Reform Jewish Movement Responds to School Shooting in South Florida
Reform Movement leadership statements in response to yesterday’s mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which left at least 17 people dead and many more injured.
Rabbi Rick Jacobs: Israeli Ministers Must Stop Their Hate Speech
Union for Reform Judaism Establishes Presidential Fellowship on Millennial Engagement
The Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) is launching a new high-level fellowship to strengthen its engagement with millennials. The first Fellow will be Evan Traylor, 21, of Edmond, Oklahoma. Traylor, who will graduate from the University of Kansas in May, will work alongside URJ President Rabbi Rick Jacobs and leaders of the Reform Movement to develop a toolkit for engaging millennials as partners in creating a more just, whole, and compassionate world.
Rabbi Rick Jacobs: Ultra-Orthodox MKs Must Learn the Torah of Respect
Statement by Rabbi Rick Jacobs, President of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ):
MK Israel Eichler’s comments yesterday are yet another example of the extreme intolerance of the ultra-Orthodox religious establishment. Clearly they feel a seismic shift in their decades-old monopoly on Judaism in Israel. Their stranglehold on Judaism is being loosened, and their response is desperate and pathetic.
It is hard to imagine what twisted Torah MK Eichler studies when he characterizes the largest Movement in Jewish life as “mentally ill.” Our Torah teaches us the values of pluralism and of tolerance - and it teaches us not to use phrases like “mentally ill” as an epithet.
House Vote of D.C. School Vouchers Program Alarming
Pelavin: "The passage of the Scholarship for Opportunity and Results (SOAR) Act...by the House of Representatives is alarming both from the standpoint of our nation's long commitment to separation of church and state and to public education."
Reports About Bradley Manning' Treatment Cause for Concern
Pelavin: "The information which has been carried in the press raises significant concerns about the apparently degrading and humiliating treatment of Pfc. Manning."
Reform Movement Submits Amicus Defending Arizona's Public Campaign Financing Program
Pelavin: "As our religious texts recognize, any time something of value changes hands, the potential exists for those in a position of power to see the world in a hue tinted by the gift giver. Public financing forecloses the opportunity for such distortion."
One Year Later, Health Care Reform Still Vital
Pelavin: "We continue to oppose legislative attempts to repeal or de-fund the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and urge lawmakers to, instead, focus on ways to strengthen the law and help fulfill its goals of providing inclusive, accessible, affordable and acc
Passage of Anti-Labor Legislation in Wisconsin Profound Setback to Worker's Rights
Pelavin: "As labor battles unfold in other states, the Reform Jewish Movement will continue to defend the right to collective bargaining."
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Muslim Radicalization Hearings Unfairly Target One Community
Muslim Radicalization Hearings Unfairly Target One Community hearing is not that exploration. It is a narrow, myopic, investigation into the American Muslim community which unfairly targets one group of citizens in Congressional proceedings."