If Kol Nidre is really an Aramaic legal formula, why do we keep singing it?
Category: blog archive
When the World Seems Hopeless
How to find hope when the world feels hopeless.
My Chiropracter Prepared Me for Rosh Hashana
How my chiropractor prepared me for Rosh Hashana.
A Mantra for When Life is Full of Stress
How to respond when life out there is so full of stress that we often want to pull back, circle the wagons, and just take care of ourselves.
They Spit on the Sefer Torah
In an act so heinous to Jews, an orthodox Jewish young woman spit on the Torah scroll. That's what the ultra-orthodox leadership is fostering in their opposition to Women of the Wall and of progressive Judaism.
Addressing the Lingering Loss of Covid-era Zoom Bar/Bat Mitzvah Students
A service to address the lingering loss for covid-era zoom Bar/Bat Mitzvah ceremonies. Far too many became B'Mitzvah away from the synagogue, instead taking the first steps on the path to becoming an adult on Zoom. It is time for staff teams to address the lingering sense of loss.
Leadership in a Time of Crisis: Resources for Rabbis
Reflections
When the Rabbi Feels Trauma in CCAR’s Journal of Reform Judaism (Fall 2019)
By Rabbi Paul Kipnes
So That’s What Rabbis Do: A Rabbinic Student Reflects on a Synagogue’s Fire Response
By (then Rabbinic Student, now) Rabbi Elana Nemitoff-Bresler
After the Fires: Celebrating Thanksgiving When Homes are Lost or Damaged
By Sally Weber MSW and Rabbi Paul Kipnes
How To’s
Rabbi’s Disaster To Do List: 10 Community-Restoring Actions from the SoCal Fires
By Rabbi Paul Kipnes and Rabbi Julia Weisz
Or Ami Outreach Calls Templates (Emergency and non-Emergency)
Template: Congregant Check-in Call Non-Emergency
Template: Congregant Check-in Call following natural disaster
Template: Evacuation Calls (Response Form)
Template: Non-Emergency Check-In Call (Response Form)
Responding to the Ventura Fires with Shabbat Dinner for 120
With Rabbi Lisa Hochberg-Miller and Rabbi Paul Kipnes
Communicating with the Community
Dear URJ Camp Newman friend: When the Sadness is so Deep: After Fires Burned Down Camp Newman Buildings
By Paul Kipnes
Open Letter to Camp Newman Teens, Staff and Alumni from Rabbi Paul (long)
Sermons
Rabbi, Do You Have a Faith That Gets You Through?
God Damn You, God! Taking God to Task in a Messed Up World
Prayers
A Prayer for these Fire-Filled Days
A Kaddish after Gun Violence: For When Humanity Fails Itself
When the Rabbi Feels Trauma
A mass shooting in a Pittsburgh synagogue.A mass shooting in the local dance bar.A raging fire, forcing the evacuation of the synagogue and 75 percent of our congregation. This is the story of when the rabbi experienced trauma after these events.
Parenting: The Challenging of Letting Go (spoken word poetry)
In this spoken word poem, explore how Abraham's parents might have felt as he went off from Haran to the Promised Land, in search of his future.
After 11 deaths in 11 days, I Had it Out with God
After 11 deaths in 11 days, I had it out with God. I realized with over 419,000 dead in American fromCovid-19 decimating, it was time for that conversation with the Creator.
Testing Our Synagogue’s Vision During Quarantine: Disruptive Judaism 2
When confronted with the first of many “shelter at home” quarantine orders, many houses of worship struggled with a perplexing dilemma: Who are we if we couldn’t be together? The story of one synagogue’s journey to answer that question illustrates the power of perspective and the potential of pushing through uncertainty into the unknown.
Pay It Forward, Covid-19-style
During this pandemic, we can Pay It Forward, taking care of a whole web of workers, businesses, and organizations that have long cared for, served, or sustained us.
Disruptive Judaism: Will Your Synagogue Be Beit Blockbuster or Kehillat Netflix?
Responding to a Disruptive Marketplace for synagogues: The choice is pretty clear: Kehillat Netflix or Beit Blockbuster. Which one will your synagogue become? Kehillat Netflix takes its name from a company that openly and confidently takes chances, risks failure, goes up against conventional wisdom, constantly pivots strategically, and thus has so far ensured both its survival and its success. Beit Blockbuster closed down.
Rabbi In Crisis: How a Community Conspires to Care
Imagine having to make this decision: to fly home to hold your wife’s hand as she buries her mom on the West Coast or to remain on the East Coast to oversee the diagnosis and care of your mother who just had a major stroke. What would you do?
Mensch-ify My Kid: Giving Young Families What They Want
Be a Mensch, that's what Or Ami's innovative parenting and pre-K to 6th grade learning program is all about. Mensch-ify my Kid, Mensch-ify my Home, Mensch-ify my Playground.