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Why We Wear Orange on June 4th
Everyday more than 100 Americans are killed by guns and over 300 more people are injured. Friday, June 4 is Wear Orange Day, a national day of awareness about the scourge of gun violence in the United States.
We Hold All of these Truths
The current wave of violence in Israel and Gaza is a heartbreaking human tragedy. The loss of innocent life (including that of children) rends the heart, destruction of homes and endemic fear defy the peace and security in which every human being deserves to live.
Don’t Sacrifice My Trans Child on the Altar of Political Opportunism
Editor's note: this piece was originally published 05/10/2021 and was updated 06/13/2022.
A Prayer for Peace
As Reform Jews, we stand strongly together with our brothers and sisters in Israel. Over the past 48 hours, Hamas has launched a massive barrage of rocket fire on southern and central Israel. At last report, six Israeli civilians have been killed and hundreds of thousands more - from Tel Aviv to Beersheba –are confined to bomb shelters. Innocent civilians in Gaza have fallen victim to this latest round of violence as well. Furthermore, the rapid escalation of violence within Israel's own borders between Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel is a new, and deeply troubling, development. We pray that calm will be restored soon.
Resources for Understanding the Current Israeli-Palestinian Crisis
While some see this conflict in only stark black and white terms, it is intensely complex. To help navigate this complexity, we offer this resource guide, including material that may be helpful in laying out the context and nuances of this latest round of violence between Hamas and Israel.
A Prayer for Jerusalem
Today we celebrate Yom Yerushalayim, the anniversary of that fateful day in 1967 when the Israeli paratroopers reached the Western Wall and announced: "הר הבית בידנו" -- “The Temple Mount is in our Hands.” That moment ushered in the the promise for Jews everywhere, after years of dreaming and longing, to come and pray before this sacred space.
Ethics Accountability for Sexual Misconduct is Crucial to the Safety of Our Communities
Much communal focus has been appropriately directed at making the places we Jews gather safe from violent attacks by those who wish to cause us harm, from the spread of the deadly coronavirus during the pandemic, and other grave external threats. The time is long overdue, however, to confront an internal threat: abuse, misconduct, especially sexual misconduct in spaces for which the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) is responsible.
This Mother’s Day, Let’s Fight for Black Moms
When my husband and I learned that we were going to be parents, we wondered how the actual birth would go. We had heard some devastating statistics about the maternal mortality rate in the United States. Black women in the United States die from pregnancy-related causes at three to four times the rate of white women, regardless of education, income, or other socioeconomic factors.
To Life: An Israeli Wedding Story
Shira and Ron, two young industrial engineers, approached me this past March, when Israel took its first steps out of the pandemic.
Guide to the Complex
Much of the rhetoric coming out of an American understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian interrelationship seriously lacks nuance. Nuance is cavalierly sacrificed on the altar of the soundbite and the hashtag. Those who preach liberal politics and tolerance based on their American experience seem unwilling to understand the complexity of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.