Liberal Zionism in the Wake of the Flotilla

by Rabbi Jill Maderer

In his recent New York Review of Books essay, “The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment,” Peter Beinart, professor of journalism and political science at CUNY, captures his understanding of the status of American Zionism with these provocative words: “For several decades, the Jewish establishment has asked American Jews to check their liberalism at Zionism’s door, and now, to their horror, they are finding that many young Jews have checked their Zionism instead.” Continue reading

Is the Torah true?

One of the most common questions I am asked: Is the Torah true?  Did it happen?  Our liberal Jewish community is compelled to seek meaning in the Torah and understand it as sacred text.  Yet, we don’t want to check our brains at the door or ignore biblical scholarship. 

One important way to discover the truths of Torah is through biblical archaeology.  Join us on that journey next Shabbat, Friday June 4, 8:00 pm, when our Helen O. Sellers Memorial lecturer Professor Elizabeth Bloch-Smith adresses these issue with her talk: “Not Your Grandparents’ Judaism: Faith and 21st Century Biblical Scholarship.”  Click here to learn about Professor Bloch-Smith’s archaeological work in Israel.

An Israel Update

By Rabbi Michael Holzman

Over my years at Rodeph Shalom I hope that I have been able to communicate my somewhat complicated relationship with Zionism and Israel.  While I certainly call myself a Zionist and believe firmly that there needs to be a Jewish state in the Land of Israel, I am also pained and frustrated with the recent direction of the state.  That pain comes from what I see as the corrupting influence of Israel’s amazing military and economic power.  Setting this power against past and current threats to Israel’s very existence is a recipe for confusion, ethical-lapse and the abuse of the other.  And now throw in the intransigent position of the greater Arab world and the particulars of Palestinian politics and that recipe becomes a potent cocktail for disaster. Continue reading

International Terrorism: Past, Present and Future Challenges

Professor Stephen Sloan explores terrorism in his publication, which you can review by clicking here: “The Evolution of Terrorism as a Global Test of Wills: A Personal Assessment and Perspective”, a personal narrative of his evolution as a scholar of terrorism.  Professor Sloan’s research has spanned the past four decades, to include a coup attempt in Indonesia to the Oklahoma City bombing. He has stood out as a leading thinker on the domestic terrorism threat, the transformation of the international environment as well as the need for the integration of local and national intelligence.

This and next Sunday morning, February 21 and 28, 10:30-11:30 am, join us at Rodeph Shalom for study with RS member Professor Stephen Sloan in our class “International Terrorism: Past, Present and Future Challenges.”

Reform Judaism, Progressive Values and Israel Today

This week, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, President of the Union for Reform Judaism, wrote a letter to his rabbinic colleagues about his recent trip to Israel.  Rabbi Yoffie discusses his wonderful experiences with Reform Jewish youth and rabbinical students in Jerusalem,  the challenge of peace and security in the Middle East and his welcome of the few hopeful voices of hope for negotiations, the recent struggles of the New Israel Fund and of democracy, and the threat of religious extremism for progressive Jews in Israel.  To learn about the recent arson attack on a Conservative synagogue in Arad, please visit ARZA.  Rabbi Yoffie’s letter follows here.Continue reading

Israel and Haiti

by Frederick D. Strober
Rodeph Shalom President

When I was 25, I wound up in a unique place, doing my best to help. In October, 1973, I visited Israel for the first time. I was staying with an aunt in Jerusalem, scheduled to return home after the High Holidays, and experiencing a Yom Kippur morning literally without a car on the road. Suddenly, sirens started wailing and cars quickly began to appear—at noon on Yom Kippur! The Yom Kippur War had begun and I got to see a country mobilize in a matter of hours. It was controlled chaos, and I was amazed how calm the Israelis stayed as hundreds of young men raced to collection points and sped away in army vehicles. It’s a day I’ll never forget.

The men were away at war and the kibbutzim needed workers to finish the harvest. Once the actual fighting ended, my plans laid aside, I headed to Kibbutz Kfar Giladi, in the far north, to do what I could to help.

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The Women of the Wall’s Struggle for Religious Liberty in Israel

by Rabbi Jill Maderer

When I prayed with Women of the Wall (WOW) in 1996, I never imagined that in 2010, women would still be prohibited from raising their voices in prayer at the Kotel—the Western Wall, the remaining wall from the ancient Temple in Jerusalem. Yet, as much as ever before, the religious extremism of ultra-orthodoxy continues to hold authority and power over all Jews in the State of Israel–from school funding to liberal rabbinic recognition– and over all activity at the Kotel.  In November, WOW member Nofrat Frankel was arrested for wearing a tallit (prayer shawl) and for holding a Torah scroll. Two weeks ago, WOW leader Anat Hoffman (who spoke at RS a few years ago at our Joseph W. Rosenbluth Shabbat), executive director of the Reform Movement’s Israel Religious Action Center, was interrogated and fingerprinted by police. Her crime? Wearing a tallit, not at the Wall, but at a previously designated alternative overlooking the wall, where WOW has been holding services for years.Continue reading

In Support of Israel

By Rabbi Bill Kuhn

Now is the time to support the State of Israel as never before.  As Israel is under existential threat on several fronts, it is the obligation of Jews around the world to speak up and to use every resource and means available to save our spiritual homeland.

Rabbi Eric Yoffie, President of the Union for Reform Judaism, said in his Shabbat morning sermon at the Biennial convention in Toronto on November 7th, “When the history of Reform Judaism is written a century from now, its authors will ask…did we do enough to assure the security and well-being of the State of Israel?”

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