Statement of Union for Reform Judaism President Rabbi Rick Jacobs Responding to the Mass Shooting in El Paso, TX
URJ President Rabbi Rick Jacobs: “Israel’s Decision To Bar U.S. Representatives Is Wrong. Democracies Do Not Hide.”
URJ President Rabbi Rick Jacobs: Republican Jewish Coalition Leaders Must Ask Candidates Today about Gun Violence in America
An Urgent Open Letter to the Leadership of the Republican Jewish Coalition: RJC Leaders Must Ask Candidates about Gun Violence on America
URJ Leadership: President Obama Must Take Action to End Gun Violence in America
Contact: Lauren Theodore at 212-650-4154
December 3, 2015
21 Kislev 5776
President Barack H. Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500
Reform Movement Leadership Meets with MK Ayman Odeh, Leader of the Joint List in Israel's Knesset, A Day After Trump’s Reprehensible Anti-Muslim Proposal
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), and Rabbi Joshua M. Davidson, senior rabbi of Temple Emanu-El in New York City, hosted a group of area rabbis and lay leaders from the Reform Movement on December 8 for a discussion with Member of Knesset Ayman Odeh, head of the Joint List, the third largest party in the Knesset.
Statement by Rabbi Rick Jacobs on MK Ayman Odeh's Decision to Not Meet in the Offices of the Jewish Agency
The Union for Reform Judaism is committed to dialogue for equality and dialogue between Jewish and Arab Israeli citizens. This week, we invited MK Ayman Odeh to speak to Reform Jewish leaders. This was an opportunity for us to engage in the complexities of the issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the internal Jewish-Arab issues in Israel.
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.