Read & Listen

Read the original open letter, published on June 25, 2020.

Here we are, at another critical inflection point in this struggle for equality and dignity that is as old as our nation.

This is a new moment of reckoning, and we must not turn away.

A rabbi on the global coronavirus pandemic, the holiday of Shavuot, the sacred cycle of the Jewish calendar and a core (at least one) truth. By Carin M. Smilk

In this moment of mass infection and death, as we pore over graphs and statistics, death rates and casualties, let us take this teaching to heart and remember that every single person deserves to be recognized and loved. Everyone counts.

Rabbi Jonathan shares a mostly forgotten yet critical story about the eradication of malaria in the decades leading up to the founding of the state of Israel. It is also a personal story: the story about the work of his grandfather, Dr. Israel Jacob Kligler z”l.

The Torah portion this week is Tazria-Metzora, a famously obscure section of Leviticus that describes in detail all manner of skin afflictions and the ritual remedies that are prescribed for them. These chapters are joked about as the “booby prize” for unfortunate Bar and Bat Mitzvah students whose birthday happens to fall this time of ... Read more

This is an impossibly sad, frightening and terrifying time for countless millions, in fact billions of people around the entire planet. There will hopefully be hidden blessings and gifts that many of us will come to discern from this time. But the pain and the cost now and for the foreseeable future are very great. ... Read more

Jesus was a radical Jewish prophet, teacher and charismatic healer and leader, preaching and demonstrating an utterly authentic interpretation of the message of Judaism and its prophets: NO ONE is expendable; EVERYONE is a child of God.   His message was not rejected because “the Jews” were unwilling to hear him. He was not crucified ... Read more

Dear Friends, As we celebrate Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewish culture this Shabbat and coming week at the WJC, I wanted to offer some thoughts. The vast majority of American Jews are of Ashkenazi origin – that is, their ancestors lived in Central and Eastern Europe and spoke Yiddish. Ashkenaz is the Hebrew name for Germany, ... Read more