19 Dec
Beshert, Latest

Beshert | A Real ‘Fun Run’

I moved from Cleveland to the woods of Connecticut in 1981 to start a new job as an engineer for Uniroyal. It was February and freezing, there were very few women engineers, and while the people in my department were nice, most of them were 20+ years older than me. All good reasons to have a single goal—focusing on my career. As I settled into my first week of routine, I noticed a handsome, sleek strawberry blonde man with a runner’s build looking my way. He almost walked into a rubber tree. I gazed around to see what distracted him. Me.  The next day he stopped by my desk to deliver a flyer about a “Fun Run.” His name was Arnis. Somewhere in my archives today, I have pictures of us both in our red, black and...

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17 Oct
Religion

Losing (and Finding) My Religion

by Maddie Ulanow It’s always interesting when, on a particular Friday night, we get a new high turnout of students for the weekly Shabbat services - and only about half of them are Jewish. It would be higher, but some of the regular Jewish attendees are skipping out for the Buddhist meditation. A 2009 Pew Research poll revealed that 44 percent of American adults no longer identify with their childhood religion; of those who still do, nine percent changed or questioned their faith at some point. Fifteen percent of the Protestants surveyed now identify with a different Protestant faith, and nine percent of the Catholics surveyed are either unaffiliated or Protestant. Nine percent of the Christians surveyed converted to a different religion altogether, one of the options of which includes Judaism. What is it that makes a change in...

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Elizabeth Taylor
28 Mar
Culture, Religion

All Converts Go To Heaven: The Case of Elizabeth Taylor

On April 6, 1959 Time Magazine reported the birth “of the most famous and perhaps most beautiful baby,” a Jewish girl named Elishaba Rachel Taylor. The prior week marked the conversion—or “birth”—of the 27-year-old actress Elizabeth Taylor to the Jewish faith, following six months of study under the late Rabbi Max Nussbaum of Temple Israel in Hollywood, CA. Over fifty years later, we mourn the passing of a screen legend, AIDS activist, and proud member of our faith community. Or do we? In an article posted on the Jewish-interest blog Jewlicious, Taylor’s commitment to her faith is skimmed over in favor of details about her multiple marriages and celebrity rabbi. The article ends, “Rest in peace Liz, and when you get to Kaballah Center heaven, say hi to Marilyn and Sammy.” The reference to the...

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29 Dec
Culture, Latest, Religion

My First Christmas, Again

by Steven Philp This past Saturday my family sat around the Christmas tree to unwrap presents. We have a particular system when it comes to opening gifts; it takes careful timing and distribution to make sure that each person has something to open, that no one runs out of presents before anyone else. However, this year my pile was conspicuously small. The thing is, I had already opened most of my gifts earlier that month when my mother sent me a few things for Hanukkah. We had saved a few so that I wouldn’t be left out of the festivities. Yet, this was my first Christmas as a rabbi-certified Jew-by-choice; I was bound to be a little out of place. While most Jews spend December 25th eating Chinese food with their friends and families, there are a...

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18 Mar
Latest, Religion

To Proselytize, or Not To Proselytize

By Michelle Albert The CCAR, a group that represents over 2000 Reform rabbis, decided to turn the trend of interfaith marriage to their advantage by promoting conversion of non-Jewish spouses, reports the Washington Post. Though this seems a step in a favorable direction for intermarried couples, other rabbis and Jews are questioning whether they have the have the right to call people into the tribe, so to speak. Jews do not have a history of proselytization. Unlike Christianity or Islam, which stress that a person can be saved from eternal damnation by converting, Judaism does not believe a person is doomed if they are not Jewish. And conversion to Judaism is a difficult process - potential converts are refused three times before they can begin the process. Sincerity is carefully gauged, and the learning process doesn't stop...

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07 Dec
Culture, Latest, Misc

Weekend roundup

By Sarah Breger What you missed this weekend while playing in the snow: Chelsea Clinton agreed to wed a Jew. We rejoiced. We investigated the mishpacha. We asked the all-important conversion question. Berated ourselves for doing so. And then analyzed our emotions. An alcohol company in Israel is creating a vodka-infused sufganiya for Hanukkah, which has the equivalent alcohol content of a bottle of beer. Still waiting for the Vodka Latke. There are still Jews in Montana? Apparently so, and with a growing Israeli canine population. The Secret Muslim Plot Against Charlie Brown

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