Search Results
How Music Can Help Us Make Connections in Difficult Times
The Hamilton craze is sweeping the nation, and even the Jewish community isn’t exempt. Case in point: Recently, at the annual convention of the American Conference of Cantors and the Guild of Temple Musicians, several cantors led a Shacharit (morning) service that included several prayers set to tunes from the smash hit by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
And it wasn’t the only secular music to take center stage. Just two days earlier, a few colleagues and I had led a Maariv (evening) service that included “Be Here Now” by Ray LaMontagne and “Grateful” by John Bucchino.
What is it that makes secular music useful and appropriate in a service setting? Or is it?
Building Bridges: Working to Ensure Washington Won't Discriminate
“If I am not for myself, who will be for me? But if for myself only, what am I?” (Pirkei Avot 1:14)
Starting my Year in Israel by Standing Up for Social Justice
This summer, I began my rabbinical school studies at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.
These 5 Well-Known Sites May Be Destroyed By Climate Change
Reform Jewish tradition teaches, “Do not destroy my world, for if you do, there will be nobody after you to make it right again” (Midrash Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7:13). Once these sites are destroyed, all the history and wonder they represent will be gone with them.
Going for Gold: A Refugee Team Will Compete at the Rio Olympics
Having Team Refugee at the Olympic games will bring further attention to the plight of refugees worldwide, and is helping change the lives of the athletes who now have a chance to compete.
Leadership Doesn't Need to Be a Lonely Endeavor: We’re Here to Help
In many parts of the country, August is a time to restart our engines after the slower, lazy days of summer. As parents, we’re getting our kids back to school and as synagogue leaders, we’re preparing for the High Holidays. To those of you who took on new roles in your congregation during the summer, whether for the first time or as a veteran leader in a new post, Baruch haba (Welcome)! We’re delighted to have you among the Reform Movement’s leadership ranks.
A Conversation with Authors Helen Kiyong Kim and Noah Samuel Leavitt about Their Shared Values and Raising a Family
In their new book JewAsian: Race, Religion, and Identity for America’s Newest Jews, scholarly husband/wife team Helen Kiyong Kim and Noah Samuel Leavitt examine the intersection of race, religion, and ethnicity in the increasing number of households that are both Jewish American and Asian American (like theirs is).
A Jew-By-Choice Experiences Anti-Semitism for the First Time
I have always believed that here in the United States, anti-Semitism couldn’t possibly be as entrenched as in other parts of the world. In 35 years of life, I had never directly encountered anti-Semitism – until last week.
Let There Be Understanding Among Us: People with Disabilities and Interactions with the Police
Only one month after the horrific mass shooting at the Pulse Nightclub in Florida, a different Florida shooting evoked new pain.
A Conversation from Two Sides of the Jewish World
Recently, together with new Israeli friends who joined them for a week, participants in the URJ’s NFTY in Israel program learned the story of the modern state of Israel. There are so many amazing parts of this country that are connected to living in a public culture that is Jewish and so many ways that Jewishness shapes the realms of language, literature, film, TV, social media, and more. In Israel, public space is Jewish space, and having a public culture that reflects this reality is one of the most important reasons the Jewish people needs its own country (like all other peoples). However, our young people also have learned about the challenges of needing a Jewish sovereign state so that we can control our own political destiny (again, like all other peoples), and why Zionism was the liberation movement of the Jewish people.