How to Stay Connected to Your Youth While They’re Away this Summer
May is a busy month as we wind down the school year and gear up for summer. Build on the energy and relationships you created this year using these 10 suggestions for staying connected to your youth while they’re away.
How to Find Peace and Wholeness on Two Wheels
Although May is National Bike Month, cities across North America will celebrate Bike to Work Day – an annual reminder that we can leave our cars at home during the warmer months – on various days throughout the spring and summer. In Denver, where I live, Bike to Work Day will take place on Wednesday, June 22. Regardless of the date, though, I regularly head to my office at Temple Emanuel, knowing my trusty 1984 Bridgestone will get me there.
Every Home Renovation Needs Holiness in the Foundation
According to Jewish tradition, the home should resemble a mikdash me’at, a small sanctuary that echoes the holiness of the ancient Temple in Jerusalem. Renovating this home, however, did not feel entirely sacred.
How to Open Our Hearts and Congregations to Those with Mental Illness
Many congregants suffering from mental illness choose not to seek support from fellow congregants or even clergy, and some leave congregations or don’t join in the first place because the feel they will never be accepted. There's an overwhelming need for safe, supportive groups where people with mental illness can reveal their stories, explore a spiritual connection to Judaism, and engage in social support with others dealing with similar situations.
Being Jewish in Indonesia
The way that Reform Judaism has taken the texts of our tradition, with the traumas of our past, to create a transformative responsibility to pursue social justice is a point of pride for me in my Jewish identity. So, when I was asked not to mention that I a
Remembering Holocaust Victims and Heroes with Music
In North America, Holocaust remembrance services and programs often include special musical selections in memory of people lost during the war and in honor of those who fought against the Nazis. Such music is profound and varied, and often was used as a vehicle of resistance. For example, “Zogt Nit Keynmol” (“Never Say That You Have Reached the Final Road”) was written in April 1943 in reaction to news of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. Composed in Vilna by underground fighter Hirsh Glick and set to a Soviet cinema tune by Dmitri and Daniel Pokrass, the song spread like wildfire throughout Eastern Europe, becoming the official hymn of the partisan brigades.
Since We Last Met: Recapping Two Years Since the 2017 Consultation on Conscience
These remarks are lightly adapted from those presented before the opening plenary of the 2019 Consultation on Conscience on Sunday, May 19, 2019.
How Your Congregation Can Re-Covenant for Justice
Our Brit Olam helps us protect the vulnerable, ally across differences, be close to people shaped by systemic oppression, and dialogue respectfully among divergent views.
How to Take Action to Protect DREAMers and Other Immigrants
Together, these pieces of legislation would offer a path to citizenship for approximately 2.5 million people.
How You Can Work to Even the Playing Field for Formerly Incarcerated People
With your advocacy, we can work to even the playing field in the job market for returning citizens.