21 Social Action Programs to Try to Replicate In Your Congregation
Grounded in Jewish values, the Fain Awards are presented to congregations who advocate for and organize around pressing social justice issues, protect vulnerable populations, and engage across lines of difference. We hope that the work of this year's recipients inspires others to move into deeper action.
8 Ways You and the URJ Created Light in the World This Year
One of my very favorite Hanukkah traditions is the practice of placing our lit menorahs in windows to share the miracle and joy of this holiday with our communities.
Four Ways to Deepen Your Commitment to Social Justice With the RAC
We are living in an urgent time. Reform Jewish communities are pursuing justice through the Brit Olam at the local, state/provincial, and federal levels to bring about a world in which all people experience wholeness, justice, and compassion.
4 Ways to Deepen Your Commitment to Social Justice With the RAC
We are living in an urgent time. Reform Jewish communities are pursuing justice through the Brit Olam at the local, state/provincial, and federal levels to bring about a world in which all people experience wholeness, justice, and compassion.
All the Things We Can Do With Hope
Hope can be too hard to find - but really, those moments are exactly when we need hope the most. As I reflect upon my life, I am struck by this idea of hope, and how it serves as the underpinning of my entire family’s history.
"Our security comes in our solidarity. Our safety comes through our democracy."
Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, Director of the Religious Action Center, made the following remarks at the 2019 URJ Biennial in Chicago.
How Can We Start Experimenting with Change in a Big Way?
"I’m here to tell you that we – as a Movement, as leaders of Reform congregational life in North America – are going to have to want change, want to change, and all of us will need to lead that change."
A Post-Biennial Round-Up: The Addresses You Want to (Re-)Read
Whether you want to re-read your favorite addresses from the Biennial or will be experiencing them here for the first time, we're doing our best to get everything online and available to you. Stay tuned all week long as we continue to update this list with links to additionall addresses.
Why I View My Career as a Fundraiser as Holy Jewish Work
We live in difficult times, and as a progressive Reform Jew who cares deeply about injustice and human rights, I sit in frustration and horror at the atrocities unfolding daily. I wonder, like so many others, what can I do?
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.