10 Ways to Welcome Teens at the High Holidays
Looking for innovative opportunities to engage your teens around the High Holidays? These 10 ideas come directly from the source – youth professionals across North America.
Remembering Emma Lazarus, A Legacy in Reform Liturgy
Most people, if they’ve heard of her at all, connect Emma Lazarus to the most famous phrases of her sonnet, “The New Colossus,” written to help raise money for the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal fund in 1883. But poems she translated and composed before that generated another kind of legacy.
My Alphabet of Failings: A New Ashamnu
Each year on Yom Kippur, I join my congregation is reciting the Ashamnu, an alphabetic acrostic of sins for which we repent. And each year, it occurs to me that most of the sins named in the Ashamnu don’t hit me in the heart I’m beating – and so, I wrote my own version of the prayer.
How the High Holidays Are Like a Charles Dickens Tale
Whether you prefer the 1843 book or any of the many movie versions made since, there is no question that Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is a classic.
Now, despite the season for which Dickens wrote it, A Christmas Carol is a Yom Kippur story if there ever was one.
Yom Kippur Wasn't Always the Holiday It Is Now
As the summer passes its midway point, rabbis begin to think seriously about the coming Days of Awe.
Suffering in Silence: Jews, Therapy, and the Stigma of Mental Illness
I was 20 when I learned that my first love had committed suicide. His death shattered me, both mentally and emotionally – but it also saved my life. You see, in the months leading up to his suicide, I had been planning my own.
How to Celebrate Hanukkah in Today’s World
In today’s world that doesn’t feel quite festive, can I get myself into a celebratory mood for Hanukkah?
Hanukkah Sweaters are Now a Thing... and I Love Them!
Making sweaters is a complicated business. It’s hard to get a business off the ground. But one Jewish sweater maven managed to get it done.
Celebrating the Risk of Caring: One Congregation's Holiday Project
One Sunday morning, 50 Congregation Or Ami families hosted 50 New Directions for Youth for lunch, shopping, and connection for Holiday Childspree at Kohl’s, an annual tradition of tzedakah (charitable giving) and gemilut chasadim (acts of lovingkindness).
How to Make Hanukkah an Opportunity to Help Heal the World
Though our kids have a long list of things they want for Hanukkah, we try to navigate the week-long celebration, balancing gifts, donations, and experiences.