WORDS THAT BREATHE

What does it take for a teenager to stand in a senator’s office, look a legislative aide in the eye, and say, “This is personal”? For the remarkable teens of Congregation Or Ami (Calabasas, California), it took courage, conviction, and a deep belief in the power of their own voices. This past week, a group of our young leaders traveled to Washington, D.C., for the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism ’s L’Taken Social Justice Seminar . Over four days, they immersed the

Reflecting on love, healing, and connection through the intertwined lives of a couple laid to rest together at their funeral and twin sisters celebrating their B’not Mitzvah. Discover the profound lessons of relationships and the tree of life.

Wisdom to ensure you don’t let political disruptions ruin your Thanksgiving dinner

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.

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 K

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.

May we be written for a good year in the Book of Life! And perhaps that will happen if we go back to basics. If we go back to kindergarten and be our best selves.

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.

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, so what’s the price point at which quitting the temple becomes unnecessary or nearly impossible? How Congregation Or Ami transformed our funding model.

Drive Thru Judaism, a series of poignant experiences that, kept people safely in their cars, while providing poignant Jewish experiences uplifted our quarantined congregation, banishing loneliness and bringing spiritual sustenance to a community in quarantine.

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.

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.

In a speech at Hebrew Union-College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Or Ami congregant Seth Front kvells about the positive impact that Congregation Or Ami interns and rabbis have had on their daughter Amanda.

A year after the Borderline shooting and the SoCal fires, we reflect on the first person experiences, and explore Torah's insistence that we take action in the face of danger, including mass shootings and changes in climate.

Where do I find a minyan in Disneyland when I need to say Kaddish for my father? Outside It’s a Small World, after all! There, my students ensured I had a community for Kaddish.

A video that explores what it feels like to be a mourner, featuring my poem - The Secret Life of a Mourner.

A video that explores what to say to a mourner. Of particular significance for me since my father Ken Kipnes died.

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?

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.