By Rabbi Michael M. Cohen In his 1925 Rosh Hashanah sermon, Rabbi Israel Herbert Levinthal of the Brooklyn Jewish Center prophetically preached, “We build here in America magnificent synagogues, centers and temples. Very good! But if you think for a moment that that will bring back the Jewish world, I say to you that you are suffering under a great illusion. That is the mistake we are making in America. We are working and spending, but not … [Read more...] about A Birthright Program for the American Jewish Home
Readers Forum
Emergent Communities and Legacy Institutions Investing Together
a.k.a. Emergent Seekers Do Go to Temple
By Rabbi Jen Gubitz
It's Shabbat morning, October 27. On the other side of the river from our synagogue, Temple Israel of Boston, we’re gathered for Shabbat brunch in a Cambridge co-working space to explore the question: What is a soul? The group of young adults have wandered through wisdom drawn from Shabbat morning liturgy (Elohai Neshama), Mumford & Sons (Awake My Soul), and modern experiences (SoulCycle or “That’s soul crushing!”). … [Read more...] about Emergent Communities and Legacy Institutions Investing Together
a.k.a. Emergent Seekers Do Go to Temple
Why it’s time to Strengthen Jewish Community Relations
By David Brown and David Bernstein In light of the dizzying array of controversies experienced by the Jewish community, most recently the flack over anti-Semitism among leaders of the Women’s March, we are more convinced than ever that the Jewish community must strengthen its community relations capacity. Last year, the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) formed a “Blue Ribbon Task … [Read more...] about Why it’s time to Strengthen Jewish Community Relations
The Timely Power of Art
By Rebecca Guber If you wandered through Boston Common last April, you would have likely stumbled onto “Pathways to Freedom,” a large-scale public art installation. Artist Julia Vogl placed 1,800 colorful vinyl circles around the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, and each circle in the artwork represented one individual’s answers to four questions reflecting on freedom. The research for this project was funded by Asylum Arts and it was … [Read more...] about The Timely Power of Art
A Culture of Risk Taking – Walking the Walk
By Jaime Walman It was a very hot day in June 2018. I was sitting around my kitchen table with my Strategy Team during one of our “porch days” (a thing I came up with to get us out of the office one day a week during the summer months). Sometimes, they involve sangria. Three years ago, Hillel Ontario created and built a very successful peer-to-peer fundraising campaign called On One Foot. The feedback we had received from our student … [Read more...] about A Culture of Risk Taking – Walking the Walk
Top