A guided meditation on the notion that we are not alone, created to respond to the pervasive isolation people have been feeling in the Covid-19 pandemic.
Category: Rabbinic Resources
Transform Your Synagogue’s High Holy Day Appeal (Then Finally Focus on the Important Stuff)
Transform the High Holy Day Appeal now and your synagogue just might nurture a greater culture of giving. Then, defying the prognosticators of the decline of the synagogue, yours might find itself with the funding to forge ahead, fashioning a future filled with hope and excitement. Here's how Congregation Or Ami did it.
Dear Synagogue Leaders: Go Back Better (to In-Person)
Addressing synagogue leaders, this letter wonders aloud about how we can go back better to in-person synagogue life, especially for our staff and clergy.
Synagogue Dues are Dead: What’s the Price Point at Which Quitting the Temple is Impossible?
Synagogue Dues are Dead, so what’s the price point at which quitting the temple becomes unnecessary or nearly impossible? How Congregation Or Ami transformed our funding model.
Protected: First Funeral during the Covid-19 Pandemic: What We Did
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Dear Jewish Leader, Are You Up to the Task?
An open letter to Jewish leaders about how to lead through Covid-19 present and future.
Prayer for Rising Waters: Getting Through Covid-19
A Jewish prayer finding strength in the responses of our ancestors to the trials in their lives. Specially written for during the Covid-19 outbreak
Protected: Wedding Charges
Video: What’s Mourning Like?
A video that explores what it feels like to be a mourner, featuring my poem - The Secret Life of a Mourner.
Video: What to Say to a Mourner
A video that explores what to say to a mourner. Of particular significance for me since my father Ken Kipnes died.
Facing Shiva: I Don’t Like Being that One
Spoken word poetry about a rabbi who now has to be the one who sits shiva and let's other take care of him.
I Never Knew: A Rabbi’s Poem about Mourning
A spoken word poem about a rabbi who realizes that after all the pastoral support for people whose loved ones have died, he never really knew what it felt like. Until his own father died.
So That’s What Rabbis Do: A Rabbinic Student Reflects on a Synagogue’s Fire Response
Rabbinic Student Elana Nemintoff reflects on the role of the rabbi during the immediate responses by Congregation Or Ami, Calabasas, to the Woolsey fire.
Hero or Imposter? As a Rabbi Struggles with Post-Fire Trauma
How does a Rabbi deal with the trauma of a fire and some shootings? Here's another peek into the journey.
Rabbi’s Disaster To Do List: 10 Community-Restoring Actions from the SoCal Fires
When the fires hit in southern california, we took 10 Community-Restoring Actions that helped our congregants, community and ourselves.