Communal Aid: How to Ensure No One Falls Through the Cracks
When we made aliyah in 1990, arriving at Shorashim, the community was a moshav sheetufi, a commune of 30 families. The economy was similar to a kibbutz – all salaries, whether from communal businesses or from work “outside,” went to the common bank account; each family received a house to live in and a monthly allowance based on family size. But not anymore.
Red and Blue and White: Being an American and a Jew
I know from conversations I have had with Israelis, they find it difficult, if not impossible, to understand how Jews can feel so at home, so safe, so self-assured in the United States. For so many of our co-religionists—those who were forced to flee from oppressive regimes in the former Soviet Union, or Ethiopia, or those whose parents and grandparents fled from or grew up in the ashes of state-sanctioned hatred—they cannot possibly understand how we can live so calmly and unafraid in this nation. They can’t quite understand what it means to be an American and a Jew.
My Son May Be Sheltered Now, But That Won’t Last Forever
For better or for worse, my son doesn’t yet know how scary this world can be – and I’m not eager to break it to him.
Save the Bald Eagles, Save the World
On the first day of my internship, I found out that one of the issues I’d be working on was the Endangered Species Act. There was one problem: when it comes to social justice, I’m in it for the people. Not so much the bald eagles.
Early Childhood Education Centers Are Revolutionizing Jewish Engagement
We’re working to create a shared vision for excellence in early childhood Jewish education and to ensure our ECE centers will thrive in the future. For the past two years, we have worked as part of a team in the greater Denver/ Boulder Jewish community to enhance our early childhood education centers.
What Will It Take for the World to Offer Women Full Equality?
Nearly 40 years ago, I stood on the bimah as a bat mitzvah, the first young woman in my family to celebrate my Jewish coming of age. Its significance was totally lost on me, however. Having been raised to believe that both boys and girls could pretty much do anything they wanted, what was the big deal, I wondered.
How to Craft a New Worship Style in Brazil
The daily mincha/ma’ariv service at CIP was being led by the congregation’s cantor, Alexandre Edelstein, who also was my host and colleague during my four-day visit in June to Brazil as part of LaShir B’Nefesh, a program that brings together soloists, musicians, and cantors of Brazilian, and occasionally Argentinian, Reform communities to share repertoire, network, and support one another in their work. I was in Sao Paulo to present a master class on strategies to engage the congregational voice – something the Latin American communities, both leaders and worshipers, are interested in developing.
My Year in Israel: A Rabbinical Student’s Social Justice Start
So far, my time in Israel has been filled with more questions than answers. One of the things I’m most excited about this year is the opportunity to live in Israel, to experience daily life here, and to ask as many questions as possible (and learn to be comfortable living without easy answers). My experiences here so far have given me a taste of what Progressive Judaism in Israel looks like.
My Love Affair With The Torah: A Women’s Commentary
It began as many new relationships do: I was curious but tentative. How would this new entity fit into my life? Did I really need it? Could I make room for it in my over-stuffed brain and on my increasingly crowded bookshelves? I received The Torah: A Women’s Commentary as a gift during my fourth year of rabbinical school at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.