03 Sep
Beshert, Latest

Beshert | Crushing on Leonard Nimoy

It was 1970 and “Star Trek” had just ended on TV. Leonard Nimoy, who played Mr. Spock, the hybrid human-alien, had a young fan in the freshman girl who was a year behind me at our Chicago high school.  Mr. Nimoy was tall and thin. At 5’10”, so was I. He had a certain Eastern European countenance. My face displayed my Eastern European heritage. He had a Vulcan haircut. My dark hair was longish. At school, I was in a theater group that rehearsed in the auditorium and band room. One day that spring, the freshman girl walked into the band room (she played French horn and percussion in the school’s concert band) and noticed the boy at the piano who, to her, bore a striking resemblance to Leonard Nimoy. She thought, “I need to find out...

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05 Jan
2017 January-February, Ask the Rabbis

Ask The Rabbis // Is it the job of rabbis to fight intermarriage?

INDEPENDENT Intermarriage is a reality of American Jewish life that isn’t receding, no matter how valiant the efforts to counter it. The central challenge to American Judaism isn’t intermarriage; it’s disaffected Jews who lack the knowledge and inspiration to live Jewish lives. Our job as rabbis is to offer a compelling and relevant Judaism—to rekindle Jewish passion, bring Jews home to their tradition and culture and welcome whoever makes that journey with them. What makes a home Jewish isn’t just the family that lives there but the devoted and purposeful Jewish life they live together. When a few years ago I decided to leave the Conservative movement, in which I was ordained, to create alternative wedding rituals for intermarrying couples committed to Jewish life, I wasn’t motivated by a desire to sanction intermarriage. I was motivated by...

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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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