About three years ago, I was called by the Head Chaplain of the Butner Federal Correction Institution located forty-five minutes north of my home in Raleigh, NC. This is the same penitentiary where (in)famous prisoners like Jonathan Pollard and Bernard Madoff currently reside. The chaplain’s message came with a southern drawl: “Rabbi, we have a...
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...
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...
“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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...