Domestic Violence Awareness Month: Relationship Between Domestic Violence and Gun Violence
It sometimes feels that we’re constantly in the aftermath of another instance of gun violence. In October, Domestic Violence Awareness Month, we have an opportunity to shed light on a population that is particularly vulnerable gun violence.
Domestic Violence: No More Family Secrets
Despite the long-held belief that there is no domestic violence in Jewish families, rates of abuse in the Jewish community mirror those in the general public.
Coming Together Against Anti-Semitism: What Will You "Go to the Wall" For?
More than 300 residents, clergy, law enforcement, civil servants, and community dignitaries joined at cemetery of Temple Beth Shalom, which was desecrated with signs of hate – swastikas and rhetoric embraced by Nazis
A Bite into Reproductive Health
The Zika virus is not only an officially-declared Public Health Emergency of International Concern
Galilee Diary: The Neighbors
Whoever saves one life in Israel [i.e., of a Jew] is as if he had saved an entire world.
– Mishnah, Sanhedrin 4:5
Whoever saves one life is as if he had saved an entire world.
Learning Lessons From and With God
In many ways, Parashat Noach is filled with as many theological problems as answers. Chief among them is why after creating the world and all living things, God destroys "all that lives under the heavens" (Genesis 6:17). The reason that God gives is the "violence" or "lawlessness" (chamas) of humankind. Yet what about such godly virtues as patience, love, and forgiveness? Apparently, God possesses less of them than one might wish. Does saving Noah, his family, and a male and female of all living species in order to ensure continued reproduction make up for God's actions? Is saving them a sign of mercy or of pragmatism?
Ki Teitzei: When You Go Out as a Warrior
Parashat Ki Teitzei includes a rich and varied collection of directives that serve as a partial blueprint for behaviors and norms to create the emerging covenantal culture. As Professor Adele Berlin notes, “Issues pertaining to women are prominent in this parashah. . . .
Reform Movement Condemns Graffiti and Arson Attack on a West Bank Mosque
Reform Movement Condemns Graffiti and Arson Attack on a West Bank Mosque Saperstein: "It is as well our fervent hope that despite the destruction and hurt caused by this attack, its perpetrators will not succeed in destroying the fledgling peace process."
How Tikkun Olam and Pikuah Nefesh Will Help Me Prepare: A #BlogElul Post
Last week I had lunch with a rabbi friend who told me he’s in the midst of preparing four different sermons for the upcoming High Holidays.
Syrian Refugees
With more than 500,000 people displaced to neighboring countries by the violent civil war in Syria, the Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief (JCDR) has opened a fund to provide humanitarian aid to the refugees.