Where do I find a minyan in Disneyland when I need to say Kaddish for my father? Outside It’s a Small World, after all! There, my students ensured I had a community for Kaddish.
Category: Congregation Or Ami
Video: What’s Mourning Like?
A video that explores what it feels like to be a mourner, featuring my poem - The Secret Life of a Mourner.
Video: What to Say to a Mourner
A video that explores what to say to a mourner. Of particular significance for me since my father Ken Kipnes died.
Rabbi In Crisis: How a Community Conspires to Care
Imagine having to make this decision: to fly home to hold your wife’s hand as she buries her mom on the West Coast or to remain on the East Coast to oversee the diagnosis and care of your mother who just had a major stroke. What would you do?
Mensch-ify My Kid: Giving Young Families What They Want
Be a Mensch, that's what Or Ami's innovative parenting and pre-K to 6th grade learning program is all about. Mensch-ify my Kid, Mensch-ify my Home, Mensch-ify my Playground.
Creating an Escape for Teens After the SoCal Fires and Shooting
How might synagogues and Jewish communities respond to the needs of teens to express their inner turmoil and to learn new techniques for managing stress and emotional exhaustion?
So That’s What Rabbis Do: A Rabbinic Student Reflects on a Synagogue’s Fire Response
Rabbinic Student Elana Nemintoff reflects on the role of the rabbi during the immediate responses by Congregation Or Ami, Calabasas, to the Woolsey fire.
Rabbi’s Disaster To Do List: 10 Community-Restoring Actions from the SoCal Fires
When the fires hit in southern california, we took 10 Community-Restoring Actions that helped our congregants, community and ourselves.
When the Rabbi Feels Trauma: Lessons from the SoCal Fires
Facing the trauma after the fires. If it can happen to the rabbi, it can happen to you too...
Resources after a Shooting: For Solace, Support, Action and Talking to Kids
In the aftermath of the shooting in Thousand Oaks, Congregation Or Ami sent these resources - for solace, support, action and talking to kids - to all our congregants.
We are Here for You: A Clergy Letter about Sexual Violence
The rabbis and cantor of Congregation Or Ami sent this letter about sexual violence to our adult congregants, our 9th-12th graders, recent high school graduates (18-22 year olds), and our faculty. We also sent a note to parents of 7th-12th graders with suggestions on conversations with their children.
Jetlagged at 3:30 am
I’m up at 3:30 am, jetlagged.
A Spoken Word Commentary
Tel Aviv Up Close Thru the Eyes of a Long Distance Friend
In a land that oozes holiness, watching my wife Michelle, a long distance lover of Israel, rediscover the Holy Land has been fascinating.
Celebrating Yom Ha’atzmaut in an Airplane to Israel
Celebrating Israel’s 70th birthday on an airplane to Israel and thinking about this spiritual ascension.
Israeli Rabbi Or and Feliza Zohar Stir Souls with Reform Jewish Kabbalah and Music
Quoting Kabbalah (Jewish mysticism), exploring the metaphors of light and darkness, moving with ease back and forth between Israel’s Galilee and California’s Calabasas, Rabbi Or and Feliza Zohar at once teach and transform, explicate sacred texts and invigorate souls.