Why Orthodox Rabbi Cherlow wants Israel to be more welcoming to Conservative and Reform Jews

By Shmuel Rosner
Published on December 11, 2012

Thousands sign on for Shema flash mob

Published on October 22, 2012

More than 2,500 people signed up to participate in a global Shema flash mob as part of a campaign to promote religious pluralism in Israel. The gatherings early Monday afternoon came two days after Conservative Jewish congregations were asked to dedicate a recitation of the Shema to the topic as well.

Shame at the Holiest Site in Judaism

By Rabbi John Rosove
Published on August 20, 2012

The Rosner-Cohen Exchange Part V: Are you biased against intermarried Jews?

By Shmuel Rosner
Published on July 30, 2012

Open Letter to Ellie About God

By Susan Esther Barnes
Published on June 27, 2012

June 18, 2012

By Shmuel Rosner
Published on June 18, 2012

When there are no more excuses for Israel’s Reform

By Shmuel Rosner
Published on May 30, 2012

Can you believe it? Israel has more Conservative and Reform Jews than Haredis

By Shmuel Rosner
Published on February 23, 2012

Jon Stewart defends Obama’s godless Thanksgiving message

By Lauren Bottner
Published on December 1, 2011

Jacobs unanimously elected to lead Reform Jews

Published on June 13, 2011

The Board of Trustees of the Union for Reform Judaism unanimously elected Rabbi Richard Jacobs to serve as its next president. Jacob's election on Sunday makes him the fourth person to hold the office since its creation in 1943. Previous presidents were Rabbis Maurice Eisendrath, Alexander Schindler and Eric Yoffie.

The Zionism of Rabbi Richard Jacobs – A Model for Our Times

Published on April 26, 2011

In the current issue of The Jewish Journal, there is an advertisement taken out by “Reform Jews who want the Reform Movement to stand with Israel.” This advertisement asserts that Rabbi Richard Jacobs, the President-designate of the Union for Reform Judaism, “does not represent the pro-Israel policies cherished by Reform Jews.” We vehemently disagree with this distorted caricature of Rabbi Jacobs and his attitudes toward Israel.

Fear over intermarriage is overblown

By Leonard Saxe
Published on March 27, 2008

Purim is a time to dull our senses with drink and cloak our identity by dressing in costume. We do so in order to confront a troubling part of our history and the threats to Jewish life and continuity in the Diaspora.

Reform Jews must refashion Shabbat

By Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie
Published on December 20, 2007

Communal leaders outside of the synagogue love to talk the language of corporate strategy. They engage in endless debates on the latest demographic study. They plan elaborate conferences and demand new ideas. But sometimes we don't need new ideas; we need old ideas. We need less corporate planning and more text and tradition, less strategic thinking and more mitzvot, less demographic data and more Shabbat. Because we know in our hearts that in the absence of Shabbat, Judaism withers.

Politics of liberal and conservative Jews reverse

By Arnold Steinberg
Published on November 15, 2007

Recently, I spoke to Reform rabbinical students in their class on "Jewish Political Tradition." Which is, exactly, what? My expertise, I told them, is politics, not theology. Here was my dilemma: to talk reality or defer to the orthodoxy of Reform Jews, which is to say, political liberalism. (Forget the Reconstructionists, i.e., Jewish Unitarians, who are oxymoronic "religious" secular humanists.) How confusing all this, especially for non-Jews, who are further told that Conservative Jews are somewhere between Reform Jews and Orthodox Jews -- sort of like the words "liberal" and "conservative."

Moral Diet

By Rob Eshman
Published on January 4, 2007

The holidays are over, and I'm full.I spent a week with family in Manhattan, eating.And when I wasn't eating, I was reading a landmark book -- about food.

Day School for Reform Jews, Too

By David Ellenson
Published on September 2, 2004

The idea that a significant number of American Jewish children would come to attend Jewish day schools would have seemed unimaginable no more than 40 years ago, and the notion that thousands from Reform Jewish homes would attend such schools would have seemed even more fantastic. After all, the public school was the major institution that facilitated the entry of upwardly mobile immigrant Jews and their children into American life throughout the major part of the 20th century.

Yoffie Emphasizes Need to Forge Links

By Joe Berkofsky
Published on November 13, 2003

Reform Jews cannot go it alone.

That was the message at the Reform movement's 67th biennial in Minneapolis last week.

Despite numerically dominating the North American Jewish landscape, Reform Jews must reach out to other Reform Jews in Israel and Eastern Europe and fight anti-Semitism by forging closer ties to Christians, said the movement's president, Rabbi Eric Yoffie.

Into the Words

By Ellen Jaffe-Gill
Published on April 25, 2002

People are always asking Dvora Weisberg's parents, "Where did you go wrong?"