How to Take Definitive Action During Gun Violence Awareness Month
Is your congregation or community ready to organize around addressing gun violence? Here's how.
This Gun Violence Awareness Month, join the Reform Movement in Action
June is Gun Violence Awareness Month, a time for heightened attention to confronting the plague of gun violence that ravages our streets, schools, and houses of worship.
What happened when we brought a 'yearbook of the fallen' to Congress
As their confirmation class project, the 10th graders at Temple Emanuel in Kensington, MD created a “yearbook of the fallen” to commemorate the high school victims of gun violence killed in 2018.
Countdown to Summer: 8 Ways to Stay Connected with Your Congregation’s Youth, Teens, and Grads
While your youth may physically leave the building during the summer, the sense of community you’ve built all year long will stay with them as they venture across the globe. Here are some suggestions for how to stay connected this summer.
An Appeal to Aid Jewish Communities in Ukraine
Dear World Union Family, We all share family in Kiev and throughout Ukraine, and that makes the crisis there personal. The headlines do not tell the full story of the fears our congregants are facing, nor the underlying threat to our community. Help is needed. As we write, Rabbi Alexander Duhkovny, rabbi of our Progressive communities in Kiev and Ukraine, expresses hope that the situation on the ground will improve as the Ukrainian Parliament has approved a restoration of the Constitution of 2004 which limits Presidential power. Yet, we know that in recent days the situation was tragic. Unconfirmed reports indicate that nearly 100 people were killed on Thursday, many of whom were victims of police snipers shooting from rooftops. Fires were spreading, electricity is still unreliable, food is scarce, and the banks and public transportation were closed.
URJ Resolution on Anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism is itself an ancient phenomenon and a remarkably resilient form of hate. In its most terrible manifestation, anti-Semitism led to the Shoah and the murder of 6 million Jews. In the aftermath of this genocidal tragedy, the world said “never again.” Yet despite this pledge, we now see acts of anti-Jewish hatred on the rise.
Are Reform Jews Jewish?
Last week, Member of Knesset David Rotem described the Reform movement as "not Jewish" and "another religion." Rotem is a member of Likud-Beitenu, the lead party in the majority coalition.
Resilience of the Soul Breaks Ground in Adolescent Mental Health
SAN DIEGO, CA—To help families and congregations offer teens a safe place to mature into adulthood, the Union’s Department of Jewish Family Concerns has published Resilience of the Soul – Developing Emotional and Spiritual Resilience in Adolescents and Their Families, A Resourc
Rabbi Pesner on the 2020 Census: Every. Single. Name.
The Book of Numbers tells us
that God told the Children of Israel
to “take a census of the whole community,
every family according to its ancestral household,
listing every single name…”
Rabbi Esther Lederman: Children belong in schools, not cages.
In the Book of Jeremiah we read:
“A cry is heard in Ramah —
Wailing, bitter weeping.
Rachel weeping for her children.
She refuses to be comforted for her children, for they are no longer.”