I consider myself lucky to live in an age where Jewish lifecycle transitions are being creatively marked in progressive Jewish practice; an age which boasts, along with Bar and Bat Mitzvah ceremonies, groups such as Moving Traditions, which create Jewishly informed curricula both for teenage Jewish men and teenage Jewish women; an age in which … More »
Around my third year of rabbinical school, there began to be something of a buzz around the idea of community organizing. One of the Jewish organizations then in the field picked up on my interest, and I attended a training. I know that for some of my colleagues, the community organizing model has been a … More »
I teach a ‘Melton class’ at my synagogue - the Florence Melton Mini-School four-part curriculum of Jewish studies for adults; it originates in Israel and it’s a great course for what I think of as the ‘wilderness generation’ of Jewish adults, who - like me - had rather a bitty Jewish education. The class was … More »
Okay, I know I wrote about prayer last time as well. But it has long been my contention that one of the key challenges our involved Jews face, and our uninvolved Jews complain about (with my thanks to Rabbi Rami Shapiro for the wording of this distinction) is the opacity of our communal prayerbooks. That … More »
There have been years when the comedy of Jonah’s book, its crashing ironies, its sly witticisms, God’s smily-affectionate reprimand at the end, have made me smile. But not this year. As I read it over, what I notice this time around is Jonah’s pain. A number of commentators, including Rabbi Rachel Adler and Dr Avivah … More »