To celebrate Shavuot last week I joined with friends at a nearby community-wide tikkun leil Shavuot (an all night Torah study) hosted by our congregation, Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn. As in so many communities, it was a lively scene as people gathered together, listened, learned, questioned and challenged each other. This inclusive form of community gathering is a foundation of Reform Judaism and has served as a core element for the Campaign for Youth Engagement.

Following the launch of the campaign at the Biennial in 2011, the URJ began reflecting on NFTY, URJ camps, Mitzvah Corps, Israel programs, and all other aspects of our youth engagement work. At the same time, many congregations and communities across North America began their own process of gathering, listening, learning, questioning and challenging their own work of youth engagement. In just over a year, the Campaign for Youth Engagement has supported more than 150 congregations and institutions, and over 300 clergy, professionals, and community leaders as they invest in the process of change around youth engagement.

• All the Reform congregations in the Pittsburgh area came together to create NFTY Pittsburgh, a city-wide effort to unite and support the youth groups at seven Reform congregations. The rabbis of these congregations wanted to build upon this teen-led effort and recently hired a professional to support their work.

• In Washington, D.C., 11 congregations came together on two different occasions to jointly consider youth engagement efforts at their individual congregations and communally. Challenging assumptions and visioning possibilities, 6 educators, representing 5 congregations have joined together to develop a multi-year proposal to invest in reviewing, evaluating, learning, and developing a youth engagement strategy together.

• During three gatherings in Chicago, 40 individuals representing 29 congregations and institutions came together to develop shared language around youth engagement, explore collaboration, and develop internal plans for strengthening their work around youth engagement.

This is just a sampling of the efforts in communities across North America to gather, listen, learn, question and challenge youth engagement efforts. There is energy and excitement in these communities. There are energetic conversations and disagreements. There are new theories and new partnerships. To reach our goal of engaging a majority of our youth by 2020, we will need all of this (and more)!

All eyes are on Grapevine, Texas today as the Boy Scouts of America begins the annual meeting of its National Council. Earlier this year the Boy Scouts of America announced that it would postpone a reconsideration of its policy prohibiting gay scouts and scout leaders until the meeting this week (see the letter that Rabbi Saperstein sent to the BSA in response to that decision). Today the 1,400 person National Council, including representatives from across the country, will vote on whether or not to lift this ban and make the organization a more inclusive one.

In 2000 the Supreme Court ruled that the Boy Scouts of America, as an ‘expressive’ organization, had the right to exclude gay scouts and scout leaders from their ranks. Believing that this policy was contrary to the values taught by Jewish tradition, shortly after this decision the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism advised Reform synagogues to stop hosting Boy Scout troops. Sadly, since that time the BSA leadership has repeatedly affirmed its discriminatory policy. The possibility that this policy could be about to change is an exciting and welcome development. However, the BSA announced recently that the provision being considered by the National Council this week would only lift the ban on gay scouts, leaving the ban on gay scout leaders in place.

In response to this decision, the Religious Action Center drafted a letter from Jewish clergy to the BSA leadership urging them to fully change their policy and include both gay scouts and scout leaders. More than 500 rabbis and cantors – representing at least three denominations, 46 states and 140 Boy Scouts Local Council regions – added their name to this call for justice and inclusion.

“Like the Boy Scouts, our Jewish tradition emphasizes the values of personal responsibility, service to the community and a broader commitment to justice,” the letter to the Boy Scouts read. “These values apply equally to gay and straight individuals. Indeed, how can we teach service to a community when that community excludes our friends, family members and neighbors?”

“We believe that each human being is created b’tselem elohim, in the image of God. That stamp of the divine does not change between childhood and adulthood. Indeed, LGBT adults can and do provide exemplary role models for both straight and gay youth. As Jewish clergy, we urge you to fully lift the BSA’s policy of discrimination that currently impacts both children and adults.”

Click here to read the full text of the letter sent to the BSA leadership, and don’t forget to check back here at RACblog for updates on the National Council’s decision.

Image Courtesy of CNN.com

There was a time, more than century and a half ago, when piyutim were seen largely as a kind of cultural burden to be cast aside in order to make the service shorter and more meaningful. Early liturgical reformers argued that the siddur and machzor had grown too lengthy and no longer inspired modern Jews. Piyutim – medieval poetic extensions of the traditional prayers, with allusions incomprehensible to the average congregant – were first on the chopping block. The irony, however, lies in the fact that the piyut was itself a sort of liturgical reform. While earlier generations of Jews were unable to change the statutory service itself, piuyutim allowed for an imaginative embellishment of that same service. It highlighted and expanded particular parts of the liturgy. It added additional opportunities for congregational singing. It was, in short, an early version of the “creative service.” 

In last week’s “Delving into T’filah,” Rabbi Richard Sarason analyzed the most famous piyut to be retained (at least in part) by Reform machzorim, Unetaneh Tokef, composed as an introduction to the kedushah of the Rosh Hashanah Musaf service, and later included on Yom Kippur as well. This piyut became for many one of the most distinctive and memorable pieces of liturgy for the High Holy Days.

Over the past decade, there has been a growing phenomenon in Israel centered around the rediscovery and revival of medieval piyutim – not just in the synagogue, but also in the cultural realms largely controlled by self-defined “secular” Jews. Once seen primarily as an impediment for the modern worshiper, piyutim are now being studied and sung by local “kehillot sharot” (community singing groups) that gather weekly in homes and community centers. These groups combine community building, ethnomusicology, history and text study. New CDs by popular artists are constantly being released with new musical settings to these piyutim. “Piyut festivals” in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv have drawn hundreds of people of all ages. The interest in reviving piyutim is fueled in part by the small but significant programs and projects driven by native-born Israelis rediscovering the Jewish bookshelf, and reclaiming Jewish heritage on their own terms and in their own way.

Fueling this phenomenon is an amazing website that has a staggering collection of recordings of piyutim from dozens of different communities, explanations of each piyut’s authorship and history, as well as the lyrics. One piyut alone might have a dozen recordings made from paytanim (composers of piyutim), chazanim (cantors) and congregations. The most robust part of the site is in Hebrew only, but a significant selection of materials is available on the English language part of the site. Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in New York convened a conference a few years back aimed at bringing the revival of piyutim to America, and some materials that emerged from that effort are also on the English language part of the site.

Creating a new Reform machzor that will be used for the next four decades requires us to pay attention to this growing piyut revival. From these creative efforts, our congregations may find new models for re-introducing this classic poetry to the Reform synagogue.

The new openness to expanding the number of piyutim is found throughout Mishkan HaNefesh, but most especially with the Selichot prayers of Yom Kippur, particularly the fullest version that appears in the Yom Kippur Evening service.

Here are two piyutim that we included in the new machzor, and a link to one traditional and one contemporary recording of each. Enjoy this confluence of creativity and retrieval.

The piyut, Adon HaSelichot (Chatanu Lifanecha) sung in the traditional style of Jerusalem Sefardi community.

Here is the same piyut, arranged and recorded by the contemporary Israel singer, Yonatan Razel.

The piyut, Aneinu, sung by the Cochin Jews of India.

Here is the same piyut, arranged and recorded by the contemporary Israeli singer, Meir Banai.

Rabbi Leon A. Morris is the spiritual leader of Temple Adas Israel in Sag Harbor, NY, and is one of the editors of the forthcoming new Reform machzor, Mishkan HaNefesh.  He was the founding director of the Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning at Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan.

On May 2, Rhode Island’s governor signed a marriage equality bill, making it the tenth state to take this important step.   Shortly afterwards, Delaware and Minnesota also passed marriage bills, making this a remarkable spring of advancement towards equality. I composed the following reflection after the last critical step in the long process of advocacy and legislative debate, the hearing held by the Rhode Island Senate Judiciary Committee in March.

The prescribed biblical reading for the beginning of Passover includes Exodus 12:42…in describing the end of the 430 years of oppression, the text describes that final night as a “leil shimurim,” a night of watching for God, a night of vigil.  The commentaries put forth the perspective that there were two vigils going on that awesome night: the people were watching for God and God watched vigilantly to uphold His promise to bring the people out of the land of Egypt.

I have been reflecting on this biblical image ever since I joined together with hundreds of my fellow Rhode Islanders in an all night vigil before the Rhode Island Senate Judiciary Committee.  On that night at the State House, there were many moments of admirable passion and eloquence.  Sadly, there were also many moments where hateful and harmful things were said…many who argued against equality and opportunity, who couldn’t accept that their personal beliefs should not be imposed on all in our state and country.  It was a night of anxious watching and waiting, wondering whether this was a step towards equality or whether this was a night when hatred and ignorance would rule the day.

In particular, I left thinking about the role of religion in determining the laws of our state. In our country, it is a cherished and vital freedom that no one religion can determine the law for the state.  No biblical teaching can become the rule for all who live in our state.

I live with a progressive view of religion.  I am anchored by the teachings of the Bible, but I live with the conviction that each generation must breathe new life into those teachings.  The transcendent principles are love, equality, and justice.  Those principles determine how all the rest of the teachings are understood in each successive generation.

On that leil shimurim in the ancient land of Egypt, the people watched all night for God, just as God watched all night for the people.  They found each other and forged a covenant at Sinai.  The covenant demands that we continually work to make the world better.

We live in a time of great challenge and even greater opportunity.  I fear there will be many more anxious nights of watching, advocating, and working before discrimination is abolished.  At the same time, I believe the sun will rise one day and shine on a world where one and all find equal opportunity and are treated with equality, dignity, and respect.  I can feel the light of that sun on my face even now.  May the light of justice shine throughout our land in the days to come.

Rabbi Peter W. Stein is the rabbi of Temple Sinai in Cranston, RI and the past president of the Rhode Island Board of Rabbis.  He was a member of the first Balfour Brickner fellowship at the RAC.  He is a member of the RI Religious Coalition for Marriage Equality, state chair for the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Justice, and a founding member of the RI Interfaith Poverty Coalition.

by Rabbi Jonathan Biatch

Editor’s Note:  This post is the second of two about Congregation Emet VeShalom.  Read the complementary post.

The double air-kiss; you’ve gotta love it!  It is a European custom becoming more widespread in Israel, and it’s quite contagious.  You’ve seen it: once on the right side, then once on the left.  By the conclusion of my first worship service at Emet VeShalom, I had received many such kisses of warmth and friendship.  I quickly learned that the relatively small size of Emet VeShalom says nothing about its welcoming spirit, or its obvious passion, or its members’ love for liberal Judaism.

Some of those qualities drew me toward the congregation when first I met Sharon Mann five years ago on a brief visit to her synagogue.  And since then, notwithstanding the ups and downs of the temple realities to which Sharon refers, and despite the challenges of life in a country whose very existence is of daily concern, the spirit of community at Emet VeShalom remains strong.

The congregants know the worship backward and forward, and they help guide the service leader through the worship.  The mother tongues of the members are Hebrew, English, and Spanish, and it is wonderful to hear each of the three languages used during announcements and the informal parts of the service.  And some of the music, ably provided by a talented keyboardist, includes many tunes that would be very familiar to American Jews, such as Debbie Friedman’s Mishebeirach (with Hebrew lyrics!) or Moshe Rothblum’s Veshamru.  There are many new ones, too; be ready to be pleasantly surprised!

It is obvious that the adult members of the congregation have passed on their Jewish passions to their children.  During each service, the children participate in the prayers: sometimes with laughter—as tweens and teenagers will do—but always with joy.  And when I share Shabbat meals with the members, the children demonstrate a clear commitment to progressive Judaism by their knowledge of and presence for table rituals, and their respect for the way progressive Jews celebrate Shabbat.

In my second d’var Torah I spoke of the human, spiritual need to expand the definition of “Shabbat rest” that is free of the religious coercion so commonly experienced here.  I spoke of activities such as traveling to visit relatives, watching a favorite movie, or eating at a special restaurant (there are many restaurants open on Shabbat in this part of the country).  Many members expressed appreciation for the encouragement to enjoy these contemporary forms of Shabbat observance.

This is clearly a congregation infused with the spirit of liberal Judaism!

In addition to serving some of the needs of Emet VeShalom, my Israeli sabbatical time consisted of performing other volunteer work in the Western Galilee, as well as living for five weeks in a kibbutz that sits 500 meters from the Lebanese border.  Even during these cautious times here, the nation exudes that familiar Israeli confidence of living life completely despite the uncertainty of what the next day will bring.

In evaluating my time with Emet VeShalom, one thing is clear.  Small Israeli progressive congregations are at a financial disadvantage.  The economics of Israeli synagogue life are quite different from what they are in America, and until the government of Israel funds equally all expressions of Judaism, we who are outside of Israel can and should help.

We can join as auxiliary members of these small communities.  Congregational groups visiting Israel can spend time with members—not only on Shabbat, by the way—to get to know our Reform cousins.  And rabbis who visit alone or with a group can volunteer for one, two, three, or more Shabbatot.  They will be glad they did, as was I.

As a member of the Reform rabbinate, I feel privileged to benefit from all the experiences of a sabbatical.  I thank my home congregation, Temple Beth El, Madison, Wisconsin, for their consideration and affection.  And I thank Emet VeShalom for hosting me in such a warm fashion.

Rabbi Jonathan Biatch is the spiritual leader of Temple Beth El, Madison, Wisconsin.  He is an ordainee of Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion and a member of the Central Conference of American Rabbis.

Despite the fact that summer, with its hopefully slower pace, is just around the corner, the last few weeks have been packed!

At the end of April, I joined 117 congregational presidents who had gathered in Atlanta for the annual Scheidt Seminar, the URJ’s unique leadership training initiative specifically designed for current and incoming presidents. During the gathering, we honored with an aliyah those participants whose parents or grandparents also had served as presidents. In a moving tribute to these former leaders, 25% of the participants stepped forward, not only to recite the Torah blessings, but also to carry on their families’ tradition of leadership l’dor v’dor.

From Atlanta, I headed to Jerusalem together with 33 other North American delegates to attend the World Union for Progressive Judaism’s Connections conference. During the five-day gathering, 200 leaders from around the world participated in workshops, worship and discussions, all of which focused on our commitment to building and sustaining vibrant, Progressive Jewish communities throughout the world.

Upon my return to the States, I immediately headed to the URJ’s Kutz Camp in Warwick, NY, where spring, allergies, and terrific plans for this summer’s teen program all were in full bloom. Space is limited, so, if they have not already done so, please make sure your congregation’s teen leaders register soon.

Last week my own congregation, Barnert Temple in Franklin Lakes, NJ, celebrated its 165^th anniversary, and early the next morning, I headed to Greenville, SC, to commemorate the 100^th anniversary of Temple of Israel. Between these milestone anniversaries and the inspirational Confirmation services and Shavuot study sessions that were held in our communities in the last couple of weeks, the strength and vibrancy of the Jewish community these devoted Confirmands are poised to inherit are what keep me going during these hectic times.