Reform jews

A woman rabbi on healing Israel: Authority means service, not power - opinion

A woman rabbi in Israel reflects on leadership, feminism, and spiritual responsibility in a wounded nation

|ByRABBI TALIA AVNON-BENVENISTE
Six new Israeli Reform rabbis, all women, were ordained last year at the Hebrew Union College Taube Family Campus in Jerusalem.
A Jewish woman covered in a white prayer shawl prays in front of the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City, during the Jewish holiday of Passover, April 2, 2018

Netanyahu’s coalition threatens Jewish unity with law banning pluralistic Kotel prayers - opinion

Under the bill, anyone who publicly leads or engages in prayer contrary to the Rabbinate’s directive would face up to seven years in jail.

|ByRABBI JACOB BLUMENTHAL/JTA, RABBI RICK JACOBS/JTA
A general view of Jerusalem's Old City shows the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest prayer site, in the foreground and the Dome of the Rock, located on the compound known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, in the background June 24, 2019

It's time for the Western Wall to be a home for every Jew - opinion

The Western Wall belongs to every Jew, and it’s time Israel honors equality, pluralism, and shared heritage.

|ByYOCHI RAPPEPORT
A FAMILY prays at the section of the Kotel designated for non-Orthodox worship.

High Court grills state, Jerusalem over years-long holdup at egalitarian Western Wall Plaza

The “Kotel Agreement,” a compromise approved by the government in January 2016, has been systematically pushed and held up by the government and the Jerusalem municipality.

|BySARAH BEN-NUN

Western Wall compromise: Israel's High Court to hold hearing

This is the first hearing taking place on the issue in the past two years and the first during this government. 

FEBRUARY 28, 2023ByZVIKA KLEIN
Members of the Women of the Wall, Conservative and Reform Movement hold Rosh Hodesh prayer at the Western Wall in Jerusalem Old City, March 4, 2022.

Reform rabbis hold prayers at Kotel, Noam Party activists protest in egal section

Chaos broke out across the Kotel as Women of the Wall held prayer services in the main plaza and Noam Party activists took over the egalitarian section.

FEBRUARY 22, 2023ByZVIKA KLEIN
MK Gilad Kariv holds a Torah Scroll during Rosh Hodesh prayer of women of the wall, at the Western Wall in Jerusalem Old City, February 22, 2023.

3 million liberal, non-Orthodox Jews vilified by Israel's haredim - opinion

Liberal Jews study Torah and read Jewish books and send their kids to religious schools just like Jews around the world. But they have been vilified by haredim and persecuted by the Chief Rabbinate.

FEBRUARY 15, 2023ByJEREMY BARRAS
ANAT HOFFMAN holds a Torah scroll at a Western Wall prayer service on the occasion of Rosh Hodesh. The very people who have turned the Kotel into a battleground are now crying foul, says the writer.

In a twist, German rabbi at scandal’s center cedes rabbinical school ownership to Berlin Jews

Rabbi Walter Homolka faced allegations of sexual harassment scandal involving his husband, who was also his employee.

JANUARY 13, 2023ByTOBY AXELROD/JTA
Rabbi Walter Homolka

Historic church being housed by a synagogue gets green light for restoration

A relationship has blossomed between the synagogue and the church, which has remained homeless due to the six-alarm fire that destroyed most of the building in 2020.

JANUARY 12, 2023ByJACOB HENRY/JTA
Star of David stained-glass window in the Wales synagogue

Fighting Israel’s new extremist politics with Maccabean determination - opinion

Loud voices within the new Israeli government are distinguished by their hatred for those who are not like them, the author argues.

DECEMBER 22, 2022ByRABBI RICK JACOBS/JTA
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, speaks about combating racism at the Reform Biennial in Chicago, Dec. 12, 2019.

Reconstructionist Judaism moves to back reparations for African Americans

Representatives of 47 congregations voted in support of a resolution that endorsed reparations for Black Americans. 11 abstained and none voted against.

DECEMBER 22, 2022ByDAVE SCHECHTER/JTA
Rabbi Deborah Waxman is president and CEO of Reconstructing Judaism.

Jewish people from all over the world are family, we are family - opinion

Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef called Conservative and Reform Judaism a "new religion," earlier this month.

DECEMBER 21, 2022ByNOLAN LEBOVITZ
SEPHARDI CHIEF Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef delivers an address. ‘I feel that it’s important for me to remind Rabbi Yosef that Israel was established to bring Jews in the Diaspora close to her, not to ostracize them,’ says the writer.

Why your synagogue, and mine, needs a pickleball court - opinion

Pickleball, the subject of countless breathless articles calling it the fastest growing sport in America, is essentially tennis for people with terrible knees.

DECEMBER 18, 2022ByANDREW SILOW-CARROLL / JTA
Boaz Lazarus-Klein, 12, awaits a return during a pickleball match at Congregation Shir Shalom near Buffalo, New York, where his father Alexander is the rabbi.

Battle lines deepen in bruising fight for control of Germany’s liberal Jewish institutions

It is virtually assured that yet more slings and arrows will fly before all is said and done - the UPJ could even break apart.

DECEMBER 17, 2022ByTOBY AXELROD/JTA
POTSDAM UNIVERSITY – ‘the new nucleus of Jewish Studies in Germany.’