WORDS THAT BREATHE

Watch my Shabbat Video Message: When You Feel Outside the Community

Alzheimer's and dementia attacks the foundational values of who we are as Jews and Jewish families. We Jews consider ourselves the people of yikzor (remembrance): as long as we remember where we came from, we will have a sense of who we are and where we are going. So what happens when we can no longer remember any of that?

At a meeting with Palestinians near Bethlehem. We gathered to encounter the truth. That we are all one.

I joined over 300 Reform Rabbis - North American, Israeli, European, Australian, Russian and from elsewhere - in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv for our CCAR Israel convention.

#wewontletterroristswin 24 hours earlier, I walked the Israeli port city of Jaffa, meandering through its streets, which the next day momentarily became a terrorist's killing field. I became enamored with its uniqueness.

Sacred Graffiti: Walking around the Florentine neighborhood of Tel Aviv, I am struck by the abundance of graffiti which reminds us of the spirituality throughout Israel

Guest Blogger Rabbi Julia Weisz reflects on taking 8 teens to Washington DC for the L'taken Social Justice Program, transforming their lives and intensifying Congregation Or Ami's teen program.

Visiting Hebron, a City of Conflicting Narratives and Religious Passions, was exciting, inspiring and troubling.

Our heartstrings resonated with story after story of those touched by mental illness, Alzheimer’s, homelessness, domestic violence, drugs, peer pressure, suicide, and the fear caused by terrorism. We discovered that alone we feel overwhelmed and powerless, but together we can become a source for change toward justice.

How does a parent survive the death of a child? Charlotte Klein, an 81-year-old wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, reflects and offers wisdom.

Rabbi Paul Kipnes discusses the centrality of inclusion at Congregation Or Ami in Calabasas, CA

91-year-old Deanna came to visit me to find some comfort after her beloved husband Alvin died. Turns out, she spent more time teaching me Torat Chayim (the Torah of Life).

Cantor Doug Cotler kvells: "I just had the best day at Religious School!"

We must live in the world of the ordinary. But if we then open our eyes and look — really look — we can glimpse the extraordinary.

We are international! Our book, Jewish Spiritual Parenting, has its first overseas book group. The "Apples & Honey Parenting Group at Wimbledon Synagogue" in England is comprised of parents whose children attend Apples & Honey, their nursery school.

Darah Zucker, a second grader at Mariposa School of Global Education, reflected on delivering sufganiot (jelly-filled donuts) on Chanukah.

For a few years now, we have been inviting small groups of men, ages 25 to 80, to get together for Men's Night Out, an evening of noshing (eating), schmoozing (connecting), and thinking. The bonds they create are refreshing.

What's the historical story of Chanukah? What really went on back in the time of the Maccabees?

A mother say to her children, "No Chanukah presents tonight after we light candles. We already received the biggest present today at Mitzvah Day: Childspree."

My Shabbat Video Message on Sweetness Shared from a Kiddush Wine Fountain. Followed by a prayer for after another shooting spree.