One of the lessons from the recent PBS series “God in America” is that we are a nation where our personal freedom has enabled us to create individualized versions of the particular religion with which we choose to affiliate. This phenomenon is also true with Judaism. Today, Jews frequently describe their relationship with Judaism and […]
Author: JS
I find it interesting and incredibly surprising that Jewish clergy and educators never ask themselves several fundamental threshold questions: Who are our “customers?” Where are they coming from? What is their Jewish background and level of Jewish education? What are they looking for? And what do they need? What are they interested in? What triggers […]
“American history is often driven by passionate outsiders who force themselves into the center of American life.” David Brooks – NYT 1/5/10 Jewish religious leaders constantly ask their congregants to live a religiously observant Jewish life. That’s how they were trained. That’s what they think they were hired to do. However, most rabbis never bother […]
Virtually all rabbis, even the Reform ones, erect obstacles to prevent Jews from marrying people where one of the people is not willing to convert to Judaism. Even when the couple is strongly committed to raising their children Jewish, rabbis seem to go out of their way to make it difficult for the interfaith couple […]
Who Am I? Hello and welcome to my Blog. My interest in doing this Blog is to promote dialogue on ways we can reinvigorate, reimagine and ultimately transform Judaism into a religion that has more meaning, power and relevance in the lives of ordinary Jews. My vision of a transformative Judaism is one where the […]
It has been said that Judaism is both a religion and a way of life. The concepts of honoring and promoting life are infused throughout all aspects of Judaism. You’ve obviously heard the expression, “La Chaim – To Life!” Now there’s documented evidence that many of the spiritual values and cultural practices of Judaism have […]