(JTA) — Jewish organizations split along ideological lines in their reactions to Secretary of State John Kerry’s speech criticizing Israeli settlement growth and laying out principles to achieve a two-state solution. Centrist groups were measured in their reactions, criticizing the American decision to abstain last week on a U.N. vote rebuking the settlements while praising Kerry’s commitment…
JERUSALEM — The head of the U.S. Reform movement led egalitarian prayers at the Western Wall plaza. Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, on Monday held the prayer service with some 200 rabbis and lay leaders. Most were participating in a summer seminar at the Shalom Hartman Institute, a pluralist educational…
Rabbi Eugene Borowitz, a philosopher, teacher and towering figure in Reform Judaism, has died at 91. Borowitz passed away Friday morning at his home in Stamford, Connecticut, according to Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism. “He was a larger-than-life figure in postwar Judaism,” Jacobs said. “His impact on generations of…
(JTA) — It was all hugs and smiles when Israeli President Reuven Rivlin met Friday with leaders of America’s three main Jewish denominations at an event hosted by UJA-Federation of New York. But when it came time to speak, the Reform and Conservative leaders made clear they had no intention of papering over their disappointment…
The leader of American Reform Jewry said Diaspora Jews should not support the misguided policies of Israeli leaders and that Israel should look to North America for moral guidance. “Asking Jews around the world only to wave the flag of Israel and to support even the most misguided policies of its leaders drives a wedge…
The leader of the Reform Jewish movement urged Benjamin Netanyahu to preserve pluralism in a message congratulating the Israeli prime minister on forming a new government. “We hope that as this new government moves forward, it will take into consideration the values of inclusion and pluralism for all of Israel’s citizens – values that are…
Advocates for Israel may be confronting a new kind of boycott, divestment and sanctions push. But the effort to frame the pressure tactic into a weapon for attaining a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians is being rejected by most Israel defenders as a distinction without a difference. The June 21 vote by the Presbyterian…
The leader of the Reform movement asked his Presbyterian counterparts to join him in a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make their case against Israeli practices in the West Bank. Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism, spoke Thursday in Detroit at the biennial general assembly of the…
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