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.

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

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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The Torah of Blogging

by Rabbi Jill Maderer

Do you feel comfortable commenting on a blog article publically?  What would Moses do?

One internet scholar explains that when social networking was first introduced, teen-agers were the most comfortable with it.  Children of the internet, teens commented on any blog post that so moved them and often exposed their private feelings.  Their parents, and adults over the age of 45 were more likely to expose nothing on the internet.  Adults were accustomed to communicating with one person and not with the public. Continue reading

Fasting for Darfur

On my door I have a “Stop the Genocide” sticker. It’s been there for over three years now, and the war in Darfur drags on. So why am I fasting on what seems like a random day in August 2009 for this cause? Why not let it simmer on the back burner where it has been since a group of us traveled to DC for the Save Darfur rally?

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Summer Casual Services

By Rabbi William I. Kuhn

Our Friday night Summer Casual Services are off to a great start. These are one hour services, casual dress, fun atmosphere, great discussion topics, lots of RS members as well as lots of prospective members.

Our discussion topics for this summer are taken from the book, Your Word Is Fire, by Arthur Green and Barry Holtz. We study a brief poem that captures the essence of some of the Hasidic masters’ contemplations on prayer, and then we discuss its meaning in the context of our own Rodeph Shalom prayer service.

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Abe Foxman’s Visit to RS and President Obama’s Middle East Speech

by Rabbi Jill Maderer

Last night, Abe Foxman, the National Director of the Anti-Defamation League, spoke with a small group of Rodeph Shalom members.  His visit was a last-minute arrangement and so he came with no speech, only a willingness to meet members and answer questions.  Our questions varied from interest in his personal story to interest in his commentaries on political news in Europe and its impact on anti-semitism.  Most of all, we were interested in Foxman’s response to President Obama’s speech in Cairo.  Continue reading