Angelina Jolie and Me: Women's Health and Halachah
The media called it the “Angelina Jolie Effect.” When the superstar actress-director went public three years ago with her decision to undergo a double prophylactic mastectomy, after discovering she carried a genetic mutation that dramatically increased her risk for breast cancer, women flooded physicians’ offices and internet sites seeking information and support.
Moving Social Justice to the Center of Synagogue Life
A new URJ Community of Practice, “Moving Justice to the Center of Your Congregation,” will bring together clergy and lay leaders from 12 Reform synagogues to do what Or Ami did: to use the tools of community organizing to bring together your synagogue community to make the world more just.
On the 104th Anniversary of the Titanic's Sinking, a Look at Its Jewish Passengers and Links to Today
Ten of the Titanic’s victims were buried in Halifax’s Jewish Baron de Hirsch Cemetery, but it is not known whether any of them were in fact Jews. The local rabbi, in a rush to identify Jewish victims and bury them within the prescribed time under Jewish law, reportedly spirited away 10 male bodies awaiting interment in the Protestant graveyard and instead buried them in the Jewish cemetery.
What You Can Learn from a Chocolate Seder
The aroma of chocolate eggs (beitzah), chocolate covered matzah, green-colored chocolate (karpas) a solid chocolate seder plate, several chocolate nut clusters (charoset), and a 100% cacao bar (maror) wafted our friends into our home. Three of the five rabbis at the table had never been to a seder – a chocolate seder that is.
It May Be April Fool's Day, but Hate Still Isn't a Joke
If certain politicians think that March Madness has left us ripe for transformation into April Fools, they are woefully mistaken.
What Haggadot Can Teach Us about Audacious Hospitality
“We’re all so unique. How do we bring our full personalities to the table? Wouldn’t it be great if we could embrace tradition and start a conversation that reflects our interesting, hilarious, modern, multi-cultural thought-provoking lives?”
Speaking Out Against North Carolina's H.B. 2
On Wednesday, March 23, North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory signed H.B. 2 into law. This wide-sweeping legislation puts into place broad anti-LGBT provisions.
Voting Challenges Surface during Primaries
As I have discussed in previous blog posts, 2016 marks the first presidential election year since the Supreme Court struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in
President Obama Announces New Round of Sentence Commutations
While the momentum on criminal justice reform has waned in Congress in recent weeks, the White House has recently taken steps in the broader effort to reduce mass incarceration.