Author Archives: Rabbi Alon C Ferency

Rabbi Alon C Ferency

About Rabbi Alon C Ferency

pursued Israeli-Palestinian economic integration in the 1990’s at Harvard University. After a bicycle trip from Seattle to Boston, he entered the Peace Corps in Cameroon as a Community Health organizer. Then, he worked in the music industry, before receiving a Master’s Degree in Informal Jewish Education from J.T.S., and rabbinical ordination from the Ziegler School in 2010. Today, Alon is the rabbi of Heska Amuna Synagogue in Knoxville, Tennessee. There, he serves as a board member of the Community Coalition Against Human Trafficking, and served on the Community Health Council, Together! Healthy Knox, and the ethics committee of the University of Tennessee Medical Center. He is also a regular contributor to Conservative Judaism quarterly, and an alumnus of Leadership Knoxville and the Tikvah Fellowship. His sermons are available at heskaamuna.org/sermons.html; and, you may follow him on Facebook (facebook.com/EclecticCleric) and Twitter (@EclecticCleric).

Be Still, and Know that I Am God (Psalm 46:10)

Rabbi Alon C Ferency
January 5, 2015

We live in a world starring extroverts: outgoing, gregarious, opinionated types are the ones who make a stir, succeed in job interviews, and win political campaigns.  Even synagogues are run by dog-rabbis, rather than cat-rabbis.  The success of the mega-church movement is predicated on a culture of welcoming, in-your-face friendliness, and ubiquitous “greeters.”  In fact, More »

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Can You Lie to God?

Rabbi Alon C Ferency
November 3, 2014

At Beit T’Shuvah, a rehab in Los Angeles, we began work with addicts by asking simply, “What are the lies you tell yourself?” I often thought, how would I possibly know that?! Surely, we all lie, even more that we realize or admit.  In The Little Drummer Girl, John LeCarre describes Kurtz, an Israeli spymaster, More »

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Maths and Mosaics

Rabbi Alon C Ferency
September 2, 2014

In school, did you like math and foreign language classes? Most people hated them, but for some reason I loved both.  Frankly, it’s only since moving to Knoxville, Tennessee, and having so many scientists as congregants, that I finally came out as a math nerd.  In fact, I’m told that math, languages, and music all share More »

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Raya Mehemna

Rabbi Alon C Ferency
August 27, 2014

During the U’netaneh Tokef, the signal prayer of the holidays, we are enjoined to think of God k’vakarat ro’eh ‘edro, as a Shepherd reviewing God’s flock.  To place this phrase in context, it was common practice for the shepherd to account for her flock (and there is evidence that this was a profession of both More »

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The Community Coalition Against Human Trafficking

Rabbi Alon C Ferency
July 8, 2014

Sadly, modern-day slavery is a pressing and growing problem even in East Tennessee.  By most accounts, labor-slavery predominates over sexual-exploitation here, and most slaves are trafficked domestically, rather than imported from abroad.  I would like to tell you briefly about an organization with which I work: I recently joined the board of the Community Coalition More »

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A Community Shul

Rabbi Alon C Ferency
June 18, 2014

Places mean different things to different people. In the early aughts, I lived in West Hollywood, California, one of the most prominently gay-friendly cities in the United States. (Best and cheapest haircuts I ever had.) During a visit back East to Massachusetts, I visited my Russian émigrés cousins. When I told them where I lived, they More »

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All Creation Is Service

Rabbi Alon C Ferency
May 12, 2014

As a friend commented, I am “touchy-feely” but not “new-agey.” When a yoga teacher sonorously intones “your ‘self’ impairs your ability to ‘be present,”’ I glaze over and wonder when I next need to cut my nails. Yet, there is some truth to her statement, if we re-frame the sentiment: one’s sense of what would More »

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Don’t Williamsburg my Judaism!

Rabbi Alon C Ferency
April 9, 2014

Williamsburg, Brooklyn is a neighborhood known for at least two groups: Chassids and hipsters.  These days, it seems like every idea floated to “save” liberal Judaism has its origins in one of those two communities: either Judaism should become Indie, or it should become neo-Chassidic, or both. Personally, I am not seeking neo-orthodox minyanim where More »

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On the 40th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons

Rabbi Alon C Ferency
March 12, 2014

As a teen, I bowed to each member of the nerds’ triumvirate: Rush music, X-Men comics, and Dungeons & Dragons games. For the uninitiated, Dungeons & Dragons is a tabletop role-playing game which has elements of collaborative storytelling and improvisational theater, with oddly shaped dice to settle disputes. In a game, you create a character, More »

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