Category: blog archive

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

Why the Good Die Young

 

Prayers

A Prayer for these Fire-Filled Days

A Kaddish after Gun Violence: For When Humanity Fails Itself

A Psalm for Cities on Fire

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.

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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.

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