To celebrate Shavuot last week I joined with friends at a nearby community-wide tikkun leil Shavuot (an all night Torah study) hosted by our congregation, Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn. As in so many communities, it was a lively scene as people gathered together, listened, learned, questioned and challenged each other. This inclusive form of community gathering is a foundation of Reform Judaism and has served as a core element for the Campaign for Youth Engagement. Following the launch of the campaign at the Biennial in 2011, the URJ began reflecting on NFTY, URJ camps, Mitzvah Corps, Israel programs, and [...]
All eyes are on Grapevine, Texas today as the Boy Scouts of America begins the annual meeting of its National Council. Earlier this year the Boy Scouts of America announced that it would postpone a reconsideration of its policy prohibiting gay scouts and scout leaders until the meeting this week (see the letter that Rabbi Saperstein sent to the BSA in response to that decision). Today the 1,400 person National Council, including representatives from across the country, will vote on whether or not to lift this ban and make the organization a more inclusive one. In 2000 the Supreme Court [...]
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