The Supreme Court blocked government restrictions on houses of worship imposed by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in a late night ruling Wednesday. Deciding two cases at once — one brought by Agudath Israel, an umbrella organization representing and advocating for haredi Orthodox Jews, and one brought by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn —…
Like many of my fellow Reform rabbis, I am deeply concerned about what the pending confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court might mean for our country. Barrett has historically stood against many of the fundamental rights and freedoms that the Reform Movement has supported for decades. Among those, and at the…
Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” What if he was wrong? I majored in history and went on to graduate school to study it even more. As taught, history was the story of human progress. Over that long arc, oppression, discrimination, poverty, war,…
“I believe in the power of prayer,” Judge Amy Coney Barrett said during her Senate confirmation hearings this week, “and it has been uplifting to hear that so many people are praying for me.” Barrett is a passionate Catholic whose faith has been the subject of much debate since President Trump nominated her to replace…
A statement penned by two Supreme Court justices has set off alarms among LGBTQ+ rights activists. The statement, signed by Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, attacked and criticized Obergefell v Hodges, the 2015 landmark Supreme Court decision allowing same-sex marriage. “Due to Obergefell,” Justice Thomas wrote, “those with sincerely held religious beliefs concerning marriage…
The Torah demands of us: “Justice, Justice, you shall pursue” (Deuteronomy 16:20). We are not told to sit back and wait for justice to come to us. In fact, midrash in Sifrei Devarim explains that this biblical verse means that we should strive to achieve justice specifically through the finest of courts. As our nation…
In 2003, Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, fell on October 6. That year, October 6 was also the first Monday in October. By federal law, the U.S. Supreme Court term commences on the first Monday in October of each year. And since 1975, the Court opened each term with oral argument…
A narrow U.S Supreme Court ruling on Tuesday could open the door for government funding of religious education across the country. While that’s a cause for celebration in some Jewish communities looking to alleviate the high cost of operating schools, other Jewish organizations say the ruling erodes the longstanding separation between church and state. The…
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