Rabbi Weinblatt’s Sermon September 16, 2023 Watch the video Download PDF I still remember sitting at High Holiday services with my family at Baltimore Hebrew Congregation exactly 50 years ago, on a beautiful fall day like today. It was Rosh Hashana, 1973. Knowing that I had just started my senior year of college and would graduate in …
Sol Bernstein was slowly making progress, climbing the corporate ladder at the bank where he worked. His work ethic and astounding results caught the attention of managers, and he was offered a positon with the Salt Flats Bank of Utah with a salary he never dreamed he could get. As required, he and his wife …
Building projects, by their very nature must be extremely precise. The slightest error or miscalculation can result in a major catastrophe in any construction project. It is why engineering is such a demanding profession. I once read that when an engineer builds a bridge, he must consider three loads that the bridge has to be able to …
It’s ironic that US Jews are being urged to enter the fray to save Israel’s democracy. Our job is to help lower the flames. Please note that the posts on The Blogs are contributed by third parties. The opinions, facts and any media content in them are presented solely by the authors, and neither The …
Dear God – Today we celebrate. Tomorrow we begin to go to work, to do the work of governing, to do the hard work of making tough decisions. to do the work of serving the people of the great state of Maryland. But today, today we celebrate – For it is the DAWN of a …
Yom Kippur 2022 Like many of you, I like to visit synagogues when I am travelling, especially on Shabbat, for all the obvious reasons. One of the benefits of going on Shabbat is that you get to learn about the community and to meet people. Occasionally I have even been invited to the homes …
How would you reply if you were asked: What is Judaism’s greatest gift to the world? We have contributed so much in so many fields to western civilization that each of you would probably have a different response. If we were to begin with seminal, grandiose revolutionary concepts, the obvious first one to come to …
Rabbis should not use their High Holiday sermons to engage in unfair denunciations of Israeli policies. Instead they should display “more rabbinic courage” in helping to create a revival of support for Zionism in Reform and Conservative Judaism. This is the message that JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin hopes will sound from pulpits this Rosh Hashanah as Jews …
In Jonathan S. Tobin’s recent featured column in JNS, he questions if Reform and Conservative Judaism support for Zionism can be revived, noting the disaffection for the Jewish state growing among Jewish liberals. He explains how the decline in pro-Israel sentiment spurred the establishment of the ZRC in 2019, with the goal to give voice …
Here are some snippets and observations about my recent visit to Israel. Shortly after I arrived I sent a note to my friend, journalist and author Gil Troy to let him know I was in Israel. His short response back to me was very profound. He wrote back, “Welcome home.” Indeed, Israel is the home …