36 Rabbis Shaping 21st-Century Judaism
“I am 81 years old and when I finish Rabbi Plotkin’s class each week, I feel as if I have been studying with a lamed-vavnik. Not only has my mind expanded, but my spirit as well. He is non-judgmental, respectful and deeply inspiring. His work with UM Hillel has been exceptional, bringing Judaism and inspiration…
“I have worked as Rabbi Goodman’s assistant for nine years, and he has made a huge impact on my life. I had pretty much moved away from my Jewish roots over the years, but I was convinced by a colleague to come to shul one Friday night to hear Rabbi Goodman speak — and I…
“Rabbi Joseph Potasnik made his most significant impact on his community as well as on our nation on 9/11. As a New York City fire chaplain, he spent countless hours and days at ground zero searching for survivors as well as comforting and praying with the grieving families. He never once asked the families what…
“One day, a rabbi watched the winds blow, the trees tremble and the electricity go out. His congregants began to call and text and Facebook, and with every message he felt his heart grow heavier, for his community had not gone unscathed. But this rabbi refused to wallow in pain or pity. He opened the…
“My father was a composer and a combat veteran of World War II; he had crippling PTSD all his life. When he died of Alzheimer’s disease, I was new to the synagogue, and Rabbi Mark didn’t know my family at all. But he spent a lot time with my mother, sister and me, coming to…
“I cannot drive to the synagogue I served as rabbi for 10 years. It is about 15 miles from my home in Falmouth, Maine. I slipped on the ice outside that synagogue on December 13, 2009, and sustained a traumatic brain injury. I will most likely never be able to work as a rabbi again….
“I never found a spiritual home (not for lack of trying!) until I met Rabbi Schnitzer and Bethesda Jewish Congregation. When my son (3 years old at the time) saw a Star Wars Pez collection in Schnitzer’s office, the rabbi encouraged him to check them out. He scrambled up into the big desk chair on…
‘Our largest archaeological project ever” is how Israel’s national museum has described its new exhibition featuring King Herod. James Snyder, the museum director, proudly announced that no fewer than 30 tons of material have been brought from one archaeological site alone — Herodion, one of Herod’s palaces and the location of his recently discovered tomb….
Twenty-nine years have passed since Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu and I last exchanged glances in that Manhattan hotel room at the Regency. Now that he’s commencing a third term as Israel’s prime minister — a record matched only by founding father David Ben-Gurion — I can’t help but reminisce. Twenty-nine years, and not one phone call…
For many years — centuries —Passover was the scariest time of the year for Jews because it more or less coincides with Easter. “That’s the time when people would do their Passion plays,” writer and rabbi Abby Sosland said. Those gruesome re-enactments of the Crucifixion did not exactly enhance Christian-Jewish relations, and Sosland said, “There…
Drawing on her last reserves of energy, Merilyn Papernick, a terminal cancer patient, reached out to some local Hasidic Jews in her hometown of Toronto to place a special Passover order: Could they get her gluten-free oat matzo for the upcoming holiday? Papernick, who was 65, suffered from celiac disease, a digestive illness that prevented…
די „שלום־עליכם לעקציע“ וועט מען קענען הערן אויפֿן אָרט אָדער דורך דער אינטערנעץ.
