Redefining “Rabbi” in Rockland County: Pursuing Justice in Public Education

Rabbi Adam Baldachin 0 Comments

As rabbis, we are trained to access the collection of texts that deal with the stuff of life. The law, narratives, interpretations, and inner yearnings that make up the Jewish tradition give us the background we need to do our holy work: to bring truth, meaning, justice, and empathy to anyone who will connect with us on their Jewish journeys.  Yet when I began to work full time as a rabbi in Montebello, NY, I couldn’t have guessed where my training would lead me. In my first week on the job, a local reporter asked my opinion about the crisis unfolding within the East Ramapo school district. Knowing nothing about the issue, I declined to comment. Instead, I began my justice work by holding one-on-one […]

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Seeing is Believing: Visual T’filot and the Future of Jewish Worship

Rabbi Lance J. Sussman Ph.D. 0 Comments

Three years ago, my synagogue agreed to install large retractable screens on either side of the Ark and mounted projectors on the back wall of our 900 seat sanctuary.  With almost no resistance, we quickly transitioned from late 15th century technology to early 21th century modalities of communicating.  It was a relatively easy process.  In addition to her musical talents, our Cantor discovered she had an inherent talent for developing liturgical power point.  What size font, which colors,   Hebrew versus transliteration,  translation versus epitomes of the text, iconic images versus new art and still life versus video instantly presented themselves as questions we needed to address. One by one, we worked our way through the various technological and philosophical issues. We also had to decide […]

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Six Faces of Synagogue Success

Dr. Rob Weinberg 0 Comments

Today’s most successful synagogues share six faces: Successful synagogues link people to what matters in life.Engagement goes to the heart of what successful congregations strive to achieve, not as an end in itself but as a means to creating the relationships that build communities in which Judaism confers meaning to life and opens the door to making a difference in the world. When a congregation creates sacred relationships, fosters Jewish meaning, and helps people make a real impact, people become and remain engaged. When they are so engaged, a self-reinforcing “virtuous cycle” is created in which each investment of mind and heart feels so worthwhile that people seek to engage more often and more deeply. Successful congregations are intentional. Having a vision statement and/or list […]

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Rev. John Steinbruck: Spiritual Role Model

Rabbi Sid Schwarz 0 Comments

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a life counts for a million or more. Last week I attended a memorial service for Reverend John Steinbruck who died on March 1st at the age of 85. When I moved to Washington D.C. in 1984 to take the post as the executive director of the Jewish Community (Relations) Council of Greater Washington, John was already a legend in a city that is somewhat jaded by all of the personages of importance (or perceived self-importance). John came to Washington in 1970 to be the senior pastor of Luther Place Church. His church was at the corner of 14th and N Streets, an area that a couple of years earlier had burned in the riots following the […]

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Synagogues Reimagined

Rabbi Sharon Brous 0 Comments

Once there was a beloved king, teaches Levi Yitzhak of Berdichev, whose court musicians played beautiful music before him.  The king loved the music and the musicians felt honored to be able to use their talent to bring him joy.  Every day for many years the musicians played enthusiastically, and the king and the musicians developed a deep love for one another.  But eventually, after years of dedicated service, all of the musicians died.  Their children were called into the king’s court to take their parents’ place. Out of loyalty to their parents, they began to appear every morning to perform.  But unlike their parents, the children did not love the music.  While they could play basic tunes, they did not understand the hidden power […]

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From Synagogue Centers to Intentional Spiritual Communities

Rabbi Sid Schwarz 0 Comments

In my book, Finding a Spiritual Home, I profiled four congregations, one from each of the major American Jewish denominations. Each had a track record attracting serious Jewish seekers who tended to avoid conventional synagogues. What emerged from the study were four principles that these congregations seemed to share and which suggested an exciting new paradigm for American synagogues. I’ve come to call this paradigm “intentional spiritual community” and I have worked with dozens of congregations helping them move from the older, synagogue-center paradigm, whose appeal is fading, to this newer paradigm. This work in the field has allowed me to fine-tune the four principles which I believe can help American synagogues become better suited to the contemporary realities of American society. Mission Driven and […]

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The Tent Peg Business, Revisited

Rabbis Noa and Lawrence Kushner 0 Comments

A. Almost thirty years ago (1984), when I wrote “The Tent Peg Business” for the first issue of New Traditions (it went belly-up after the third), we were pretty clear about who was a Jew (Jewish mother, conversion); we knew who was a rabbi (HUC, JTS, yeshivah—Recon was just an infant); and we knew what a congregation was (building, dues, rabbi). Now we’re unsure about how to define any of those categories. Indeed, even a print media journal like this may be on the way out. But, if you think that’s challenging, try living in San Francisco. Here, nine out of every ten Jews are unaffiliated. At The Bagelry near my home, the young woman flips the bacon with chopsticks. We ain’t in Kansas anymore.—LK […]

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People of Faith Standing with the Suffering

Rabbi Michael Latz 0 Comments

Last month, rabbis, pastors, priests and imams gathered together in Ferguson, Mo., a city rife with racial violence and pain. Along with my rabbinic colleagues from Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Justice, I decided to join together with the people of Ferguson in their struggle for justice.  I went with the intention of teaching protesters and police alike how to forge a new path for justice. I realized that I had the wrong idea: This wasn’t about clergy teaching anyone anything but about our bearing witness to a movement. After 18-year-old Michael Brown’s death at the hands of a police officer, the youth of Ferguson are demanding that he, and they, not be forgotten. Rabbis went to Ferguson to hold ourselves accountable. We participated in […]

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Want to Build a Healthier Jewish Community? – Nourish Informal Social Networks

Rabbi Rachel Nussbaum 0 Comments

Eight years ago, a group of individuals in Seattle began asking the question: If we were to create a new kind of Jewish community, specifically designed to meet the needs of 21st century Jews, what would it look like and how would it be organized? How would it meet the increasing gap between the needs and mindset of today’s generation of Jews, and the structure of traditional Jewish communal organizations? The answer this group came up with was the Kavana Cooperative: a pluralistic, non-denominational, and cooperative Jewish community. Influenced by Seattle’s start-up culture, co-founders Rabbi Rachel Nussbaum and technology executive Suzi LeVine aimed to create an organization that was simultaneously open and experimental as well as thoughtful and strategic. Most of all, Kavana would be […]

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From Sea to Sacred Sea

Rabbi Michael Lezak 0 Comments

Sixty 15 year-old Jewish campers from L.A. are on a three-day hike through the Santa Monica Mountains.  No mattresses.  No stereos.  No showers.  No hair dryers.   Not an easy task for these pampered kids from the Valley and West L.A.    It’s their last summer as campers.  The summer before they become Counselors-in-Training.  They stay up late.  Telling silly stories around the campfire.  Singing their favorite camp songs.  Eyeing that summer’s crush.  On the last night, these campers and their beloved counselors sleep on a beach in Malibu as the sounds of the waves crashing help them to feel profoundly alive.  They wake up, dip their feet in the ocean and walk en masse along Pacific Coast Highway back to camp.  As they amble into the […]

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