Tag: Tikkun Olam: Changing the World

Texas to Tel Aviv: Inspiring Electric Cars from the Holy Land

Genesis teaches us to be Shomrei Adamah, stewards and protectors of the land, to care and cultivate it. Protecting America requires us to find alternative sources of fuel. Protecting Israel demands both.

In the New York Times, Thomas Friedman writes:

What would happen if you cross-bred J. R. Ewing of “Dallas” and Carl Pope, the head of the Sierra Club? You’d get T. Boone Pickens. What would happen if you cross-bred Henry Ford and Yitzhak Rabin? You’d get Shai Agassi. And what would happen if you put together T. Boone Pickens, the green billionaire Texas oilman now obsessed with wind power, and Shai Agassi, the Jewish Henry Ford now obsessed with making Israel the world’s leader in electric cars?

About Shai Agassi: age 40, is an Israeli software whiz kid who rose to the senior ranks of the German software giant SAP. He gave it all up in 2007 to help make Israel a model of how an entire country can get off gasoline and onto electric cars. He figured no country has a bigger interest in diminishing the value of Middle Eastern oil than Israel.

His idea: Agassi’s plan, backed by Israel’s government, is to create a complete electric car “system” that will work much like a mobile-phone service “system,” only customers sign up for so many monthly miles, instead of minutes. Every subscriber will get a car, a battery and access to a national network of recharging outlets all across Israel — as well as garages that will swap your dead battery for a fresh one whenever needed.

Read on and be amazed when Israeli and American know-how and commitment get hooked up together.

An Open Letter to Religious Leaders on Marriage Equality

The Religious Institute on Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing passed around AN OPEN LETTER TO RELIGIOUS LEADERS ON MARRIAGE EQUALITY. It spoke eloquently, with the support of a diverse group of interfaith religious leaders (including myself), about relational justice, about the significance of marriage and family, and about the importance of marriage equality. Two paragraphs particularly speak loudly in the current climate:

AFFIRMING MARRIAGE AND FAMILY
From a religious perspective, marriage is about entering into a holy covenant and
making a commitment with another person to share life’s joys and sorrows. Marriage is valued
because it creates stable, committed relationships; provides a means to share economic
resources; and nurtures the individual, the couple, and children. Good marriages benefit the
community and express the religious values of long‐term commitment, generativity, and
faithfulness. In terms of these religious values, there is no difference in marriages between a
man and a woman, two men, or two women. Moreover, as our traditions affirm, where there is
love, the sacred is in our midst.

ALWAYS REFORMING
Marriage is an evolving civil and religious institution. In the past, marriage was
primarily about property and procreation whereas today the emphasis is on egalitarian
partnership, companionship, and love. In the past, neither the state nor most religions
recognized divorce and remarriage, interracial marriage, or the equality of the marriage
partners. These understandings changed, and rightly so, in greater recognition of the
humanity of persons and their moral and civil rights. Today, we are called to embrace another
change, this time the freedom of same‐sex couples to marry.

Read more also at Jews for Marriage Equality

Olympics 2008: Hiding the Scourage of Genocide


Sure, we are all looking forward to the Summer Olympics to revel in the amazing abilities of athletes from around the world. However, it is just so disappointing and so tragic that once again the Olympics serve as a propaganda tool that hides the hosts connection to genocide.

The 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany provided Hitler with worldwide attention. “For two weeks in August 1936, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi dictatorship camouflaged its racist, militaristic character while hosting the 1936 Summer Olympics. Minimizing its antisemitic agenda and plans for territorial expansion, the regime exploited the Games to impress many foreign spectators and journalists with an image of a peaceful, tolerant Germany.”

China may not be Nazi Germany, but it is certainly supporting, protecting and economically bankrolling the genocidal Sudanese government that is perpetrating genocide upon its Darfuran citizens. And these Olympics provide China with the international prestige which allows it to paper over this travesty.

Lo Ta’amod – Let us not stand idly by (again)…

Walk for Darfur: 179 Or Ami Members Say “Don’t Stand Idly By”

Or Ami Congregant Laurie Tragen-Boykoff and President Susan Gould led a contingent of over 179 Or Ami members and friends during Jewish World Watch‘s Walk for Darfur. The 1000 person strong march sought to raise awareness, support and funds to end the ongoing genocide in Darfur, Sudan that has killed 400,000 Darfuris and forced more than 2 million people to become refugees. As the largest synagogue contingent, Or Ami proudly carried the Walk for Darfur banner and I was honored with the opportunity to address the crowd. Fired up by the commitment of so many to stand up against genocide, I said:

I am holding in my hand a Kiddush cup (okay, it’s a water bottle but only because I forgot the Kiddush cup at home). Many of us raise a similar cup on Erev Shabbat while sitting at the Shabbat table in the comfort of our own homes. Surrounded by family. Or maybe friends. Maybe you are just enjoying a quiet Shabbat at home alone. The candles lit. And you raise a cup of wine or grape juice. Kiddush, that prayer of holiness, is recited. And just before you drink, someone always calls out “l’chaim – to life!”

We Jews are a people who value life, sanctify life, we say, “L’chaim”. At every simcha (joyous time), on every holy day, whenever we can, we raise a glass to say “L’chaim.” Yet “L’chaim,” is not enough, because it is not enough for us to sit around our tables in comfort and contentment, to wish and hope. Jewish tradition calls upon us, instead, to get up and act, with passion and intention, until everyone else can say “L’chaim” with smiles on their faces and peace in their hearts.

So let me teach you another Hebrew phrase, the one which explains why Laurie Tragen-Boykoff (our synagogue JWW chair), 170 Congregation Or Ami members, and why more than 1000 of us have gathered together here today. It’s from Torah. Repeat it after me: Lo ta’amod (Lo ta’amod) // al dam ray-eh-cha (al dam ray-eh-cha). Again: Lo ta’amod (Lo ta’amod) // al dam ray-eh-cha (al dam ray-eh-cha). It means “Don’t stand idly by, while your neighbor bleeds.” Let me hear it: Don’t stand idly by (Don’t stand idly by) // while your neighbor bleeds (while your neighbor bleeds). Again. Lo ta’amod. Don’t stand idly by.

Lo ta’amod… don’t stand idly by.

  • When our people were burning in Hitler’s fires, and the nations of the world claimed innocence or worse, we Jews countered, with tears in our eyes (say it after me): Lo Ta’amod – Don’t stand idly by.
  • When our government knew that bombing the concentration camp railroad tracks would have killed many but saved hundreds of thousands more, we begged (say it after me): Lo Ta’amod – Don’t stand idly by.

And yet, they did. And yet, our government did. And yet, the world did. Too many who knew, did… nothing.

The Holocaust is a stain upon humanity. Stained with the blood of our brothers and sisters and millions of others.

We declared “Never Again!” But “Never again” was a slogan. It was a call to remember. Lo Ta’amod is a mitzvah. It is a call to act. It’s not enough to remind them that our blood ran red. We know that everyone’s blood runs red. Lo Ta’amod goads us to stop all that unnecessary blood from flowing.

So today we declare:

  • Since we know about the purposeful, planned, systematic attempt to wipe out the people of Darfur, and we cry out together (say it): Lo Ta’amod – Don’t stand idly by.
  • Since we know about the use of rape, to terrorize and control women, to harm this generation and taint the next, we insist – of ourselves and our governments: Lo Ta’amod – Don’t stand idly by.
  • And since we know about the continued attacks on the refugee camps in Chad, where innocent Darfuris have gathered seeking shelter, we demand – of ourselves and the world: Lo Ta’amod – Don’t stand idly by.

Let these 1000 voices be heard throughout the San Fernando and Conejo Valleys, the Simi and San Gabriel Valleys, and all over Los Angeles, and California, all over America and throughout the world, that we expect, we insist, we demand… (Let them hear it): Lo Ta’amod – Don’t stand idly by.

May God bless the work of Jewish World Watch, of her partners and supporters, of all of you, for giving up your Sunday morning to answer the call of Torah. Lo Ta’amod – WE WON’T STAND IDLY BY! Amen!

URJ and RAC Celebrate Justice for California Gay Community

WASHINGTON, May 15, 2008 – In response to today’s ruling by the California Supreme Judicial Court declaring the state’s ban on gay marriage unconstitutional, Mark J. Pelavin, Associate Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, and Rabbi Alan Henkin, Regional Director of the Union for Reform Judaism’s Pacific Southwest Council, issued the following statement:

Today’s ruling is a landmark step toward ensuring the right of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans to share in the joys and privileges of marriage that have long been afforded to heterosexual couples. As the Court rightly noted, “An individual’s capacity to establish a loving and long-term committed relationship with another person and responsibly to care for and raise children does not depend upon the individual’s sexual orientation,” and that “an individual’s sexual orientation – like a person’s race or gender – does not constitute a legitimate basis upon which to deny or withhold legal rights.”

Much like the 2003 decision of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, today’s ruling serves as affirmation that we cannot allow our nation to continue to divide into separate and decidedly unequal groups: those adults who are free to express their love for one another in marriage and those who are not.

The Reform Jewish Movement has long been committed to welcoming GLBT Jews into our congregations, synagogues and communal life and strongly supports legislative efforts to provide equal opportunity through civil marriage for gay and lesbian individuals. As we teach our children, all individuals are created b’tselem elohim, in the image of the Divine; today’s ruling reflects that concept of inherent equality.

This is a historic day, a day to celebrate. Tomorrow, however, is the day to begin organizing against the all-but-inevitable initiatives to amend the state’s constitution to ban same-sex marriage equality. As soon as we finish today’s victory toast, we are ready to roll up our sleeves and get to work.

—

The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism is the Washington office of the Union for Reform Judaism, whose more than 900 congregations across North America encompass 1.5 million Reform Jews, and the Central Conference of American Rabbis, whose membership includes more than 1800 Reform rabbis.

California Ends Gay and Lesbian Couples’ Exclusion from Marriage


We celebrate the news that California Ends Gay Couples’ Exclusion From Marriage.

Earlier today, the California Supreme Court handed down a historic decision upholding the freedom to marry in In Re: Marriage Cases. California’s high court is the second state high court to rule in favor of ending the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage. (My home state of Massachusetts ruled over 4 years ago.)

With this ruling, our country has the opportunity to continue seeing how families are helped and no one is hurt by ending exclusion from marriage, just as other countries around the world have done.

Jewish tradition, which recognizes that all people were born b’tzelem Elohim (in the image of God), has a long supported the blessing and sanctification of marriages between two mature, monogamous, consenting adults, whatever their gender. Reform Rabbis voted in 1996 to support marriages between gay or lesbian Jewish couples and voted in 2000 to support rabbinic officiation at such unions. Now the State of California has recognized the validity and sanctity of such unions!

Mazel tov to all who worked for this day!

Beit T’shuvah: Jewish Rehab Clinic in Los Angeles County

Our Center for Jewish Parenting is always on the lookout for stories, resources and information to help parents. In conjunction with our Madraygot/Jewish 12 Steps Addiction Education and Prevention Project, we aim to educate, support and prevent addiction.

We get a boost in this week’s Jewish newspaper. The Jewish Journal wrote a beautiful series of articles on Beit T’shuvah, a Jewish rehab clinic/synagogue/halfway house in Culver City. Beit T’shuvah is one of LA’s gems, helping with the vast population of Jewish alcoholics, addicts and their families.

Read on:

In the small lobby, a teenage boy with blondish hair sits passively on a couch, staring at the wall, not reacting to the threats thrown his way.

His mother, her face puffy from crying, pleads with her husband, the boy’s enraged stepfather, who slams in and out of the building, furiously yelling that the boy stole his car and his money to buy drugs.

Rabbi Mark Borovitz tries to calm everyone down, but he gives no solace to the boy, telling him firmly that he’s screwed up and will have to pay for it. “If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime,” says the rabbi — a refrain from his own criminal past.

Hang out for any length of time at Beit T’Shuvah, a Jewish rehab clinic/synagogue/halfway house in Culver City, and you might have your heart broken by scenes like this. The residents, about 110 men and women of all ages, nearly all of them Jewish, are drug addicts and alcoholics — often with a criminal record. Read more

Take a look at two other articles on this topic:

One day at a time, one person at a time

Drug abuse debate: Legalization, medication or therapy?

Prom Prep 101: Foster Girls Prepare for Prom

Hedi Gross and Rabbi Kipnes write:

Congregation Or Ami teamed up with other synagogues and churches to again run Prom Prep 101. The Calabasas synagogue, as part of its ongoing commitment to help children in the foster care system, has latched onto the Prom Prep 101 as an opportunity to give back. Young foster girls ages 15-18 came from the Department of Children and Family Services to take part in making their upcoming Prom a beautiful memory. Most of these girls were able to go to their proms because of Prom Prep.

Event chair Debbie Echt-Moxness reflected back on her heartfelt call for volunteers and dress donations. In response to Debbie’s congregation-wide mailing, Congregation Or Ami’s Mureau Road synagogue was overwhelmed with prom dresses – new and slightly used, jewelry, make up and endless offers to volunteer the day of the event. Debbie recalled that “We told people that Prom Prep 101 was a wonderful opportunity to get involved and make a difference in the lives of foster care kids. Our ‘goal’ was to help make 50 under-privileged girls feel beautiful and special, inside and out. I truly believe that we all come away from this experience feeling blessed and holy, for having made someone else feel more whole.”

At Prom Prep 101, volunteers signed in, put on name tags, and were given a tour through separate rooms of shoes, accessories, and professional make-up artists and hair stylists who volunteered their time and day off to help out. Calabasas Oaks resident Hedi Gross, who brought her daughter Molly, captured the overwhelming feeling of goodness: “Nothing prepared us for the emotion we felt when we walked into a room FILLED with beautiful gowns, broken down by size and color (most with tags still on them). It was AWESOME! To realize that each girl would feel like Cinderella for the day was simply beautiful…breath-taking. I looked around to see if I was the only one crying, but all the other mothers were wiping away tears at this awesome sight!”

Once the teenage girls began to arrive, Prom Prep 101 quickly went into motion. In the main sanctuary, the girls received beauty tips on what to wear, what not to wear and “the message that our clothing puts out into the world.” Escorts were assigned to their girls, blow dryers turned on, and make-up as applied. Calabasas cousins Molly Gross and Carly Feinstein popped into a “dress room” to help a girl named Melissa (not her real name). Although Melissa was already being ushered/hosted by a mother-daughter team, Melissa quickly took to my Molly and Carly. Before you knew it, Melissa had her own large team, primping and supporting her as she moved from beauty station to station. Melissa chose a gorgeous dress, picked out accessories, sat with the hair stylist and the make up artist. She looked divine. Walking down the aisle for the fashion show, Melissa appeared to walk on air.

Prom Prep 101 reminded participants, the foster girls and volunteers alike, about the power of kindness and compassion to transform lives. Hedi recalls that “It was quite obvious that Melissa was a girl with a light within. Eighteen years old girl, attending college next year, she adores track and field. Melissa is bright, happy, confident, and on a mission to help the world. I found it so moving that she was offering to my girls words of encouragement! She told them to “believe in yourself” and “you can do anything in this lifetime. Originally, I thought we would need to be offering words of encouragement to her. We went there believing we could help someone feel better about themselves (even for just one day) but in reality we left feeling like the lucky ones, simply for having met these girls.”

Professional photographer Jaime Rothstein volunteered to photograph Prom Prep 101. The Calabasas resident talked about the delightful experience photographing the teens. “It truly was an honor to be part of such a day that puts so many smiles on so many young girls’ faces. I am so proud and in awe of all who organized this day for being angels and giving so many girls their wings to fly and feel beautiful and confident and hopeful and loved. I know there is a God because of what I experienced today.”

Judaism teaches that mitzvah (commandment or ethical action) is found in the giving, but the true gift is in the warmth one feels long after the event is over. For more information about Prom Prep 101 or to volunteer for next year’s event, contact Or Ami president Susan Gould at (818) 880-4880 or the4goulds@roadrunner.com.

Take a Turn Down J-Street: Supporting Israel in a New Way

I’ll be at the AIPAC National Convention in June 2008, because what other organization can gather together so many leaders of the American government – from both sides of the aisle – and from the Administration – for the primary purpose of talking about and supporting Israel. And until and unless someone else can fill that role, AIPAC has our clear support.

But that doesn’t mean that AIPAC always speaks in my voice. Sometimes my concern is heightened by certain positions AIPAC has taken, or its hardline on certain issues. If AIPAC follows its mantra, that it supports takes its cues from current Israeli government, what do we do when (a) the current Israeli government is either too hardline or too weak or too unethical [as happens from time to time] OR (b) the current Israeli government needs a little loving redirection or stern talking-too? In those times, the actions of an organization committed to speaking for the current government acts against that government’s own interest.

That’s why we must keep our eyes on the new J-Street Project, the new lobbying group and a political action committee, which supports Israel, but with a decidedly liberal outlook. (Read Haaretz’s discussion about it here. Shmuel Rosner blogs about it here.) The J-Street Project’s coffers are smaller; its membership roles are far overshadowed by its older cousin. Still, such diversity could be good for the American Jewish Community (many of whom see AIPAC positions as hardline conservative) and good for Israel.

Consider J-Street Project’s new video. Then you decide.

Will it make it? Will J-Street Project survive the test of time? What dangers are there to splitting the pro-Israeli lobby in America?

For now, sit back and watch. Great things may be happening in the Pro-Israel community!

Prophetic Outrage: Preaching and Anger from Biblical Times to Today

The language of outrage – full of drama, harshness, condemnation – fills the sermons of our prophets back in Biblical times. They spoke truth to power, condemning leaders and machers whenever their behaviors transgressed our expected moral standards.

Rabbi Ron Stern of Stephen S. Wise Temple reflects upon this kind of preaching and suggests that this Biblical model of prophetic preaching is alive today in churches around this country. To understand the controversy which arose around the preacher Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s pastor, you need to understand this background.

Hear the first part of Rabbi Stern’s sermon on Youtube by clicking here.

Then check out the second part of the sermon.

Shake Up Your Seder: New and Collected Ideas 2008


Tired of the boring seder experience. Here are my new and collected Seder ideas for 2008/5768.

Check out the Seder Ideas!

By the way, the picture is from Or Ami’s annual Seder in the Wilderness Congregation Retreat. 400 people turn out for various Passover experiences. I was Pharaoh in 2007. View the pictures here. Join us at the retreat by clicking here.

Let me know if you used any.

Make Sudan an Offer It Can’t Refuse

Sadly, we’ve been here before. The world I mean. Facing Genocide.

It seems that we keep forgetting that all the talk in the world has no effect when the killing is happening. That murderers will make false promises and lie if it will allow them to continue with their murderous plans. That only when confronted directly, usually with force, will they stop.

Mark Helprin gets it right with Make Sudan an Offer It Can’t Refuse (NYTimes, 3/25/08).

Violating sovereignty is a matter of immense consequence and gravity. Then again, so is genocide. [emphasis mine]
Although Darfur is part of Sudan, it is physically distant from the country’s heartland and sources of military power. Every inch of the 600 miles of barren territory between Khartoum and the killing grounds is an opportunity for a reprieve commanded by American air power — with not a boot on the ground. The Sudanese military in Darfur can be trapped there without sustenance, to wither or retreat as the bulk of Sudanese forces are kept out. And the janjaweed can be denied tangible support merely by severing the few extenuated routes of supply……none of this would prove necessary were the United States willing to go further and threaten or accomplish the destruction of the Sudanese regime’s means to power over a country that has been pulled apart centrifugally by multiple secessions. One needn’t be squeamish about such a proposition. It pertains to a government that has long massacred hundreds of thousands of its “own” people in its South and West, supported international terrorism and menaced most of its neighbors. The precise targeting of a substantial portion of its 1,200 armored vehicles and 1,100 artillery pieces; its telecommunications exchanges and microwave towers; its dozen small naval vessels; its aircraft, runways, munitions, military headquarters, logistical stores, security ministries and presidential residences would be only a few days’ work for long-range bombers dispatched from remote bases, and the planes of two carrier task forces hastened to the Red Sea.Which would the regime in Sudan prefer? To be annihilated, or to discontinue its campaign of mass murder in Darfur? Given Sudan’s record, very few nations would be willing to come to its aid with other than a pro forma whimper, and given the geography and the air and naval balance, no nation could. Though many a repressive dictatorship would protest, and Sudan’s patron, China, might determine to speed up the formation of the blue-water navy it is already building, little else would change except for the better.

We, descendants of the Holocaust, inheritors of a world that stood idly by, should know better, and act better.Want to understand more? Jewish World Watch speaks truth to power.

Honoring Michael and Dina Kaplan at Or Ami’s Gala

Congregation Or Ami honored Michael and Dina Kaplan, synagogue and community leaders, at our Gala on March 1,2008. I spoke these words to them:

Michael and Dina Kaplan individually and as a team have shown us the magic of Judaism. With complimentary sets of skills, they have shined the bright light of hope and possibility into the darkened, and often overwhelming, lives of families whose children struggle with exceptional needs. In the process, they show countless parents, grandparents, relatives, teachers and temples, that children with special needs are exceptional kids, who will inspire us all to hope and dream.
Dina Kaplan Watching Dina move through life, as the very capable lawyer that she is, special needs children’s advocate, creator of the K.E.N. Project, and as mother of Brandon, that exceptional kid who has captured the hearts of our whole congregation, is to see competence, grace and tenacity in action. When faced with situations which would cause most of us to dissolve into tears and become incapacitated by the sheer overwhelming needs before us, you Dina have crafted meaningful solutions which create amazing possibilities for countless kids and families. In the process, you have taught us all – recalcitrant school systems, disbelieving relatives, underprepared teachers, and cautious synagogues – to become our better selves, to open ourselves up to the wonders that each child – able bodied or exceptional – brings into God’s world.
Meandering around Brandon’s Village, we see an amazing lack of difference, as all kinds of children and families find normalcy in the common experience of a day at the park. Walking into Or Ami’s Support Group for Parents of Kids with Special Needs which you facilitate, we see relief spread over the faces of parents who suddenly see possibility through the stress. Grab a siddur and sit in a Bar/Bat Mitzvah service for a child with special needs – whether Brandon’s or the many other children who have chanted Torah at Or Ami – thanks, Diane – and we see what you Dina have been advocating all along: that two values are being played out, simultaneously. That each child is a kid like any other kid created in the image of God, worthy of love. And that as special kids, each child brings an honor and joy our community as he participates to the fullness of his abilities.
Dina, that is why we honor you tonight. For bringing the light of possibility into our community and our lives. May generations of exceptional kids and their families soar ever higher because of the amazing wings you have helped them fashion for themselves.
Michael Kaplan
When it became known that Michael Kaplan was joining Congregation Or Ami, I began receiving receive anonymous messages cautioning me about what was in store. They warned me that Michael takes pleasure in terrorizing and teasing young rabbis. They said it would begin slowly, subtly.
First Michael would sit in the front row at services, reciting the prayers with an old world Ashkenazi accent, just loudly enough to break the rabbi’s concentration, even causing me to lose my place or – horror – crack a smile during the Kaddish. They were right; it happened. Then he would take over Chanukah, insisting that we hear his collection of Yiddish Christmas Carols. That too occurred, but thankfully I am spared having to listen to those anymore. Then came the bevy of blackberry text messages, each arriving at a purposely timed, most inopportune moments, offering hysterically inappropriate yet uniquely insightful comments on the discussion at hand.
Finally, in a coup de craziness, he slowly, subtly positioned himself, first joining the board, then working his way up until, elected president, he could claim the prize he had his eye on all along – those precious moments at Yom Kippur, when the president gets to greet the whole congregation. For Michael, his four minutes became fourteen, until, inserting himself into the role of replacement rabbi, he did the unimaginable: he gave a sermonette which, beautifully crafted and masterfully delivered, caused us all to dissolve into tears. I was consumed with worry. “He wants my job,” I said to myself on that Yom Kippur, adding new sinful thoughts to my recently cleansed soul. “This president is after my job.”
Michael Kaplan sees himself as an evangelical, spreading the good word about Or Ami’s special brand of joyous Judaism. Whether at Jerry’s Deli, where Michael holds court to publicizes our excellent Henaynu caring community, or at community functions – Jewish and not so Jewish – where Michael publically pronounces that his shul is the coolest, he is one of Or Ami’s biggest boosters. I regularly receive Michael’s text messages from around the country, in which he shares with me his Shabbat services experiences at Temple Beth Beyond-the-Horizon. Each text ends with the same line: they cannot hold a candle to what we do here at Or Ami. I no longer fear Michael wants my job, because I know that Michael sees his job as creating the room and support for this rabbi – and this congregation – to dream big and imaginatively. And Or Ami has flourished under his leadership.
When not harassing this rabbi, Michael can be found behind the lens of his camera. Whether photographing animals mating at the zoo, people making memorable moments around the community, or children soaking in Jewish spirituality at our shul, Michael is capturing for eternity, those special moments which make life spectacular.
Of course, Michael’s transformational efforts go beyond the walls of Or Ami. With Dina, with their son Brandon and their wonderful families, Michael has ensured that every person he comes in contact with has her needs addressed, because Michael recognizes that each person, created b’tzelem Elohim, in the image of God, is unique and special. He has created safe communities where people with special needs can turn for support and spirituality. And he promotes efforts which urge us to reach outward to transform our community and our world.
Michael, tonight we honor you, for the way you have touched the lives of so many with your warmth, your stories, and your smile. Under your influence, may Or Ami continue to flourish as we all bring goodness into our world. Mazel Tov!

We are Noah: Charged with Destroying the World and Tasked with Saving It

It is humbling when a normally staid journalist, a critic of those who use religion for their own purposes, begins to quote the Bible. But that’s just what Thomas Friedman did in his article, In the Age of Noah (NYTimes, 12/23/63):

It struck me as I read that story that our generation has entered a phase that no previous generation has ever experienced: the Noah phase. With more and more species threatened with extinction by The Flood that is today’s global economic juggernaut, we may be the first generation in human history that literally has to act like Noah — to save the last pairs of a wide range of species.

Or as God commanded Noah in Genesis: “And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female.”

Friedman had just finished making a poignant comparison with Noah’s work in the Torah:

A couple of weeks ago, The Times’s Jim Yardley reported from China that the world’s last known female Yangtze giant soft-shell turtle was living in one Chinese zoo, while the planet’s only undisputed, known giant soft-shell male turtle was living in another — and together this aging pair were the last hope of saving a species believed to be the largest freshwater turtles in the world.

So here we are: We may be the first generation in human history that literally has to act like Noah — to save the last pairs of a wide range of species that are threatened with extinction. What are you going to do about it?

Heart Soaring and Head Spinning. The Biennial Closes

The Biennial wrapping up. My head is spinning even as my heart is soaring. Heart soaring because, with my family and dear members of our Or Ami congregational family, we experienced two very moving Shabbat services filled with uplifting Shabbat music and inspiring leadership. Heart soaring because of the incredible music of Doug Cotler, Julie Silver, Joe Black, Josh Nelson, and others (ask me about the Gospel Shabbat by a black Jewish group).

My head is spinning because being at this extended weekend convention was like walking along a never-ending shmorgasbord of synagogue/Jewish/community/ritual/social justice/educational/Shabbat/youth side dishes. Each is a meal of opportunities to deepen personal Jewish spirituality and meaningful synagogue life. How do we digest this, prioritize the ideas and initiatives and move forward? (I am guessing that the Biennial delegates with gather this week to consider and prioritize our ideas.)

Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the URJ, spoke Shabbat morning about the need for deeper Shabbat celebration, about a State by State Health Care initiative, and about creating a new Muslim-Jewish dialogue between moderate Jews and moderate Muslims. You can read Rabbi Yoffie’s sermon here.

So much learned, so much to do, so glad to be part of a Congregation Or Ami which is part of this larger, morally-focused, creative movement called the Union for Reform Judaism!