The Most Unusual Seder I've Ever Attended
I’ve attended many seders in the U.S. and several other countries during my 60 years. Some have been memorable, and others have been, well, slightly less memorable, fusing into an abstract painting in my mind.
Reform Movement Adopts Three New Resolutions
This week, the URJ's North American Board adopted three new resolutions, concluding the consultative and inclusive process that began before the Biennial. These resolutions add to the canon of hundreds of URJ resolutions that outline its values and priorities.
Debbie Friedman: Singing Unto God
Were Shakespeare's Plays Actually Written By a Jewish Woman?
William Shakespeare's name appears on many of play, but no evidence demonstrates that he actually wrote them. Could they have actually been written by Aemelia Bassano?
On the Outside Looking In: Approaching Conversion
Next week at this time, I’ll be stepping into the mikveh, the Jewish ritual bath. It’s been a yearlong journey that will lead me to that holy space, one I’ll enter as a former Catholic/not-quite-Jew and exit as a Jewish woman – no longer an outsider.
My Father’s Journey on a Freedom Ride Bus
Jewish activism in the 1960s civil rights movement gained momentum when four Reform rabbis participated in the first Interfaith Freedom Ride on a Greyhound bus traveling from Washington, DC, through South Carolina, to Tallahassee from June 13-16, 1961. Freedom rides tested interstate public transportation hubs for racial segregation. The rabbis, Israel Dresner, Martin Freedman, Allan Levine, and my father Walter H. Plaut, were joined by eight white Protestant ministers, including prominent theologian Robert McAfee Brown, and six AME black ministers and NAACP activists.
David Bowie Was into Kabbalah: 5 Jewish Facts about the Late Icon
From his Ziggy Stardust alter ego to his latest album — a jazzy, avant-garde rock release called “Blackstar” released just two days before his death — Bowie racked up some interesting Jewish connections.
This New Black/Jewish MLK Day Song Will Blow You Away
You're sure to get chills when you watch Naturally 7 and The Maccabeats come together on "Shed a Little Light," filmed at the Lincoln Monument and the MLK Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Killing a King: Revisiting the Lessons from Rabin’s Assassination
The publication of Dan Ephron’s Killing a King: The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel is timely, coinciding with both the 20th anniversary of Rabin’s assassina
"The Highest Human Virtue": Holocaust Remembrance Day in Lithuania
A new exhibit helps Lithuanians explore questions of vital importance: What do we expect of ordinary people in extraordinary times? What would I have done? And what will I do? As they ponder these questions, Lithuania’s young people will have the opportunity to become a new generation of rescuers – rescuers of their nation’s memory, rescuers of moral conscience.