The Day I Met Leonard Cohen in Jerusalem ReformJudaism.org interviewed Julia Knobloch about her powerful collection of poems, Do Not Return, which captures the essence…
Posts published in “Chavurah”
A Letter to the Hillel Rabbi Who Jump-Started My Jewish Journey You probably knew back then that I wasn’t close to being ready to fully…
What Being a Practicing Reform Jew Means to Me When a non-Jewish acquaintance asked me: “Are you a practicing Jew?” I answered “Yes,” but the…
Why We Must Free Children in Cages When I learned of the adolescent detention facility in Homestead, FL, I was appalled. Because my mother survived…
A Psalm: A Song of Beauty and Grief I wrote this poem in honor of a dear man, a beloved pillar of my synagogue who…
How My Judaism Strengthened Me to Come Out as Bisexual Coming out and owning my bisexuality has reinforced that this – and all parts of…
How Blessing Our Pets Brought Holiness to Our Community Several years ago, our synagogue held a “Blessing of the Animals” event, creating a sacred moment,…
How Our Congregation Went Shopping to End Gun Violence In the aftermath of the Parkland shooting, we are inspired by America’s teens and heartened by…
Act in Today’s Call-In Day for Gun Violence Prevention As a follow-up to last month’s March for Our Lives, Reform Jewish young people have designated…
Philip Roth: An Appreciation of the Wicked Child Now that Roth is dead, the American Jewish community, by virtue of the adjective “American,” can do…
Four Men Who Made a Difference in My Life Although I never knew my father, four Jewish male mentors made meaningful contributions to my life…
How Goodly Are Your (Rainbow) Tents We come from different backgrounds but are driven by a simple shared goal: justice for all LGBTQ people, especially…
Just Keep Marching, Even When the News is Disappointing and the Road Ahead is Tough Despite discouraging news out of Washington this summer, I implore…
All of Life’s Ninths of Av I have a story to tell you. It’s about a tiny bird. But I’ll come back to that. 7/19/2018…
How I Helped Lead the Way for Jewish Girls With Guitars When I was growing up, Jewish music was the sole purview of men. I…
What Does Jewish Tradition Say about Health and Wellness? Created in the Divine image, we are obligated to take care of the sacred gift of…
A New Jew Showing up for Shabbat with a Resolute Welcome There’s nothing unique about my grief following the murders in Pittsburgh except that the…
3 Ways to Help Those Affected by the California Wildfires Want to help? Here are the best ways to support affected communities. 11/15/2018 Kate Kaput…
The Gay Synagogue I Didn’t Know I Needed Congregation Kol Ami in West Hollywood, CA, is dedicated to raising the voices of queer folks so…
A New Look at Einstein’s Changing Views of God and Judaism Albert Einstein said different things about God and Judaism at different times in his…