The door flew open, and there was Rabbi Shira Stutman. She beamed, smiling and immediately embraced us. “Welcome,” she said, “welcome to Sixth and I.”
Frazier said that his Reform synagogue in Missouri, where he lived at the time, worked with him to create a meaningful mikvah transition ceremony at the river. He said his transition was more difficult for his work. “When I changed my name legally, everybody thought I got married,” Frazier said to laughs from the audience.
After years of pressure from advocates, leaders in Pennsylvania’s GOP-controlled state House are indicating they might be willing to substantially tighten the law governing legislative gifts.
Michael Pollack, a Philadelphia rabbi, has spent the last three years nonviolently agitating for a gift ban with the group March on Harrisburg.
Richman feels that there is a tension in her understanding of her craft. On one hand, it does feel “powerfully subversive” to do something denied to women for centuries; on the other hand, she does find meaning in tradition.
It’s no coincidence Heifetz, a 45-year-old Silver Spring resident, thought of turning the tradition into an exercise in art. About four years ago, he says, he felt a compulsion to “do something with my hands” and began experimenting with metal as an art form. Heifetz progressed from creatively bending silverware to molding and shaping metal, transforming spoons, copper wire and car trim into works of art.
Ye led discussions on the intersection of social justice and spiritual space, and how to honor the wide variety of ethnic backgrounds that exist in Judaism.
“We accept the responsibility for changing and for changing this world. That is what people need to stay in hope. And without hope, there is no energy for no creative new solutions,” says Rabbi Amy Bernstein (‘97) in this moving video, Tashlikh Reconstructed.
The award, which was presented at the Federation’s Annual Meeting Sept. 17, recognizes Jewish professionals under 40 whose exemplary performance at a Jewish agency in the Chicago area has benefited the entire Jewish community.
“We are all accountable for the violence that happens at our borders,” Katz said. “Showing up for others is actually an action you can do in a world that feels powerless.”
Keynote speakers included Rabbi Rachel Weiss of Evanston’s Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation. Weiss was raised in Evanston and said she is the town’s first lesbian rabbi. “I came back after college and my wife and I got married here in Evanston at the synagogue where I am now rabbi,” Weiss said.
Serving as central organization of the Reconstructionist movement
Training the next generation of groundbreaking rabbis
Modeling respectful conversations on pressing Jewish issues
Curating original, Jewish rituals, and convening Jewish creatives
