Spring 2008

Columns

Letters to the Editor

Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs’ NORM KURTZ on Creating Community through Volunteerism

United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism’s DR. RAYMOND B. GOLDSTEIN on Fog

Women’s League for Conservative Judaism’s CORY R. SCHNEIDER on This I Believe

Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs’ RABBI CHARLES E. SIMON on Vibrant Opportunities for European Jewry

United Synagogue’s RABBI JEROME M. EPSTEIN on Jewish Education: The Jewish Child’s Birthright

Women’s League’s ANN GOLDMAN on the Value of a Woman’s Voice

PASSOVER – For I Was A Stranger Here Myself

We consider Passover from many vantage points, as insiders and as outsiders

Journey of the Spirit, Journey of the Body
RABBI JILL HAMMER describes how the holiday’s physical symbols transport us to a less physical world

Seders in the Tropics
DR. WILLIAM MILES has celebrated Passover in some of the world’s most unlikely places

A Place at the Table
For DARCY R. FRYER it’s a challenge to be a Jew by choice on the day when everyone else celebrates freedom by going home

The Seder Transformed
DR. RON WOLFSON suggests creative ways to engage your seder guests, young and old

Those Were the Days, My Friend
For RABBI STUART ALTSHULER the movement to free Soviet Jews is closely connected to the Passover story of freedom

Articles

Singing Too Loudly
WARREN HOFFMAN asks how it is possible to pray too loudly

Let There Be Light: Investigating Identity in Israel
A panel of formerly ultra-Orthodox Jews finds a community that sees them simply as Jews at United Synagogue’s Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center

Synagogue Affiliaton: Key to Israel Ties
RABBI ALAN SILVERSTEIN investigates how synagogue involvement reinforces Jewish identity and concern for the Jewish state

Women Speak
A new feature from Women’s League includes items of particular interest to women

FJMC Sefer Haftarah: Preserving the Tradition
Reading a haftarah from a scroll instead of a book deepened the experience for DR. ROBERT BRAITMAN

United Synagogue's 2007 International Biennial Convention
The convention stressed ways of living Jewishly and focused on both Shabbat and Israel

The Bookshelf
RABBI NEIL GILLMAN offers the first of what will be a regular column on new Jewish books

The Threefold Cord: Inspiring, Engaging, Relevant Education
RABBI ADAM J. RASKIN takes us on a tour of the unified, movement-wide Conservative Hebrew high school in Dallas

On Multiple Minyanim
HARVEY H. ROSEN examines the successful alternate minyanim at his synagogue

The Happiest Place on Earth - USY International Convention
This year’s USY convention drew more than 1,000 high school students

Joint Meditation Project Hopes to Bring Peace to More Congregational Homes
ALAN R. ROTHSTEIN, a member of the Conservative movement’s Committee on Congregational Standards, explains how its new intervention program can heal congregational rifts before they harden

The Conservative Movement and Prayer

In a section that will appear occasionally, we look at issues of prayer within our movement. Here we focus on the question of whether women must wear tefillin

Grabbing a Moment with God
DR. ILANA GOLDHABER-GORDON recounts how she learned to wear tefillin

Women and Tefillin
RABBI JOSHUA CAHAN traces the history of women and tefillin through the Talmud up to today

Should All Barbies Wear Tefillin?
JEN TAYLOR FRIEDMAN, the creator of Tefillin Barbie, has another take on the question