Parashat Bamidbar: The Imperative to Provide Refuge

My father’s family were refugees from Vienna, who fled just before World War II broke out, but not before my grandfather had been deported to Dachau. He remained incarcerated there from November 13, 1938, until January 19, 1939. He knew he had to leave Austria with his family. But leaving wasn’t easy. First, it meant...
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The Heart of the Torah

We often point to Kedoshim, The Holiness Code (Lev. 19 & 20), as containing the heart of the Torah, the mitzvah to Love your neighbor as yourself (Lev. 19:18). Having recently retold the story of our liberation from oppression in Egypt at our Pesach seders, we might reconsider and look to Leviticus 19:33-34 as the...
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Rabbi Jill Jacobs headshot

Rabbi Jill Jacobs

Rabbi Jill Jacobs (she/her) is the CEO of T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, an organization that trains and mobilizes more than 2,300 rabbis and cantors and their communities to bring a moral voice to protecting and advancing human rights in North America, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories. She is the author of...
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Mass Incarceration

“Exalted and High, Mighty and Awesome, You bring low the proud and lift up the fallen; You free the imprisoned, redeem the humble, and help the poor.” -Blessing after the Shema, Morning service Mass incarceration is a racial justice issue. We cannot achieve real change unless we recognize and name that racism is at the...
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David Behrman

David Behrman is President & Publisher of Behrman House Publishers. Prior to joining Behrman House, he was a consultant in the New York office of McKinsey & Co., serving clients in the financial services, professional services, food, and transportation industries, as well as several prominent museums in New York and Washington DC. Prior to that...
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Aliza Schwartz

Aliza Schwartz (she/her) is a rabbinical student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, expecting to graduate in 2024. She is an incoming Cooperberg-Rittmaster Rabbinical Intern at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah (CBST) in New York City. Before rabbinical school, Aliza was based in Boston. Her spiritual and political home in Boston is Kavod, a multi-ethnic, multi-racial community...
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Rabbi Lester Bronstein

Lester Bronstein has served as rabbi of Bet Am Shalom Synagogue in White Plains, New York since 1989. He has served in leadership roles with the Westchester Board of Rabbis, the White Plains Religious Leaders Association, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, the UJA-Federation of New York, the JFNA Rabbinic Cabinet, the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education,...
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Ariana Siegel

Ariana Siegel is a first year rabbinical student at the Jewish Theological Seminary. At JTS, Ariana enjoys leading prayer services, including a new experimental minyan she co-founded. Ariana graduated from Tufts University in 2012 with a BA in Peace and Justice Studies and English literature and spent a semester studying Arabic in Alexandria, Egypt. After...
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Rabbi Max Reynolds

Max Reynolds is a student at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, he moved to New York in 2003 for an MA in Philosophy of Religion at Union Theological Seminary. Max has over 10 years experience in direct services, primarily within LGBTQ and HIV-affected communities, including Callen-Lorde Community Health Center...
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Hannah Ellenson

Hannah Ellenson (she/her) is a fourth year rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. She was raised as an active member of the Jewish communities in Los Angeles and New York. After graduating from Wellesley College in 2008 with a B.A. in History and Jewish Studies, she earned her M.P.P. from Tel Aviv...
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