Editor's note: The text that follows was presented before a live audience at the 2019 URJ Biennial.
Only a few short years after the founding of the United States of America, George Washington expressed in an exchange of letters with the Hebrew Congregation
We’re thrilled to announce the winners of our 2019 URJ Biennial Photo Contest. We received so many incredible photos depicting the vibrancy and diversity of Reform Jewish congregational life that it was difficult to choose the best.
How do we prevent an irreversible rift between the two major communities together with all others – between what I call Jerusalem and Babylon, 7 million Jews in Israel and 7 million Jews in North America?
A Torah scroll that miraculously survived destruction during the Holocaust and was cherished for decades by generations of North American Reform Jewish youth leaders at URJ Kutz Camp will be returned home as a symbol of the rebirth of Jewish life in Central Europe. Reform Jewish Movement leaders chanted from this remarkable Torah scroll during Shabbat worship services at the URJ Biennial, the largest Jewish gathering in North America, and then the symbolic transfer announcement of this Torah was made.