On Wednesday, September 21^st, Reform Jewish leaders will host a webinar to discuss the ongoing situation at the Western Wall.

In recent days, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community has been under a blistering attack by various political and social groups. On the eve of the Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade, whose theme this year will be a memorial to 16-year-old Shira Banki, who was stabbed to death at last year's parade by an ultra-Orthodox extremist, there is a heavy feeling in the LGBT community.v

Rabbi John Rosove has a list of issues for which he thinks the American Reform movement can provide much-needed support in Israel, from African immigration to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Earlier this month, Rosove assumed the position of board chairman for the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA), the Zionist wing of the national Reform movement.

During a crisis, we collaborated with Reform leadership on aspects of our response from diplomacy and communications to social media and public relations. Every one of the 900 North American Reform congregations should recognize and value the range of expertise and resources available within the URJ’s congregational network.

As news reports with more details came in from Tel Aviv last night, we are shocked and horrified at the sight of two gunmen, dressed as ultra-Orthodox Jews, who ​opened fire at diners in the Sarona Market.

Rabbi Mona Alfi, the senior rabbi of Congregation B'nai Israel in Sacramento, CA, sent a letter today to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressing “great concern and distress” about the detainment of Lesley Sachs, director of Women of the Wall, at the Kotel today.

We caught up with young Jewish leader Andrew Keene, a student at Drexel University, to talk about going global, being engaged, and serving as a young lay leader - and why it’s all so important.

Figures show that an offensive statement against the Arab public is posted every 6 minutes, while a call for actual physical violence is posted every 27 minutes.

Malcolm Gladwell had it right: “There comes a time when an idea, trend or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.” Thomas Kuhn, a historian of science who wrote of similar tendencies in his classic “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions,” would have called this the moment of “paradigm change.” Whichever author’s construction you prefer, we are now witnessing this moment with Reform Judaism in Israel.