A rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College, the Reform movement’s central rabbinical school, set off a revealing internal spat when he wrote an op-ed questioning the school’s policy on rabbis and intermarriage. Officially no student at the school is allowed to date or marry a non-Jewish partner. The debate illuminated the Reform movement’s tricky balance:…
(JTA) — Last spring, I found myself averting my eyes when my 4-year-old mentioned something about the Easter bunny in front of my dad. We were at my parents’ home in Michigan for Passover and my son said, “When I get back to Brooklyn, the Easter bunny is going to bring me a basket!” I…
The Union for Reform Judaism has sold off half of its headquarters in New York and is investing $1 million from the proceeds to overhaul its youth programming. The sale of one of the union’s two floors at its midtown Manhattan headquarters closed on Wednesday; Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the movement’s president, announced the sale in…
An interfaith telephone effort in support of increased background checks on gun purchases is being held on the one-year anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Jewish groups from the major denominations are among the 45 faith-based organizations participating in Faiths Calling, in which callers contact their senators on Friday in support of the…
A top Conservative movement official thinks that Conservative rabbis should be allowed to participate in interfaith weddings. Now explicitly barred by the movement, the proposal — put forward by Rabbi Charles Simon of the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs — is one of a handful of new efforts by Conservative rabbis to loosen restrictions on…
For some, Susan Katz Miller’s new book “Being Both: Embracing Two Religions in One Interfaith Family” (Beacon Press) is an inspiring testament to inclusive religious identity. For others, it sparks debate about what it means to be Jewish, what it means to be Christian, and if it’s possible to be both. But however it’s read,…
I gave my 10-year-old son, Zev, the Pew survey on American Jews. The entire thing. One Sunday afternoon at our kitchen table. It all started the night before, when an undergraduate student at Hillel at Ohio University, where I am a rabbi, told my son during our Sabbath dinner that he recently found out he…
(JTA) — When Eric Woodward started rabbinical school at the Conservative movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary, he assumed he would be be the only student who grew up celebrating Christmas along with Hanukkah. But midway through his training, when Woodward started a discussion group for students of interfaith families, more than 20 people showed up. Not all…
