Friday November 21, 2025 – א׳ כִּסְלֵו תשפ״ו There are moments in Jewish life when history collapses into the present — when the stories we carry in our hearts suddenly stand before us in flesh and blood. This week, I experienced one of those moments. Since October 7th, the hostages held in Hamas captivity became, […]
Friday November 14, 2025 – כ״ג חֶשְׁוָ תשפ”ו In the Old American West, before the rule of law took hold, justice was often delivered at the end of a rope or the barrel of a gun. Vigilantes claimed to act in the name of order, but their “justice” was really about power. Whoever was the […]
November 7, 2025 – ט״ז חֶשְׁוָן תשפ”ו The scene was idyllic. Six Israeli women stood draped under a tallit as the sun caught the Jerusalem stone just at the right angle, reminding us of its goldenness. Standing in the Hebrew Union College–Jerusalem courtyard before hundreds of family, friends, and supporters, these six newly minted rabbis […]
Friday October 31, 2025 – ט״ז חֶשְׁוָן תשפ”ו Despite being an incredible visionary, Theodor Herzl could not, in his wildest dreams, have imagined the scene that took place yesterday in Jerusalem. Hundreds of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews descended on the capital city to protest the possibility of being drafted into the army. “WE WOULD RATHER […]
ARZENU, the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), together with our global partners, applauds the recently announced agreement by the center-left and center-right blocs of the World Zionist Organization (WZO), the Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael–Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF), and the Jewish Agency for Israel to split the leadership of Israel’s major national institutions under a shared‐leadership model. […]
Friday October 24, 2025 – ב׳ חֶשְׁוָן תשפ”ו “We are here to lay the foundation stone of the house which is to shelter the Jewish nation.” — Theodor Herzl, Opening Speech at the First Zionist Congress, August 29, 1897 Theodor Herzl did not invent Zionism, nor did he coin the term. Zionism — the belief […]
Friday October 17, 2025 – כ״ה תִּשְׁרֵי תשפ”ו They had become household names; some might say even celebrities. Just normal people living their lives prior to that fateful and tragic day — known only to their family and friends. Now, so many of us feel like we know them, know their stories, their family members. […]
וַיַּעֲשׂוּ כׇל־הַקָּהָל הַשָּׁבִים מִן־הַשְּׁבִי סֻכּוֹת וַיֵּשְׁבוּ בַסֻּכּוֹת כִּי לֹא־עָשׂוּ מִימֵי יֵשׁוּעַ בִּן־נוּן כֵּן בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל עַד הַיּוֹם הַהוּא וַתְּהִי שִׂמְחָה גְּדוֹלָה מְאֹד׃ נחמיה ח:זה~ “The whole community that returned from the captivity made booths and dwelt in the booths—the Israelites had not done so from the days of Joshua son of Nun to that day—and […]
Wednesday October 1, 2025 – ט׳ תִּשְׁרֵי תשפ”ו After nearly two years of war, there is finally a credible plan on the table to bring the war to an end, return the hostages, dismantle Hamas’s infrastructure of terror, and begin the long and arduous process of rebuilding. The 20-Point Trump plan contains a collection of […]
The horrific and tragic morning of October 7, 2023 remains vividly seared into my memory. As I awoke to the constant buzz of updates on my phone that fateful Shabbat morning of Simchat Torah, I saw the death toll rise. At first, 40 were reported dead, then 100. Days later, we learned that almost 1,200 […]