Last night Rabbi Hayim Herring, the Executive Director of the STAR Foundation delivered a fascinating speech at my synagogue. The title of his “Visions of the Jewish Future” speech was “Anything, Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere: Synagogue Renewal in an Age of Extreme Choice.” He explained how the role of the synagogue as a house of prayer/gathering/learning…
I just saw that there is now an LED Kippah (yarmulke) that you can buy on the Web. (Update: the website is no longer operational so perhaps it wasn’t a successful idea) You can program your own scrolling message. Perhaps donors will contribute money to the congregation for their name to scroll down the rabbi’s kippah?…
Well, at least I was never the kid in gym class who didn’t get drafted for the dodge-ball team! Newsweek magazine has chosen to go into the “rabbi ranking” business and has listed their top fifty rabbis in America. I guess if Forbes Magazine can rank businesses and billionaires, why shouldn’t there be a list…
Each week I send a newsletter via e-mail to over 400 subscribers on my synagogue‘s e-mail list. Since the Jewish holiday of Purim is coming up this Saturday night, I decided to send a special Purim edition. Hopefully, this will be an annual tradition. The Purim newsletter can be accessed here. (c) Rabbi Jason Miller…
Yes, technology is increasingly more important in Judaism. Ten years ago when I wrote my senior thesis in college on “The Globalization of Judaism” focusing on how new technology has affected the global Jewish community, I predicted that in the future congregations would communicate with their membership via e-mail and that Jews would choose their…
There have been a lot of comedy events lately and that makes sense. The Hebrew month of Adar, with the festive holiday of Purim in the middle of the month, is approaching and according to the famous phrase, “when Adar comes we increase our joy.” And that seems to be exactly what everyone’s doing. This…
From Haaretz.com Holocaust denier suspected in attempted U.S. kidnapping of survivor Elie Wiesel By Shlomo Shamir Nobel Peace laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel says he escaped a kidnapping attempt at a San Fransisco hotel last week. Wiesel, 78, whose novels deal with his experiences as a Holocaust survivor, told Haaretz he was grabbed by…
One of the first things I knew I needed to do when I moved to Columbus to become rabbi of Congregation Agudas Achim was to meet with Florence Melton. Florence was one of the greatest gifts to Jewish education in recent time. Sitting in her apartment, I was extremely impressed not only with her intellect…
“Why isn’t your Purim Spiel funny?” asks Rob Kutner (pictured) on his ‘Shushan Channel‘ website. Kutner is a writer for “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” He continues, “Jewish people are the funniest people in the world. So why are most Purim spiels [their spelling… I use “shpiel”] so lame? We’re not sure, but we…
I was surprised to see one article in the Wall Street Journal incorporate three organizations I’ve been involved with: The Jewish Theological Seminary, Hillel, and the STAR Foundation’s Synaplex. This is a great article about how Jewish organizations are finally going out and learning what the people want. If I wrote this article (and I’m…