Union for Reform Judaism Member Congregation
It was March 9th, 2002. I had spent the year up until that point living in Israel for my first year of rabbinical school. We had climbed the mountains and walked the beaches. We had met with artists and politicians and teachers. We had hung out with shop keepers, and had endless Shabbat dinners. We…Read on →
In 1969 Herbert Weiner, a Reform Rabbi who was generations ahead of his time, published 9½ Mystics: The Kabbalah Today. It won the National Jewish Book Award, and influenced countless American Jews including rabbis and future rabbis (yours included), introducing them to the Jewish mystical tradition. The book is a travelogue of sorts. Weiner visits,…Read on →
The Same, But Different That was the title of Rabbi Goodman’s Bulletin column last year at this time: “The Same, But Different.” If it was true then, when Rabbi Goodman wrote those words—preparing to lead services at Union Temple for the last time as your Rabbi before assuming the role of Rabbi Emerita—it is, kal…Read on →
When I was growing up, my family belonged to an Orthodox shul on East 20th Street in Manhattan, just across from Stuyvesant Town, where we lived. A number of our friends belonged there too. The congregation identified itself as “Modern Orthodox,” and it was called Congregation Zichron Moshe. (Today the shul is owned and operated…Read on →
Lech lecha mei-artz’cha – Go forth from your native land, from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and…Read on →
See, this day I set before you blessing and curse: blessing if you obey the commandments of the Eternal your God that I enjoin upon you this day; and curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Eternal your God, but turn away from the path that I enjoin upon you this day….Read on →
This is our second week into the final soliloquy of Moses at the end of the 40-year journey through the Wilderness. The Book of Deuteronomy features a recapitulation, and in some cases, a reinterpretation of the events leading up to this moment, as the Children of Israel stand at the Jordan, preparing to cross into…Read on →
This past Sunday evening, Steve and I attended a most enjoyable concert at the Jerusalem YMCA— known to Jerusalemites as “Imka.” It was a joint concert of the YMCA Jerusalem Youth Chorus, and the Yale University Whiffenpoofs. Of course we already knew the music of the Whiffenpoofs. This was the first a cappella all male…Read on →
Last Saturday evening, Motza’ei Shabbat, Steve and I attended an outdoor Havdalah ceremony, as part of a demonstration of protest against the latest insult to liberal religion on the part of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The demonstration took place in front of the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem. Called together barely 48 hours earlier, the…Read on →
About two weeks ago, there was a news report in New York that a man in his 60’s was bitten by a poisonous snake in his apartment in Hell’s Kitchen. He was taken to Jacobi Hospital, and then was well enough to be released. So, how does a poisonous snake come to an apartment in…Read on →