Since launching the acclaimed Shabbat Across America Program in 1997, the National Jewish Outreach Program has brought hundreds of thousands of Jews together for an annual fun-filled Friday night event. In an unrivaled display of Jewish unity, approximately 700 synagogues across the continent simultaneously open their doors to practicing and non-practicing Jews alike, so they may join together to experience and rejoice in a traditional Shabbat service and festive meal. Designed to teach a generation of unaffiliated Jews about the beauty and significance of the Jewish Sabbath, Shabbat Across America/Canada is the first nationally orchestrated program to appeal to members of all major Jewish denominations. This year, the newest Shabbat Across American locations will be virtual, ...

As the central hub in which most affiliated Jews express their sense of Jewish commitment and belonging, the synagogue is a natural place to deepen the relationship to Israel.

And so, a new endeavor began in Jerusalem yesterday as a group of American participants have come together to discuss, What does it mean to be an Israel-engaged synagogue. Their five day itinerary brings together key people, professionals and lay leaders, from throughout the Jewish community whose work and passion are committed to Jewish life and the synagogue.

Abraham Joshua Heschel writes that "The land is a text." Their journey begins with the belief that the Land of Israel embodies Judaism, and stands as a dynamic and living Jewish text. ...

Imagine working passionately and tirelessly in the uphill trek towards fulfilling your life's mission, only to have someone say to you, "I am going to fast-forward your career 20 years." That is what Harold Grinspoon, known as one of the most innovative Jewish social entrepreneurs in America, said to 32-year-old Rabbi Ethan Tucker of New York City, as he granted him $100,000 per year for two years, with his inaugural Grinspoon Jewish Social Entrepreneur Fellowship. Rabbi Tucker, one of the co-founders and leaders of the national independent minyanim movement, is developing curricula for and expanding Mechon Hadar, which he co-founded in 2001. Based in New York City, Mechon Hadar is a unique, non-denominational institute whose mission is to revitalize communal life - ...

In a step that marks a major change in gender roles within modern Orthodoxy, women will be ordained as Orthodox rabbis. Jerusalem's Shalom Hartman Institute, founded by Rabbi David Hartman, himself a modern Orthodox rabbi, will open a four-year program next year to prepare women and men of all denominations - Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist and also Orthodox - for rabbinic ordination. Ordination will be provided within the framework of a teacher-training program that prepares graduates to serve in Jewish high schools in North America. Why would an institute that runs an Orthodox middle school and high school for boys, and that will open an Orthodox girls' school next year, decide to provide rabbinic ordination to women despite the controversy it will ...

About seven years ago, through an initiative funded by Star Synaplex, I was introduced one Shabbat to an incredible musical ensemble who identified themselves as Shabbat Unplugged. Populated by a group of RRC students and educators, their mantra is to Experience Shabbat Like Never Before.

They have developed a "joyful, prayerful, song-filled, rocking, jumping, moving, grooving, spiritually-soothing, funky, folksy, fun Shabbat worship experience for young adults...". Since then, as both a group, and individually, they have produced several successful albums while their original music has helped shape and influence Shabbat worship throughout the United States.

One of the original ...