Union for Reform Judaism Member Congregation
The photo to the right was taken on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Though the signs look blank from the camera angle, they actually contain the signatures of over a million Americans. The women carrying them are Suffragettes. On August 19, 1920, 95 years ago, Congress ratified the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, giving…Read on →
Our family is spending a few days this week visiting Steve’s mom at her home in Columbus, GA. Rayna is anticipating her 95th birthday in mid-September. A great simcha, of course, but since it will be in the middle of the Holidays, we are here now to celebrate with her a bit in advance. As…Read on →
This has been a difficult week for our country, as we marked the one-year anniversary of the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO. Baltimore, Staten Island, South Carolina and elsewhere, have experienced similar police confrontations with African Americans, and tensions with police have risen. The “Black Lives Matter” movement that emerged this past…Read on →
And now, O Israel, what does the Eternal your God demand of you? Only this: to revere the Eternal your God, to walk only in God’s paths, to love God, and to serve the Eternal your God with all your heart and soul. . . . (Deuteronomy 10.12-13, from this week’s Torah portion.) The news…Read on →
He shall be like a tree planted by waters, Sending forth its roots by a stream: It does not sense the coming of heat, Its leaves are ever fresh; It has no care in a year of drought, It does not cease to yield fruit. – Jeremiah 17.8 Thus the prophet Jeremiah speaks of the…Read on →
With a free evening from Hartman this past Monday, Steve and I treated ourselves to a performance of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) at the International Convention Center, known to most as “Binyanei Ha’uma,” which is across from the Central Bus Station in Jerusalem. The IPO usually performs at the Charles Bronfman Auditorium at the…Read on →
In the Jerusalem Hills, about 40 minutes outside of Jerusalem, not far from the city of Beit Shemesh, Kibbutz Tzor’ah and the Forest of Eshta’ol, there is a fascinating place tucked away in an aura of solitude. This is Beit Jamal, named for Rabban Gamaliel I, the Nasi (President) of the Sanhedrin during the 1st…Read on →
A story from the Chasidic tradition…. A certain rabbi lived in a small village with his wife and children. One Shabbat his friend came to visit, but the rabbi was nowhere to be found. Suddenly the friend noticed that the rabbi was in the bedroom, tied up on his bed. Aghast, the man rushed over…Read on →
Balak, King of Moab, feared the Children of Israel, and sent word to Bylam in Pethor: Come put a curse on this people for me. . . perhaps I can thus defeat them and drive them out of the land. for I know that he whom you bless is blessed indeed, and he whom you…Read on →
Late last week, as you know, nine members of the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC, were brutally murdered as they sat together with their Pastor in the fellowship of Bible study. They were doing what we at our temple do as Jews all the time, and what faith communities of all denominations do as…Read on →