When pounding started on the front door, we move quickly toward the door, opening it with caution. In front of us stands “Elijah,” the prophet who one day will announce the Messianic era and the redemption of humankind.
What would make your Passover seder — or any hosted meal in your home — meaningful and memorable? Food, fun, music and meaning, play and prayer. While there is a stylized beauty to sitting around a dressed up Passover table, try setting up your seder just as you would a child’s birthday party or an arts and crafts playdate.
Send an email ahead of time to your seder guests, assigning them a role in the seder. These creative ideas personalize the seder by incorporating the talents or life experience of your guests.
Alzheimer's and dementia attacks the foundational values of who we are as Jews and Jewish families. We Jews consider ourselves the people of yikzor (remembrance): as long as we remember where we came from, we will have a sense of who we are and where we are going. So what happens when we can no longer remember any of that?
At a meeting with Palestinians near Bethlehem. We gathered to encounter the truth. That we are all one.
I joined over 300 Reform Rabbis - North American, Israeli, European, Australian, Russian and from elsewhere - in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv for our CCAR Israel convention.
#wewontletterroristswin 24 hours earlier, I walked the Israeli port city of Jaffa, meandering through its streets, which the next day momentarily became a terrorist's killing field. I became enamored with its uniqueness.
Sacred Graffiti: Walking around the Florentine neighborhood of Tel Aviv, I am struck by the abundance of graffiti which reminds us of the spirituality throughout Israel
Guest Blogger Rabbi Julia Weisz reflects on taking 8 teens to Washington DC for the L'taken Social Justice Program, transforming their lives and intensifying Congregation Or Ami's teen program.
Visiting Hebron, a City of Conflicting Narratives and Religious Passions, was exciting, inspiring and troubling.
Our heartstrings resonated with story after story of those touched by mental illness, Alzheimer’s, homelessness, domestic violence, drugs, peer pressure, suicide, and the fear caused by terrorism. We discovered that alone we feel overwhelmed and powerless, but together we can become a source for change toward justice.
How does a parent survive the death of a child? Charlotte Klein, an 81-year-old wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, reflects and offers wisdom.
Rabbi Paul Kipnes discusses the centrality of inclusion at Congregation Or Ami in Calabasas, CA
91-year-old Deanna came to visit me to find some comfort after her beloved husband Alvin died. Turns out, she spent more time teaching me Torat Chayim (the Torah of Life).