by Jonathan Segal The year 70 BCE, the most valuable place to the Jewish people was destroyed. The second temple and everything that came along with it was demolished, leaving the Jewish people without a religious center in the world. Although the temple was destroyed, the west wall of the complex remained standing and to this day this wall is remembered as the greatest physical evidence of prosperous Jewish life before the Common Era. Today, the Western Wall stands for many things and for many people. To some people the wall stands for history, loss, or victory while to others [...]
by Cantor Deborah Katchko Gray In the new home of the National Museum of American Jewish History, a Women Cantors’ Network postcard shares space in a display case with one of Bella Abzug’s hats. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined such a pairing. Likewise, in early 1982, neither could I have imagined the founding of the Women Cantors’ Network. During the spring of 1981, as one of only two women cantors serving Conservative congregations, I attended the Cantors Assembly convention. A fourth generation cantor, I’d previously attended the convention with my father when I was a college [...]
By Rabbi Sharyn Henry This week we complete the reading of Vayikra, Leviticus. In Ashkenazi congregations there is ritual that takes place each time we complete the public reading of a book of Torah. After the Torah reader reads the last words of a book in the Torah, before the recitation of the final blessing of the person doing the aliyah, the entire congregation, followed by the reader, recites aloud, “Chazak, chazak v’nitchazek—Be strong! Be strong! And may we be strengthened.” We have to imagine that the rabbis who originated this tradition had a reason for it, although the closest [...]
In several days time, we will celebrate Shavuot which, commemorates God’s revelation of Torah at Mount Sinai. As part of our commemoration, we will join together as one community, stand again at Mount Sinai and receive the Torah all over again. In her groundbreaking book, Standing Again at Sinai, published more than 30 years ago, Judith Plaskow calls upon Jewish women to reclaim scripture rather than discard it because of its patriarchal nature. Her inspiring words challenge each and every one of us to stand again at Sinai and reclaim Torah for ourselves—regardless of our gender, sexual orientation, or life experiences that [...]
