Category: Rabbinic Resources

February 17, 2022

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

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.

September 9, 2021

Guided Meditation: I Know I’m Not Alone

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.

May 2, 2021

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.

April 29, 2021

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.

March 7, 2021

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.

March 24, 2020

Protected: First Funeral during the Covid-19 Pandemic: What We Did

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

March 20, 2020

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.

March 15, 2020

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

November 20, 2019

Protected: Wedding Charges

August 30, 2019

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.

August 30, 2019

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.

August 11, 2019

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.

August 11, 2019

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.

January 6, 2019

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.

Reflections

How To’s

Communicating with the Community

Sermons

Prayers