Abraham Geiger College, one of WRJ’s YES Fund recipients, asked WRJ to send a representative to Berlin for the 80th anniversary commemorative events of Kristallnacht, including special services, concerts, art exhibitions and panel discussions.
During the past year, the government of Canada admitted 25,000 Syrian refugees and another 11,000 have been arriving as part of private sponsorship opportunities.
No two words resonate more deeply within the Jewish psyche than Lech L’cha. God’s injunction to Abram to “Go forth” from his father’s homeland involves much more than a physical journey. Abram’s wanderings with Sarai, Lot, and their household present problems, resolutions, and, ultimately, the supreme declaration by God of a particular covenantal relationship with Abram and Sarai’s progeny.
Parashat Pinchas doesn’t deliver what you might expect. Amidst yet another census taking exercise, we have the story of the daring, mindful, literate, assertive and non-compromising five daughters of Zelophehad. I would like to relate the bold actions of Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah to our contemporary selves, to us, as women of Reform Judaism.
Today is a very busy and light-filled day in the Hebrew calendar. How fortunate and blessed we are to have so much light adorn our homes, first with the lighting of the sixth candle of Hanukkah and then with the welcoming of Shabbat by lighting her candles, especially since it now gets dark in the late afternoon.