Obama Will Speak at URJ Event
President Barack Obama will speak at the Union for Reform Judaism’s biennial meeting in December, the URJ announced.
The president will appear during the Dec. 14-18 event outside Washington D.C., which is billed as the largest Jewish gathering in North America.
The biennial will include worship, panels, speeches and entertainment. Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie will be honored for his 16 years of service to the group.
Besides Obama, who won election with overwhelming Jewish support in 2008, speakers include Natan Sharansky of the Jewish Agency for Israel, conservative pundit William Kristol and prominent attornies Ted Olson and David Boies.
Rabbi Richard Jacobs, the president-elect of the URJ, will also speak.
"Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief"
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
