hometown,
living with my mother and attending my childhood synagogue. As I
renewed my spiritual relationship with my rabbi during this emotionally
tumultuous time, my rabbi encouraged me to get away from Ohio for a bit
and do something new - including connecting with my Judaism.
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OK, so maybe that's not exaaaactly what Pope Benedict said when crafting his message for the upcoming "World Communications Day," but his recent message about it very closely mirrors the ideas behind the Reform Jewish Movement's new communications and technology initiative, which Rabbi Eric Yoffie, President of the Union for Reform Judaism, announced last November at the 2009 URJ Biennial.
In his Shabbat morning sermon
(a video is below), Rabbi Yoffie announced that the Reform Movement's
new initiative would focus on "assisting congregations in developing or
expanding congregational blogs." He told Biennial attendees,
... from the time of Ezra, who rewrote the
Bible in a new script, we Jews have always adapted to our environment
and taken advantage of the latest technologies. To encode our
conversations and sacred texts, we moved with ease from stone tablets
to parchment to paper, and we will move with equal ease to the
electronic word. In fact, we should see the Web as one of the most
wondrous developments of all time.
In celebration of the congregation's sixtieth anniversary, the liturgy for our Erev Shabbat service was drawn from the siddurim the Reform movement has used during the synagogue's lifespan - the Union Prayer Book and its adjunct Union Hymnal, Gates of Prayer, and Mishkan T'filah. From candle-lighting UPB-style, we segued into "All the World Shall Come to Serve Thee. "
All the world shall come to serve Thee, And bless Thy glorious name, And Thy righteousness triumphant The islands shall acclaim. Yea, the peoples shall go seeking, Who knew Thee not before, And the ends of earth shall praise Thee, And tell thy greatness o'er.
I don't pretend to be an expert in Reform musicology, but I will make two observations about "All the World" that the experts can refute if I'm off base:
I associate it, not with Shabbat, but with Rosh Hashanah, since it appears as the closing hymn for the morning service in Union Prayer Book II and also in Gates of Remembrance.
It has always struck me as the hymn that best encapsulates Classical Reform worship, sung in English, with a universalistic message, somewhat ponderous lyric, and lofty musical style.
Nearly a year ago, a cadre of cantors, soloists and musicians from throughout south Florida sang the praises of Dr. Alan Mason, an extraordinary musician and friend of the Reform Movement in a concert honoring his 18 years of service as the director of music at Temple Israel in Greater Miami.
As I noted in my post last year, Alan has a way of tickling the ivories that brings forth incredibly rich tones and silky notes. He generously shares this gift with Reform Judaism, most notably at many of the Union's Biennial conventions. In recent years, as thousands joined together to sing unto God, Alan infused our services with incredible music, helping to make our worship truly sacred. You can hear some of his wonderful talent in this video clip from last year's concert.
On Saturday, January 23, 2010 at 8 p.m., in a reprise of that extraordinary event, more than 30 Jewish musicians--including Alan as the pianist, director and accompanist, as well as a percussionist and a flautist--will once again come together in Temple Israel's historic Bertha Abess Sanctuary for what is being billed as the "Greatest Cantorial Concert in South Florida History." Featuring Jewish music from around the world performed by musicians from all streams of Judaism, the concert promises to be a delight.
In a recent online discussion about independent minyanim (non-synagogue ad hoc prayer groups), someone suggested that the predominantly young people who populate the indy minyan scene would be seeking out synagogues when they had children of school age. As a member both of the synagogue "establishment" and of a generation that knew not day schools, I was inclined to agree - until I remembered my own Jewish education, in what I suppose we could refer to as an indy cheder (Hebrew school).
In the corner of the world where I grew up, the predominant modes of formal Jewish education were the Reform and Conservative congregational religious schools, the four-afternoon-a-week community-sponsored Talmud Torah, and private tutoring, which may or may not have included actually learning Hebrew, for a memorized, rote Orthodox bar mitzvah.
For a certain coterie of suburban professionals, including my parents, none of those alternatives was an appealing option for their children. The synagogue schools were too minimalist, the Talmud Torah too time-consuming, both in classroom hours and travel into the city, where the bulk of the Jewish population still lived. I don't know whether they sought a solution, or whether the solution presented itself, through the presence in Cleveland of one of the great heroes and pioneers in Jewish education, now virtually forgotten, Abraham H. Friedland, known to his friends, family and disciples by his Hebrew initials, Chet Aleph.
Friedland's "day job" was running the Bureau of Jewish Education and the community Talmud Torah system, the Cleveland Hebrew Schools. But in the course of his work and his volunteer activities, he attracted a personal following like Chasidim sitting at the foot of their rebbe. I remember that my mother shlepped downtown every Friday, and my father took time away from his office, to have lunch in a private room at the Russet Cafeteria, where Chet Aleph held court. His impact on the community was such that, five years after his death, we named our Habonim Zionist youth group chapter Chet Aleph, while my friends' AZA chapter (as the Bnai Brith Youth Organization was known in those days) was called Friedland AZA.
by Rabbi Paul Kipnes (Originally published on Or Am I?)
Our world is changing... will our synagogues keep up?
My kids' world is different than mine. They email, text, ichat (though my son told me this morning that skype has better video), facebook, watch tv, play video games and still seem to get their homework done. My wife tells me that they cannot focus as well or break off easily from the multisensory always wired world in which they exist. Yes, this concerns me. Yet I keep wondering if our concerns, while rightly focused on what will become of their lives as they develop these multitasking meta-personalities, are just further evidence the fact that we just might not "get it." (Are we the parents of the 1960's, decrying long hair and rock and roll music, things once described as the downfall of civilization as we know it? Or are we pre-Maccabees seeing the downfall of Jewish values?)
My rabbinic colleagues sometimes argue about what online social networking really means. They differentiate between "real community" and "virtual world," claiming that the former creates actual connections while the latter is, well, unreal. I keep wondering if differentiations they make are meaningless, because people increasingly live lives online, so that if we fail to embrace this new reality, we - synagogues, rabbis, non-networking communities - will soon become "virtual/unreal" ourselves.
Having been reading on JTA and in the Jewish blogosphere about the independent minyan phenomenon, I decided it was time to see for myself what it was all about, so I played hooky from my usual Shabbat community, the Kahal at Beth Emet, and ventured into this brave new world. For the benefit of late-comers, an independent minyan is a self-created worship group that operates outside the framework of the institutional synagogue.
Much of what I experienced was what I expected - but this is at least in part because what we get out of a worship experience is so closely tied to what we bring into it. Short summary: the keva (liturgical content) differed in detail from that of my Kahal but not substance; the kavana (intention) and the vibe seemed the same.
When my husband and I visited Vienna several times in the 1990s, the gemeinde (official Jewish community) would not publish the schedule of services at the Progressive Congregation Or Chadasch in its communal newspaper or even allow the congregation to buy an ad.
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die... -Ecclesiastes 3:1-2
Last Thursday, after a long struggle with cancer, Tsippy Oren, a veteran member of Shorashim, passed away, at home, at the age of 58. She was a remarkable member of a remarkable family. Classically "secular" Israelis deeply sympathetic to the liberal religious orientation of Shorashim, devout Zionists, strong advocates for social justice and civil society, open minded and open hearted - a sort of embodiment of the mythical Israeli. Tsippy was an occupational therapist, but beyond her professional commitments she was always quietly finding ways to help others - bereaved families, Arab women, families in trouble - and who knows who else. One son helped found a new kibbutz dedicated to education and social activism without great prospects for prosperity; a daughter became ultra-orthodox. The Orens didn't miss a beat and remained a model of a close and loving and inclusive family. Tsippy was our liaison when we were first visiting and considering joining Shorashim, and was our advocate when our candidacy was questioned because of our advanced age (44). I think part of what drew us here was the prospect of living in a community made up of people like her. Her loss is a very sad moment for all of us at Shorashim - all the more so because it represents a sort of actuarial turning point for us; in the early days of the community a young mother died of cancer, but that was an anomaly, a tragedy. In this death, on the other hand, we all hear the clock ticking.
There are questions that are so profound that they change our lives forever. And there are times when we hear a total stranger asking the same questions, and we realize that God is present - in our shared humanity and in our struggle to find answers. That's what happened to me this week.
For days, the people on iWorship have been discussing how to revitalize worship and how to attract young adults to our congregations. Someone got to the core question: How can we pray together as a community when we've never discussed our understandings of God? How can we say "Blessed are You" or "who sanctified us by Your commandments" when we've never discussed what those words mean? How can we come together when we've never discussed how God wants us to treat each other?
For me, reading the posting was one of those wonderful moments when I realized that we're not alone. All of us are asking the same questions. We're part of a community of communities and part of an ancient people, all struggling to find answers.
For the past two weeks, I had the opportunity to meet with Union for Progressive Judaism (UPJ) rabbis, congregational presidents, board members, youth and social action committees in Australia and New Zealand to discuss congregational social activism and Nothing But Nets. And what an incredible experience it has been -- both personally and professionally!
Through presentations, meetings and workshops, UPJ leadership learned about tools and resources available to help their congregation articulate and implement social action goals. During these gatherings, I shared the incredible work being done by URJ congregations in North America: Fain Award-winning projects, Just Congregations community organizing campaigns, RAC L'Taken seminars and Mitzvah Corps experiences.
In addition, I had the pleasure of speaking about Nothing But Nets, our campaign to combat the spread of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa by providing $10 bed nets to families living in refugee camps along the border of Sudan. UPJ congregations have been involved in Nothing But Nets since 2008 -- and it shows! From sanctuary displays to bar and bat mitzvah projects, from young adult trivia night benefits to challah bake fundraisers, it is clear that UPJ is well on its way to reaching its goal to raise $50,000 for Nothing But Nets.
Our contest yielded some fantastic entries: photos that truly captured the spirit and excitement of the Biennial and the beautiful city of Toronto.
After sorting through over 400 entries, our web team and staff from URJ Books & Music voted... and here are the winners! A big THANK YOU to everyone who participated and shared their images.
Grand prize: Steve Medwin wins a Flip digital camcorder for "Torah Service"
Second prize: W Zimmerman wins a signed copy of Tina Wasserman's new cookbook Entree to Judaism for his entry, "Kippah Collage"
Runners-up: Joy Weinberg. Ros Schwartz, Emily Goodstein, Kate Bigam, and Emilia Diamant will also receive prizes.
See their photos and the slideshow of all entries below...
We thank Sylvia, a Reform Jewish lay leader and physician/psychiatrist at Ft. Hood, for sharing this letter with RJ.org and our readers.
Dear family and friends,
Most of you by now have heard that though I work at Ft Hood, I am fine and I thought I would send you an update as I have not had much time to write to you.
I am still fine though a little tired after a day of being on call at the hospital for 11 hours. I think it helps that I have only been at Ft Hood a short time. I do know Major Hasan, as his office was not too far from mine and we often crossed paths. I think I am mostly sad, not only for the people shot and their families, but for Major Hasan as well. I am not sure he meant to survive, and now his life will be forever marked by this one horrific deed. It will be so difficult to remember the good he has done, his need for understanding and gentleness.
I think each and everyone of us, given the correct circumstance, could kill others as we each pray that we will never find ourselves in that place.
Many of my colleagues are furious, others still numb, some keep themselves so busy they have no time to think - but it will eventually catch up with them. Ironically, I was in a hospital classroom that was so interior we never heard the alarms on post -- and we were learning PMDB (prevention and management of disruptive behavior). We had reached the part of the class to manage combative people (without weapons thank you - if weapon, RUN!!) which used to be called "take down" but was referred to as "we no longer call it a take down" and it has been renamed "therapuetic containment". We were startled when people suddenly showed up telling us we had to hurry up and finish or end the class. They removed the removable walls and told us there had been a disaster code for mascal (mass casualties). As things unfolded, those with access to a TV knew more than we did.
Wow - it's hard to believe Biennial is already over! After all the planning, conference calls, and traveling, we spent an incredible weekend singing, praying, learning and growing with more than 3,000 other leaders of the Reform Movement. There were so many things we will remember from Biennial - the incredible plenary speakers, the Friday night song session, the challenges and innovative ideas about using technology to build community, ethical eating, and more. And, of course, all the work that went into making 2009 our the greenest, most sustainable Biennial yet!
Here are just a few of the green highlights:
Green minutes - Peter Weidhorn, Chairman of the URJ Board of Trustees, put on his 'green hat' at the end of each plenary session (well, not exactly a hat, but there was green stage lighting!) to talk about our greening Biennial work and highlight ways for congregations to get involved;
Launching Traveling Justly and the new URJ Environmental Sustainability Fund- The RAC used our booth to boost our new Sustainability Fund, which allows congregants and congregations to go carbon neutral by contributing to Kibbutz Lotan, Native Energy, and other clean energy development projects. The fund is also connects to our new Traveling Justly online resource with information about how to tread lightly - on people and the planet - whenever you travel;
Cutting our carbon footprint - URJ staff and volunteers did our best to reduce paper use by printing double sided and shrinking the Biennial Program Book by 1/3 from its 2007 length. We also recycled more than ever (thanks to the amazing bins put out by the Metro Toronto Convention Centre) and were more efficient in our energy use in the Convention Centre and our hotels;
Green-themed learning sessions with URJ, WRJ, and NFTY - Together, we taught and learned about greening our synagogues and how to be effective environmental advocates with our youth and other affiliates of the movement. All of these learning sessions included take-home greening tips for congregants and congregations, and many of them are available online.
Even in this tough economy, we're finding great ways to save green as we help our Movement go green by using less, conserving more, and raising awareness! Still, so much work remains to be done, and as Rabbi Tarfon teaches, while it might not be our job to complete the work, neither are we free to desist from it!
Last week, a truly incredible and significant segment of the American Reform Jewish people - more than 3,500 rabbis, lay leaders, administrators, staff, and volunteers - converged on Toronto for the 2009 Union for Reform Judaism Biennial. Speaking as a Reform Jew who grew up in near-ignorance that my community transcended Congregation Bet Ha'am in South Portland, Maine, I was overwhelmed by the nearly tangible energy omnipresent throughout the five day Biennial. I think I know why.
In 1912, Émile Durkheim, a sociologist living in Sydney, Australia, completed his greatest work on the origin and early practice of religion: The Elementary Forms of The Religious Life. Drawing primarily on field notes of religious practices in Aboriginal communities, Durkheim concluded that religion was fundamentally and necessarily a social phenomenon and that religion as part of the human experience was rooted in a process of collective effervescence. Effervescence is "people power;" it is the high energy generated when large groups of people congregate and forge a collective identity and an understanding of the sacred, one which guides and sustains that community during those times during which they cannot commune as a group. Taking Durkheim's suppositions a step further, we can see that even after its genesis, collective effervescence can invigorate, strengthen, and cement the bonds that form a religious community. read MORE
Barbara Lerman-Golomb is the Director of Education and Outreach for Hazon and an author, environmental activist and experiential educator. This post originally appeared at The Jew and the Carrot.
It was a moment I eagerly welcomed after first sitting down with Rabbi Yoffie more than six months ago to share with him the growing resources and diverse ways to connect to what Hazon has coined the new Jewish food movement, and to discuss the interplay between contemporary issues and ancient traditions-how our food choices impact not only our health, but the health of our planet.
The press has mostly picked up on the meat issue. There are 900 URJ congregations in North America. A significant reduction of meat intake by members of the Reform movement, as well as eating more local, organically grown food, will not only help these congregants live healthier, it will lessen the movement's collective carbon footprint.
It was the first time in 30 years the Union of Reform Judaism (URJ) Biennial was held here in Toronto, and Heebonics, as well as The CJN, was there. On Thursday, November 5th, one of the keynote speakers of the evening was founder and executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core, Dr. Eboo Patel.
The focus of his address was on what he considered to be the challenge of the 21st century. Race wars and the colour line the racial segregation that existed predominantly in the United States after the abolishment of slavery, having been the main fault line challenge of the 20th century, is the issue of the faith line today.
"Definitions are everything," he said. What we learned from the colour line is that it separated those who would live together as brothers; the faith line separates pluralism from extremism. Patel called for a greater use of proper language labels when condeming an individual or group for one's act of aggression against another, those rationalized and motivated by what the aggressor would claim is a religiously taught imperative. We must align them solely to the collective of extremists, dangerous to all denominations of life who strive for their way to dominate while everyone else's religious way of life suffocates.
Rather than bore you with details about food and beverage fiascos at the Union's recent Biennial convention in Toronto, let me tell you about the other side -- the hugs, the smiles, the reconnects and the new friends who previously existed only on Facebook and in cyberspace.
A few in particular come to mind:
Early on, I met Rachel Turry Roth, managing director of the American Conference of Cantors in Chicago. We'd had numerous email and Facebook exchanges in recent months, but hadn't ever met face-to-face. That happened on Sunday (or was it Monday?) night in the lobby of the Fairmont Royal York Hotel. Lucky for both of us, we were able to steal away for a late-night cup of tea on Tuesday (or was it Wednesday?) in the hotel's Gold Level lounge. How nice to have a new friend!
In the wee hours of Thursday morning, I posted this status update on Facebook: Saw lots of Facebook friends in person today. Especially looking forward to meeting Phyllis Sommer tomorrow! To that, Phyllis (aka Ima on (and off) the Bima) responded: Can't wait to meet you too! Hanging out at O'Hare waiting for my flight...
If you or your children have ever attended one of the Union for Reform Judaism's 12 camps (13 this summer, with the opening of 6 Points Sports Academy!), you probably owe a debt of gratitude to philanthropist and real estate entrepreneur Harold Grinspoon, whose support for Jewish education has had a profound impact on countless Jews.
Since 2004, the Harold Grinspoon Foundation has provided more than $20 million in services and matching grants to help make camping a central part of Jewish life. Another program, administered by the Grinspoon Institute for Jewish Philanthropy, provides expert counseling services that aid in the development of professional and lay camp leaders. By funding technology initiatives, he has also made it possible for the URJ to increase contact and participation with camp alumni in development programs.
The following video of our "Celebration of Jewish Camping" features an introduction of Harold and his phenomenal accomplishments and generosity, along with remarks from him about the importance of Jewish camping. Keep watching for our tribute to Jewish camping and all it's done for Jews across North America.
At her Shabbat study luncheon at last week URJ Biennial in Toronto, noted sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer closed by telling attendees, "Now I want all of you in relationships - don't pick up someone in the hallway, I'm very old-fashioned - to go to your hotel rooms tonight and try a new position. And call me up afterwards."
In New Voices magazine's analysis of the Biennial, addressing, specifically, why our most unusual suspects (Tony Blair and Dr. Ruth) were our most effective speakers, blogger Carly Silver writes:
Dr. Ruth Westheimer is a Jewish celebrity of the infamous kind, one whom it is sort of embarrassing to acknowledge. Her explicitness and candid interviews are funny, revealing, and applicable to the topic with which she deals, but why would the URJ want a sex therapist to speak? The answer simply lies in the fact that she is a wonderful representative for Judaism today. An empowered woman in her own right, Westheimer is a "Holocaust survivor and ex-Haganah fighter," one who has survived the travails of anti-Semitism and emerged stronger. She created her own brand, carved out her own unique niche in society, and advocates sexual equality, a view that is reminiscent of the often-liberal view that the URJ holds.
RAC staffer Sean Thibault caught up with Dr. Ruth at the Biennial for a quick chat about sex, sexuality, & the Jewish tradition.
by Rabbi Paul Kipnes (Originally posted on Or Am I?)
Rabbi Eric Yoffie, President of the Union for Reform Judaism, gave his Shabbat morning sermon at the URJ's 70th Biennial Convention in Toronto. Read the full text. Just after he delivered it in Toronto, I read the text of his sermon in West Hills, CA (isn't technology wonderful?). Thoughtful, eloquent as always, Rabbi Yoffie launched two Biennial initiatives:
Just Table, Green Table:Rabbi Yoffie calls for a commitment to ethical eating, asking synagogue leaders to "carefully, thoughtfully, Jewishly" formulate new eating guidelines for their communities.
Embracing Technology: Reform Judaism's opportunity to engage with communities and help congregations relate to members in the online space has reached a tipping point. At the Biennial in Toronto, Rabbi Yoffie urged the Reform Movement to create congregational blogs and experiment with a range of creative technological approaches to strengthen community ties and help build community.
Each of these initiatives offer food for thought (pun intended). I am particularly taken with his interest in expanding the use of technology within the synagogue world. We are finding, at Congregation Or Ami, that - through eNewsletters, this blog, our Facebook page, Twitter (newly using it), photo page and videos - we are reaching more people than would ever walk through the doors (except, perhaps, on the High Holy Days).
It's difficult to believe that, after all our hard work and anticipation, the URJ's 70th Biennial has come and gone - but indeed, we're done! The attendees have returned to their respective homes, the URJ staff has (mostly!) recovered our much-needed hours of sleep, and we're already anticipating the 71st Biennial, which will be held in Washington, D.C., home of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.
It's safe to say that our time in Toronto was an incredible experience for all those who attended - participants, staff, volunteers, and presenters alike were touched by the togetherness and sense of community that the Biennial inspires. Here, we recount some of the highlights:
Toni L. Kamins is the Communications Manager at the Union for Reform Judaism
This is my first Biennial. In fact it's the start of my eighth week as the communications manager at the Union. It's Shabbat morning and if you thought the Union staff was anxious in the weeks and days leading up to this event you ain't seen nothing yet. This is the morning of THE SERMON. Rabbi Eric Yoffie's sermon that unveils his social and congregational initiatives for the Reform Movement. THE SERMON has been written, rewritten, parsed, dissected, poked, prodded, discussed, re-thought, and analyzed by a small cadre of confidants for months. And not to put too fine a point on the precision and rigor with which these people work, it went through one more fact check as recently as a couple of hours ago. In truth, despite all the consultation and advice, it is all Rabbi Yoffie. But the moment has arrived....ready or not. The Torah has been read; the Haftorah chanted, prayers have been invoked, blessings asked, and songs have been sung. Now Rabbi Yoffie rises from his seat on the bimah to speak to 3500 congregants seated in front of him in a humongous hall cum sanctuary at a convention center in Toronto.
I don't know how many times I read THE SERMON in the last few weeks, but it was a lot. Yet to hear Rabbi Yoffie give voice to what had become to me just a collection of phrases was something of a revelation. I don't know Rabbi Yoffie well -- I've been at the Union less than two months. I do know he's an intense, thoughtful, intelligent man who is profoundly committed to the Reform Movement and its future and who cares deeply about the world and Am Yisrael. Today I got to see and hear a bit more of why he is so well respected, and why he deserves to have us call him rabbi in the traditional sense of the word.
Just Table, Green Table: Rabbi Yoffie calls for a commitment to ethical eating, asking synagogue leaders to "carefully, thoughtfully, Jewishly" formulate new eating guidelines for their communities.
Embracing Technology: Reform Judaism's opportunity to engage with communities and help congregations relate to members in the online space has reached a tipping point. At the Biennial in Toronto, Rabbi Yoffie urged the Reform Movement to create congregational blogs and experiment with a range of creative technological approaches to strengthen community ties and help build community.
On Thursday, Women of Reform Judaism's Executive Director Shelley Lindauer, addressed WRJ's 47th assembly attendees. Below is an excerpt from this address.
"During the past two years, as our nation, our non-profit organizations, and most of us personally have faced enormous difficulties, WRJ has still been able to count its blessings and successes:
We gave 30 scholarships to sisterhoods to send representatives to the Sisterhood Leadership Conference, and another 18 for women to attend this assembly;
Tina D. Wasserman, a member of Temple Emanu-El in Dallas, is the author of the new URJ Press book, Entrée to Judaism, and a contributor to Reform Judaism magazine.
Yesterday was an extremely exciting and exhausting day. About 190 people attended my cooking presentation, and the audience had a lot of questions. I enjoyed helping them recreate memories and helped it along by having a big pot of hot chicken soup sitting by the water stand for them to smell as they came in. We didn't discuss chicken soup per se, but many questions about Bubbe's recipes were directed to me. Seems like many Hungarian grandma's didn't write down their recipes or teach them to their children! Note to myself: Need to learn more about Hungarian cuisine, even if one reader says my recipes are right on the mark for her Hungarian father!
Right after my talk, I had a book signing at the URJ Books and Music store, and people were lined up for quite a distance. But I wrote fast, listened to stories, gratefully accepted positive feedback from the attendees and grinned a great deal. Two camping administrators from Newman and Harlam who have known my daughter and my family for 12 years were watching me and patting themselves and pointing at me with grins on their faces and saying,"We knew her when." What they really knew was my challah and rugelach that I always sent to camp straight out of the oven and FedEx overnight!
Once a RAC LA, Always a RAC LA
November 6, 2009
Rebecca Blake Chaikin is a former RAC Legislative Assistant who now serves on the Union for Reform Judaism's Resolutions Committee.
Twenty-five years ago Larry Milder wrote, "Wherever you go, there's always someone Jewish." (See his Biennial performance of it below!) Being at Biennial, I feel that wherever I go, there's always a current or former RAC Legislative Assistant!
Whether serving on committees or the URJ Board, running NFTY programming, working on the URJ staff or presenting at learning sessions, former RAC LAs have a considerable presence here. It is a testament to the dedication to Reform Judaism fostered by the intense, challenging, and immeasurably rewarding Eisendrath Legislative Assistant program that being a RAC LA is so often only the beginning of an adult life spent in service to the Movement.
Rabbi Phyllis Sommer, who blogs at Ima on (and off) the Bima, was a presenter today at the URJ Biennial learning session "Intro to Social Media: Facebook and Flickrand Twitter, Oh My." This post is reprinted with permission.
Every other year, Reform Jews get together to celebrate Jewish life, to learn from each other and share music, worship, and companionship. It's a really wonderrful experience, with some of the finest musicians, teachers, speakers and programs.
Last night, literally as the first reports of the tragic shootings at Fort Hood were coming in, the 3,000 participants in the URJ Biennial heard a remarkable speech from a remarkable man, Eboo Patel, Director the Interfaith Youth Corps. His remarks, addressed the importance of using religion as a bridge, rather than as a dividing line. As some may rush to draw broad conflations from the fact that the Fort Hood gunman appears to have been a Muslim, I find myself thinking of Dr. Patel's words last night that "Killers do not deserve the honor of a religious label."
Dr. Patel writes movingly about hearing the news of shootings while he was at our Biennial in a characteristically incisive posting on the Washington Post's "On Faith" blog. He expands on the comment from his speech, saying "Killers do not deserve the honor of a religious label. The man who killed a group of brave American soldiers deserves one name and one name only: murderer."
Greg Kellner is a URJ Biennial Music Assistant and the Assistant Director at URJ Eisner and Crane Lake Camps.
In just a short while, the Metro Toronto Convention Centre Hall F will be transformed from a mundane space to something holy. For most of the Biennial, I have been tucked in the rehearsal room listening to rehearsals for song session, worship experiences and concerts. I've watched talented artists transform workshops and move our attendees. Yesterday we were blessed by the presence of Ma'ariv services led by Debbie Friedman, along with Rabbi Dan Freelander and Peter and Ellen Allard.
I was blown away this morning by the talent of five amazing teenagers from the Teen T'fillah Team from Temple Israel of West Bloomfield, MI. I've worked with many groups of teens putting together ensembles, but when these five teens opened their mouths, I was speechless. I listened in awe of not only their talent, but their clear love for Judaism and Jewish music. While certainly the aural experience for the congregation will be amazing, more importantly I can tell that these teens are transformed by the experience of being a part of something so special.
I was somewhere between overly optimistic and hopelessly naive when I promised to blog from the Biennial. Too much to do, too little time, even to gather thoughts much less write them down. So far I have attended a workshop on congregational transitions, one on synagogue federation relations, one on Orthodox Judaism, and I'm sure I'm forgetting something. A brilliant speech by Anita Diamant on "minhag America," her view on where Reform Judaism is going. Israeili officials including Avishay Braverman and Michael Oren providing perspectives very different from what might have been expected. Tony Blair on dialogue among faith communities as one way to address the problems of any increasingly globalized society.
If there is a single message I have extracted it is that the best is the enemy of the good, that we must move forward even with solutions that are less than perfect, whether we're talking about global warming, healthcare reform, or finding new modes of worship and praxis in the Reform movement. As Anita Diamant expressed it, a tree thrives both because of its strong roots and the new shoots that appear on its branches.
Here I am at my tenth Biennial, and much is familiar, but nothing is old. Ken yirbu -- so may it continue.
Daphne Price is the executive assistant and adviser to Rabbi David Saperstein, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.
This afternoon, at the URJ Biennial Convention, I had the honor and pleasure to hear from Dr. Michael Meyer of HebrewUnionCollege. Dr. Meyer lectured on the topic of "American Orthodoxy." The description of the session read, "We shall discuss the history of Jewish Orthodoxy in the United States, the various shapes it assumes at present, its principles, its inner conflicts, and the direction in which it is moving. We shall then ask: Is there a common ground on which we, as Reform Jews, can build a relationship with our Orthodox brothers and sisters?"
Dr. Meyer described the growth of Orthodox Judaism in the United States - what Orthodoxy looked like in the early years, its "mushroom" Jews, the arrival of Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik in the United States and his lasting influence as the founder of Modern Orthodoxy. He lectured on Charedi Jews and what it means to be an ultra-Orthodox Jew. He used Chabad as the most popular example, and spoke of the lasting impact of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, who shaped the Chabad Movement when he was alive, and according to some, even more after his passing. He described Rabbi Norman Lamm's contribution to the Jewish community as the chancellor of YeshivaUniversity. In each case, Dr. Meyer described with vivid examples the great disparity and lack of cohesiveness within the Jewish community, placing Orthodoxy on the one side, and Conservative and Reform Judaism on the other. It felt like the disparity, as he described it, created a huge, unbridgeable chasm between the Reform and Orthodox worlds.
Rabbi Elyse Frishman is the spiritual leader of The Barnert Temple in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey. She is the editor of Mishkan T'filah, A Reform Siddur.
Next Dor: Synagogue 3000 is a forum with Larry Hoffman, Ron Wolfson, Jessica Zimmerman, Esther Lederman, Jim Green, Michelle Citrin and Josh Nelson
A summary: Next "Dor", the next generation. We are neglecting our 25-40 years olds, many of whom live in cities. It's possible that twenty years could elapse from the time a college graduate has a child eligible for religious school: twenty years of absence from the synagogue, twenty years of being a "homeless" Jew.
As daunting as the challenge appears, dare we not attend to this missing generation? Our generation has had its opportunity to create our Jewish world. The next generation has its music, its art, its culture, its voice: are we listening? Next Dor urges us to hire a professional whose work is not to missionize the synagogue, but to build relationships with these Jews, one by one -- a liberal Chabad per se. Meeting these young Jews where they live, physically and metaphorically, and listening to what they deem to be meaningful and compelling will help us to reshape what we offer. If we care, we'll listen -- really listen -- and respond.
Helene Dunbar is the Manager of Marketing and Communications of the Women of Reform Judaism.
In her outgoing presidential address, Women of Reform Judaism (WRJ) President, Rosanne M. Selfon addressed a question she has been asked repeatedly during her four-year term: "Do congregations really need a sisterhood? In our egalitarian movement, what value does a single gender organization for women bring to temple life where myriad committees and special interest groups exist?"
Her response, she stated, has always been in the affirmative both for the benefit of the women involved and for the world that these women's affect.
Sisterhood women share special bonds as well as a collective commitment to mitzvot. Collectively," she said "through WRJ as well as our local sisterhoods, we bring programs and projects otherwise labeled impossible to fruition. Your local sisterhood is not just an eating club, a book group, a maj jong party or a golf league though many of us participate in those activities. As an organized collective, we have a mission: sustaining liberal Judaism worldwide while engaging our members to live Jewishly and sustain meaningful relationships with like-minded women. In sisterhood, our work and play both make a difference, because we, literally, change lives."
Dawn Bernstein is the cantorial soloist at Temple Kol Ami in Thornhill, Ontario. She blogs at Dawn Ponders; this post is reprinted with permission.
It has been a number of years since I sang in a choir. I have sung with choirs, for choirs and conducted choirs. But given my soloist status over these many years, singing with a group of many souls attempting to make various voices sound as one has not been on my radar. So, it was with tremendous excitement and anticipation that I registered to participate in the Biennal choir.
This decision is not one for the faint of heart or the weak of voice. The music is challenging and the hours are long. Participants need to arrive at the conference a day ahead of schedule in order to attend all rehearsals, and they need to be willing to invest several hours in advance of the conclave studying the various pieces. We are a diverse group, spanning many regions, many ages and many vocal stylings, but above all, we are there for the music, and the chance to enhance Shabbat morning worship.
We've arrived! Here's our first Biennial video, a warm welcome to all attendees from staff, volunteers and participants. If you're not able to be here with us, you can follow along with all the action right here on RJ.org or by visiting our Biennial website, where we'll be constantly updating with photos, videos, blog posts, tweets and more.
And if you're here? Welcome to Toronto, of course!
Women of Reform Judaism's 47th Assembly is well underway with committee and board meetings completed and our first round of workshops taking place this afternoon.
This first workshop block shows the diversity of the interests and the issues that are important to the women who make up Women of Reform Judaism. There are walking tours of Kensington Market and Toronto, as well as an introduction to assembly itself; what a thrill it must be to be attending for the first time!
WRJ is all about the bonds that women create and that is reflected in this workshop block. These bonds exist between each other ("Women Connecting with Other Women"), between themselves and the next generation ("The Special Bond of Sisterhood and Temple Youth") and between leadership ("For Sisterhood Presidents: A Conversation with Your Peers").
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Rabbi Laura Novak WIner is a Youth Specialist with the Union for Reform Judaism.
What do the Encyclopaedia Britannica and the Yellow Pages have in common? They are both resources that young people today have probably rarely seen or rarely if ever utilize. Print resources like this, as those of us of older generations know, are obsolete almost immediately after going to print. Wikipedia, Google and Craigslist have taken their place.
Thankfully, Torah is not like the Yellow Pages! Torah is eternal. Its messages and lessons are as relevant today as they were thousands of years ago. As Reform Jews, we keep those lessons relevant through our ongoing process of study, interpretation, and midrash-making.
During the Symposium on Jewish Identity's program on technology today, Dr. David Bryfman enlightened us to this dynamic in the Jewish teenage online universe. If one digs deep into the web, one can find teens actively engaged in creating their own texts, their own interpretations of the weekly parshiot (Torah portions). Their creativity, their desire to find complexity and nuance in Judaism, their ongoing questioning, as well as their deep care and concern about being Jewish are all translated into online Jewish engagement in study and interpretation of Torah.
Great news, right!? Of course it is. Teens studying Torah - what can be bad about that? Bryfman poses challenging questions for us. What are the implications of this for the way in which we engage youth in our synagogues, our institutions, our movement? How might we need to think differently about Jewish teens? How must we think differently about how we engage those teens? How can we do all that and still be authentic?
I continued to ponder these questions as we concluded a full day of learning. I look forward to tomorrow's continuation of the conversation.
Melissa Simon is a student at HUC-JIR in NY and serving as an intern for the Symposium on Jewish Identity.
One of the really thought-provoking aspects of the morning's Symposium on Jewish Identity was a discussion of technology and Jewish identity called iDENTITY, with Dr. Dan Mendelsohn Aviv, Dr. David Bryfman and Scott Hertz facilitated by Rabbi Karen Thomashow. Each of the panelists spoke passionately about Jewish identity and technology.
One idea that I found particularly interesting was the idea of putting out information - event details and important messaging, for example - using multiple modes of communication, including email, Twitter, Facebook, and on the front page of websites. There isn't just one mode that everyone utilizes, nor is there one mode that works best for everyone.
Wendy Grinberg is an Adult Learning Specialist with the Union for Reform Judaism.
When I got off the plane in Toronto, the customs and immigration officer asked me what brought me here. I told him, "A conference." "About what?" "Jewish identity." *snicker* "Did I say something wrong?" "No. You said, 'Jewish identity'. We can usually identify the Jews. I'm not sure I could have picked you out of a line-up."
We spent some time the first night at the Symposium on Jewish Identity talking about what we mean by Jewish identity, and it's a far cry from identifying stereotypical Jewish features or dress. The definition has changed over time, as has the social context. Whereas people used to be more concerned with counting behaviors that were socially recognizable (lighting Shabbat candles, giving to Jewish organizations), now social psychologists seem to be more interested in how people tell their stories and their general feelings and attitudes. As Michael Zeldin put it, we've moved from "How Jewish are Jews?" to "How are Jews Jewish?"
When I changed my synagogue affiliation a little over two years ago, I made a commitment to myself and to my wife that I would worship and I would study, but would not get myself embroiled in committee meetings or matters of congregational governance. (Been there, done that.) But I recently did attend a Beth Emet board meeting, because I thought it was my responsibility as a member of the Union's North American Board to talk up the Union for Reform Judaism Biennial.
At that meeting, I told the Beth Emet leadership that we had chosen their congregation not only because it is closer to home but because, in so many ways, it is a vanguard congregation for the Reform movement, showing the way in social action, in commitment to world Jewry; in inspirational participatory worship, and in intellectually stimulating programming. But to continue to be a vanguard congregation, I continued, you certainly have at least to ride in the van, if not to drive it. And the way the van gets its fuel is to fill up every second year at the URJ Biennial.
The Circus is Coming to Town
November 2, 2009
Dawn Bernstein is the cantorial soloist at Temple Kol Ami in Thornhill, Ontario. She blogs at Dawn Ponders; this post is reprinted with permission.
They are about to descend upon my city - 3,000 or so of North America's finest, and certainly most committed, progressive Jews are coming to my hometown this week in order to engage in the Union for Reform Judaism's Biennial conference. It has been 30 years since the Union has brought its sideshow north of the border, and we Canucks have been anxiously awaiting and planning for the return engagement.
For the neophyte amongst you, allow me to explain why this is such a big deal in my world. Every other year, the Union brings its travelling medicine show, complete with member rabbis, cantors, educators, lay leaders, the finest that Jewish music has to offer, and the best of the best in the Reform movement, to a city heavy with anticipation to discuss, converse, study, pray and generally examine the health of progressive Judaism in North America and around the world. The study sessions engage in everything from fundraising possibilities for member congregations, to music workshops, to board training, to political activism, to t'fillah engagement, to outreach programs, and so on and so on and so on. It is a chance for us in the "biz" to recharge our batteries, reconnect with colleagues, re-engage with our chosen work and re-energize our professions. It is a chance for lay members to learn anew, bring fresh ideas back into their congregations and to just understand that others find themselves in similar situations as do they. In short, it is a major undertaking, and the fact that all of these Jews will be descending upon the Great White North this week is fairly significant.
My father recently finished the Baatz book and has now passed it along to me, highly recommended. You may recall that I first mentioned this particular book in a blog post I wrote last year at about this time. That was shortly after he and I - as we do each year - spent a bit of time on Yom Kippur afternoon browsing in the Barnes and Noble near my parents' congregation.
The days between the High Holidays are a time of reflection, apology, prayer and introspection for the Jewish people. While Shabbat affords us this opportunity each week, I feel like the Shabbat between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Shabbat Shuvah, is all the more special and powerful. So last Friday night I joined more than 100 young adults (both in age and in spirit) at Temple Shaarey Tefila for Shabbat Unplugged. This service is a celebration of Shabbat, bringing together people of different backgrounds, creeds and orientations to sing, celebrate and be together as a community to welcome the Sabbath bride.
I take the community aspect of this service very seriously and feel it is perhaps the most important aspect of my Shabbat. That is why I got up early on Saturday morning to travel to Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope to help this community--a community of people from different backgrounds, creeds and orientations--enjoy and sanctify the Shabbat.
Just a few days after this post appeared on the Union's blog, I came home to find a letter in my mailbox from the senior rabbi at my new congregation inviting me to bless the candles at Kol Nidre services on Sunday evening, September 27th.
Although I know that my oneg Shabbat experience of a few weeks ago and the appearance of this letter are two unrelated events, in light of the latter, I can't help but feel a bit sheepish at having related my slice-of-life experience regarding the former. In any event, I have accepted the rabbi's invitation and so for the first time in many, many years, I'll be someplace other than in my home congregation for Kol Nidre.
Kol Hakavod to Congregation B'nai
Israel, Bridgeport,
CT, who aunched a new blog on 1 Elul.
Entitled 'Sh'ma Koleinu - Hear Our Voices', it offers
inspirational thoughts, poetry, spiritual reflections and practices, and
holistic approaches to a centered life. Clergy, Educators and congregants will contribute, comment and reflect on the daily posts. Here is a taste of the blog from 6 Elul. Read more at http://shmakoleinu-hearourvoices.blogspot.com/
For years I was very flexible about my celebration of Rosh Hashanah. If I could,
I spent it with family. If that wasn't convenient, I found other ways to observe
the holiday. Some years I went to services, some years I didn't. What really
mattered was eating something sweet and reflecting on the past and on the
future.
One year I was on vacation in Sweden with my father and
sister. On Erev Rosh Hashanah we were driving back to Stockholm from a weekend
trip, and we stopped at a rest area. We couldn't find apples and honey so we
celebrated with a plate of cookies. The next morning we found the main synagogue
in Stockholm and showed up for services. We didn't anticipate that the prayer
books would be in Swedish and Hebrew, and we had some trouble following along,
but we felt that we had done something to observe the day before resuming our
sightseeing.
By JanetheWriter For as long as I can remember, I've been hearing the same "blue cup announcement" during Shabbat services from the bema of my home congregation, Temple Emanu-El in Edison, New Jersey: "If you're new to the temple, please use a blue cup for your beverage during the oneg Shabbat so that we can identify you and welcome you personally to the congregation." I'd always presumed that visitors and new members heeded this request when choosing their cups, but beyond acknowledging it as a creative idea, I'd never given it too much thought.
The current debate on health care issues must find its way into every one of our congregations. The fear mongering about the so called "death panels" is a fabrication of the highest order, and President Obama is correct when he says that much of this comes down to fear vs. hope.
It is also imperative that congregations get involved in teaching how Judaism can inform and guide us in making sacred decisions as life ebbs. The Sacred Aging project of the Union for Reform Judaism has long been involved in setting up such model programs in congregations, creating safe and supportive environments to teach these traditions. Many congregations already have regular programs that teach how to approach life's end in light of medical technology, laws etc.
by Joanna Blotner Religion & Faith Program Coordinator, Human Rights Campaign Former Eisendrath Legislative Assistant at the RAC (Originally appeared at RACblog)
Two weekends ago, a gunman attacked the Agudah LGBT community center in Tel Aviv, murdering two young, gay Israelis. When I first heard this news, I was shocked, horrified, angry, embarrassed, sad and instantaneously compelled to act. I was reacting not only to yet another hate crime perpetrated against the LGBT community but, more personally, I was reacting to a hate crime perpetrated in "my" Jewish community, as well. I was ashamed that Jewish teachings, culture and society played a role, likely a significant one (I say "likely" because the shooter has not yet been apprehended) in providing a motive for this atrocity.
In DC, a handful of young professional Jewish and LGBT community activists rallied to organize a vigil in remembrance of the victims and in solidarity with Israel to combat homophobia wherever it exists. Similar vigils also took place in the major cities across the country. Unfortunately, meaningful and well-meaning vigils alone do not affect the sustainable transformation in attitudes, beliefs, and actions that are needed in the Jewish community. The cadre of organizers I worked with to plan the DC vigil uniformly agreed that follow-up work was essential in combating homophobia, transphobia, ignorance, apathy and broad-ranging heteronormativity as they manifest themselves in our temples, community centers, camps, youth groups, political organizations, and other Jewish spaces.
But what exactly does that change look like?
read MORE
by Steve Friedman and Maxine Sukenik (A debate originally published inReform Judaism magazine)
YES by Steve Friedman, immediate past president of Central Reform Congregation in St. Louis, Missouri
No Tickets = No Barriers.
After I moved back to St. Louis from Houston 25 years ago, I knew I didn't want to rejoin the synagogue I'd attended growing up. In the midst of visiting different temples, I learned that I could attend High Holiday services at Central Reform Congregation (CRC) without worrying about tickets. I was glad there was a place open to someone like me who was searching for a new spiritual home...and after I attended CRC's High Holiday services, which were so meaningful and spiritually fulfilling, I knew I'd found one. Many others have found a home at Central Reform the same way.
Rabbi Johanan said in the name of Rabbi Simeon bar Yohai: If Israel were to keep two Sabbaths according to the laws thereof, they would be redeemed immediately. -Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Shabbat, page 118b
When Shorashim was founded by about a dozen young families in the early 1980s, the group decided that while they were not (yet) affiliated with any particular denomination of Judaism, they wanted Shabbat to be an important part of the life of the community. They decided to hold services Friday evening and Saturday morning. Shorashim did not have a rabbi or other professional religious leadership, so the tasks of conducting services, preaching, and reading Torah were divided up among those with the requisite skills and willingness. Alas, there was only one competent Torah reader in the community, and he, like everyone else, wanted occasionally to spend Shabbat with friends or relatives elsewhere in the country - or even to go abroad. A problem: what would we do in his absence? A solution: commit to Shabbat morning services every other week. On "off" weeks, the Torah reader - and everyone else, would be free to travel (or sleep late) without letting the community down. Friday evening services could still be held weekly.
With Tisha B'Av now behind us, we turn our hearts (literally) to the next (minor) holiday on the Jewish calendar - Tu B'Av - which this year, begins on Tuesday night, August 4th.
Tu B'Av? What's that?
According to My Jewish Learning, Tu B'Av, which, like Tisha B'Av, takes its name from its place in the lunar calendar (the 15th of the month of Av) "served as a matchmaking day for unmarried women in the second Temple period (before the fall of Jerusalem in 70 C.E.)." The article continues, "Tu B'Av was almost unnoticed in the Jewish calendar for many centuries but it has been rejuvenated in recent decades, especially in the modern state of Israel. In its modern incarnation it is gradually becoming a Hebrew-Jewish Day of Love, slightly resembling Valentine's Day in English-speaking countries." You can read more about the festival here.
My dad was only supposed to be in Little Rock for a quick check-up, three days and then home. It turned out, he was gone for a whole month. By about the second week, I sent a message to a friend whose family is there, asking her parents to check in on my dad. She forwarded the message to them and to Rabbi Levy, of Congregation B'nai Israel.
Rabbi Levy came to visit Dad in the hospital, and since I was there, we all sat around and played Jewish geography. Within a few minutes, we determined that my dad had been at Rabbi Levy's ordination ceremony. Stuff like this always happens, doesn't it?
A few weeks ago, in one of the many emails that crosses my desk daily was a link to Shmaltz Brewing Company, makers of He'brew, the Chosen Beer. It seems that the company, as part of its 13th anniversary celebration, is seeking bar and bat mitzvah photos to be featured on its website and, for one lucky "winner," on the label of its seasonal anniversary ale, Jewbelation 13. You can read more about Shmaltz' bar and bat mitzvah photo project here.
Very early this morning, I posted this update on Facebook: "JanetheWriter is welcoming a new Jew today...and very honored to be part of the process."
To which a friend in Vermont commented: "Oh wow! How very cool."
A while later, I met Rosita Goldstein--fresh from the mikveh and her questioning by the beit din--and indeed it was "very cool." Together we (her husband, four children, another witness and I) walked with her as she took the final steps on her journey to Judaism.
At a Catholic funeral Mass today for a man who gave so much to the Village of Larchmont community as a member and chief of its volunteer fire department, the priest based his homily on a passage from Luke: "Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it."
His message, as it related to Tommy Connell, was that Tommy often risked his life to save others. "Tommy was a giver," the priest said. Tommy gave to the community, he gave to his family, he gave love and he gave hope.
As hard as it may have been to swallow the message of eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven, the priest's message that "we don't have enough givers" rang true. What, after all, is a life devoted to tikun olam about, if it isn't about the message that we need to live our lives involved in the world and not separate from it?
As she kept on praying before the Lord, Eli watched her mouth. Now Hannah was praying in her heart, only her lips moved, but her voice could not be heard. So Eli thought she was drunk. -Samuel 1:12-13
Schools are closed during Pesach, and many businesses and offices are closed for part of the week. This creates a great opportunity for family vacations - or, alternatively, a strong need for activities to entertain the children. Thus, traffic on the roads is a constant nightmare, 24 hours a day. There seems to be no major intersection that is not backed up in all directions. Part of the cause of all that traffic is a plethora of festivals - it seems that there are more every year. Sculpture, storytelling, music, juggling, beach, dance, wine, theater - you name it, there is some locality somewhere in the country holding a festival for it during Pesach. These are generally the result of a combination of local boosterism, somebody's artistic vision, and capitalism. In particular, localities in the periphery seek to capitalize on the presence of thousands of vacationers from the center of the country, luring them to buy food and drink and stuff by means of cultural events and family entertainments.
By Rabbi Paul Kipnes
(Originally posted on Or Am I?)
For me, Congregation Or Ami is most compelling when we are singing together. Music uplifts, inspires, teaches, transmits values, is joyous, is fun, can be transformational. Our Cantor Doug Cotler encourages and invites others to sing with, play with, and create the music that celebrates holiness and the Holy One.
Our Vision and Values place "musical" within the first lines of self-description:
At Or Ami, people matter. Congregation Or Ami is home to a warm and welcoming, innovative, musical Jewish community. We deepen relationships with each other, while immersing in Torah, Israel and the Source of All Life. We travel together down Jewish paths which inspire our hearts and souls, and transform us to seek justice and nurture compassion in the world.
Our Jewish texts and sources say little about the Jewish responsibility to build affordable housing. We have no biblical command that mandates, "Thou shall build affordable housing for the needy in your community." Yet, we have texts that instruct us to share our bread with the hungry, to welcome the poor into our homes, and to clothe the naked (Isaiah 58:6-7). Our people and our tradition are well aware of the problems of poverty and homelessness. The challenge for us, as American and as Jews, is to broaden the scope of our thinking about housing beyond the homeless and poorest of the poor.
We must ask ourselves a few questions: How do we consider the needs of those who have housing but whose housing is insufficient? How do we advocate for those who are working one, two, or three jobs but cannot afford to live in neighborhoods that nourish their children's lives? How do we respond to the needs of the elderly - whose mobility may have decreased, whose income is fixed, and who cannot afford to sell their homes and move to corridors that have access to food, healthcare, and public transportation?
by Marge Eiseman I sat at the pre-Purim pizza dinner this week schmoozing with people who have known me my whole life. One of them was my 1st grade Sunday School teacher. It's pretty easy to keep these connections, since we've all belonged to Congregation Sinai in Milwaukee for these past 50 years. I know their kids and grandkids, and that night I introduced them to one of my 20-year old sons. As it turns out, I'm Facebook friends with various members of their families.
One of them asked me "What is Facebook? Isn't e-mail good enough?" And I had to stop and think why I use it everyday, and what advantage it has over the "traditional" (oy!) means of exchanging email or -gasp!- old fashioned letters.
by Rabbi Julie Pelc (Originally published in Reform Judaism magazine)
After suffering a ruptured brain aneurysm midway through rabbinic school, I spent more time in doctors' offices than in seminary classrooms.
At first, the illness was acute and I found solace and strength from the traditional misheberach prayer whereby Jews request "a complete healing--healing of the soul and healing of the body--along with all the ill among the people of Israel--soon, speedily, without delay." But after months of praying for a "complete" recovery, I realized this fervent wish did not reflect my permanent challenges: nausea and dizziness, loss of equilibrium/center of balance, and full use of my left hand and strength in my left leg.
By Rabbi Paul Kipnes (Originally posted on Or Am I?)
There's another aspect of being in Israel that palpitates my heart. Hebrew. Danny Siegel, poet and tzedakah (charitable giving) champion, once wrote the poem, Hebrew:
by William Berkson When trying to understand what is going on in society, I always feel like I've come in the middle of the movie. I see what's happening, but, not knowing what came before, I don't quite understand what the players' motivations and viewpoints are. And so I don't quite understand what is going on. I always eagerly look to history for a better understanding of the present.
So in my quest to understand what is happening now in Reform Judaism, I was delighted to come across the eye-opening article "Miss Daisy's Planet: The Strange World of Reform Judaism in the United States: 1970-1930", by Prof. Yaakov Ariel. It is in the book Platforms and Prayerbooks, edited by Dana Evan Kaplan.
I have always had an uneasy feeling that what is called Classical Reform was never quite real, in spite of the passion and lucidity of the famous "Pittsburgh Platform" of 1885. Ariel reveals that the ideology of Reform leaders like Kaufman Kohler--author of the Pittsburgh Platform--and the reality of the lives of Reform Jews were in fact in some ways very different.
by Mary Hofmann Ironically, during times of financial instability, a good investment can mean the difference between making it and not. Very small congregations may not be able to pay for full rabbinic services and larger ones, who may need multiple rabbis, find themselves stretching their rabbi to the breaking point, expecting the impossible. Times such as these call for an investment in educated volunteers who can make a difference--for themselves, their rabbis, and their congregations.
The Union's Had'rachah Program was established years ago to give interested Jewish congregants an intensive program (a crash course) in many aspects of the history, philosophy, music, and skills necessary to help rabbis and other congregants create fulfilling and rewarding programs and services.
My friend Rachel and I spent a glorious week in May of 2007 and a second, possibly even more wonderful week, in May 2008 at Camp Kutz learning to do the things educated, literate Jews should know, but often don't.
by JanetheWriter Recently, I was "tagged" by several friends on Facebook to write a note about myself that included 25 random things, facts, habits or goals about me. Number four on my list says: "I love Judaica and Jewish music of all kinds. Can't wait for the next Biennial CD to come out." In fact, of the nineteen hundred and thirty two songs on my iPod, 441--nearly 23 percent--are in the "Jewish" playlist. Unbeknownst to me until now, however, is the fact that many of those 441 songs include piano accompaniment by Alan Mason, who regularly gives generously of his time and extraordinary talent to play for the Union's North American Biennial Shabbat worship services.
So how did I come to know this? A few days ago, one of my colleagues, Cantor Lanie Katzew, told me of a recent concert honoring Alan and his 18 years of service as the director of music at Temple Israel in Greater Miami. Although I only watched pieces of the concert on my computer, it was abundantly clear, as cantor after cantor and soloist after soloist--22 in all from throughout south Florida and elsewhere--sang beautiful and heartfelt praises to Alan, that he is a most beloved member of the community and an exceedingly accomplished musical professional. The way he tickled those ivories... oh-my-gosh, words cannot begin to capture the silky notes and the rich tones, each at just the right tempo, that flowed endlessly from the piano to weave the tribute tapestry together. For a real treat, watch the video yourself.
by Zachary Bronstein NFTY Membership and Communications Vice-President As nearly 700 teenagers wander into the Gaylord Hotel from across the country, there is but one thing on everyone's mind, one word that is all encompassing, one idea that has given purpose to the past days, weeks, and even months of their lives...Convention. For the past few months I feel as if I have gotten a call at least three times a week from a NFTYite who wants to know more about Convention, who they are rooming with, what the schedule of events is, all up until about a week ago. A week ago things changed.
Congregations have asked how to start their own Inclusion Committee. I know that within the Reform movement, many congregations have made inclusion an important value. The question is "how do you turn that value into action?"
Inclusion doesn't happen just because someone says it's so! Like many other synagogue functions, a collaboration between congregants and professional staff can provide the impetus to move from having that great philosophical ideal to taking the steps to ensure that people with disabilities are welcome within the full circle of Jewish life. That is, most certainly, the objective.
By Jason Fenster (First posted on the RACblog) Jason Fenster is an Eisendrath Legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center.
As Jews, we are intimately familiar with feeling unwelcome and excluded. We have been strangers in Egypt, in Babylon, in Europe, and even in America, but it is this shared experience that compels us to open our doors to those who sit outside our community.
In Exodus 23:9 we read, "You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the feelings of the stranger, having yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt." Being a grammar dork, I looked at the Hebrew and found something interesting in the different "yous" we find in this verse. The first "you" is singular. You shall not oppress a stranger. It is your obligation to make an person-to-person connection to ensure that this ger, this stranger, is a part of the community and is not forced to remain outside the walls of our synagogue. The "you" who knows in their hearts and souls what it means to be left out is plural; the "y'all" form of the verb. We not only have an individual mandate to make inclusion a reality, but also a communal obligation stemming from our shared history.
by JanetheWriter A while back, several of my 20- and 30-something colleagues (who also happen to be friends) urged me to sign onto Facebook. And so I did. Today I'm a "Facebook monster," with more than 200 "friends," some of whom I haven't seen since high school or college, and have reconnected with only in recent weeks. One, a member of a large family that lived up the street and went to the local Catholic school for many of our growing-up years, now lives in the Poconos. In an email last week, she told me: "I read your blog and felt like I was a DJF living in NYC!!" Hmmm, sure we grew up in the same suburbia, but a DJF in NYC? No, probably not so much...
Once I'd made the leap onto Facebook, it was just a short hop from there to Twitter, which, according to Wikipedia is "a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length." While that may be a perfectly adequate description for a techno-whiz, to really understand what twitter is all about, watch this video.
OK, so now that you've gotten a feel for the basics, you may be wondering: What does any of this have to do with being Jewish? Actually, quite a bit....
by dcc Back when I prayed, during the silent prayer I would always look at my feet taking note of the floor or ground and how it was different from the other places I had prayed. I would wonder who else had looked at this piece of earth while in prayer. I would get lost in the fact that an Omnipotent God can hear in any place. Be it in a summer camp chapel overlooking the Pacific in a once cold, lifeless conference room filled with ruach (spirit) of thousands of teens or in ridged pew of a temple, I would look to the ground to see where I was standing.
By David A.M. Wilensky (First posted on The Reform Shuckle)
The most personal and most moving session I attended at LimmudNY 2009 was called Rethinking Reform and was advertised as being led by members of the so-called Rethinking Reform Think Tank. I do not know who else is in this group, but those leading the session were Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning Executive Director Rabbi Leon Morris, HUC rabbinical student Jill Cozen-Harel and former HUC student, current Ziegler rabbinical student, blogger and one of my many teachers, David Singer.
One year prior to this session, at LimmudNY 2008, the three of them came together for the first time from a place of frustration, loneliness, and excitement to create what they now refer to as The Reform Think Tank. I'll let them speak for themselves in the following, their missions statement:
by Larry Kaufman The story is probably apocryphal, but I first encountered it in a memoir by Rabbi Daniel Syme, who credited Rabbi Malcolm Stern z"l as his source. (Reb Daniel amar b'shem Reb Malcolm - Rabbi Daniel said in the name of Rabbi Malcolm.) As Jewish congregations began being established across the United States, the first synagogue in town tended to be called Emanu-El or Beth El. Later, a second congregation would come along, possibly more influenced by the nascent Zionist spirit, and would use Israel in its name - Temple Israel, or B'nai Israel, or Beth Israel. Eventually a schism would develop in one or both of the established congregations, and amidst rancor and bitterness, a new congregation would arise, which inevitably would call itself Temple Shalom.
(First posted at RACblog) All weekend, Washington, DC was abuzz with a wide variety of inauguration-related festivities, culminating with the Tuesday's swearing-in ceremony and parade on the National Mall. Keep reading below the jump for inauguration reflections from several members of the RAC staff!
Shalom! I want to write tonight to all of our friends in America and around the world, to commemorate the inauguration of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, and the first African American president, as a very special event. I hope that Obama's administration will bring about positive change, embrace peace and security, and also promote economic stability to the world. Now it is our turn to be in support of you, and we have done so by raising the American flag in our preschools to show our love and solidarity. We all at Or Hadash wish Barack Obama and the American people good luck on this very historical day and in the coming four years. Mazal Tov!
by Russell Cohen (Originally published on Russell Cohen's blog Cafe Birkenreis) During the latter half of 2008, the WUPJ lent its support to two online petitions (e-petitions) on behalf of member unions. In both cases, the response from progressive Jews worldwide was less than rousing
In the first case, the IMPJ (Israel) attempted to gather signatures in support of the effort to achieve official recognition and a state salary for Rabbi Miri Gold, of Kibbutz Gezer in Israel. This is a potentially ground-breaking case, as a positive outcome would set the precedent for official recognition of progressive rabbis across Israel, and eventually lead to improved status for progressive Judaism as a whole.
by Jessica Berman Or Hadash Overseas Coordinator On Monday January 12th, a positive step towards peace was made when Or Hadash together with the Catholic Focolare Movement organized an interfaith prayer service for peace with Jews, Christians, and Muslims. The service was held at Stella Maris, a well known Carmelite monestary in Haifa, and was considered by many to be a very important event. The service, a first of its kind to take place in Haifa, was especially eventful because it was both arranged and took place during a time of war, and focused on praying for peace through the songs and psalms of each culture. Among the clergy and organizers were Rabbi Dr. Edgar Nof of Or Hadash; Father Renato Rosso of the Carmel school in Haifa; Father Yousef Rizek, a Latin Parish priest of Shifa Amer; an Iman from the city of Furades, Israel; and Corres and Christina Chayat from the Focolore Church in Haifa.
by Larry Kaufman A recent discussion of generic terminology for Reform and other Jewish congregations (temple, synagogue, congregation, center, etc.), got me started looking at the non-generic aspects of congregational names. I had noted previously that over 500 of the 900 member congregations in the Union for Reform Judaism use the word "temple" in their names - Temple Sinai, Temple Israel, etc. But now I want to give special attention to those whose formal names include the specific words, The Temple.
If you type those two words, The Temple, each with a capital T, into the search box on the Union for Reform Judaism web site, you'll find six listings. (Actually, you'll find seven, because the search results include New York's The Temple of Universal Judaism - which I have discounted since its most prevalent self-description is TUJ.)
By Rabbi Paul J. Kipnes Our Congregation Or Ami (in Calabasas, CA), like so many Reform Jewish congregations, spends significant time and energy embracing and supporting families with children with special needs. We are proactively welcoming, because our tradition teaches us that we all were created b'tzelem Elohim, in God's image.
Taking our lead from the Union for Reform Judaism's Disability Awareness initiatives, we have come to understand that "with special needs children, there are two values being played out, simultaneously. Working with one child, Brandon Kaplan, for instance, we saw that Brandon is a kid like any other kid created in the image of God, worthy of love. But Brandon is also a special kid and there is an honor and joy to the congregation that he participates to the fullness of his abilities. So he's normal and special, but here's the secret: so is every other kid."
by Marge Eiseman Facebook is a real blessing in my life. During the past few months, I have reconnected with people from my distant past (childhood neighbors, former Whitefish Bay High School acquaintances, an old lover and more), been able to give my Seattle-based cousin late-night pep talks as he spent many nights in the hospital with his baby's difficult heart condition (stable right now, thank God!) and shared a little joy and a twinge of memory as I read a status update about from a new mom in New York who was smelling the top of her baby's head while her daughter slept on mom's chest. Even today, I put on my status line that I was going to write my next entry for the rj.org blog, but didn't have a topic, and one friend immediately sent me four prompts, and another friend said she had a writing opportunity for pay that I should explore.
It may also be a curse - as some of us are temped to post inappropriate photos, or we expect instant responses from everyone we connect with or spend hours and hours playing WordTwist or Scramble.
By Rabbi Norman Roman (First posted at RACblog)
Rabbi Norman Roman is the rabbi at Temple Kol Ami in West Bloomfield, MI. This post is adapted from Rabbi Roman's message in the January 2009 Kol Ami bulletin.
Early in December, I was invited by Cardinal Adam Maida to attend a small gathering of Detroit area religious leaders, an urgent interfaith response to the economic crisis and the auto industry's needs. It was good for the 14 of us to be together (14 is, of course, a 'yad' - a helping hand, in Hebrew!), the news media reported on our meeting, some ideas were shared of what our various communities were doing in Churches, Mosques, and Synagogues to assist our members, and personal connections were made for future participation in "prayer, political action, and programming."
Several insights from this crisis are very clear to me, and others have been suggested for me (and you) to consider:
by Rabbi Paul Kipnes Congregation Or Ami Question: What do you get when you take four most thoughtful, compassionate, committed Jewish teens, with whom I have studied Judaism for eight to twelve years, and put them together up on the bimah at Erev Shabbat services?
Answer: A very moving Confirmation Class service.
Congregation Or Ami's service last night was deeply meaningful. Our Confirmands - Alex Krasnoff, Ross Meyer, Jonny Wixen, and Sarah Wolfson - led the prayers and in between, offered their reflections on a series of questions:
If asked by a non-Jewish person what you cherish about Judaism, what would you say?
What do you believe or think about God?
Having studied Judaism for 10-13 years, what ideas or parts of Judaism are most significant or meaningful for you?
What has Judaism taught you that will help you later in life?
How do you feel connected to Israel?
When have you felt the most Jewish and why?
Some of their responses, a picture of the diversity within our Reform Movement, include:
by Rabbi Rachel Gurevitz Ph.D. Congregation B'nai Israel, Bridgeport, CA Excerpted from Dr. Gurevitz's keynote address at the Union's Shabbat Symposium, January 2007 I have realized that there are a number of things that I bring to my work or the things that I hope to do in my work as a rabbi that have been in direct response to negative experiences that I had as a lay member of a community sometime in the past. And Shabbat is actually one of those things.
I want to start off with a little bit of that lay experience: Back in 1996, I was a member of a Reform synagogue in London. I wrote a two-sided proposal that I sent to both rabbis. It was called Yom Shabbat. And what I was highlighting was that I was conscious as a young adult, single, that congregants would come to services--in the UK, more Reform congregants do come for a community service on Shabbat morning, and that is partly because we have a different history. The bar/bat mitzvah never sort of took over the service in the same way that it has done here.
But we would come to services and then that would be it and people would go their separate ways. Nothing else happened at the synagogue, and I had no idea whether or not other people did Shabbat things, whether the rabbis did Shabbat-related things--I had no idea. I just knew that I was basically by myself.
In 2007, Temple Beth El in Dubuque, an extension of two older congregations, had 27 households--and more than 400 names on its Yizkor/Yahrzeit list. Some members felt the list was too lengthy to read on the High Holidays, while others believed strongly that reading the list was a powerful way to maintain a connection to those who built Dubuque's Jewish community which, though small, still thrives.
When several of us expressed the desire to explore the creation of a Yizkor/Yahrzeit fund to honor those on the list whose families were no longer living, or in the area, it led to an interesting discovery. The impending 175th anniversary of the city's founding coincided with the 175th anniversary of the arrival of Alexander Levi, Dubuque's first Jew, the state's first naturalized citizen; and the founder, in 1857, of the city's first Jewish congregation.
By Gardening Grandma Three years ago Rabbi Eric Yoffie said it was time for Reform Jews to actively encourage conversion. "It is a mitzvah to help a potential Jew become a Jew-by-choice," he told the Biennial assembly.
Do you agree with Rabbi Yoffie? In the winter edition of Reform Judaism magazine, two Reform rabbis take on the issue. See what Rabbi Stephen Einstein and Rabbi Rosalin Mandelberg, both members of the Joint Commission on Outreach and Membership, have to say.
by Larry Kaufman A recent comment on this blog suggested that unscrupulous infiltrators were subversively seeking to transform pristine Reform temples into (gasp) synagogues!
I have blogged before about the ways words change meaning, or acquire niche meanings, or develop connotations not necessarily understood beyond a certain group. However, anyone who tries to co-opt the meaning of a word on behalf of a personal agenda risks being misunderstood or losing credibility.
In choosing to call their synagogues temples, the late-nineteenth and early twentieth century Reformers were trying to make a point. Nervous about accusations of dual loyalty, they wanted to emphasize their lack of aspiration to rebuild a temple in Jerusalem. Did their Christian neighbors get the message? Probably not, but their strategy resonated with their fellow Jews, and today over 500 of the 900-plus congregations in the Union for Reform Judaism use Temple in their names.
We must begin at the end. Each year for the high holidays at my childhood synagogue, Congregation Or Ami in Southern California, the largest torah comes out of the ark with a broken, burnt and perfect breastplate. The intricate design of this half destroyed piece of sacred art adorns the torah before hundreds of worshipers and defiantly provides peace to everyone in the congregation, especially my mother.
About ten years ago, when we were helping to start Congregation Or Ami, my mother traveled to Boston to visit family and stopped by her childhood synagogue. She spoke to the rabbi and told her with great excitement about our new adventure building a sacred community in our little corner of the Valley. We were starting a religious school, youth groups, adult education courses and lively worship opportunities, she explained to the rabbi. The rabbi had a pretty good idea why she came: my mom came to ask for the breastplate, the broken burnt and perfect breastplate, that had adorned Temple Ohabei Shalom's torah for nearly two generations. The rabbi said of course.
On November 10, 1938 my grandfather was forced to shovel the ashes of his childhood synagogue as his neighbors watched. Meppen, Germany was still smoky in the morning after the night of the broken glass. Since the time of the Spanish Inquisition, my grandfather's family lived in this small village in North Western Germany in relative peace with its non-Jewish population. My family ran the dried goods store, was active in the Jewish community and respected the law of the land. But on that night 70 years ago, generations were destroyed by the torches and stones of a mob motivated by a mad man.
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Dr. Magda Peck is a member of the URJ Commission on Social Action and chairs its Task Force on Economic Justice, Women and Families. She is a member of Temple Israel in Omaha, Nebraska where she is a Professor of Pediatrics and Public Health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. The views expressed below are, of course, her own.
When victory for Barack Obama was called just past 10 last Tuesday night, some remarkable things happened.
In the packed Omaha Hilton ballroom where usual Democrat diehards were outnumbered by fresh faces, shrieks of collective disbelief erupted. Deafening shouts of stunning joy filled room. Older Black women sunk into their seats, sobbing, palms raised high praising G-d. Gay couples openly embraced. Swarms of young folks locked arms and jumped up and down for a long, long time. My younger son David, a freshman at American in DC, called: "Ma! Barack Obama is MY President!" Sobbing and laughing, he kept shouting "I can't believe it! I can't believe it!" From Omaha to the nation's capital and so many places in between: "shock and awe," redefined.
(First posted on the RACblog) The following is an e-mail letter from Doug Mishkin to his daughter Arielle and their very close friend Melanie Anenberg. Doug, a lawyer with the Washington Office of Patton Boggs, is a long time activist who developed a close friendship with Carolyn Goodman, mother of slain Civil Rights worker Andrew Goodman.
Arielle and Melanie:
I woke up today thinking of the two of you. In your first election, you'll get to vote for an African-American (if I ever learn that you did otherwise, well, it's a free country and you can do what you want, but don't bother coming home).
I can't resist taking note of this. Your parents wondered whether we would EVER get to do this. How did this happen? Well, it happened for lots of reasons. But you got to touch one of those reasons personally. We sat in Carolyn's house during that vacation (you know, the best Mishkin vacation ever because Melanie was with us) and she told you the story of Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney.
By Rabbi Jonah Pesner (First posted on the RACblog) Rabbi Jonah Pesner is the Founding Director of the Union for Reform Judaism's Just Congregations.
Shortly before he began his presidential campaign, Senator Barack Obama sat down for most of an afternoon with Mark Pelavin and me. We were struck at the time by the intensity with which he listened, and by the probing nature of his questions about Just Congregations. We were happily surprised that he had read the materials on our website (not every elected official does their homework for a routine meeting!). The Senator wanted to know not just about our mission and goals, but also about me. He wasn't satisfied with what; he wanted to know why. Why did I believe in the work I was doing?
I believe that Obama's inquisitiveness is directly related to his experience as a community organizer. Among the most critical qualities of an effective organizer is an authentic curiosity about others. When Obama was only twenty-four, he learned in organizing training that to be powerful in public life, a leader needs a strong, vast network of people who will follow him or her. Consequently, he knows that people only follow a leader if he or she understands them; their values, concerns, interests and motivations. (I received my own training as a community organizer from the same group that trained Obama: the Industrial Areas Foundation, founded by the late Saul Alinsky. In fact, Obama and I were both trained by the same organizer, Arnie Graf, who now mentors me in my role as Director of Just Congregations.)
By Larry Kaufman Among my meshugassen (which I'll euphemistically translate as idiosyncrasies) is the tendency to "count the house," and to analyze the count. One day I decided to apply my meshugass to this blog. The statistics that follow represent a snapshot in time, but my sues is that doing the same exercise today - or tomorrow - would yield similar results.
How many people do you suppose are involved in the discussion here at www.rj.org - as posters, as commenters, or both? Take a minute to make your own guesstimate, before you proceed to my findings.
By Rachel Cohen (First posted on the RACblog) With special thanks to Legislative Assistant Micaela Hellman-Tincher for her contributions to this post.
Last week, Mayor Ron Dellums and Rep. Barbara Lee unveiled the Oakland Green Jobs Corps, a program designed to train young city residents to participate in green industry, which is rapidly expanding throughout California. While the program starts small by giving 40 young adults skills in green construction and solar panel installation, advocates hope that it will become a pilot for green jobs programs around the country. At a time when both jobs and new energy solutions are in high demand, there is clearly fertile ground for such initiatives. Weatherization programs, like the Department of Energy's Weatherization Assistance Program, have already provided 8,000 jobs weatherizing homes in low-income communities. These workers not only help communities reduce their carbon footprint, but they also help to lower the cost burden of heating and cooling by an average of 15% for low-income families.
By Marge Eiseman Many years ago, I got married in my parents' living room. For years afterwards, every time I walked into that room, I felt the warmth of that day, as if the love still lingered in the walls and the air.
At the time, there just wasn't any good space at our synagogue for a small-ish wedding - either one used the conference room which held 20-30, or the sanctuary, which looked empty with less than 100. Now of course, we could use our new Living and Learning space, one of the five simultaneous additions/renovations of our synagogue that was recently completed.
By Gardening Grandma Trying to stretch in a new direction, I'm taking a fiction writing class. This week's assignment: write a character description of a superhero. For me, who never watched Batman or Spiderman and only begrudgingly saw Superman since his alter ego was a reporter, I was at a loss. Who can believe in - let alone imagine - a superhero?
But then I got to thinking about our Jewish tradition, and the role superheroes have played throughout our history. Perhaps the superheroes of 5769 aren't people who fly through the air or lift cars with the flick of the wrist. Maybe today's superheroes are the 36 Lamed Vav Tzadikim- the 36 righteous people who, were it not for them, the world would come to an end.
Tradition tells us no one knows who the lamed vavniks are, but we can all guess who might be. Anyone have any nominations?
By JanetheWriter At last week's Yizkor service, just before the El Malei Rachamim, the rabbi asked people to recite the names of those they were remembering and to say a few words about them. Knowing that my mother would, of course, speak about her parents, I planned to mention two bachelor uncles -- great uncles, really, -- one whom I knew and one whom I did not.
Uncle Irv was my mother's uncle, my grandfather's brother, about whom I've written before on this blog. He was a gardener's gardener. As one who kills houseplants with great regularity, I most certainly did not inherit any of his DNA. In a small plot of soil - indoors or out - Uncle Irv could coax tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, beans, flowers and more to burst forth from the earth, all the while smoking forbidden cigarettes and "hiding" them in his pocket whenever one of us came out in the yard to check on him. It's a wonder he never set himself on fire. He was as loving to all of us -- his nieces and their families -- as he was to his beloved plants, and we miss him terribly.
By Larry Kaufman I've always made it my business not to talk politics with my business associates, especially those who are likely to be on the opposite side of the political spectrum. But my wife has no such inhibitions, and one night my very WASPy, very right-wing client banged on the table and said, "Dammit, Barbara, you live like an Episcopalian and vote like a Puerto Rican." He also remarked to me one day, "I just don't understand why my Jewish friends are all so ready to vote against their pocket-books." To which I replied, "Joe, I can live with an extra thousand dollars on my tax bill, but I can't live with prayer in the public schools."
Four years ago, my friend Ralph emailed me almost daily, sending highly partisan screeds inveighing against a presidential candidate I had never told him I supported. I think he figured out by my abstention from rebutting or responding to any of these missives that I was on the other side, and he too expressed surprise that his Jewish friends were going to vote against a candidate he described as the best friend Israel had ever had. My answer to him, similar to my answer to Joe -"I can't speak for your other Jewish friends, and I'm sure none of them is a stauncher Zionist than I am, but ultimately I have to vote for the candidate that I consider the best choice for the United States."
By David A.M. Wilensky (First published on The Reform Shuckle) This year, intoxicated by the coolness of the videos at this post at Jewlicious, I decided that I wanted to not only get my own Lulav and Etrog, but that I wanted to assemble the Lulav myself. Jonathan Golden, a a professor here at Drew and our wonderful Hillel adivsor, had his brother, a Sephardic rabbi, pick up the parts for me in Brooklyn while he was picking up several other peoples' sets of Sukot magic rain stick wand things.
The Rabbi put it together Sephardic-style. This involved a single-cradle handle thing. The Ashkenazic version that we see most often in the US, has three parts that hold the palm, willow, and myrtle seperately. The Sephardic version has a single-compratment braided handle that all three plants go in together.
By William Berskon The last few days have dramatized the gravity of the sin of lashon hara, literally "the bad tongue." Known in English as defamation, character assassination, or in slang 'bad mouthing,' lashon hara is part of the vidui, the confession at Yom Kippur which we have all just said. It has traditionally been seen as one of the most common, yet also most serious of sins.
It is a frustration to me that public discourse in America has lacked this concept: that it is wrong to say something bad about another person, even if true, without a compelling reason. Such compelling reasons include testimony at a trial, preventing serious harm to others from a bad actor, and self-defense against lashon hara.
By JanetheWriter Last year on Yom Kippur, my father and I ducked out of temple following the morning service, drove down the road to the mall and--while the children's and tot services were underway--spent time browsing in Barnes and Noble, comparing notes about our most recent (and not so recent) reads, discussing what's on each of our "to read" lists and seeking out new treasures to add to those lists. Among the books we thumbed through that afternoon was Daniel Mendelsohn's The Lost,which, later in 5768, I subsequently purchased and we both read. So profound was its impact on me that I wrote about it twice for this blog--once before the read and once after.
This year, the day before erev Yom Kippur, I sent my father the following email:
Dear Daddy,
Do you want to go to Barnes and Noble again on YK afternoon the way we did last year? That's where we saw The Lost. Who knows what we might find this year!
By Larry Kaufman Raise your hand if you can identify Maurice Samuel.
Maybe a little prompt will help. Choose the right identifier from the list below:
American author of a novel about the Borgias
Radio partner of Mark Van Doren in discussing the Hebrew Bible
Translator of Erika Mann from the German
Translator of Edmond Fleg from the French
Translator of Sholem Asch and I.J. Singer from the Yiddish
Executive of the Zionist Organization of America
Polemicist/critic of Arnold Toynbee's A Study of History
Actually this fascinating personality was all of the above - author of six novels and twenty works of non-fiction, translator into English of 22 books from the French, German, Hebrew and Yiddish, popular lecturer, investigative journalist, aide to Henry Morgenthau Sr. in his investigation of Polish pogroms, aide to Chaim Weizmann in the writing of his autobiography. You can learn more about him in an article written eleven years ago by Louis Kaplan to commemorate Maurice Samuel's 25th yahrtzeit.
By Gardening Grandma As Yom Kippur approaches, many people have wished me an "easy fast."
I find it very strange - and disconcerting.
The fast is meant to force us to do some deep and not-so-easy reflection and self-examination. It's meant to push us beyond our normal comfort zone. Why then, should it be easy?
I think I'll stick with G'mar Chatima Tova when I'm at temple tonight. And so, to you, the readers of this blog, "may you be sealed in the book of life."
By dcc In the most recent New Voices, Josh Nathan-Kazis interviews Rabbi Rick Jacobs of Westchester Reform Temple about the threat of Chabad to the Reform Movement. The interview, Rabbi Jacobs's answers and even the questions are worth reading. However I completely dismiss the premise of this article:
"Chabad constitutes a challenge to the Reform movement. When Chabad's rabbis come to town, the local Reform synagogue faces the risk of appearing less authentic than the competition."
By David A.M. Wilensky (First published on The Reform Shuckle) I've said it before and I'll say it again: The man is a genius. Check out a transcript of Rabbi Andy Bachman's erev Rosh Hashanah sermon here. Here' an excerpt:
Surrendering total control is never easy-especially as members of a synagogue community founded on principles that value the intellect over the experiential; the rational over the mysterious; Reform over Tradition. Of course, as we continually need to remind ourselves, the historical circumstances that founded this community in 1861 are quite different from those that demand action in the world today. Our membership, ever growing, comes from all walks of Jewish life-Reform, Conservative and Orthodox and non-Jewish life as well. I find that fewer people have an intellectual ax to grind with Tradition and Reform is not much more than: 1. a commitment to egalitarian values for men, women, gays and lesbians; 2. a rationalist and historical view of the authorship of Torah; and, 3. devotion to the principles of Tikkun Olam, Social Justice and Social Action. But "Reforming Judaism?" I've yet to encounter in my years here a single Jew who truly wants to Reform Judaism. After all, in humility, we could easily spend the next 50 years just figuring out what Judaism IS!
By Gardening Grandma In its 40th anniversary issue, New York magazine takes a look at how Jews have been assimilated into New York and how, by doing so, have lost some of their identity.
Contributing writer David Samuels writes:
The ascendancy of the Jews of New York can be viewed as a Hollywood-style triumph, but it can also be read as the tragedy of a group of brilliant outsiders who remade a city in their own image, only to cut themselves off from the roots of their tribal genius, ensuring that the future will belong to the children of the new outsiders--Koreans, Indians, Russians, and Chinese.
I'm not sure I agree that "success has ruined the New York Jew." I rather like feeling at home in the city.
By David A.M. Wilensky (First published on The Reform Shuckle) (A follow-up of sorts to William Berkson's post about commandedness) A Shabat morning with Chavurat Lamdeinu, progressive non-denominational minyan extraordinaire, is always full of oddities, whether it's just the assortment of people or the comments made throughout the service. This week was no different, except that this week's major oddity was a fantastic education in obscure litrugical rules and a perfect example of what bothers me about the way we Reform Jews threat our prayers.
When I arrived to services this morning, Tanach study had just wrapped up so a few people had just left. Unfortunately, not enough showed up to replace them. I was the ninth person to arrive for services, making today's crowd a small one, even for us.
By dcc My fiancée and I recently joined a congregation about a block from our home. We went to the new member Shabbat, were called by the rabbi, welcomed by members and Abby (my future bride) was called this morning to read an Aliyah on Rosh Hashanah. But even after such a warm welcome still it is kinda strange.
This will be our first High Holidays as "adults" and I for one am freaking out a bit. What should we do for dinner on Erev Rosh Hashanah and Kol Nidre? More importantly do we host our own or seek an invitation to a well-established-bagels-lox-cream-cheese-kuggle-and-caffeine-filled brake-the-fast? For sure I won't be asked to blow the shofar signaling it is (finally) time to eat.
By Barbara Weinstein Legislative Director of the Religious Action Center I'm an I Love Lucy aficionado. I have seen every episode, can recite by heart the Vitametavegamin routine that ends with Lucy sloshed on the alcohol-laced health tonic, and know that the longest laugh the show recorded came when Lucy did the tango with a shirt stuffed full of raw eggs. But for my money, the funniest episode is called "Job Switching," where Lucy and Ethel get jobs in a candy factory. Watching Lucy-as-candy-wrapper try and keep up with the ever-faster conveyor belt of chocolates is watching a master comedian at her best.
Sometimes, I feel a bit like Lucy at Kramer's Kandy Kitchen. That's particularly true this week as Congress tries to work through myriad bills that have languished for months, while also dealing with the economic challenges on Wall Street, and trying to leave town to campaign before Election Day. The legislative team at the RAC has been busily strategizing, posting action alerts, firing off letters to members of Congress, issuing press releases, and trying to make sure that social justice values are reflected in our laws.
By Gardening Grandma Rachel Cohen, an Eisendrath legislative assistant at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, writes on the RAC's blog about the "walk to school" movements popping up in Massachusetts and around the world. Parents and children are making the conscious decision to walk more and drive less, and are doing so at a time when speed and safety are both paramount concerns for families.
It's no surprise that the motivating factor is not exercise (although with the obesity problems in our country, that alone would be great) but rather about reducing our carbon footprint.
But why limit it to children? Next time you need a quart of milk, a book from the library, or some cash from the ATM, why not leave the car in the garage and take a walk? Better yet, why not walk to services this Rosh Hashanah?
The start of the month of Elul brings our community into its preparation for the High Holidays. Now the pace of communal life starts to change and our focus is on reflection, reconciliation, repentance and the annual response to new beginnings.
For too many in our community, however, this season will hold more angst than joy.
The economic situation in our country presents us with challenges unseen for nearly a generation. Too many will sit in synagogues next month and be equally concerned with their own economic situation as they will the state of their soul. Increasingly senior citizens on fixed or limited incomes are seeing their resources challenged. Young adults are concerned about job security. Too many of our people of all ages have lost jobs, been downsized or live on the edge of job and financial uncertainty.
By Sybil Schwartz I came to the 11 pm S'lichot Service at Beth Emeth in Wilmington, Delaware on Saturday night at the suggestion of Rabbi Grumbacher during Torah study. I came frankly, out of curiosity and to see if I could stay awake at that "unGodly" time. I had no idea of what a S'lichot service was. But the Rabbi had said "come" and when asked indicated it was a short service.
When I entered the sanctuary I was somewhat surprised to see about 35 other insomniacs. I noticed that some of the participants were members of the Beth Emeth Torah study group, chaverahs, temple leaders and probably others who were just inquisitive. I continued to wonder why all those people were not in their beds sleeping
By Gardening Grandma In a planning meeting for the November 2009 convention of the Reform Movement, we started talking about Facebook and whether it would be a good way to build understanding of and excitement about the Biennial.
It turns out that nine of the ten folks around the table have Facebook accounts, and at least three of them were checking it as the meeting was going on. When I asked how often everyone checks Facebook, the numbers ranged from almost never, (as in less than once a week) to about 10 times a day. But there was a clear division in the room: under 50, active users; over 50, only occasional.
By Gardening Grandma Every synagogue I know has some sort of "mitzvah" requirement built into the bar/bat mitzvah program. Often the mitzvah is so small--"I spent an afternoon reading to children in an after-school program!" or "I gave my old children's books to the hospital!" -- that the chance that the 13-year-old learned a lifelong lesson is pretty slim.
But today I read about Jared and Colby Kash on Jewlicious. I've no doubt that these two brothers are on their way to a lifelong habit.
I despise packing and moving. I suspect that I am not alone in this feeling. Last summer I packed every item that I own to move from Queens to Ridgefield, CT to begin serving as Rabbi of Temple Shearith Israel. I quickly remembered how much I detest the process of making boxes, figuring out what to keep and what to throw away, and trying to get everything done before the movers arrive.
Out of the dozens of boxes that I packed, I had three or four from childhood. I did not even bother to open those boxes. They stayed sealed, the movers put them on the truck, and they came with us. These are my memory boxes. They are filled with greeting cards and old art projects. Within these boxes are my kindergarten class picture, a series of letters that I wrote to a good friend from elementary school who moved away, and then there were the baseball cards. Hundreds of them. Cards that my dad bought in the 1950s and ones that I bought in the 1980s. The baseball cards are a family tradition that my dad and I share, each buying them when we were boys. My wife would rather part with the cards, but I keep reminding her that they might be valuable some day, although in truth I doubt it. The sealed memory boxes that never got opened or looked at, are currently sitting in our third bedroom, just as they sat in a storage locker in Queens before that.
By Marge Eiseman Darn! The movie just came out, and they didn't consult me first. Over the past ten years, I've led dozens of women's services and programs throughout the country, and I think I can finally answer the question, "What do women want?" We want to be understood, truly listened to, and feel strong connections. We also want enthusiasm, creativity and joy to be part of our lives. Above all, we crave integration - with life pulling us every which way, we desperately seek the sense of being whole.
So, if we're thinking of doing yoga, we're intrigued by the idea of Torah Yoga as a way to bring our Jewish sensibility in to an embodied practice. If we're belly-dancing, let it be connected to Purim or learning about King Solomon's wives. And if it's Shabbat, let us be open to new melodies and leaving the written word behind, and truly sinking into the delight of not-doing for a whole 25 hours. We want to see the big tapestry of our lives, and not just keep unraveling the knotted balls of yarn.
By dcc My first job in high school was as a data entry clerk for the Los Angeles Jewish Federation's Israel Experience Program where I built an extremely tacky website that was thankfully edited within a few days of my departure. I served as cook, programmer and student development coordinator at Hillel, a youth group director in Sacramento, CA, a religious school teacher in Davis, CA and New York City, a counselor and unit head at summer camps in California and Texas, a legislative assistant for the RAC (rac.org) and finally as the Communications Manager for the Union.
My identity has been intertwined with the internal politics and external interactions of the institutional Jewish world for as long as I can remember. At 25 years old, I have ten years of work experience in this profession. My entire life, both personally and professionally, has been inextricably linked to Jewish communal service.
But now, I no longer work for the Jewish community.
By Emily Grotta I don't keep kosher, but I have been appalled at the news about the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, IA and the company's treatment of its workers. It's the kind of news story that gives all Jews a bad name.
That's why I applaud the news today that the movement to develop a "ethical standard" for food today received yet another stamp of approval from the Reform Movement, as the Union for Reform Judaism joined the Central Conference of American Rabbis in endorsing the Conservative Movement's Heksher Tsedek Commission.
Ike may have been downgraded to a tropical storm, but it continues to cause incredible damage, bringing flood and death to the Midwest. It is too soon to know the full impact it has had on our synagogues and their members in Galveston, Lake Charles, Beaumont and Clear Lake (we will be posting information online), but we know from all reports that thousands of people will be homeless and in dire need of assistance.
The Union is already helping victims. During Hurricane Gustav, the URJ Camp Jacobs opened its doors to evacuees from New Orleans. And as of this writing, hundreds remain at the URJ Greene Family Camp, which is a Red Cross Evacuation Center. And now we are opening the Hurricane Relief Emergency Fund. I urge you to join me in making a donation to this fund today--and urging everyone you know to join you as well.
By dcc Hurricane Ike is about to slam into the Texas Gulf Coast and hundreds of thousands are on the move to get out of its powerful path. URJ Green Family Camp--which holds a very special place in my heart, it is where I met my wife-to-be--has opened its doors to people evacuated from the Houston and Galveston areas. Earlier this month URJ Jacobs Camp opened its doors to those running for Gustav and now with the help of the American Red Cross, GFC is hosting more than 500 people. It makes me proud to be a Reform Jew (and a GFC alum) to know that when our community is in need we spring into action.
Walking the dozen blocks to work, there was an eerie quiet on the street. Even the kids bounding to P.S. 116 seemed subdued...or maybe it was just in my mind.
Overnight, an enormous American flag was hung in the lobby of the Union's office building.
My iPod shuffled to Yeish Kochavim. Its beautiful lyrics and soulful melody ring in my ears still:
There are stars up above, So far away we only see their light Long, long after the star itself is gone. And so it is with people that we loved-- Their memories keep shining ever brightly Though their time with us is done. But the stars that light up the darkest night, These are the lights that guide us. As we live our days, these are the ways we remember.
It is all over the news: Dothan is looking for a few good Jewish families. Blumberg Family Jewish Community Services is offering Jewish families $50,000 and other perks to pick up and move to Dothan, Alabama. Anna Blumenfeld, assistant director of the Union's Meetings and Conventions department grew up in that small Alabama town and she is excited to see all of this coverage. She spoke with RJ.org about this offer and why she hopes people will answer the call to live in her hometown.
By Gardening Grandma I don't know if the number 354 has any meaning in the Kabbalah, but the Jerusalem Post used the occasion of the 354th anniversary of the arrival of the first boatload of Jews to North America as a reason to determine who the most important figures were in American Jewish history.
I'm a product of the sixties, shaped by the civil rights movement and Vietnam, so my personal list of those who were important in my lifetime (as opposed to those who shaped American Jewry), would have to include
By dcc "As cliché as it is, and yes, this is a true story, I started hearing a melody while I walked through the shuk. I knew that I had to put that melody to L'cha Dodi, as I was in the text's birthplace," said Jeremy Gimbel of his rock L'cha Dodi melody that he wrote in of Safed, the mystical town in Northern Israel.
Many of his melodies just come to him, he explained. Jeremy started writing music in middle school. "I remember coming up with a cool musical riff, and then I sang a melody with it, and found some words in 'On The Doorpost of Your House.' After the piece was done, I thought 'whoa, I think I just wrote a song.'" He continued to write music and in the past few years has become more dedicated to the process.
By Larry Kaufman In our wonderful American fusion of calendars, one of the signals we get from Labor Day is that the High Holy Days are coming, and their harbinger is selichot - the term applied both to a religious service devoted to penitence and to the prayers of forgiveness themselves. In the Sephardic tradition, selichot are recited nightly throughout the month of Elul; in the Ashkenazic tradition, nightly from the Saturday midnight preceding Rosh Hashanah by at least ten days.
To this list I'd add the names Henrietta Blend, Dolores Wyde, Diana Wuntch, and Harriet Newport. Recently, these four seventy- eighty- and ninety-somethings culminated nearly a year of Jewish study and learning with a joyous b'not mitzvah celebration in an assisted living community in greater Houston.
Mazel tov and yasher koach to each of them. May they continue to go and grow from strength to strength, and, as they already have done for me, teach and inspire the rest of us along the way.
By dcc A group of friends were sitting around a lunch table at a Hava Nashira a few years back, wondering how their teacher Dan Nichols got so strong; this group was admiring his very shapely biceps. Jay Rapoport, a Jewish professional and musician working in New York City and the DC Metro area, said simply that "he does pushups, with his Judaism on his back."
Thus was born "Pushups." According to Jay, the group just started singing the chorus of the song. "We had been studying Kosher Gospel with Joshua Nelson, and this song was just a burst of inspiration." But in the end this cute, funny tribute to a mentor turned into a song for kids about Jewish empowerment.
By Mary Hofmann I went to a workshop this week aimed at giving Sunday School teachers insight into and assistance in instituting and utilizing Union's Chai Curriculum. As the only teacher from a tiny congregation (we have six to eight kids in our whole "school") I listened sadly to the tales of woe from the urban teachers. As the facilitator said, Jewish education has always been considered supplemental education--not supplemental to public school, but supplemental to what kids get at home. Sadly, it is no longer a supplement. In many, if not most, temples, Sunday School is the whole ball of wax.
By Larry Kaufman As regular readers of this blog may have noticed through my comments on other people's posts, I've recently returned from a river cruise through Ukraine -- fortunately arriving home before the Georgian crisis erupted -- and want to share some thoughts in three general areas:
As a leader of a liberal religious movement, I spend much of my time fighting the forces of religious fundamentalism in my own tradition. An epic battle between fundamentalist religion and progressive religion is raging in America and throughout the world; it is found in Christianity, Islam and Judaism. In the last few months in particular I have been consumed with a struggle, played out on many fronts, with those in the Jewish community who oppose modernity, resist reason, and reject as inauthentic the progressive religious values that I espouse.
There are questions that are so profound that they change our lives forever. And there are times when we hear a total stranger asking the same questions, and we realize that God is present - in our shared humanity and in our struggle to find answers. That's what happened to me this week. 
They are about to descend upon my city - 3,000 or so of North America's finest, and certainly most committed, progressive Jews are coming to my hometown this week in order to engage in the 
Once I'd made the leap onto Facebook, it was just a short hop from there to 
Do you agree with Rabbi Yoffie? In the winter edition of 
I can't resist taking note of this. Your parents wondered whether we would EVER get to do this. How did this happen? Well, it happened for lots of reasons. But you got to touch one of those reasons personally. We sat in Carolyn's house during that vacation (you know, the best Mishkin vacation ever because Melanie was with us) and she told you the story of Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney. 
