Reform Judaism

Should we invite conversion?
November 20, 2008 (2 Comments)

By Gardening Grandma
Three years ago Rabbi Eric Yoffie said it was time for Reform Jews to actively encourage conversion. "It is a mitzvah to help a potential Jew become a Jew-by-choice," he told the Biennial assembly.

Debatable Do you agree with Rabbi Yoffie? In the winter edition of Reform Judaism magazine, two Reform rabbis take on the issue. See what Rabbi Stephen Einstein and Rabbi Rosalin Mandelberg, both members of the Joint Commission on Outreach and Membership, have to say.

Filed Under: Community | Religious Life

What's in a Name?
November 19, 2008 (2 Comments)

by Larry Kaufman
A recent comment on this blog suggested that unscrupulous infiltrators were subversively seeking to transform pristine Reform temples into (gasp) synagogues!

I have blogged before about the ways words change meaning, or acquire niche meanings, or develop connotations not necessarily understood beyond a certain group. However, anyone who tries to co-opt the meaning of a word on behalf of a personal agenda risks being misunderstood or losing credibility.

In choosing to call their synagogues temples, the late-nineteenth and early twentieth century Reformers were trying to make a point. Nervous about accusations of dual loyalty, they wanted to emphasize their lack of aspiration to rebuild a temple in Jerusalem. Did their Christian neighbors get the message? Probably not, but their strategy resonated with their fellow Jews, and today over 500 of the 900-plus congregations in the Union for Reform Judaism use Temple in their names.

Filed Under: Community

Conduct Un-becoming
November 17, 2008

By Andi L. Rosenthal
When I was four years old, I learned how to make the Sign of the Cross. As a pre-kindergarten student at the Immaculate Conception School, I was taught that this was a necessary practice to begin and end any conversation we wished to have with God. We were to use this rite any time we needed to talk to God - to give thanks, to pray for help or healing, or even just to ask a question. I remember clearly how the nuns walked up and down the rows of desks, painstakingly correcting each child as they sought to master the choreography of the ritual - the slight touching of the forehead, then the space right below the heart, first left, then right. As a child, it fascinated me that this tiny ceremony was akin to picking up the phone, or in these days, opening up a text window to send an email. Just ask the question, we were taught, and you will receive an answer.

So it was with great interest and excitement that I read Rabbi Jack Bloom's article in the latest edition of Reform Judaism magazine. Perhaps because I learned from a very young age that the signs and wonders of God's creation were all around us, or perhaps because I was taught to share my desk with a guardian angel, I found Rabbi Bloom's article to be not nearly as controversial as some would perceive.

Filed Under: Religious Life | Torah

Compassion Knows No Borders
November 17, 2008 (2 Comments)

By Rabbi Eric Yoffie
(Originally published in Reform Judaism magazine)
No one can listen to CNN's Lou Dobbs without being struck by the thinly veiled contempt he expresses for the immigrants, legal and illegal, who make their way to America's shores.

Mr. Dobbs seems to think of immigrants as somehow less than human. Like Pat Buchanan, Tom Tancredo, and other anti-immigration ideologues, he speaks of them as if they were parasites who feed off the rest of us while destroying our economy and undermining our national identity.

It is true that we need a better immigration policy than the one we have--one with a more effective method of securing our borders, a system that will give illegal immigrants a way to earn citizenship, and a guest worker program that will provide the human resources our economy requires. But as important as these goals are for the next administration, it is even more important that our new president speak out against the disdain for other human beings that is at the heart of Mr. Dobbs' nativistic populism. Jews know from long experience that such attitudes usually have less to do with legitimate economic self-interest than with a petty, bigoted mindset that undermines American ideals.

Filed Under: By Rabbi Eric Yoffie | Social Action

On Gods and Mortals
November 17, 2008 (5 Comments)

By Larry Kaufman
Rabbi Bloom's provocative view of our relationship with God centers on the God of the Torah, and I respectfully suggest that we 21st century Reform Jews relate to Somebody altogether different.

Taught as we are that we are made b'tzelem Elohim, in the image of God, we are more likely to look in the mirror than in the Torah to develop our picture. I find more truth than poetry in the story of the little boy huddled with his crayons over a sheet of paper, whose mother asks what he is doing. "I'm drawing a picture of God," he replies. "But Sammy," his mother remonstrates, "nobody knows what God looks like." "Of course not," says Sammy. "I'm not done yet."

Filed Under: Religious Life | Torah

Closed on Shabbat
November 11, 2008 (25 Comments)

By JanetheWriter
A recent post on her blog by Rabbi Phyllis Sommer (aka Ima on (and off) the Bima) reminds me that Baruch College could learn a thing or two from Isaac and Moishe Nava, proprietors of La Casa de Isaac, a Jewish-Mexican restaurant in the suburbs of Chicago that's closed on Shabbat.

This week at Baruch, it's time to register for the spring semester and as is the minhag of the school, students, based on the number of credits earned to date, are assigned a specific timeslot in which to complete their online registration. Although I certainly am not shomer Shabbos in the traditional sense, I do enjoy celebrating Shabbat and the holidays in a liberal sort of way. I was dismayed, therefore, to receive an email notifying me that my online registration appointment is this Friday, November 14 at 8:15 p.m.

Filed Under: Religious Life | Shabbat

Joyful Judaism in Cheshvan
November 11, 2008 (6 Comments)

By Marge Eiseman
I just realized that I offered to teach "Joyful Judaism", my own sometimes rambling take on why I love being Jewish, during the month that is often called "bitter" (mar Cheshvan). What an interesting irony - the month is called bitter because there are no special holidays. Since it follows the holiday-laden month of Tishrei, I actually greet Cheshvan each year with relief and joy. Finally, Shabbat can rise to take its place again as the crown of the week.

So as I focused my thoughts on what to teach, given the range of possibilities (contemporary Jewish music, the new Mishkan T'fillah prayerbook, the amazing book I'm currently reading, Witnesses to the One: The Spiritual History of the Sh'ma by Rabbi Joseph Meszler, Jewish cooking, Storahtelling, etc.), I kept heading to teach things connected with Shabbat that I love.

Filed Under: Shabbat

Perfectly Broken
November 10, 2008 (3 Comments)

By dcc

We must begin at the end. Each year for the high holidays at my childhood synagogue, Congregation Or Ami in Southern California, the largest torah comes out of the ark with a broken, burnt and perfect breastplate. The intricate design of this half destroyed piece of sacred art adorns the torah before hundreds of worshipers and defiantly provides peace to everyone in the congregation, especially my mother.

About ten years ago, when we were helping to start Congregation Or Ami, my mother traveled to Boston to visit family and stopped by her childhood synagogue. She spoke to the rabbi and told her with great excitement about our new adventure building a sacred community in our little corner of the Valley. We were starting a religious school, youth groups, adult education courses and lively worship opportunities, she explained to the rabbi. The rabbi had a pretty good idea why she came: my mom came to ask for the breastplate, the broken burnt and perfect breastplate, that had adorned Temple Ohabei Shalom's torah for nearly two generations. The rabbi said of course.

On November 10, 1938 my grandfather was forced to shovel the ashes of his childhood synagogue as his neighbors watched. Meppen, Germany was still smoky in the morning after the night of the broken glass. Since the time of the Spanish Inquisition, my grandfather's family lived in this small village in North Western Germany in relative peace with its non-Jewish population. My family ran the dried goods store, was active in the Jewish community and respected the law of the land. But on that night 70 years ago, generations were destroyed by the torches and stones of a mob motivated by a mad man. read MORE

Filed Under: Community | Torah

When Heartland Pigs Fly
November 7, 2008 (3 Comments)

By Dr. Magda Peck
(First posted on the RACblog)

Dr. Magda Peck is a member of the URJ Commission on Social Action and chairs its Task Force on Economic Justice, Women and Families. She is a member of Temple Israel in Omaha, Nebraska where she is a Professor of Pediatrics and Public Health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. The views expressed below are, of course, her own.

When victory for Barack Obama was called just past 10 last Tuesday night, some remarkable things happened.

In the packed Omaha Hilton ballroom where usual Democrat diehards were outnumbered by fresh faces, shrieks of collective disbelief erupted. Deafening shouts of stunning joy filled room. Older Black women sunk into their seats, sobbing, palms raised high praising G-d. Gay couples openly embraced. Swarms of young folks locked arms and jumped up and down for a long, long time. My younger son David, a freshman at American in DC, called: "Ma! Barack Obama is MY President!" Sobbing and laughing, he kept shouting "I can't believe it! I can't believe it!" From Omaha to the nation's capital and so many places in between: "shock and awe," redefined.

Filed Under: Community | Social Action