With All of Your Heart
The mezuzot (plural of mezuzah) snuggle next to one another in a ceramic bowl like a litter of newborn puppies seeking each other’s warmth. Peeking out from painted purple butterflies, the golden crown of a Hebrew letter shin reflects a ray of thin February light bouncing off its companion’s metal covering. Shards of the blue glass my husband stepped on at our wedding sparkle in a test tube inside the twisting copper of another family artifact – a mezuzah designed especially for wedding couples. An elephant trunk on my sons’ Noah’s ark mezuzah has broken in half, releasing the intact parchment scroll bearing 22 perfectly copied lines from the Book of Deuteronomy.
L'Taken Students Call for Compassion for Immigrants and Refugees
In late January, high school students from across the country came together in Washington, D.C., for the fourth L’Taken Social Justice Seminar of the
Webinar: Reproductive Rights at the Court
There are two important cases at the Supreme Court this term that could have major implications for reproductive rights: Whole Woman’s Health v.
Raising the Minimum Wage is about Gender Equality
We know that a low federal minimum wage contributes to great economic hardship for millions of families.
In Judaism, I Finally Found My Spiritual Home
During this journey, I’ve been asked: “Why?” In Judaism, I found meaningful rituals and a history of peoplehood that I have taken on as my own. From the time I left the Christian church, I sought a spiritual home – a place of tolerance and acceptance. In Judaism, I’ve found exactly that.
First They Came for the Books
In his fascinating and eminently readable new book, Stolen Words: The Nazi Plunder of Jewish Books, Rabbi Mark Glickman reminds us that Jews have always relied on books as essential sinews, binding Jews to God, to each other, and to the rest of humanity, regardless of time or space.
Webinar: Responding to the Refugee Crisis
On Thursday, March 10 at 2:15pm ET, the Religious Acton Center and HIAS are hosting a webinar to discuss the current refugee crisis and how your congregation can get involved.
“To March into Hell:” Reassessing the Inquisition
Since its establishment in 1478 by the Spanish monarchy, the Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición has widely been viewed outside of Spain and in the Jewish world as the relentless agent of religious persecution, mass murder as well as, in part, intellectually responsible for the creation of a racist expression of anti-Semitism which ultimately led to Nazism’s genocidal war against the Jewish people. For sure, recent assessments of the Inquisition do not seek to absolve either Spanish monarch or the Church of blame for their evil works but rather establish a verifiable, empirical record of the Inquisition and its crimes against humanity.
On Purim, Laugh Strong!
Celebrating Purim as a family is one of the whimsical joys of Jewish living and parenting. It’s probably the only time during the year when you and your children can walk into services and scream – on purpose – and no one will care.
The Flint Water Crisis is Not an Isolated Case
Throughout the United States, there is a clear connection between race, class and environmental justice.