We Invite You to Participate in Rodeph Shalom’s Visioning Initiative

The leadership of Rodeph Shalom, along with synagogue transformation expert Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman, has been engaged in conversations about what we envision for our congregation in the future. We would like for every RS individual or family to participate in some way in this initiative to ensure that our process is as inclusive as possible and reflects perspectives of our membership.

 What is this Visioning Initiative?Continue reading

At Israel Conversations last Shabbat, our congregation’s president Fred Strober discussed Israel’s pioneering spirit, and referenced the book, Start- Up Nation, by Dan Senor and Saul Singer .  His group explored whether Israel still has the pioneering spirit we associate with the days following the creation of the State.  They talked about what comprises a pioneering spirit and concluded that it involves risk taking, entering unchartered territories or initiatives and did not penalize failure.  They thought that these were the characteristics that allowed Israel, for example, to create a great 20th century agricultural economy.  They then asked ourselves whether, given all the strife regarding the territories and the prevalence of a “me culture” generally, the pioneering spirit is still alive.  They theorized that it must be for the Israeli economy to have taken off with so much technological achievement the past 20 or so years.  Continue reading

Abraham Joshua Heschel was born on January 11, 1907. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929. But there is so much more than just having birthdays this month that unite these two amazing men.

The photograph of Abraham Joshua Heschel walking arm in arm with Martin Luther King, Jr., in the front row of marchers at Selma has become an icon of American Jewish life, and of Black-Jewish relations. Reprinted in Jewish textbooks, synagogue bulletins, and studies of ecumenical relations, the picture has come to symbolize the great moment of symbiosis of the two communities, Black and Jewish, which today seems shattered.

The relationship between the two men began in January 1963, and was a genuine friendship of affection as well as a relationship of two colleagues working together in political causes. As King encouraged Heschel’s involvement in the Civil Rights movement, Heschel encouraged King to take a public stance against the war in Vietnam. When the Conservative rabbis of America gathered in 1968 to celebrate Heschel’s sixtieth birthday, the keynote speaker they invited was King. When King was assassinated, Heschel was the rabbi Mrs. King invited to speak at his funeral.

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by Rabbi Jill Maderer (delivered Yom Kippur morning, main sanctuary)

Picture an ocean.  Two waves approach the shoreline and share a conversation along the way.  The large wave reports to the smaller, “Trouble’s ahead!  I wish you could see what I see.  Then you would understand, that we have a problem!  Every time a wave reaches the shore, it crashes, and breaks apart.  The smaller wave replies, “There’s no trouble ahead!  I wish you could see what I see.  We do not have a problem.  You just need to understand:  We are not separate waves; we are all part of the same ocean.”  That smaller wave offered a life-altering perspective: “You and I are not waves, we’re water.”  Continue reading

An interesting article caught the eye of RS member Matt Olesh.  A recent CNSNews.com piece, “Jewish Clergy Group: Elena Kagan Isn’t ‘Kosher’ to Serve on Supreme Court” reports on the views of the Rabbinical Alliance of America.  Although the title refers to “Jewish Clergy Group,” it’s important to understand that the Rabbinical Alliance of America is ultra-orthodox and its leaders have taken fundamentalist views on many issues in modern-day life.