Blog

During college, I lived on a kibbutz in the Arava desert in southern Israel. At dawn and twilight, I hiked while admiring the striking red mountains just over the eastern border with Jordan and the subtle peaks of the Negev Highlands to the west. I was in the

"Julia's Journey: A Story of Love, Courage and Hope" premiered in the spring of 2023 at Beth Haverim Shir Shalom. More than 250 people attended, including representatives of Ukrainian churches and cultural centers.

Judaism teaches that livayat ha’met, accompanying the dead to their final resting place, is one of the holiest of all the mitzvot because the person for whom it is performed cannot repay the favor.

Rabbi Gubitz outlined why many synagogues across the country are adopting a more gender inclusive term to name the Jewish coming of age ceremony traditionally called bat or bar mitzvah. Many communities striving to be places of belonging are wondering which term to use in their congregations.

As congregational leaders, we do our best to make our High Holy Day services some of the most memorable (and beautiful) of the year. Of course, Bloomingdale’s displays are meant to entice customers inside so that they purchase something. However, we offer something of much greater value that should not come with a price tag: community.

It’s been a century and a half since the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, now the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), was founded in Cincinnati. Since 1873, the URJ has grown into the largest and most powerful force in North American Jewish life, serving nearly 850 congregations and carrying out work that inspires millions of people.

L’Dor V’Dor: The RAC-TX Campaign Against Maternal Mortality formally launched on March 20th, 2023. The problem we seek to address is clear: 1 in 4 women of childbearing age in Texas are uninsured. That’s 1.4 million women without insurance.

After a day of climate action lobbying with the Religious Action Center (RAC) on Capitol Hill, I found myself staring at a small patch of purple flowers planted between the sidewalk and the street. It was an adrenaline-fueled day, and the jarring contrast of these tall, weedy pops of color against the street traffic and brutalist architecture compelled me to pause, then cry.

Sixty-two years ago, the founders of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (the RAC) stood in the White House Garden and presented President John F. Kennedy with a historic Torah from the Isaac Mayer Wise Temple in Cincinnati, Ohio. This auspicious anniversary allows us to look back on milestones like this one with pride as we renew our inspiration.