Talking about Israel... in a way that helps

An essay by Rabbi Joshua Gutoff

A window has opened to the Orthodox community. We are being invited to help reshape the social dynamics of the American Jewish community.

By Jack Stern

From Reform Judaism, Winter 1997

Reprinted with permission from the author and Reform Judaism Magazine --- Published by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations

Many years ago I was working with one of my bar mitzvah students, who was totally negligent in his preparations. Exasperated, his mother finally turned to the boy and said: ``I'm sure that Rabbi Stern studied hard for his bar mitzvah, and that's what you should be doing!''

by Yael Shuman

Illustration by Nancy Winternight

From Reconstructionism Today, Summer, 1994
Reprinted with Permission.

by Erik Rosen

Photos by Peter Shefler

From Hadassah Magazine, October 1997
Reprinted With Permission

Do not reprint without permission of author --- contact Hadassah Magazine: 212/556-4521.

The Torah is the soul of the Jewish people, the object and the idea that binds the Jewish people to God.

But what binds the Torah? The wimpel, of course.

by Elyse Goldstein

From CCAR Journal: A Reform Jewish Quarterly, Winter/Spring 1995
Reprinted with permission

In recent years the popularity and appeal of traditional ritual in our movement have grown dramatically. On such ritual, which continues to gain acceptance and is being increasingly encouraged, is the use of the mikvah for Jews by choice, both male and female. While in 1893 the CCAR declared tevila unnecessary for conversion, the new Rabbi's manual states,