Rabbi Daniel and Anat Coleman, shown here with Akiva, founded SPARK to "bring new meaning to ancient tradition."
Rabbi Shalom Baum of Teaneck's Keter Torah knew there was more his congregation could do to make unaffiliated Jews feel welcome in the synagogue, especially during the High Holy Days, when shuls are crowded and services are long.
He also knew that his synagogue had the room to offer space to those seeking something different. So last year, when Yeshiva University's Center for the Jewish Future suggested that he approach Rabbi Daniel and Anat Coleman, he seized the opportunity, inviting the founders of SPARK (Study, Pray, Ask, Reconnect, Knowledge) to lead explanatory holiday services at Keter Torah.
New Jersey ranks third in the nation in the number of foreign-born residents as a percentage of the population. Of these, 5 percent — or some 400,000 people — are undocumented, living outside the system, according to the New Jersey Immigration Policy Network.
The state is seeking to correct that.
On Monday, Gov. Jon Corzine signed Executive Order No. 78 establishing the Blue Ribbon Panel on Immigrant Policy, taking what he called "an important step in creating a comprehensive statewide strategy for weaving immigrants into the economic, social, and civic fabric of our communities and state."
Ross Berkoff recently returned from a 16-month deployment in Afghanistan. Below, he is greeted by his mother, Paula Berkoff.
Captain Ross Berkoff always knew he wanted to serve his country.
"When I was little, I was fanatic about American history," said the Fair Lawn resident, who returned to the United States in June after a 16-month extended deployment in Afghanistan as a squadron intelligence officer with the 10th Mountain Division.
"I used to drag my family to national historical parks," said Berkoff, who explained that his love of history — he particularly enjoyed Civil War re-enactments — turned early to a study of military history.
They did not arrive by owl. Nor were they hand-delivered by Hagrid. Nevertheless, the hundreds of volumes of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" that arrived in Wingdale, N.Y., on Sunday took Camp Ramah in the Berkshires by storm.
"It's a real thing around here," said Rabbi Amy Roth, assistant director of the camp. "One edah [age group] celebrated 'Harry Potter Shabbat' this week," she said, noting that the 14-year-olds dressed up as various characters portrayed in the book. "It became a part of the camp."
The book, the seventh and final volume in the popular series by British author J.K. Rowling, was released on Saturday, so campers — who could not rush out to bookstores to buy it — had to wait until Sunday to receive it.
Religious leaders at forefront of environmental movement
Participants at GreenFaith's May retreat take a break during a hike through Bear Mountain State Park, just across the Hudson River from the Garrison Institute. The event was led Rabbi Lawrence Troster and Kurt Hoelting.
"There is no other program of its kind in the country; that's why we started it," said Rabbi Larry Troster, director of the newly created GreenFaith Fellowship Program, explaining the need for the initiative.
While the program — which Troster calls "the first comprehensive education and training program in the U.S. to prepare lay and ordained leaders from diverse religious traditions for religiously based environmental leadership" — will formally begin in September, some 80 applications have already been received.
"Happy" doesn't begin to describe how Rabbi Benjamin Yudin felt when Mendy Aron approached him last year about instituting a learning program at the synagogue on a weekday.
"It was like a dream," said Yudin, religious leader of Cong. Shomrei Torah, noting that Torah Tuesday, the outgrowth of Aron's proposal, has been going strong since its inception, "and we haven't missed a Tuesday."
There's something wonderfully soothing about a cup of tea. Imagine, then, the comfort to be derived from an entire pot of tea. And not just any tea, but one selected from a luxurious list of international offerings — black, red, green, white — and served neatly bundled in a floral tea cozy.
The British institution of afternoon tea has much to recommend it. Sharing tea, scones with clotted cream and lemon curd, veggie finger sandwiches, and "sweets" with friends last week at a small, charming tea house was probably the high point of the past month. (For those cynics thinking, "Get a life," let me assure you that the month was not half bad. It's just that the tea experience was that good.)
One year ago, Israeli soldiers Gilad Shalit, Ehud Goldwasser, and Eldad Regev were kidnapped by militant Islamic groups. To mark the anniversary of their capture, the Jewish community will rally in New York City on Monday "to make our voices heard … and demand their immediate and unconditional release," said Ruth Siev, special projects coordinator for the Jewish Community Relations Council of UJA Federation of Northern New Jersey.
"We want the issue to stay front and center in people's minds," she said. "We want to raise the consciousness of the world, reminding them that despite the U.N. resolution ending the Lebanon war, the Israeli soldiers are still in captivity."
Acknowledging that the Claims Conference — an organization that advocates for Nazi victims and finances social welfare and Holocaust education programs — "is shrouded in harmful myths," Marilyn Henry maintains that the good works of the organization far outweigh any legitimate criticisms of it and must not be overlooked.
Henry, who will speak on the issue at the JCC on the Palisades on July 18, is a former staff writer for the Jerusalem Post and the author of "Confronting the Perpetrators: A History of the Claims Conference." She is also an authority on German reparations and the recovery of Jewish artworks and other properties looted in Europe during the Nazi and communist eras.
Integrating singles into the synagogue community — making them feel comfortable in institutions that are heavily programmed to serve the needs of families — is both vital and challenging, according to area rabbis.
At Shabbat services last Friday night, Rabbi Mark Kiel of Emerson's Cong. B'nai Israel spoke to his congregation about the relationship between singles and the synagogue.
