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Opinion Want To Help Women Rabbis Get The Respect They Deserve? Here’s A List
Recently, my colleague, Rabbi Jordie Gerson, wrote an op-ed regarding the most common type of erasure that female clergy encounter: the omission of title and withholding of respect. It is a large-scale battle, but one that is fought in small moments. The article sparked a wide-ranging discussion among my colleagues in the Reform rabbinate. Many…
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News In Trump Era, Reform Jews Find Even More Meaning In Politics
This Rosh Hashana, Rabbi Adam Spilker delivered what he said was his strongest sermon ever as a spiritual leader. His congregation, a veteran Reform synagogue of more than 600 families in Minnesota, had recently signed on to a new campaign organized the Reform movement to ramp up political and social activism amidst the culture wars…
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The Schmooze The New ‘Star Wars’ Isn’t Pro-Reform Judaism. It’s Anti-Religious Inflexibility.
I watched “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” this weekend because the group I was with couldn’t decide between “Call Me By Your Name” and “I, Tonya.” I did not intend to write something Jewish about “Star Wars,” just as I have not previously intended to write about Jews and sports or Jews and sex-spaghetti. Then…
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Opinion American Jews: Your Obsession With The Western Wall Is Ridiculous
A familiar scene played out in front of the Western Wall recently. Leaders of the Reform movement from both the United States and Israel along with members of Women of the Wall attempted to pray and bring Torahs to the Wall. They were forcibly stopped and subjected to violence by guards hired by the Orthodox…
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News Frustrated With Israel’s Leaders, Reform Jews Sharpen Focus On Its People
On Saturday, thousands of Reform Jews gathered in a cavernous Boston auditorium, filling the space nearly to capacity. Congregational leaders led the crowd in prayer to celebrate the Jewish Sabbath. The scene of the stage was projected on four massive screens, amplifying the intimate rituals of the sacred day to the scale of a football…
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Fast Forward ‘We Need A Moral Breakthrough,’ Civil Rights Leader Tells Reform Jews
Rev. William J. Barber II, a black minister and one of the country’s foremost progressive organizers, addressed a huge audience of Reform Jews on the opening night of the denomination’s biennial gathering — where he called on the Reform movement to join him in his newly-launched campaign to fight poverty. For many, Barber’s speech at…
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Fast Forward Non-Orthodox Jews Will Disappear In Two Generations, Netanyahu Tells Aides
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told advisers that non-Orthodox Jews will disappear from the United States within two generations because of assimilation and low birthrates, Israeli media has reported. The right-wing newspaper Makor Rishon reported Friday that Netanyahu had made those remarks and thinks Israel should prepare accordingly. Israeli Ambassador to the United States…
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News 3 Weddings In New York Synagogue. One Shared Act Of Defiance Against Israel’s Orthodox Rabbinate
Jewish weddings are typically joyous events during which a couple’s family and friends gather to celebrate and shower them with love as they create a new life together. But on Sunday, three Israeli Jewish couples will turn their party into a protest, and their intimate moment into a public, political act. Temple Emanu-El, the iconic…
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