When Rabbi Steven Wernick interviewed to be chief executive of the Conservative movement’s umbrella organization in 2009, he came prepared and had “done his homework,” according to a former board officer who was present. He was then head rabbi of a synagogue in Philadelphia’s wealthy Main Line suburb. Board members were particularly impressed by how…
Most non-profits try to avoid contested elections and just push through a nominating committee report. But sometimes there’s an issue that can’t be shoved aside, a philosophical dispute with the potential to clarify the institution’s mission and meaning. That seems to be the case this year at my professional association, the Rabbinical Assembly — the…
Passover is one of my favorite times of the year, and not just because of the rich tradition that celebrates our ancestors’ freedom from Egyptian slavery. My family has always used this time to introduce our non-Jewish friends to the culture and heritage that fills us with pride. With over 20 years in the event…
The first time I heard Louis Farrakhan speak, he called Judaism a “gutter religion.” I was shocked that in the 1980’s, only 35 years after Auschwitz, that anyone would speak that way in public and not be denounced immediately. I was a cantor at a Conservative synagogue in Norwalk, CT, a diverse community about an…
At a recent dinner party, a fervent argument broke out over the way one chooses romantic partners. Penny, an old friend of my partner Ellen, invited us to meet her new husband; she is Jewish, he is not. They had met at a mutual friend’s party. Ellen and I, I told them, had met on…
The Jewish community in the Washington, D.C. region has grown to nearly 300,000, making it the third-largest in the United States — but most Jews aren’t affiliated or connected with local Jewish institutions. A report by Brandeis University researchers found that the number of Jews in the District and its Maryland and Virginia suburbs has…
About twenty five years ago, I attended my sister-in-law’s marriage to a non-Jew. In other words, I broke a rule of the Rabbinical Assembly, the governing body of Conservative Judaism, thus risking expulsion from the group and professional suicide. A few nights ago, I asked my wife, “Did I know back then that I was…
The year after Rabbi Jason Miller graduated from rabbinical school, he skipped the wedding of his first cousin, who was marrying a non-Jew. He regretted it immediately. “It caused a significant fissure in our relationship,” Miller told the Forward. At the time, Miller thought he was abiding by an ironclad rule that bound all rabbis…
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