Parashat Toldot Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman If you have already turned 40, you know it is no ordinary birthday; if you are not yet 40, pray God you will get there, but, perhaps, with appropriate trepidation. These thoughts on “40” are prompted by our sedra’s curious insistence that Isaac married Rebecca when he was 40 …
Dr. Ron Wolfson Synagogues looking to makeover the “atmosphere” of their sacred space would do well to take note of how The Gap recently transformed their stores from “institutional” to “homey.” In an effort to woo back customers, the retailer has devised a radical plan to remodel their outlets. CEO Paul Pressler recognized …
December 8, 2005 By Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky A window has opened to the Orthodox community. We are being invited to help reshape the social dynamics of the American Jewish community. With courage and vision, we need to act on this opportunity by understanding the important changes that have occurred over the last decades and rethinking …
Richard A. Marker December 2002 Three years ago, I penned an article for Sh’ma calling for the transformation of the synagogue as we have known it in post-War [WWII, that is] America. The article posited the impossibility of any one synagogue effectively delivering service in all of the areas it arrogates to itself. By attempting …
Continue reading “Synagogue Transformation Revisited and some thoughts on “k’dushah””
Richard A. Marker February 2003 Introduction Several years ago, shortly after moving to New York, I was invited to serve on the young leadership boards of 2 different national Jewish organizations. I was both surprised and flattered. After all, by that time I had been active in the Jewish community for over 30 years, having …
Continue reading “The Personnel Crisis in Jewish Life: A contrarian perspective and new approaches”
Yaacov Agam, a maser of kinetic art and the son of a rabbi, has pioneered a form of visual art influenced by the Jewish conception that reality is not static and cannot be represented in a graven image. His images are in a state of “constant becoming” — they cannot be seen in their totality …
Written and illustrated by Yaacov Agam From Reform Judaism, Fall 1994 Reprinted with permission. What is the function of the synagogue, and does the architecture meet the needs of the worshipers? After considering these questions for many years, I have concluded sadly that the architectural organization of most synagogues inhibits rather than enhances the spiritual …