Welcome To The Next Level

Can extremism ever be Kosher?

2012-01-19T19:06:00.004-05:00

Rabbi Marc Rosenstein writes the Galilee Diary in the Union for Reform Judaism's 10 Minutes of Torah e-mail and blog. Today's struck me as particularly worthy of sharing and inviting your commentary. He references a bill put before the Knesset by MK Anastassia Michaeli of the Yisrael Beiteinu party. This bill seeks to make illegal the sound of the Muezzin's call to worship for Muslims. Again,

Teaching Israel, Warts and All

2012-01-11T22:38:00.002-05:00

Peter Eckstein Friend and colleague Peter Eckstein posted this in the Jewish Educational Change Network before new year's. I think it tells an important story. I invite your thoughts on how we can do a better job bringing Israel to our students and our students to Israel. I have the good fortune to be working with a nationally based group of educators and teens associated with the iCenter

The Torah and all Judaism are being threatened...by an 8 year old girl. Really?

2011-12-29T00:04:00.001-05:00

I hope that you were as outraged as I was at the story of Naama Margolese, aged 8. She and her family are olim to Israel. They are modern Orthodox, but apparently her attire was not modest enough for the Haredim in their hometown of Bet Shemesh. At the URJ Biennial two weeks ago, I heard Ehud Barak, Barack Obama and Eric Yoffie all talk about the importance of Israel being a Democratic

Thou shalt help those with special needs find their best place among us!

2011-11-23T15:47:00.001-05:00

Paul Kipnes is the rabbi at Congregation Or Ami in Calabasas, CA and my classmate at the Rhea Hirsch School of Education at HUC-JIR (Class of '91). He has a terrific Blog called Or Am I? Below is his post from yesterday. It sends a very strong message of inclusion which I echo. And he asks an important question: Who else makes it a point to meet the learners with special needs where they are?

Five Things That Marketing And Business Can Teach Jewish Teachers

2011-11-20T06:00:00.000-05:00

I wrote this for one of Carol Starin's FIVE THINGS EXTRAVAGANZA'S at the 2005 CAJE conference in Seattle. I am happy to find that I still think it is relevant. I do think that in the last six years I have found at least five more things, but let me share these first and invite you to share some of your own! Shavuah Tov! Ira Create Purple Cows – In his book Purple Cow: Transform Your

When Tweeting Depletes: How Social Media Can Disconnect Us

2011-11-14T12:50:00.001-05:00

The conversation continues courtesy of eJewishPhilanthropy (What? You still don;t subscribe? Shame!). Here I am, Mr. Digital Oleh, agreeing that digital is not the only solution. Maybe not even the best solution. Like a knife or a drill, it is a tool. We need to learn how to use it well and when to put it back in the virtual tool box and use other tools. Discuss... When Tweeting Depletes

Back to the (Jewish) Future (From eJewish Philanthropy)

2011-11-12T17:05:00.000-05:00

My Shabbat afternoon reading today. VERY intriguing. Thinking of ways to use his principles within the synagogue. Not his point, I know, but it is my milieu. Good learning here. Discuss... Thanks to eJewishPhilanthropy for posting it! - Ira November 11, 2011 by eJP Back to the (Jewish) Future: The Six Demands of the Next Generation of Lay Leadership by Ben Wiener [Earlier this

Connecting the Affiliated

2011-11-03T16:41:00.001-04:00

My friend and colleague Arnie Samlan posted about a conversation he had with Beth Finger, who is working on a project called Jewish Without Walls. They suggest we "Forget about Jewish Affiliation, Think about Jewish Connectedness:" "During our conversation this morning, we both challenged the relevance of "Jewish affiliation", which has been used in every Jewish demographic study as a measure

For one of us to be right, must the other be wrong?

2011-10-19T11:42:00.000-04:00

It is funny how proud we Jews get when another Jewish person - someone we have never met - makes a mark in the world. Paul Liptz, my professor at HUC-JIR once described what it was like to be Jewish in (then) Zimbabwe in July 1976: "People I barely knew slapped me on the back and said 'you really showed the world something special at Entebbe! Good show!' I had never been to Entebbe or served

This is a crazy inexplicable country

2011-10-19T11:41:00.000-04:00

Photo of Gilad Shalit's helicopter (he's in the one on the left) taken by Lori Abramson from her porch in Yokne'am I thought about writing about Gilad Shalit's return yesterday, making this holiday a true Sukkat Shalom - if only for a moment. We had an amazing conversation in Confirmation class last night with our tenth graders. They were truly split on the issue of exchanging dangerous

"And You Shall Teach Them Diligently To Your Children ... And To Yourselves."

2011-08-27T22:20:00.000-04:00

This summer I met @Moosh2, an online friend. She was working at Crane Lake Camp while I was at Eisner Camp. Her name in RL is Marci Bellows the rabbi at Temple B'nai Torah in Wantagh, NY. She also writes a regular column inn the New York Jewish Week. We grew up in the same community and have a lot of friends in common, and yet we had never met! When I saw this article, I thought it made some

Reports of the Hebrew School's Demise Have Been Greatly Exagerated - A Parent Replies

2011-08-15T20:13:00.001-04:00