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I Need Shabbat This Week

Posted by Rabbi Ron Symons on June 22, 2018

I need Shabbat this week because all I have heard is people talking over and through each other. I need Shabbat this week because all I have seen are images of children separated from their parents. I need Shabbat this week because all the values about family and human dignity I thought were foundational to our American way of life are being challenged. I need Shabbat this week …

What Does Israel Mean to Me?

Posted by Brian Schreiber on May 22, 2018

I vividly remember the endless bus trip from Jerusalem to Kibbutz Hazorea in 1985. I didn’t know a soul, spoke fewer than a dozen Hebrew words, and had never traveled overseas. But I had a longing to experience Israel, to learn the language and connect to people on their terms – not mine. The journey took me from the kibbutz to community service work in Ashkelon …

Updating Our Mission Statement

Posted by Brian Schreiber on April 27, 2018

Over the past year, our lay and professional leadership went through the thoughtful and intentional process of updating our Mission Statement. Our goal was simple – to help our members, guests, professional staff, donors, partners and other stakeholders know more than what we do, but WHY we exist and who we aspire to be. Mission statements are more than just assemblies of words. Each word has weight and …

Passover is All About Time Travel

Posted by Rabbi Ron Symons on March 27, 2018

Each and every year when we pull our wine stained haggadot off of the shelf and place them on our beautifully set Passover tables, we have two options. The first is the basic plan: Read through the haggadah, go through the rituals, eat the symbolic foods because this is the way that we have done it for years and we think that we should just maintain …

International Women’s Day – #PressForProgress

Posted by Rabbi Ron Symons on March 8, 2018

As we celebrate International Women’s Day today, and Women's History Month during March, we understand the phrase #PRESSFORPROGRESS is needed more than ever. We live in a world in which women’s voices have been suppressed when it comes to reporting sexual harassment, domestic violence and sexual assault in all areas of society. Our contemporary conversations are a mirror of conversations and attitudes that have been going …

JCC Camps: Preparing for Life’s Journeys

Posted by JCC Camps Team on February 21, 2018

C O N N E C T I O N S • V A L U E S • G R O W T H • F U N This is our responsibility: To prepare the next generation for the journeys that lie ahead. We hope that every journey will be fair and just. We hope that every journey will be filled with joy and happiness. We hope that …

Celebrating the Lunar New Year

Posted by Rabbi Ron Symons on February 16, 2018

You might be wondering why the JCC opens its doors to the Lunar New Year celebration. Let me begin by sharing a metaphor I just learned on a podcast by my teacher Rabbi Larry Hoffman of the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion. While discussing the tension between being particular (having concern for and being interested in the Jewish community) and universal (having concern …

Giddy-up y’all: It’s Time for Big Night

Posted by Roberta Levine on February 2, 2018

We don't want to spill too many beans but if you're wondering why we're making hay about this ole Big Night, jest sit a spell and read on. Big Night...well, it's about you and us. It's our hoedown where we can hoot and holler a big “thank you” for all your support for the JCC. It's your support that helps the JCC provide scholarships that help individuals of all backgrounds, abilities, religious affiliations …

Tu B’Shevat – How can we celebrate nature and Israel in the cold of winter?

Posted by Rabbi Ron Symons on January 29, 2018

In Israel, another new year will soon be celebrated. Tu B'Shevat, the "New Year of the Trees," is observed on the fifteenth day of the Hebrew month of Sh'vat. Tu B'Shevat is not mentioned in the Torah. According to scholars, the holiday was originally an agricultural festival, corresponding to the beginning of spring in Israel. As in the case with many Jewish observances, a critical historical …

People on The Fringes

Posted by Rabbi Ron Symons on January 5, 2018

For thousands if years now, Jewish wisdom has been teaching us that we are not permitted to ignore the needs of the most vulnerable among us. The authors of the Torah and the Hebrew Prophets that came after them went to extra efforts to remind us that we have a responsibility to treat the orphan, widow and stranger with the same amount of respect that …

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