Union for Reform Judaism Receives Grant to Expand Youth Engagement with New Youth Professionals Training Program
Continuing the success of the Union for Reform Judaism’s (URJ) Campaign for Youth Engagement, the URJ announces the Youth Professional Training Fellowship for early career youth professionals in congregations. This new fellowship, funded by a $141,000 three-year Signature grant from the Covenant Foundation, builds on existing URJ professional development programming for adults who work with youth. Covenant Foundation grantees are Jewish organizations and initiatives with novel and imaginative approaches to Jewish learning and wide geographic reach.
URJ President Rabbi Rick Jacobs Condemns Terrorist Attack In Jerusalem
Union for Reform Judaism Opens California Sci-Tech Camp, URJ 6 Points Sci-Tech Academy West, Building on Continued Expansion of Reform Movement's Specialty Summer Camps
The Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) announces the establishment of a second URJ 6 Points Sci-Tech Academy, with support from a generous grant from the Foundation for Jewish Camp and the Jim Joseph and AVI CHAI Foundations. This exciting new camp will be the URJ’s 18th camp across North America offering young people immersive Jewish experiences within premier camping environments.
URJ President Rabbi Rick Jacobs: "Green Light to Settlement Growth is a Red Light for Israel's Future"
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, President of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), issued the following statement in response to the Israeli government's announcement of increased settlement building:
Nearly 1,000 Jewish Teens From Across North America To Gather In Chicago At Convention Focused On Social Justice
Next month, NFTY Convention and Youth Summit participants will gather to learn, pray, and make plans to take action
URJ Announces 12 JewV’Nation Fellows: New Interfaith Outreach Incubator Selects First Cohort of Emerging Jewish Leaders
The Union for Reform Judaism has selected twelve fellowship recipients for the launch cohort of the JewV’Nation (pronounced “juvination”) Fellowship, an innovative year-long project incubator and leadership development program supporting emerging and accomplished Jewish leaders and creative interfaith outreach initiatives.
Reform Movement Denounces President Trump's Executive Order Barring Entry From Several Muslim-Majority Countries
In response to President Trump’s executive order barring entry to the United States for refugees, immigrants and others from several majority-Muslim countries, the leaders of the Union for Reform Judaism, the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, issued the following statement on behalf of the Reform Jewish Movement:
“The Reform Movement denounces in the strongest terms the horrifying executive order on immigration and refugees issued late Friday evening by President Trump. The order signed yesterday is even worse than feared, barring entry of all Syrian refugees, imposing in essence a religious test for entry to the U.S., and refusing entry to any individual coming from a list of majority-Muslim nations – betraying even those individuals who have supported our nation's military efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Families are now being held apart and countless individuals who have served our nation in the most difficult circumstances are in jeopardy.
URJ President Rabbi Rick Jacobs On Charlottesville
URJ President Rabbi Rick Jacobs on Charlottesville: We Condemn Neo-Nazi hate speech and call for an end to violence; but “Moral Equivalence of violence and hate “on many sides” is troubling. We commend the opening of President Trump’s statement condemning the “egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence” but are deeply troubled by the moral equivalence evident in President Trump’s statement today.
David Grossman, Award-Winning Israeli Author And Activist, To Receive Union For Reform Judaism’s Highest Honor
vid Grossman, the Israeli author and activist, whose books, essays and public advocacy have inspired a generation, will receive Reform Judaism’s highest honor, the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) 2017 Maurice N. Eisendrath Bearer of Light Award. The award will be presented at the 74th URJ Biennial in Boston in December 2017.
Outraged Reform Jewish Leaders to Israeli PM: Denounce Degrading Body Searches of Female Rabbinic Students at Kotel
Senior leadership of the Reform Movement, the largest movement in Jewish life, sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in response to unnecessary and demeaning body searches imposed on female rabbinic students at the Western Wall in Jerusalem:
Dear Prime Minister Netanyahu,
We are writing to express our outrage and dismay about the humiliation of a cohort of Reform rabbinic students, all of whom are the future leadership of the Jewish people, at the entrance to the Kotel on August 23rd, Rosh Hodesh Elul.
Two of our female rabbinic students, who are spending their first year of studies in Israel, were stopped at the entrance to the Kotel. After they passed through a metal detector (which clearly indicated that they were not posing any security threat), they were asked to lift their skirts and shirts in a demeaning way, an action that completely defied the decisions the Supreme Court reached on this matter.