A San Quentin inmate with a swastika tattooed on his hand greeted us as we stepped off the bus. The year was 1975, and we were a group of 30 counselors in training from Camp Swig (now Camp Newman).

In Reform congregations across North American, teams of clergy, staff, educators, and lay people have worked together to develop innovative ways to re-open, re-enter, and reimagine our Jewish community life. But the challenges that congregations face in strategically thinking through reopening are more than any one community should have to take on alone. The Reform Movement as a whole will continue to work to help congregational communities envision and plan for the future.

Dear Synagogue Leaders,

We keepers of the flame
Of Jewish communal living

Know --
If we haven’t already done so
That the time to go back
Is arriving soon.

We want to go back to in-person worship
We want to go back to in-person meetings
We want to go back to

Through the DREAM ISRAEL program, students can access various levels of grant funding toward their semester at URJ Heller High while learning about the act of tzedakah by fundraising for approved philanthropic causes in Israel.

On March 7, the NFTY General Board met to participate in our annual mid-term Asefah to elect our next NFTY North American Board and celebrate all of our successes in a year full of unprecedented challenges.

Last Passover began the urgent quest to reinvent much of Jewish life, highlighting that some of the ways we “do” Judaism needed to be updated. This year has been a powerful catalyst to shifts in how we perform our holy work.

Judaism’s foremost physician made clear that providing healthcare to the community is fundamentally connected to the spiritual and moral health of society. Nine centuries later, with COVID-19 raging all around us, the urgent relevance of the Rambam’s words could not be clearer. 

The weekend was extraordinary. Teens shared that it was the best virtual experience they had this year - that it felt as close as it could get to an in-person experience. Many said that they felt a new connection to NFTY.

Tthere are critical tasks to be done to ensure congregational safety and security both now and as we reopen. The results of the URJ’s synagogue security survey points to six things you should be doing to make sure you're prepared.