URJ Receives $5 Million Gift From Heller Family To Enhance Transformational NFTY-EIE High School in Israel Program
New York, NY, October 19, 2016 – The Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) announced today that the Heller family of Scotch Plains, NJ, has made an endowment gift of $5 million to fund the NFTY-EIE High School in Israel Program, which is being renamed URJ Heller High: Isaac and Helaine Heller EIE High School in Israel. This is the largest gift in EIE history, and the URJ’s largest non-capital gift.
The Union for Reform Judaism's Camp Newman Dedicates $4 Million Koret Conference Center Serving Northern California Jewish Community
On November 5, the Union for Reform Judaism’s Camp Newman will dedicate the Koret Conference Center at URJ Camp Newman, a sacred new space for the Northern California Jewish community to enjoy immersive year-round Jewish experiences. The Koret Conference Center’s completion is a critical phase in the major development project completing the Jewish retreat center at URJ Camp Newman.n November 5, the Union for Reform Judaism’s Camp Newman will dedicate the Koret Conference Center at URJ Camp Newman, a sacred new space for the Northern California Jewish community to enjoy immersive year-round Jewish experiences. The Koret Conference Center’s completion is a critical phase in the major development project completing the Jewish retreat center at URJ Camp Newman.
URJ President on United Methodist Church Rejecting BDS
This week’s clear decision by the United Methodist Church rejecting the efforts of those who misguidedly sought to draw the Church into the boycott, divestment, sanctions campaign to delegitimize Israel is a welcome step in support of peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
URJ Launches JewV’Nation Fellowship: An Interfaith Outreach Incubator for Emerging Jewish Leaders
Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) today launched the JewV’Nation Fellowship, an innovative year-long project incubator and leadership development program supporting emerging Jewish leaders and creative interfaith outreach initiatives. The program, which will begin in early 2017, is supported in part with a Jewish Funders Network grant from Avenues to Jewish Engagement for Intermarried Couples and their Families, in honor of 2015 Genesis Prize Laureate Michael Douglas.
The JewV’Nation (pronounced “juvination”) Fellowship program will be led by April Baskin, URJ’s Vice President of Audacious Hospitality, and seeks to engage a new generation of leadership by valuing the perspectives and insights of the younger members of the community and supporting them with resources and strategies to bring their best ideas to life. The fellows themselves will define and create exciting and contemporarily relevant Jewish programming.
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."
Contact: Eric Harris or Jonathan Backer
202.387.2800 | news@rac.org
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."