Or Am I?

Transform Your Synagogue by Sending Your Rabbi to Jewish Summer Camp

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Kipnes) — Sun, 19 Jul 2015 18:14:00 +0000

Some of Congregation Or Ami's delegation to Camp Newman

Want to enhance your synagogue?

Then send your rabbis, cantors, educators and youth professions annually to work at a Jewish summer camp. Not as vacation time, but as a two-week professional development and personal renewal work experience. Your clergy and staff will come back refreshed and renewed. Your congregation will benefit from new creative ideas, inspiring music and energized staff.

A Place for Personal Renewal and Professional Growth
Every summer my wife Michelle November and I lead a delegation of 40+ people from Congregation Or Ami (Calabasas, CA) to the URJ Camp Newman (Santa Rosa, CA). For two weeks I serve as Rabbinic Faculty Dean, assisting the young rashim (unit heads) with their programs, leading creative services, sitting in staff meetings, and engage campers and counselors in deep discussions about Judaism, God and spirituality. The days are long, the work is continuous, and by midnight, we fall into our beds exhausted.

Even after our own children have matriculated out of camp, we still go back summer after summer. Without exception, each summer I return home reinvigorated, ready to inspire our congregants in the Jewish New Year. Our synagogue leadership notices the renewal of my spirit; my clergy partners talk about how I return fuller with new insights and an enhanced vision.

Enhance Your Synagogue; Send Your People to Camp
You should also send your rabbis, educators, cantors and youth professionals to Jewish summer camp for their benefit and for the benefit of your congregation. Why?

Ask the rabbis, educators, cantors, and youth directors who go to camp. They understand why it is so critical that they attend Jewish summer camp. I asked them. Their answers are below. (Note: Each mention of “rabbi” also refers to cantors, educators and youth professionals. Each mention of “synagogue” or “congregation” also refers to organizations and wherever these Jewish professionals serve the Jewish people.)

Top 10+ Reasons to Send Your Rabbi to Jewish Summer Camp

Being on faculty at Jewish summer camp, your rabbi gains:

Collegiality: We spend time with colleagues who inspire us as we engage in idea sharing and problem solving. We connect with and build strong relationships with new colleagues, and partner with and learn from them. We gather some of our best inspiration from other rabbis during our time at camp.

Jewish Incubator: Every summer we gain new perspectives and sharper tools to address the challenges Jewish communities face. At camp, we experiment in a proven incubator where the next and best Jewish trends develop and take shape. By being there, we more quickly move these ideas from R&D (research and development) into our congregations. Camp serves as an especially rich testing ground for ideas about youth engagement and presents 24/7 opportunities to practice talking with young people about things that matter.

Best of Judaism: We are exposed to the best of Judaism on multiple levels: community, prayer, creativity, music, Zionism, art, and more. We discover and learn new Jewish music that inspires hearts and souls, which we can bring home for Shabbat services and into our religious schools. We also compile a treasure trove of stories to educate our congregational youth and families during the year. Camp is the most exciting place outside the synagogue to experience living, loving Judaism.

Deepened Spirituality: Our own. We experience Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s radical amazement, leading us to reconnect with our inner neshamah (soul). We find the Holy One in the outdoor Beit T’filah (prayer space) and experience evocative Shabbat ruach (spirit). These experiences prepare rabbis to better serve the Holy One through our holy work in our congregations.

Creative T’fillah: We experience and experiment with creative t’fillah (worship services), which we use to enhance services back home. At camp, the Jewish spiritual future is happening in the present. Rabbis need to keep up with it!

Jewish Role Modeling: Meeting Jewish youth from around the region, we demonstrate to them that rabbis can be fun-loving role models, trustworthy confidantes, and real people (who wear shorts). Kids learn that being a rabbi, cantor, or educator is what you teach, not what you wear.

Relationships Building: We build deeper connections with our temple kids in a different, deeply spiritual context. By extension – before, during and after camp – we build relationships with their parents. Nothing beats a relationship built at camp! Camp is where our kids are most excited about absorbing the message of Judaism and they take pride in seeing THEIR rabbi in an environment they think is cool. After spending time with the youth at Jewish summer camp, the parents said that being with their rabbi was one of their child’s (and their own) summer highlights.

More Kids to Camp: Our presence at camp inspires more temple kids – especially younger ones who live a distance away – to come to camp. Many parents are more apt to send their children when they know that the rabbi will be there to watch over their kids. (My first day pictures of temple kids that I text to parents and post to Facebook help ease the transition.) In fact, in the first six years after I started coming to camp, we increased our synagogue camper and counselor delegation from 4 to 40.

Ensuring the Jewish Future: Rabbis at camp inspire kids to live Jewish lives by providing loving examples. As these young people grow up, they especially become the leaders of our Jewish community; our presence at camp perpetuates the cycle of Jewish leadership. In fact, so many of us became Jewish professionals because of the experiences and informal interactions we had with engaging rabbis when we went to camp.

Professional Growth: At camp, we rabbis step out of our comfort zones in various ways so that we, like the campers, grow as a result. When we are assigned to a different eidah (unit) and need to develop comfort connecting with a new age grouping, when we are asked to help create a service involving only the arts, and when we stumble upon a counselor crying from frustration, we stretch ourselves in new directions. We learn more than we teach, especially when we listen carefully.

Rejuvenation: We all need safe places to shake off the pressures of work, and regain energy. At camp, rabbis renew our own creativity. We restore our optimism about the Jewish people. We regain broader perspective, enabling us to see the forest. We revitalize from rabbinic burnout.

Of course, camp is fun
And Jewish professionals need time for fun. But for rabbis, going to camp is so much more. Camp transforms kids, rejuvenates rabbis, and enhances our synagogues.

So send your rabbi, cantor, educator and youth professional to Jewish summer camp and watch your synagogue be transformed!

Do you send your rabbi/cantor/educator/youth professional to Jewish summer camp? What does he/she bring back to your community?

Thanks to the following rabbis and educators for their insights:

Joel Abraham, Craig Axler, Shawna Brynjegard-Bialik, Steven Bob, Anne Brener, Judy Chessin, Ben David, Ellen Weinberg Dreyfus, Andrew Davids Ergas, Donald Goor, Lisa Greene, Eric Gurvis, Jason Gwasdoff, Laura Schwartz Harari, Elisa Koppel, Riqi Kosovske, Lisa Levenberg, Craig Lewis, Dan Moskovitz, Fred Natkin, Anne Persin, Daniel Plotkin, Stacy Eskovitz Rigler, Rachel Crossley Saphire, Roxanne Schneider Shapiro, Bradley Solmsen, Cy Stanway, Betsy Torop, Daniel Treiser, Allison Bergman Vann, Laura Novak Winer, Rick Winer, Binah Brownstein Wing, Mara Young, and Ahuva Zaches.

My First Colonoscopy: Looking into the Future

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Kipnes) — Sun, 12 Jul 2015 23:36:00 +0000

Since celebrating my 50th birthday, I have enjoyed attaining many milestones: A half a century of life, twenty-five years of marriage, the graduation of all three of our children, and the publication of our first book. Each had bittersweet moments, including the most recent milestone, the completion of my first colonoscopy.

Most people cringe at the mention of this invasive procedure. Most everybody seems uncomfortable discussing something even minimally connected to our nether region orifices. Those who have yet to experience it become anxious at the thought of a camera taking an exit route to enter their body. Those who have had at least one colonoscopy recall uncomfortably the process of drinking a gallon on the colon-cleansing formula (that's an 8 ounce glass every ten to fifteen minutes).

One and a Half Years in the Making: Procrastination to the End
Yet our intestinal passageways are critical to the smooth functioning of our bodies. We can't enjoy a delicious meal, or a tasty evening of wine and cheese, without having a way to digest and remove the processed waste. As we age, we need to be ever more cognizant of "the pipes and the plumbing." Colonoscopies allow doctors to check for a whole host of maladies including intestinal polyps and especially the possibility of colorectal cancer.

So when my doctors instructed me to "just do it," I responsibly scheduled my first colonoscopy immediately... after putting it off for a year and a half. I'd like to think what finally led me to embrace that colonoscopy was that more than just being an uncomfortable but necessary undertaking, "doing the dirty work" to prepare was part of my commitment to Shmirat Ha'guf.

Judaism on Caring for the Body
Shmirat Ha'guf, our Jewish value of caring for our body, mind and soul, runs deep in our Jewish textual tradition. In researching our book Jewish Spiritual Parenting: Wisdom, Rituals, Activities and Prayers for Raising Children with Spiritual Balance and Emotional Wholeness (Jewish Lights Publishing), my wife and I discovered that ever since the great Rabbi Hillel decreed that even showering (a form of caring for the body) was a mitzvah, we Jews have been focused on self-care. Our body, on loan from the Holy One, is the temple of our soul. Just as a human king would care for monuments to him, cleaning them regularly, we need to be vigilant about preserving bodies, a tribute of the Holy One.

According to MyJewishLearning.com,

Judaism generally views medical treatment positively, even as an obligation, based on verses such as Exodus 21:19, commanding a injuring party to “surely heal” the person he has hurt, and Deuteronomy 4:15: “Take very good care of yourselves.” Maimonides (the outstanding 12th-century philosopher and talmudist of Spain and North Africa) viewed the provision of medical care as part of the duty to return to a person “anything he has lost” (Deuteronomy 22:3).

50,000 Colorectal Cancer Deaths Annually
Cancer of the colon and rectum (CRC) is the second-leading cause of USA cancer deaths. 50,000 people die from colorectal cancer annually. All people over the age of 50 are encouraged to have a colonoscopy every 10 years. However, only half of all people who should be screened for colon cancer actually undergo a colonoscopy.

Dr. Afshine Emranis, in the Jewish Journal, revealed recently that

Almost daily, I have to convince patients to get routine colonoscopies. This never goes smoothly. Some plead to wait another year, while others in their 70s flat out refuse to be subjected to such torture.

While there is a newer, recently FDA approved non-evasive procedure, it is still new and has a 10% failure rate. The fascinating PillCam technology Colon 2 from an Israeli firm Given Imagery has yet to cross the scientific threshold to become a viable alternative for most of us (although swallowing a pill camera is both cool and the way of the future).

For most of us, then, it's a colonoscopy each decade.

Enduring a Liquid Diet for a Day
So I spent the better part of my day downing the liquid, ensuring I cleaned out the temple of my soul. Not really pleasant. Not easy. But those hours of discomfort paled in comparison to the problems that could arise from undetected polyps or worse.

Arriving early I walked into the prep room, greeted with a warm smile by an understanding nurse. A few questions, a brief explanation, an authorization to sign, and they quickly rolled my bed into the procedure room. Reassurance from the compassionate anesthesiologist that it would be over before I knew it and an explanation from the wise sounding doctor delivered me to the anesthesia countdown (I reached "9"). A blissful sleep and next thing I knew I awoke with the procedure finished. Not twenty minutes later, I was dressed and guided by Michelle to the car going home.

A Perfect Colon!
The doctor's response post procedure - "a perfect colon" - put me at ease from a worry I didn't even know I had. Given the pervasiveness of colorectal cancer, I feel fortunate to have received the "all clear." The view of the future looked that much better.

So it's a mitzvah to go get your colonscopy. To quote Rabbi Hillel, Im lo achshav aimatai. If not now, when? (Pirkei Avot).

Do it, because:

It's short term discomfort for long term gain.
The discomfort we face preparing beats the alternative if a polyp or cancer goes undetected.

Let me know when you have one, I will lead you in the post-medical procedure blessing, Birkat Gomel, so that you too can thank the Holy One for the blessing of a procedure gone well.

Hedge your bets on your body's future. Schedule that colonoscopy today. Let us know when you do.

Have you had your colonoscopy yet? Tell us about it!

Kutz Camp @50 Alumni Reflect on “It’s Good to Be Home”

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Kipnes) — Mon, 06 Jul 2015 17:25:00 +0000

Photo by Laurence E. Sacks

“The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

Even as they change.

Throughout two glorious summer days at the URJ Kutz Camp: NFTY’s Campus for Reform Jewish Teens (Warwick, NY), my alumni friends kept repeating, “It’s good to be home. It’s good to be home.”

Our cohort of former program participants and staff from the late 1970s and early 1980s were particularly touched by Kutz Camp's 50^th anniversary gathering. Asked to reflect upon what returning to Kutz meant to them, they tapped their responses into an iPhone passed from person-to-person. Their answers were deeply personal, poignant, and insightful. (Other personal reflections are here and here).

I had to come back and touch this place, to feel that sense of place, belonging, a peace that resides deep within. One more time. I couldn’t not come as much as I tried. Something deeply special lives here (Susan Barnett, New York, NY).

Yes, we were home. For so many of us, Kutz Camp was home to our foundational experiences as teenagers: Jewish spiritual growth, intellectual challenge, leadership development, commitment to social justice, and finding emotional balance.

Coming here allowed me to be more comfortable with myself as a person and as a Jew while connecting with people I love (Carol Hamburger, Chicago, IL).

Attending Kutz’s 50^th anniversary celebration brought many of us back for the first time in almost 30 years. The experience was powerful.

Being here is reinvigorating as we are renewing some friendships that were begun initially over 35 years ago. Seeing participants just like we were oh so many years ago. The names change but nothing else seems to change... (Glen Plotsky, Montague, NJ).

In truth, Kutz has witnessed incredible changes over its fifty years. In just the last twenty, Kutz has seen new paint on the buildings, rebuilt main building dorms, new Beit Am and arts complex, new Bayit housing complex, a new pool and tennis courts, a climbing tower, and an amazingly visionary director, Melissa Frey.

Yet we have heard that the essence of Kutz – revitalized and repackaged for 21^st century Reform Jewish youth – remains whole. So we came back to see for ourselves.

I am nostalgic… It is as if no time has passed. I find myself recalling fond memories of my time here (Sally Stammelman Mandelbaum, Andover, MA).

We returned to enjoy the stirring music, the gorgeous sunset, centering Shabbat and abiding holiness. We came for the warmth and the community.

Again I find inspiration. Here I found myself here as a teenager and I hope to pass that spirit on to my son (Bonnie Greenberg Newman, Fairfield, CT).

We journeyed back to be with friends and to honor Kutz’s visionary leaders, Smitty (Rabbi Allan Smith) and PJR (Paul J. Reichenbach).

I feel myself reconnecting with people who played such an important role as I started on the journey of becoming who I am (Joshua Goldman-Brown, Piermont, New York).

We traversed the country to re-explore how the past remains whole, even as a new, expansive future is being envisioned.

It is amazing to discover that it all comes right back, friends and love and all the good stuff inside (Judy Wertheimer, Pittsburgh, PA).

And we came back to reclaim the best part of ourselves, a part that ___ (choose one: 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50) years later still needs attention and retention.

I am remembering a part of me, not just a Jewish part, that I had forgotten about (Tracey Lessen Gersten, San Francisco, CA).

The camp’s influence on our lives, and on the course of the American Jewish community, has been profound.

While I've always known my involvement in the Reform Movement influenced my life in a profound way, by day two of the Kutz Camp reunion, I was struck with the clarity about how specifically Kutz Camp has affected me. I realized my days at Kutz had helped form me in regard to my ethics, my aspirations, my familial and world views, and even socially, regarding the necessity to surround myself with only genuine friends whenever possible (Dan Levin, Cleveland, OH).

Over the past 50 years, Kutz Camp has molded generations of Reform Jews, committed to the highest ideals of prophetic Judaism and spiritual journeying.

That’s heady stuff.

Yes, Kutz is still transforming lives and transforming Judaism. As they say, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” Even as they change. And we change.

So what did it really feel like to be at the Kutz Camp once again after so many years?

I am filled with love, joy and warmth. 35 years have passed? So what. I am home (Elisa Mendel, Oakland, CA).

Kutz alumni: Connect with other alumni on Facebook.

All I Really Needed to Know I learned in Song Session

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Kipnes) — Fri, 03 Jul 2015 05:08:00 +0000

The insight took me by surprise. Hanging with our faculty cohort late at Friday night at the URJ Camp Newman in Santa Rosa, CA, I came to realize that so much of who I was, who our children are becoming, and how our family has prioritized our values derives from the songs we sang at summer camp. Growing up at URJ Kutz Camp in Warwick, NY in my teen years and raising our kids each summer at URJ Camp Newman introduced me deep Jewish learning in the guise of fun camp song session. Who would have thought that the Jewish values my wife and I hold most dear, and the texts from which they arise, were embedded in our hearts at those Jewish summer camps.

Still Singing at Summer Camp
The realization crept up on me late one Friday night when - after an inspiring Shabbat - the rabbis, educators, cantorial soloists, artists, songleaders and nefesh staff retired to our cabin on Faculty Row. Squeezed into our mini-living room, the group of close to two dozen people (ranging in age from 18 to 67) began our late night adults-only Shabbat shira (singing). Four guitars - and Rabbi Rick Winer's (musical?) contraption made up of a washboard with bells and cymbals attached - provided the musical accompaniment.

We began with current Camp Newman favorites. Soon enough though, we jumped back to the future, singing rousing zemirot from the 60's, 70's and 80's. The online set list from the five album Songs NFTY Sings and the many URJ Camp Swig albums guided us on our musical journey. The atmosphere was joyful; the energy high. The last participants meandered back to their own cabins just before 2:00 am.

Singing Central Jewish Values
As we sang, I was transported back to the most wonderful seven years I spent at the Kutz Camp NFTY Leadership Academy. There, first as a teenage program participant and later as head resident advisor and program director, I spent many nights in the dining hall, singing Jewish music. The shiron (songbook) displayed both the words and the source of the songs.

I was fascinated by the diversity of sources. Later as a rabbinical student, I dug deeper, noticing that the texts represented in the songbook spanned the whole Jewish canon. We sang songs based on

Pirkei Avot - V'eizeh Hu
Biblical Psalms - Shiru Ladonai
The siddur (prayer book) - Yom Zeh L'yisrael
The Talmud - Nefesh Echad

I once taught a course at Kutz called the Songs NFTY Sings in which we studied the profound lessons contained within the texts of the songs.

Raising a Family with the Songs We Sing
Back at our Camp Newman faculty song session, it became clear that many of the values that became central to my life, values which later guided the way Michelle and I raised our children, grew out of the ideals we discovered in the songs we sang:

We taught our children to find contentment with what they had. Instead of getting caught in the endless cycle of trying to "keep up with the Joneses," we explain (and sing): Veizeh hu asher - who is wealthy? Hasamei-ach b'chelko - the one who is content with his or her portion.

We taught our children about their dual responsibilities: to themselves and to others. As a teen singing Hillel's famous aphorism, I repeatedly faced the need to find the balance between universalism and particularism. We taught our kids what we sang: Im ein ani li mi li - if I am not for myself, who will be for me? And uchsheani l'atzmi mah ani - and if I am only for myself, what am I? V'im lo achshav eimatai- And if not now, when? They know they must take care of both.

Rebbe Nachman of Bratslav taught us, through a song we sang, about facing our fears with courage and passion. Kol haolam kulo gesher tzar meod- the whole world is a very narrow bridge. V'haikar lo lifached klal- and the most important thing is not to be too afraid. Fear can shut us down. Reb Nachman reminded us to walk forward nonetheless.

I learned about love and about devotion to a loved one from Song of Songs. Dodi li v'ani lo - I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine. As my wife and I celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary, we hope we have passed the lessons of committed relationship. Camp taught us the ideal of love.

B'tzelem Elohim (we all are created in the image of God) and tikkun olam (repairing the world) have become two favorite values embedded in our children's hearts through the contemporary Jewish music which harmonizes through these values. Our children know that we value each individual and we assume responsibility for repairing the world because they know these values. Where did they learn this most profoundly? In song sessions at camp, where the music in stills the lessons even more deeply than our most heartfelt conversations with them.

Reflecting on the Truths that Define our Lives
In an ethical will to our children, in a letter to our daughter as she went off to college, and in a letter to our sons about being a man, we detailed the emet (truth) we wanted to instill in their lives. Rereading these letters, now published in our book, Jewish Spiritual Parenting: Wisdom, Activities, Rituals and Prayers for Raising Children with Spiritual Balance and Emotional Wholeness (Jewish Lights), the influence of these song session Jewish lessons becomes so clear. The central values of my life came from foundational Jewish texts, many of which I learned at URJ Kutz Camp and which are being reinforced at Camp Newman.

Forward to the Past at Kutz Camp
As my youngest son remains at Camp Newman as a first year counselor, I am crossing the country to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the URJ Kutz Camp. I look forward to seeing old friends, honoring the directors Smitty and PJR who gave Kutz meaning, and recommitting myself to the engaging our Jewish youth in deep Jewish life and learning.

In the midst of it all, I will also find time to sit again in the dining hall, to flip through the songbooks, and to reflect once again upon the profound influence of these Jewish texts on my life, family and rabbinate. May the song sessions that gave meaning to my life continue to inspire and mold the Jewish future.

URJ Camp Newman's KAQ (Kids Asking Questions) are the Antidote to the Pew Study's JNR (Jewish No Religion)

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Kipnes) — Wed, 01 Jul 2015 06:27:00 +0000

Invite 6th and 7th graders to get real about God and spirituality, and the depth of their questions and their unceasing quest for understanding will astound you! In a world increasingly populated by people designated by the Pew study as JNR (Jewish No Religion), these KAQ (Kids Asking Questions) kept peppering us with profound questions about Judaism, belief, agnosticism and peoplehood.

I just returned from the URJ Camp Newman, a Jewish summer camp in Santa Rosa, CA where my wife Michelle and I were heading up a delegation of forty Reform Jews from Congregation Or Ami (Calabasas, CA). In between leading services, planning programs, and schmoozing with fascinating young people, I served as faculty member for Shomrim, the sixth and seventh grade eidah (unit).

The camp leadership challenged the rabbinic and education faculty to create prayer services which were musical, creative and deeply relevant. So we took up the challenge during the first tefillah. Reflecting upon the v’ahavta prayer, which instructs us v’shinantam livanecha (parents should teach Jewish tradition to their children), we challenged our campers to become their own guides of their own Jewish spiritual quest. We asked, “At the end of your four week session at camp, we questions about Judaism, God and spirituality would you like to have explored?”

Once the conversation got underway, the campers’ questions came pouring forth. It was like this was the first time they could ask these questions without feeling foolish or worse. They said,

If I'm not sure about God, should I still say the prayers?
If I don't believe God takes care of the good and punishes the bad people, am I still a good Jew?
The Romans had so many gods, but Judaism teaches there is only one God. Why are we right and they are wrong?
My grandmother died too young but she was a really good person. Where was God?
Can I be spiritual but not religious?

These 6th and 7th graders shared a unquenched thirst for real Jewish conversations. We promised each other to continue to ask even the hardest questions and urged the campers to push – unceasingly here at camp and then at home - for answers that make sense.

The next two weeks were full of spiritual searching to begin to address the questions:

A mindfulness meditation service to find eternality in the present moment – spirituality without fixed prayers.

An engaging conversation about why the Avot v'Imahot prayer - about the God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, God of Sarah, God of Rebecca, God of Rachel and God of Leah - mentions “God of” so many times. Because each of our ancestors had different relationships with God than the others did. And because while there is but one God, there are infinite ways of connecting with God.

A God-shopping program that introduced campers to 8+ unique Jewish God-concepts.

A scavenger hunt around camp to connect texts on Jewish spirituality with multiple religious and non-religious locations, thus experiencing the holiness inherent in … everywhere.

A yoga service during which we embodied the themes of the prayers.

A discussion before Shema about why Jews say there is one God when the Romans and others posit many gods.

My two weeks at camp ended too early. We were just scratching the surface of possible answers to their many questions. Campers’ evaluations at the end of this period evidenced that the campers were engaged and intrigued.

That’s the beauty of Camp Newman: that as our young people are clearly thirsting for real God-talk, camp opens up opportunities to wrestle with deeply profound questions about the existence and nature of the Holy One. That’s why they keep coming back for more. And their enthusiasm and thirst keeps me coming back too!

For ideas on how to engage your own kids as spiritual searchers, check out our new book, Jewish Spiritual Parenting: Wisdom, Activities, Rituals and Prayers for Raising Children with Spiritual Balance and Emotional Wholeness (Jewish Lights Publishing).

Coming Out in a Jewish Community: Warmly Embracing a Teenager

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Kipnes) — Fri, 19 Jun 2015 14:13:00 +0000

In his Confirmation Class picture,
Sean Cooper is third from the right

On the bimah during his Confirmation, twelfth grader Sean Cooper recounted his coming out experience:

When I came out as a homosexual, I posted a picture to Facebook with my father, with the caption “….”. While some may have previously inferred my sexual orientation, that post was my first official public coming out.

The next day, I came to my temple, Congregation Or Ami (Calabasas, CA), for a LoMPTY meeting (our NFTY youth group). I was greeted at the door by Cantor Doug Cotler, the man I have known my whole life, with a warm hug and friendly “I’m proud of you,” and by Rabbi Julia Weisz with a smile and great warmth. Rabbi Paul Kipnes was even more accepting than anyone. Rabbi Kipnes’ kind and heart-felt acceptance expressed not only his embracing personal views, but also the wide-open arms of the Jewish community.

I don’t need to compare Judaism to other, not-so-accepting religions, because their’s is not the standard for the people of our Jewish religion. We Jews hold ourselves to an expectation of ahavah rabba, unconditional love. It is this love that greets sexual minorities, racial minorities, and oppressed people whom others have turned away, with those same open arms that I felt at our synagogue doors.

I am fortunate enough to have an identity that does not conflict, but instead that bonds the pieces of two strong communities together. I am a homosexual, Jewish man, and I could not be more proud to be in this amazing Jewish community.

Being Open about Being Inclusive

At Congregation Or Ami, we are proud of Sean – a NFTY leader, URJ Camp Newman alum, and passionate advocate for Israel – for his courage and honesty. We hope he found confidence to come out, in part, because we have worked tirelessly to convey an unequivocal message:

That at Congregation Or Ami, we welcome with open arms all people of all genders and orientations.
The clergy teach and blog about inclusiveness. We proudly display through our website’s homepage, our openness to and embrace of LGBTQ individuals and couples. We have been vocal about our support for marriage equality. Our partnership forms for new congregants provide spaces for Adult 1, and where appropriate, Adult 2, instead of the Male and Female. We invite gay and lesbian couples and individuals to participate fully on the bimah on High Holy Days and at other services. In each of these ways, we convey our warm embrace.

Speaking Out with Clarity

We also actively speak out to counter the rejection of LGBTQ people that some individuals (and some religious groups) espouse, and we decry the violence that this engenders. Our message is clear and consistent. We say, “Torah teaches Kedoshim Tehiyu, that you are holy and valued (Leviticus 19). We accept you and want you to feel welcomed and valued and respected and loved.”

Back in 2010, when Tyler Clementi took his life in the face of being bullied for being gay, Or Ami’s clergy team – Rabbi Paul Kipnes, Cantor Doug Cotler and Rabbi Julia Weisz – sent a letter to every young person in our congregation (and their parents). Inspired by a missive from Rabbis Andy Bachman and Alan Cook, we wrote,

We want to speak to you, whoever you may be. Whether you are gay, straight, bi or transgender or just plain confused, Judaism teaches that each individual is created B’tzelem Elohim, in the image of God. It does not matter what other people think about you as you struggle to figure out what you think about yourself. What does matter is that you feel comfortable being who you are – at Congregation Or Ami, at school, in your community, and in your home – and you learn how to deal with those who do not accept you….

…We have been blessed with friends and relatives, rabbinic and cantorial colleagues and other coworkers, and beloved and involved congregants who are gay, lesbian, bi, transgender, or questioning. If we examine our relationships, we believe all of us would find the same to be true. Some come out easily; others struggle with their identity; still others remain “in the closet.” One day, perhaps we will be able to say, “Who cares what an individual’s sexual orientation is?” And until that day comes, so long as such prejudice and bigotry remain, we cannot remain silent. The Jewish tradition teaches that we are all responsible for one another….

Always remember that you have a rabbi and cantor and a community that care about you deeply and accept you for who you are. No matter what.

Coming Out: A Shehecheyanu Moment

We celebrate Sean’s coming out as a shehecheyanu moment, a sacred holy blessed experience. May Sean’s experience be another illustration that Judaism and the Jewish community are changing, are open, and are warmly welcoming.

Learn more about Congregation Or Ami’s commitment to inclusivity and openness, especially with LGBTQ individuals and families, through what we say and what we do.

Discover how Reform Judaism embraces LGBTQ individuals and families as a Jewish value, a matter of principle, and a blessed reality in our Jewish community.

A Blessing for Journeys, By Rabbi Sheryl Lewart (z"l)

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Kipnes) — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 16:46:00 +0000

A blessing by Rabbi Sheryl Lewart (z’’l):

Journeys

May you be blessed on your journey,
Finding comfort and refuge as you travel.

As you step into the strange
And become a stranger,
May each traveler, wanderer, and seeker you meet
Offer wisdom and empathy.

As you step into the unknown journey of your life,
May you be protected from all harm.

May you learn and grow from encounters
With gentle teachers and sympathetic guides.

May you hold onto the awareness that
You have the courage to walk away from difficult situations.
You will move towards compassion and clarity,
Awareness, and appreciation.

You will find answers and more questions.
May you find what you seek.

Amen

Rabbi Sheryl Lewart, Blessings for Life’s Journey: Transformative Meditations and Readings (30-31)
Shared by: Part of my Omer counting learning with The Jewish Mindfulness Network

College Student Jessa Cameron Reflects Upon AIPAC National Policy Conference

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Kipnes) — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 01:37:00 +0000

Jessa on left, with Congresswoman Wasserman Shultz

Jessa Cameron, a college student leader at University of Washington, recently attended the AIPAC National Policy Conference. Or Ami proudly included Jessa, and Santa Cruz student Daniel Kipnes, in Congregation Or Ami's delegation of 11. These college students participated with the 3000 college student delegation at this pro-Israel conference. Jessa wrote:

I attended my first AIPAC National Policy Conference in Washington DC. As one of 3,000 students, and 16,000 delegates overall, my first PC was truly a once a lifetime experience. I say first PC because I definitely plan on going back. This year at school, I have gotten involved in Washington Students for Israel at UW, a student organization dedicated to Israel advocacy both on campus and in the Seattle community.

Going to a conference to not only expand my knowledge about Israel but also advocate on the national level gave me renewed hope in the work I am doing on campus. In addition, as a political science major, the general and breakout sessions taught me so much about both US and Israeli politics. From sessions about the upcoming Israeli elections and public opinion on the two state solution to talks with Congressmen and keynote addresses from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, UN Ambassador Samantha Power, and National Security Advisor Susan Rice, I learned more about Israel, Iran, and the US than I could have imagined.

I now feel more confident talking about Israel on campus, more informed about the current situation, and ready to continue my advocacy with AIPAC!

Or Ami's delegation to the 2016 AIPAC National Policy Conference has already grown to 19 confirmed participants. To attend as part of Or Ami's delegation, contact Rabbi Paul Kipnes.

Teens Lisa Friedman, Dawson Litt and Chase Rocker Lobby Congress for People with Disabilities and on Stem Cell Research

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Kipnes) — Sun, 29 Mar 2015 03:40:00 +0000

Rabbi Julia Weisz brought three teens from Congregation Or Ami to Washington DC for the L'takein Weekend of Learning and Lobbying, at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. After days of learning about the intersection between public policy issues and our Jewish values, our teens went to Capitol Hill to lobby their Congressional leaders. They prepared and delivered these lobbying presentations on Disability Rights and on Stem Cell Research. Article in the Acorn Newspaper.

Disability Rights, by Lisa Friedman and Chase Rocker

Hello my name is Chase Rocker, and I am from Calabasas, CA. Thank you very much for taking the time to meet with us today. We are in Washington with hundreds of other teens from the Reform Jewish Movement to participate in the L’Taken seminar an intensive four day program focused on Jewish values and social justice sponsored by the Religious Action Center which is the legislative office of the Union for Reform Judaism whose 900 congregations across North America encompass 1.5 million Reform Jews and the Central Conference of American Rabbis whose membership includes over 2000 Reform Rabbis. We would like to discuss the issue of Disability Rights.

Hello once again, my name is Lisa Friedman. From just looking at me, you may not realize that I am disabled. In 5th grade my back started to hurt, so I went to a couple of doctors who told me to do physical therapy. I started doing physical therapy but my pain did not go away. After about half a year of physical therapy, I decided to stop. In 7th grade my back started hurting even more than before. My orthopedist found scoliosis and I started physical therapy to get rid of this condition. After about 6 months of physical therapy, we saw improvement. My physical therapists made my program more intense after seeing this improvement. Everything went downhill from this point on. All of a sudden, my knees started to hurt. I suddenly had issues running and even walking. I soon could not play sports and do things my friends could do. The focus shifted from my back to my knees at that point.

After about 15 doctors appointments, multiple MRS’s, blood tests, x-rays, land and water therapy, and more, no doctor could find any sign of anything wrong with me. I then was recommended to go see a doctor who specializes in biomechanics and had a large grant from USC for lots of High Tech equipment. At the lab, they put many sensors all on my body and videotaped me walking, running, and doing many other exercises. The doctor and his team also tested my hip and leg strength. After the testing was done, the doctor concluded that I have significant strength deficits in my hip extensors and hip abductors. On a basic level of concept, I have 35% hip strength. From looking at the walking analysis done at the lab, we concluded that my physical therapists retaught me how to walk the wrong way, so now I had no strength where strength is really needed.

My life changed that day. I was put into a very intense physical therapy program that was focused on strengthening my hips. In the middle of that process, my back got worse and worse. After many tests and no issues found, a very bright rheumatologist at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles diagnosed me with Fibromyalgia. To this day, I am in pain every second of every day, and I am still doing physical therapy six days a week. This makes it very difficult to function as a normal human being without a disability and also as a normal teenager would. It is sometimes very difficult to do different things than everyone else is doing and have limitations and not have much flexibility.

Hello once again, my name is Chase. If The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, or CRPD is ratified by the Senate it would put America in a leadership position globally to help support people with disabilities. An estimated one billion people in this world and 56 million in America live with some form of a disability, like Lisa does. In developing countries, 90% of children who have disabilities do not attend school. In the US, the unemployment rate of people with disabilities is nearly twice the national average. The CRPD represents an international effort to bring the world closer to achieving the goals of equality, full participation and independent living and self sufficiency for people with disabilities. The CRPD will also provide benefits here in the US as well. It would make traveling and working abroad much easier for persons with disabilities in America, especially those who do so frequently such as, Veterans with disabilities and military family members with disabilities.

Lisa: My Jewish faith teaches the importance of respecting those living with disabilities. One of the main texts that Jews study is: “You shall not insult the deaf, or place a stumbling block before the blind,” from Leviticus chapter 19 verse 14. Stumbling blocks come in many forms, from less-than-accessible buildings, services on the Sabbath, prayer books and web pages to health care that is harder to access or isn’t sufficient for people with disabilities. Helen Keller once said, “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” The Union for Reform Judaism does as much as possible to help Jews gain this vision. As Jews, we are obligated to remove all of these stumbling blocks. This is why Reform Judaism cares so deeply for the rights of people with disabilities.

Chase: One hundred and fifty one countries have already ratified the CRPD. Regarding this information many people outside the US believe that this topic is important to be ratified.

We would like to thank you for your support and encourage you to vote for the ratification of CRPD.

Stem Cell Research by Dawson Litt

Hello, my name is Dawson Litt, and this is Chase Rocker and Lisa Friedman. We are part of Congregation Or Ami from Calabasas, California. Thank you very much for making time in your schedule for us today. This weekend, Chase, Lisa and I have been staying in Washington with hundreds of other teens from the Reform Jewish Movement to participate in the L’Takein seminar, in an intensive four-day program, focused on Jewish values and social justice. This program is sponsored by the Religious Action Center, which is the legislative office of the Union for Reform Judaism. The Religious Action Center consists of 900 congregations across North America, which ultimately encompasses 1.5 million Reform Jews, and the Central Conference of American Rabbis. We would like to discuss several different issues with you today. Chase and Lisa will be sharing information with you on why disability rights in this world are important. My topic is about why Stem Cell Research should be further funded.

I know that you have been a supporter of Stem Cell Research in the past, and I would like to thank you. In my opinion, Stem Cell Research could affect my life, and other American families. Several of my cousins have been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. The process my cousins go through at every family meal devastates me. I have to sit there acting as if they have a small cold that will eventually go away. But its not like that; after reading the effects stem cells could potentially have on diabetes, I was astounded. I knew this topic could change many families in America.

As a Jew, I believe human beings are charged with doing everything possible to save another person’s life. Our tradition requires this and that we utilize all of our knowledge and abilities in order to heal the sick. (Shulchan Arukh Yore De’ah 336:1).

Stem Cells are a revolutionary piece of science that can potentially develop into any kind of cell, tissue or organ in the body. As of now, Scientists are experimenting with ways to prompt the stem cells into becoming whatever type of cell is needed to fix or replace damaged cells. Many patients who need treatments for different ailments such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, spinal cord injuries, and certain types of cancer along with other serious conditions could potentially be cured with Stem Cells. The power Stem Cells will have in today’s medical services would revolutionize treatments and cures, causing millions of people with drastic diseases to again be considered as a normal human being.

Federal funding of embryonic stem cell research is vital to advancing this research and ensuring it is used for the public good. President Obama has allowed embryonic stem cell research to proceed by Executive Order, which does not allow for permanent research and funding of Stem Cells. Yet a law passed by Congress can ensure the research can continue over the long term, and as presidents change. With research and money funded for an extensive amount of time on stem cell research, we can potentially revolutionize humankind.

As this act could potentially further evolve science and strengthen human immunity to disease I urge you to co-sponsor H.R. 2433—the Stem Cell Research Advancement Act of 2013. Thank you for your time.

Meditation for Spiritual Renewal

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Kipnes) — Tue, 17 Feb 2015 15:15:00 +0000

From the amazing psalmist Alden Solovy.

This simple meditation is a reminder that making space for spiritual renewal is vital to a life of love and service.

Renewal

Make for yourself
A quiet place,
Beyond the noise and chaos,
A place of refuge and retreat
To renew your mind.

Make for yourself
A prayer place,
Beyond the fear and doubt,
A place of comfort and calm
To renew your heart.

Make for yourself
A healing space,
Beyond the shadows and grief,
A place of hope and love
To renew your soul.

G-d,
Teach me to use my moments and days
As acts of renewal,
Drawing your divine energy
Into my life
So that I may serve You
And Your creation
With the fullness of my being.

© 2015 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

The Boy Scouts Worship at Or Ami - Why We Welcomed them and How We Respond to Their National Policy

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Kipnes) — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 18:46:00 +0000

Recently the clergy at Congregation Or Ami responded to a request from a congregant who is a Boy Scout Assistant Scoutmaster, and extended the requested invitation that local scouts be welcomed at a Shabbat service in honor of national Scout Sabbath on February 13.

After consulting with our officers, and various members of the congregation including LGBT congregants, we sent this email to the whole congregation:

Dear Congregant

Recently the clergy at Congregation Or Ami responded to a request from a congregant who is a Boy Scout Assistant Scoutmaster, and extended the requested invitation that local scouts be welcomed at a Shabbat service in honor of national Scout Sabbath on February 13.

We did so because of the good that these students are doing, even in light of a problematic national Boy Scouts of America (BSA) policy. We applaud that the BSA took a first step by lifting its ban on gay youth. However, we are aware and concerned that the Boy Scouts of America has maintained a policy that excludes LGBT scout leaders from its ranks.

As your rabbis and cantor, we want to add our voices to the call for the Boy Scouts of America to end the ban on gay scout leaders. We strongly believe that every individual - youth and adult - is created b'tzelem Elohim (in the image of God) and we oppose the BSA's discriminatory policy that excludes LGBT scout leaders.

The BSA ban causes real harm to gay youths, adults and their families around the country. LGBT youth, and often the children of LGBT parents as well, face alarming amounts of bullying, harassment, discrimination, and - most distressingly - LGBT youth experience significantly higher rates of suicide. These children and their families must not be denied the opportunities to achieve and the structures of support that the Boy Scouts already provide to so many, and the policy of excluding LGBT individuals from being scout leaders directly creates an atmosphere of discrimination and non-acceptance.

The book of Proverbs tells us, Train up a child in the way the child should go, and even when the child is old, they will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6). For many children across America the Boy Scouts has proven an excellent way of sharing such life lessons and building character. Like the Boy Scouts, our Jewish tradition emphasizes the values of personal responsibility, service to the community and a broader commitment to justice. These values apply equally to heterosexual and LGBT individuals. Indeed, how can we teach service to a community when that community excludes our friends, family members and neighbors?

So even as we will welcome these Jewish scouts to our synagogue this year, because they strive to do the kind of repairing the world (Tikkun Olam) work that we value in our Jewish tradition we:

Plan to articulate in a welcoming but clear way on Shabbat our rejection of the national policy (BTW, the local adult scout leaders, who do not support that policy, already know what we will say);
Wrote to the Boy Scouts of America national leadership, to urge them, in no uncertain terms, to fully lift the BSA's policy of discrimination against LGBT adults; and
Reaffirm unequivocally that Congregation Or Ami, and we as clergy, welcome with open arms all Jews and all people - regardless of their gender or sexual orientation.

May this continued education help guide the Boy Scouts of America to become the morally straight organization it strives to be.

L'shalom,

Rabbi Paul Kipnes
Cantor Doug Cotler
Rabbi Julia Weisz

Keeping Israeli Families Together... An IRAC Petition

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Kipnes) — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 00:20:00 +0000

Today, I signed a petition to the Gilad Erdan, Israel's Interior Minister. On the request of our Israel Religious Action Center, I wanted to help send to him a strong message that we should support Israeli families by keeping them together, not by tearing them apart.

Dear Minister Erdan,

We are supporters of the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC). We petition you, as Israel's Interior Minister, to grant residency status to Valentina Gofer, so that she and her two Israeli children, David (14) and Michal (8), can continue living together in Israel.

David and Michal's father Gershon died unexpectedly from a brain tumor in 2007 while waiting for his wife's naturalization process to be finalized. His dying wish was for his wife to raise their children in Israel together. The Interior Ministry has since denied even temporary residency status to Valentina, and has directed her to leave the country. The practical effect of this decision is that, in order to stay with their mother, David and Michal will be forced to leave their homeland and their extended family.

As you know, the Supreme Court ruled in 2009 that the Interior Ministry must write and implement rules allowing widows with children to seek residency in Israel.

Children should not be punished by the mere accident of their father’s tragic and untimely death. David and Michal are Israeli citizens. Valentina would have been naturalized as a citizen if her husband had not died. David and Michal deserve to live in this country together with their mother, their grandmother, their half-siblings, and the other family members who love and support them.

It is in Israel's interest to keep its citizens' families together, not to tear them apart. Please take immediate action to grant residency status to Valentina so that Gershon's dying wish can be granted.

Respectfully,

Rabbi Paul Kipnes

Read the full tragic story yourself. Then, if you are so moved, sign the petition in your own name.

Israel is a gloriously wonderful country. Let's help her stay focused on social justice.

Revealing What Others Want to Hide Away: Special Needs and Judaism

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Kipnes) — Mon, 06 Oct 2014 00:44:00 +0000

What do we do with the verses in Torah that seem to explicitly exclude people with physical disabilities? Need they be read literally, as an illustration of how we might intentionally marginalize such members of our communities?

Teaching parashat hashavuah (weekly Torah portion) to a group of young people, I stumbled upon Leviticus verses which offended the sensibilities of that generation of youth raised to envision full inclusion of people with disabilities.

We read the curious prohibition in Torah forbade kohanim (Israelite priests) with a moom (blemish) from serving in the priesthood and precluded them from approaching the altar to offer the fire-offerings. Leviticus 21:16-23 enumerated the specific disqualifying blemishes: blindness, injured thigh, sunken nose, hands or feet of unequal length, broken arm or leg, bone deformities, hunchback, cataracts, certain skin diseases and crushed testicle.

The subsequent verses and a related Mishnah sharpened the exclusion: Such kohanim were permitted to carry out only Temple functions not involving actual service at the altar, since “they were not standing before the Eternal.” The Torah forbade a kohen (priest) who had been blemished to approach the veil (Lev. 21:23), and as a result he was forbidden during the Second Temple period not only to enter the Temple but even to step between the altar and the sanctuary (Mishnah Kelim 1:9).

My students were horrified. Weren’t we all considered "a kingdom of priests to Me, a holy nation" (Exodus 19:6). How could the Torah, which teaches that we are all created b’tzelem Elohim (in God’s image), summarily disqualify certain people who merely had some physical differences?

We explored some of the responses offered by some “traditionalists”: That back in Torah times, physical deformities were considered punishments from God, which sometimes reflected moral sins. That just as the Honor Guard for a king must consist of the most good looking and strong soldiers, so too the kohanim who worked in the Holy Temple had a special immaculate uniform, and physically, would need certain uniformity in appearance. That priestly behavior personified dedication, proficiency, and efficiency and similarly their perfection in physical appearance stood as a quick and constant reminder that in our service to the Holy One, we must aim for perfection as well.

These explanations did not pacify our study group. Soon, the indignant young people exploded with righteous indignation at the Torah teaching. No one could make sense of the words.

I noticed one young person patiently raising his hand. He said this,

Nothing really can make this make sense. It just doesn’t feel right. But I wonder if there is an important lesson in here.

How many societies hide away people with disabilities, secreting them within the walls of their homes or putting them away into institutions? The Torah could have hidden these people behind the curtains in the center of the mishkan (Tabernacle), where the Israelite community could have easily pretended they did not exist.

Rather, Jewish tradition insisted that these leaders remain directly in the line of sight of the entire Israelite community, so that everyone would need to recognize and embrace the reality: that people with physical differences are people just like everyone else. Thus, the kohen was permitted to go everywhere else, into the other parts of the Temple area, and to "eat of the food of his God, of the most holy as well as of the holy" (Lev. 21:22).

I learned a lot that day from this young person.

That when they sat down with the rest of the kohanim to eat, the message of inclusion would be directly in the eyesight of all the people.

That God accepts everyone, including and especially people with physical (or emotional) differences, as part of am kadosh, the holy people.

And that it takes an open mind and a loving heart to see through the righteous indignation to find inclusion at the heart of our community.

Cross Posted on Zehlezeh

The Truth about Israel, Gaza, and Escalating Anti-Semitism: 7 Things To Do Right Now

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Kipnes) — Mon, 29 Sep 2014 16:35:00 +0000

View this Sermon as delivered

Yonina, My Israeli Soldier Niece

I have a niece, Yonina, who made aliyah and lives in Israel. Yonina serves as an officer in the Israel Defense Forces reserves. During this summer’s Gaza war, Yonina sat in a bunker on the Gaza border, receiving real time intelligence from multiple sources, directing and guiding troops as they made their way into and through Gaza. Just 26, Yonina is responsible for the safety, and thus, the life and potential death of many soldiers. This summer, I watched the war in Gaza through her eyes.

One night this summer, my phone buzzed at 2 am. I bolted awake. In instant messages, my niece confided in me her deepest fears. Yonina, who has always been a tower of courage and strength, wrote that she was worried about whether her desire to be with her family, to find passionate love, and to protect herself, might compromise her ability to protect her soldiers, the very people tasked with protecting the state of Israel. She asked me, her uncle, to tell her that everything was going to be all right.

I thought, “Who am I, lying safely here in California, to tell an Israeli kid going off to war that anything would be okay?” But she needed comfort and strength, so I texted the truth, “Yonina, you are one of the strongest people I know. In your short life, you have faced many challenges. And you have overcome them all. And you will with this one too.” “How can you not be afraid? It is good that you love life. It will help keep you focused. It will ensure that you give 110%. As you realize that war is anything but glorious, you become more human. You will feel more deeply than ever the need to take care of your troops, giving them the wisdom and courage so they can be careful and ethical when they go out into the field.”

Of course, this conversation happened before I knew about those 40 tunnels, dug under Israeli homes and kindergartens, built by Hamas with concrete originally donated by the world community for the purpose of building housing and hospitals. Those terrible tunnels hid arsenals of anesthesia-filled syringes, handcuffs, and motorcycles for the purpose of kidnapping and killing innocent Israeli civilians. Scary.

When Yonina texted me a week or so later, she seemed despondent. During the shift immediately before hers, terrorists popped up from a hidden tunnel and killed five Israeli soldiers. She wondered with heaviness about whether she might have been able to protect those soldiers, if only she had been on duty then. What a burden to carry. It broke my heart. And then it infuriated me, that so many Israeli youth must grapple with existential questions. She asked me, “What should I write in my pre-battle letter to my family, you know, the one they will get if I don't come back from this conflict?” My niece should instead be concerned with the direction of her career or how her date went on Saturday night.

Hamas Made the World A Lot Scarier

Yes, this summer, the world became a much scarier place for Yonina, for me, and for so many of you. Before services began, I invited you all to text me your feelings about the conflict between Israel and Gaza. As you all texted: [Here, I read texts sent by worshippers.] The Gaza war illuminated that darkness, and the evil that resides in the hearts of some dangerous people.

If you were on Facebook, Twitter or cable TV, you learned about the unimaginable, as Gaza’s ruling party Hamas shot rockets at Israel from school yards and hospitals grounds, from hotel parking lots, and residential neighborhoods. They deliberately placed their children in harm’s way. By digging tunnels, and rejecting 8 Israeli ceasefire offers, their actions led to battles that did not need to happen and to the deaths of 72 Israelis and 2,100 Gazans, deaths that should not have occurred… except that Israel was between a rock and a hard place.

Israeli leftist Amos Oz framed it this way to a German newspaper, “What would you do if your neighbor across the street sits down on the balcony, puts his little boy on his lap, and starts shooting machine-gun fire into your nursery? What would you do if your neighbor across the street, digs a tunnel from his nursery to your nursery in order to blow up your home or to kidnap your family?” (Philip Gourevitch, An Honest Voice in Israel, The New Yorker). That is why it is so astounding and infuriating that so many condemned Israel. Like every other nation, Israel fought to protect itself from incoming rocket fire and the constant threat of violence from the Gazan tunnels.

Yes, 2,100 Gazans died in the war this summer. 2,100 too many. Honest analysts have concluded that 1000 were likely combatants, fighters. As Jews, we mourn the deaths of each of the 72 Israelis who died defending the Jewish State. Simultaneously, we mourn the deaths of each innocent Gazan. The loss of Gazan life is tragic, especially because it resulted from the Hamas leadership provoking Israel to have to defend itself. Make no mistake, Hamas intentionally sacrificed Gazan civilians, as they have for years. I am angry at much of the media for falling into Hamas’ trap and blaming Israel for civilian deaths it tried to avoid (quoting Yossi Klein Halevi).

It gets worse. Israel safeguarded Israelis, with America’s steadfast help, by building the Iron Dome missile defense system. The IDF reported that more than 4,500 rockets and mortars were fired into Israel. Let’s do the math. Every rocket shot at Israel had a purpose, to kill, say, about 1 to 5 Israelis. The intent of those rockets, therefore, was to kill up to 25,000 civilians. THAT is the war crime that the world and that the United Nations should be condemning (paraphrasing David Suissa).

So when we reflect back on this war, think not only about the power politics of Hamas, Iran, Qatar, Egypt, and the United States. Think about Yonina, and the other people whose lives were turned upside down because they were called to defend the Jewish state. And think about a 24-year-old Max Steinberg, who grew up in Woodland Hills, whose life was sacrificed on the altar of Hamas’ contemptuous calculations that God still wants martyrs.

Let us also think about what the mothers in Jerusalem and the mothers in Gaza know only too well. That their children are too precious to go to an early grave; that if there were a way, they would embrace the path toward peace. Most Jews instinctively know that to be a Jew means to balance paradoxes – security and morality, realism and vision, self-defense and self-critique (quoting Yossi Klein Halevi).

Raw, Unadulterated Anti-Semitism

Sadly, Hamas is cynical and hate-filled, and its violence is fueling yet another wave of hatred that keeps spreading. This summer’s conflict in Gaza somehow gave permission to people worldwide to release their hatred, not just of Israel, but of all Jews.

American Jewish Committee's Lawrence Grossman recently wrote in The Hill, “since hostilities broke out between Israel and Gaza-based Hamas in early July, raw, unadulterated anti-Semitism at a level not seen since the Holocaust years has become commonplace on the streets of Europe and elsewhere. In England, about 100 anti-Semitic incidents were reported in July, double the expected number. In France, several pro-Hamas rallies that began peacefully degenerated into anti-Semitic mob scenes; in the course of one week, eight synagogues were attacked and cries of “Death to the Jews” and “Slit Jews’ throats” were heard. Roger Cukierman, president of French Jewry’s umbrella organization, emphasized, “They are not screaming, ‘Death to the Israelis’ on the streets of Paris. They are screaming, ‘Death to the Jews.’”  A Jewish woman in Berlin told The New York Times that her friends were removing mezuzot from their doorposts for fear of being targeted by anti-Semites. The president of the Central Council of German Jews said, “You hear things like ‘the Jews should be gassed,’ ‘the Jews should be burned’— we haven’t had that in Germany for decades.”

Smaller Jewish communities are not immune. In Sweden, a Jewish woman wearing a Star of David necklace was beaten, but refused to report the incident to the police for fear of retaliation. And in Copenhagen, a Jewish school founded in 1805 had its windows shattered, and was spray-painted with anti-Semitic slogans (Lawrence Grossman, The Hill, Can opposition to Israel avoid anti-semitism? August 26, 2014).

There were hopeful moments, like July’s powerful statement by the foreign ministers of France, Germany and Italy. These three nations that once murdered Jews were now saying, loudly and officially, that "anti-Semitic agitation and hostility against Jews, attacks against people of Jewish faith and against synagogues, have no place in our societies.” They rightly recognized that anti-Semitism threatens not only Jews but the very fabric of European societies (AJC Welcomes Joint French, German, Italian Statement On Anti-Semitism, July 22, 2014).

It is time for us to recognize that this anti-Semitism is not about Israeli government policy or the failure to find a solution with the Palestinians. One can have disagreements with the Israeli government and its policies – I personally think most of the settlements need to be dismantled sooner rather than later – but even these policies do not account for the growing virulent anti-Semitism. When both Europe’s far left and the radical right are joined in common cause - the hatred of Jews - we need to be worried and vigilant.

7 Things to Do Right Now

So what do we do from here in America, in California, in Calabasas and Thousand Oaks: What can you and I do? I offer seven steps:

1. We must watch the words we use, calling out publicly dangerous hate language. To help us, I need to explain the origins of an ugly word, a word so horrid that no one should repeat it. Yet it has been repeated, most recently by a student in Calabasas who spewed it at another student, and, though others heard it, alarmingly, no one protested. This word becomes especially dangerous when young people give permission for its use.

The word is Kike. Kike was born on Ellis Island when some non-English speaking Jewish immigrants refused to sign their immigration entry-forms with the customary "X." They associated an X with the cross of Christianity. So instead, they drew a circle, which in Yiddish is kikel (pronounced ky-kul). Soon, immigration inspectors called those who signed with an "O," a kikel (which morphed into kike. Sadly, the very signature that came to mean freedom for so many Jews was turned by anti-Semites into a hateful slur. Simply put, this word is vulgar and we must teach our kids to protest its use.

2. To fight hate speech, we must learn this number: 4/20. To some 4/20 is a code-term that refers to using marijuana. But 4/20, April 20th, is also Adolf Hitler’s birthday. Around that date, anti-Semites and their naïve followers post heinous phrases like “finish the job” or “back to the gas chambers,” referring to the need to finish exterminating the Jews. Recently in nearby Oak Park, some students, both non-Jews AND Jews, repeated these phrases in small groups, then tweeted and retweeted them. We need to let our youth know that such language and ideas have no place in conversation. Explain to yours that hate words – against Jews or anyone else – have destructive power, even in jest. We must also banish the hateful words we use: shvartza, a Yiddish slur against blacks, faigele, a slur against gays, and even shikse, a put down against a non-Jewish woman. Let’s train ourselves never to participate in such speech, nor condone it with our silence.

3. Join the fight against anti-Semitism. Hate is best combated when we shine light into its darkness. As individuals, we lack strength to ensure that governments – local and national, our own and those overseas respond forcefully against anti-Semitism. But when we work together, we make a huge difference. Three Jewish organizations particularly do phenomenal work here – American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, the Joint Distribution Committee – respectively, the AJC, ADL and JDC. They collect data about anti-Semitism, publicize dangerous trends, urge and guide political leaders to speak out, and act in defense of Jews. Join one of these organizations this week, and support its work.

4. Work to perpetuate a strong America-Israel relationship. The Iron Dome missile defense system was developed with an influx of US Foreign Aid. While one might disagree with this policy or that – of the Israeli government or our own – true friendships like the one between America and Israel transcend temporary challenges. I support Israel through AIPAC, the America Israel Public Affairs Committee. AIPAC works in each congressional district, all across the country, to ensure that we have a pro-Israel Congress. I invite you to join me this March in Washington DC for AIPAC’s National Policy Conference. Of course, there are many other pro-Israel, pro-peace organizations that do significant, meaningful work as well. Whichever you support, use its resources to continue to educate yourself and others about Israel. And let’s make sure to elect another pro-Israel Congress.

5. This winter, the Jewish community will vote in the World Zionist Congress elections. The World Zionist Congress distributes billions of dollars to aid Jewish education and to influence the Jewish character of Israel. We progressive Jews want to show Israelis that Judaism can be open, pluralistic, egalitarian. We want to ensure that Israel has healthy Jewish spirituality that our kind of Reform Judaism has to offer. This is important. The very character of Israeli society is at stake. Every adult Jew is eligible to vote, but you must register first. Please pledge to register and vote later this year. The vote happens later; but you need to begin the process now.

6. Jewish community creates Jewish pride. If we want the next generation to love Israel, to understand why Judaism is beautiful, and to understand why anti-Semites are wrong, we need to invest our time, energy, and money in Jewish communities. Every significant study has shown that synagogues are the most successful gateway into Jewish knowledge, connection and pride.

If you are part of the partnership we call Congregation Or Ami, then thank you for investing in the Jewish present and future. If you are not part Or Ami’s partnership, please consider what it means to our Jewish people to have a community like this, that is ensuring the Jewish future by educating the young, engaging the teens, connecting the adults, advocating for Israel, and vocally fighting the hatred in our world. When you are done thinking, please join a synagogue. Join Or Ami.

7. Visit Israel, and take your family and friends there. We best understand the Jewish state, the dangers it faces, and the amazing place it is, when we set foot on the holy ground. Cantor Doug and I are leading two trips in the next 18 months. A trip for adults in April 2015, and a multigenerational trip in July 2016. Tour information on our website. Sign up soon.

We WILL Stand Up for Israel!

Listen, this discussion has been intense, serious, and perhaps frightening to some. But at its root, it is hopeful. We can transform the reality, because we Jews are notorious for optimistic action. Our Jewish national anthem is Hatikvah, which means, “the hope.” On Chanukah, the longest, darkest day of the year, we light candles, and put them in our windows, to shine light into the world.

So even as we remember the young people, like Yonina, her soldiers, and the awesome responsibility on their shoulders, and when we think about the young boys and girls growing up in Israel, in Europe, and here in the Valleys, let’s make sure they know that we are taking this seriously and determined to act.

We won’t stand by idly while our Israeli brothers and sisters bleed. We will support Israel’s right to defend herself. Yes, we will stand up for Israel. And we will stand up against anti-Semitism.

And then we will pray, with all our hearts. We pray as did a young Doug Cotler, now our cantor, who happened to be in Israel during the Six Day War in June 1967. He recalls with passion the moment when Israel announced it had recaptured the Old City of Jerusalem, which for years was under Jordanian rule and inaccessible to Jews. Cantor Doug joined with a quarter of a million other Jews, climbing that hill up to Jerusalem to visit the Kotel, the Wailing Wall. So many people freely visiting the Kotel for the first time in almost 2000 years.

When they arrived, people wrote their prayers on tiny scraps of paper, and put them into cracks of the wall. So many prayers were written that day, that they fell from the cracks, covering the ground like a few inches of snow. Cantor Doug also wrote his prayer that day 40 years ago, about that climb up Jerusalem’s hill to the Kotel, about the hope, never-ending, for our people and our future. This was his prayer. Shir Hamaalot. A song of ascent.

This sermon was first delivered on Rosh Hashana Day 5775|2014

Abraham Failed God's Test, but God Loved him Anyway!

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Kipnes) — Thu, 18 Sep 2014 14:43:00 +0000

Each Rosh Hashanah, we read the horrid tale of the Akedah (Genesis 22), the almost sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham. Commentators throughout the ages characterize this story as an example of the heights of faith. Abraham loved God so much he was willing to give up the child he waited so long to bear.

But in as much as this might have been a test of Abraham, I read the story as a clear indication that Abraham failed the test.

Consider this: Did God really command Abraham to sacrifice his son as a burnt offering? Read closely. According to one commentary, Midrash Tanhuma, it all hinges on one word – olah. In the Torah, God said to Abraham v’haaleihu sham l’olah, bring up Isaac as an olah. The Hebrew word olah, comes from the root Ayin-Lamed-Hey, meaning, “to rise up.”

Must olah here mean, “sacrifice,” as in the smoke of the sacrifice rises up? Or might it be connected rather to a more familiar word aliyah, also from the Hebrew root Ayin-Lamed-Hey, meaning “spiritual uplift?” In this reading, God only said, “raise up your son with an appreciation of your devotion to Me.” Perhaps Abraham was so dazzled to be speaking to God that he became confused. What if he misunderstood God’s intended purpose?

Rashi, the greatest Biblical commentator of all time, also hangs his interpretation on the same word. He explains (on Genesis 22:2), perhaps God was saying, “When I said to you ‘Take your son’… I did not say to you, sh’chateihu, ‘slaughter him,’ but only ha’aleihu, ‘bring him up.’ Now that you have brought him up, introduce him to Me, and then take him back down.” Instead of wanting Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, God really only wanted him to spend some spiritual “quality time” with his son. Had Abraham only paid close attention, he might have spared himself, Isaac, and Sarah a significant amount of stress and pain.

But in a strange twist, the angel of God who stopped Abraham from killing his son responds with love, not rebuke. God praised Abraham. Why would God praise him if Abraham misunderstood the command? Perhaps God, through the angel, reaffirms to Abraham how much God loves him, but also signals that Abraham and his followers should no longer employ cruel or intimidating means to show their love for God.

This need not, however, be understood as condoning Abraham’s actions. Rather, the angel’s words remind me of that parent who walked into his freshly painted house. Dad is greeted at the door by his young son who, with a big smile on his face, says, “Daddy, come see how much I love you.” The boy brings his father into the next room and proceeds to proudly show him a picture drawn in magic marker on the living room wall. It was a red heart, inside of which were the words, “Daddy, I love you.” How does a parent respond to such a display of love, especially after spending thousands of dollars to paint the house just right? Most of us would yell, and yell loudly. But if we stopped first to think about it, we might say, with tears in our eyes, “I love you too, my son. Try to use paper next time. And you may not write on the walls. But, I love you too!” Similarly, through the words of the angel, God, the patient One, who cherishes Abraham, teaches love and forgiveness as an example for future generations.

Now consider this… Prior to the Akedah, each encounter between God and Abraham occurs in direct one-on-one conversations. But from this point on, God never again speaks to Abraham directly. All further communication is passed through an angel. Why? Because Abraham simultaneously passed and failed the test. He showed his love of God, yes, but he employed violent means to pursue that love. The use of an intermediary – the angel – proclaims a message for future generations: Abraham really didn't listen to God’s teachings of compassion, did he?

Originally posted in 2007

Being a Big Kid at Summer Camp (URJ Camp Newman)

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Kipnes) — Mon, 30 Jun 2014 04:59:00 +0000

I sit here up at Faculty Row of the URJ Camp Newman (Santa Rosa, CA) as Shabbat evening comes to an end. We just finished enjoying an inspirational all camp service, delicious dinner by Tammy, awesome brownies for dessert, a raucous song session under the stars and an energetic (read "exhausting" hour of Israeli dance.

Now Jewish composer and singer Dan Nichols and Fresno's Rabbi Rick Winer are leading the gathered group of faculty in singing old favorite Jewish songs from summers gone by.

Still dressed in our Shabbat whites, we faculty are seemingly reliving our younger days as campers and camp staff. Really though, our faculty Shabbat gathering - a unique combination of singing, laughing, noshing (eating a lot of small bites to duck the big calories), and joking - evokes a unique kind of camp l'dor vador (from generation to generation).

We all grew up in one of the camps of the Union for Reform Judaism, where our hearts and outlooks were shaped in deeply meaningful ways for all time. Now we each dedicate precious downtime in our professional lives volunteering at camp to ensure that the subsequent generations of Jewoah youth enjoy an updated version of vibrant living Judaism to sustain them in the years ahead.

We were kids back then, singing, struggling, loving camp and embracing our Judaism. Now most of us have kids here at Camp Newman, (our own and those of our congregational family) who are similarly singing, struggling, loving camp and embracing their Judaism.

How fortunate are we that we get to see the relevance of this 24/7 Judaism and it's purposeful youth engagement, even as our children move from camper to counselor and beyond.

Of course we come to camp for more than just nourishing our own souls and those of our children. We come because at camp we quickly rediscover the unvarnished bountiful beauty that is our Jewish tradition. We practice our creativity here at Camp Newman with (and on) 1400 youth and college students, and then return home to our congregations and organizations prepared to reenergize them the same way.

Too soon havdala will arrive, and with it the end of Shabbat. May the light of the havdala candle remind us always of how interconnected are our Jewish homes; our house, congregation, Israel and camp form one seamless whole that brings warmth and holiness to life. And our lives.

May it be so always. Shabbat shalom.

Experiencing Israel with Amazing People - Sydney Epstein's Birthright Experience

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Kipnes) — Sun, 22 Jun 2014 15:28:00 +0000

Or Ami college student Sydney Epstein writes:

On May 22, I jetted off for what turned out to be the most incredible experience. Birthright allows you to reconnect with your Jewish heritage in the Holy Land itself. After a long 12-hour plane ride along with 40 other peers, I finally landed in Israel. Immediately following, we began ascending the fortress of Masada and floating in the Dead Sea! Not a bad start!

Throughout the trip, we explored every inch of the country. We traveled all through the desert and northern Israel. For me, the trip was not only about the sights we saw and the places we visited. It was about making new Jewish friends and connecting with my peers on a new level. They truly made this trip an unforgettable experience. When people would ask me, "What has been your favorite part of Birthright," I would give the same answer: the people I got to experience Israel with.

Throughout the trip, I realized that 10 days was way too short! In the end, I extended my stay in Tel Aviv. I could not bear the thought of leaving Israel so soon! Although this was my second time in Israel, Birthright gave me a whole new perspective about the country. These past 10 days really opened my eyes up to the beauty and history Israel has to offer. I highly encourage anyone to take advantage of this incredible opportunity!!

Thank you Rabbi Paul Kipnes for helping me get on the trip of my choice!

Did your Or Ami child go on a birthright trip? We'd love to feature his/her experience here. Send me an email and we will reach out to him/her.

Rabbi, Can We Talk about God? Pelted with Questions from Teen Campers

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Kipnes) — Thu, 19 Jun 2014 20:07:00 +0000

Ever have one of those moments when your child reaches out to you and all you really want to do is collapse from exhaustion? It happens at home and it happens at camp. So what do you do?

I am up here at URJ Camp Newman, the Reform movement camp in Santa Rosa, CA, leading our delegation of 42 people from Congregation Or Ami (Calabasas, CA) for Jewish summer fun. After a full fantastic day of spiritual hikes, meditation teaching, service planning and camper counseling, I was hot, tired and worn out.

Rabbi, Want to Talk about God?
Yet, no sooner did I sit down for a little quiet time when I heard someone call out, "We're having a conversation here about God. Rabbi, do you want to join us?"

Looking up, I saw three of our young people from Congregation Or Ami (Calabasas, CA) sitting at a picnic table smiling at me.

I had just finished an intense conversation with a staff member about the slow death of her grandmother as she described being there as the last breath left her body, followed by a phone call with a dear friend who is now facing a similar situation with her mother. I was looking forward to putting my feet up. But I responded from my heart and not from my weary bones, saying "How can I turn down such a wonderful invitation like that!?"

So three of us - my wife Michelle, a faculty artist and I - joined Lisa, Matthew and Ethan for the best experience of my day.

Pelting Us with Questions
They asked so many questions, which I answered initially with "Well, what do you all think?" Only after they answered would I share my thoughts.

How many of the teens at temple do you think are really atheists? (Most, I suggested were agnostics, unsure about God, but you can be a great Jew even if you don't believe in God.)

How do we pray if all the prayers seem to offer only one view of what God is? (Read the prayers as poetry and then mine them as metaphors. Or supplement the traditional prayers with kavannot (spiritual interpretations) of your own. Or let's write some prayers which speak to a spectrum of beliefs. The rabbis of old did it; you can too!)

Do you believe in God with the white beard and the throne on high? (Once I imagined God that way, until I learned that there are so many different Jewish God ideas - I blogged about 18 Jewish God concepts - which are more in keeping with what I feel is closer to my truth. Let's find some time later and I'll teach you about them.)

What's your favorite God concept? (The internet as a metaphor for God. Not a being, but an existence, a presence. The One without end is here, there and everywhere, accessible if only you open a browser - your heart or soul - and allow yourself to connect in.).

Time Flies When You're Talking God
We lost track of time as the campers asked questions, offered answers to each other, and thought deeply about the reality of The Holy One. When their counselors came around to collect these campers, we all expressed sadness that this moment had to end. And yet, we smiled at each other, knowing that we had taken our relationships and our spiritual journeying to the next level.

"Let's do this again!" suggested one of the campers. "Wouldn't miss it for anything," I responded.

Why do I Come to Camp Newman each Summer?
Because in the midst of the long days, chance encounters quickly become deep conversations, allowing this rabbi the opportunity to elevate and nurture meaningful Jewish spirituality. I cannot wait for the next conversation.

Shavuot: Celebrating the Gift We Keep Receiving

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Kipnes) — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 17:56:00 +0000

We parents love to shower our children with gifts.

The appearance of a wrapped presents can stop even the most rambunctious children in their tracks. After a quick intake of breath, eyes go wide and squeals of excitement quickly follow. Some children then engage in frenzied activity, tearing off the wrapping paper, while others slowly and methodically remove every piece of tape, savoring the splendor of anticipation. When the contents beneath the wrapping paper are revealed, delight and happiness soon follow.

And then come the thanks. Nothing quite compares to the hug of a kid who just received an unexpected gift. All of it – a kiss, words of thanks, that smile from ear to ear – can melt even the most hard hearted of us.

Gifts Represent of Underlying Emotions of Love
The giving of a gift testifies to the love we feel for someone. A present can convey materially that which we sometimes have difficulty expressing verbally. That I value you. That I love you. That making you happy makes me happy.

In most American Jewish homes, presents are shared on Chanukah, a practice that evolved from the tradition of giving gelt (coins) and from this holiday's proximity to Christmas. In Jewish homes in Israel and elsewhere, presents are given on Rosh Hashana to celebrate the New Year, and on Pesach to celebrate our people's return to freedom.

Shavuot as a Festival of Gift Giving and Receiving
Perhaps the most traditional, yet under-celebrated, opportunity for gift giving occurs on Shavuot. Originally an agricultural festival marking the conclusion of the grain harvest, Shavuot is also known as Chag ha-Katsir (Festival of Reaping in Exodus 23:16) and was celebrated in Biblical times by bringing the bikkurim (first fruits) to the Temple in Jerusalem. These gifts to God were brought from among the Seven Species for which the Land of Israel is praised: wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates (Deut. 8:8).

Over time, Shavuot morphed through rabbinic creativity into a festival celebrating the ultimate gift from God. Wrapped up in the multi-sensory story of our people's experience at Mt Sinai (Exodus 18:18ff) - ground-shaking, light-flashing, thunder-booming, Shavuot relives Matan Torah (the gift of Torah), the moment that God gave Torah to the Jewish people.

We teach that Holy One loves our people so much that God gave us the most precious gift – next to our children, of course – and that is the Torah.

Anticipating Shavuot, parents can connect children spiritually to our Jewish people through the joy of receiving a gift.

Celebrate Gift Giving
Read the story of the giving of Torah in Exodus 18:1-19:15. Flash the lights in the bedroom to simulate lighting, bang on walls or pots and pans to recall the thunder. Shake your body all over for earth shaking fun.

Tell Your Children (of all ages) This:

You are the recipient of one of the greatest gifts ever. It is our Torah. Written in a scroll, our Torah represents a collection of stories, teachings, morals, values, rules of how to live, ideas about God and so much more. It is a gift from God, a sign that you are lovable and loved. Torah is your inheritance, that which you receive from me (and if appropriate, from your other parent), from your grandparents and others before us. You are part of shalshelet hakabbalah (the unbroken chain of receiving Torah), passed down midor lador (from generation to generation).

Torah is a gift to be preciously cared for and repeatedly unwrapped. Torah is filled with stories and ideas that are gifts to the whole world.

Torah is yours. So don't wait to long. Claim you place among our people.

Then find a way to help your child receive the gift of Torah.

Give your child a nice gift that reflects Torah and/or Judaism. Tell him or her that since today we celebrate the other wonderful gift today, the gift of Torah, today you want him or her to enjoy this Torah related gift.
Discover a new book and read it together. Torah, and the study of it, made the Jewish people Am Hasefer (people of the book). Dedicate yourselves to reading the wonderful books from PJ Library or seek out other Jewish books to enhance Jewish connections.
Watch the Torah portion cartoons on G-dcast.com, which take complex ideas and make them accessible to all ages. Commit to watching them regularly.
Eat cheesecake. Once Torah was given, it became clear that our ancestors had no kosher meat. So the people ate dairy for a few days. Traditionally Jews ate blintzes. But, in our family, we prefer cheesecake, in as many flavored as possible, symbolizing the 70 difference languages in which Torah was given.
Make a dairy dinner together creating as many dishes as you can. Consider the many ways grilled cheese and macaroni and cheese can be prepared.
Go visit a temple and ask if you and your family can hold the Torah. A gift given not just to the rabbis and teachers, Torah is an inheritance for us all. So go claim your birthright (you may need to schedule an appointment first).

A Mathematician's Dream Blessing

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Kipnes) — Sat, 31 May 2014 22:58:00 +0000

Two, 4, 6, 8 … What comes next?
Once you recognize this as a sequence of even numbers, counted by twos, then you know that the numbers 10 and 12 come next.

Two, 3, 5, 7, 11 … What comes next?
This sequence of prime numbers (numbers divisible only by themselves and 1) continues with 13 and 17.

There is elegance in number sequences. Patterns discovered reveal a logical underpinning to the world in which we live. As a former physics major (who spent two-thirds of my college years deeply ensconced in the intricacies of the laws of our universe), I am energized by the patterns that define our world.

British philosopher-mathematician Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) expressed it this way:

“Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty — a beauty cold and austere … yet sublimely pure, and capable of a stern perfection such as only the greatest art can show.”

Even Torah contains mathematics that illumine the beauty of the existence in which we live. While the numbers within Torah may not unlock hidden biblical codes that prophesy the future, they do reveal the elegance that is God’s Creation.

So when a discerning bar mitzvah student pointed out that his Torah portion, Naso, contained two amazing numerical sequences, I was fascinated.

Parashat Naso contains Birkat Kohanim, the Priestly Benediction, a blessing first recited by the Israelite priests on God’s instruction as they blessed the people. It has maintained a central place in Jewish prayer, being recited in the ancient Jerusalem Temples, during Shabbat morning services, in Jewish homes on Friday night and at almost every Jewish life-cycle ceremony.

Birkat Kohanim is a simple yet complex three-line prayer:

Yivarechecha Adonai v’yishm’recha.
Ya’er Adonai panav elecha veechuneka.
Yeesa Adonai panav elecha v’yasem l’cha shalom.

May Adonai bless you and watch over you. May God’s countenance shine upon you and be gracious unto you. May God’s countenance be lifted up to you, and grant you peace.

Three lines of Hebrew, 15 words and 60 letters in total. Look closely and beautiful patterns emerge.

Count the Hebrew words in each line: 3, 5 ... What comes next?

The number 7, completing two patterns — odd numbers counted by twos, and the next prime number. Both answers capture sophisticated arithmetic construction.

Different rabbis tried to assign meaning to this pattern. The Spanish rabbi Bachya taught that this pattern reminds us of the foundation for all blessings: the three patriarchs, the five books of the Torah and the seven heavens of mystical meaning. To him, our ancestry, our sacred book and our spiritual universe are all aligned in each moment of blessing.

Count the letters in each line: 15, 20... What comes next?

The number 25, the next when counting by fives. What a wonderful progression in our modern decimal system — 15, 20, 25. Or, if you add the number of letters together, you get 60, recognized by Italian biblical scholar Moshe David Cassuto (1883-1951) as the basis of the ancient Babylonian sexagesimal (base 60) system.

And it gets better.

Next week, at the inauguration of the mishkan (the movable wilderness sanctuary), each tribal head brings identical sets of sacrifices. The greatest offerings, in quantity and, apparently, in prominence, were the korbanot shelamim (peace offerings). Each leader brings 15 animals: five each of rams, goats and sheep. Together, 12 tribes brought 60 of each animal.

The Midrash (Bamidbar Rabba 14:18) connects these offerings with Birkat Kohanim. Birkat Kohanim — containing 60 letters — concludes with the hope for peace (shalom), while the peace offerings (shelamim) contains 60 gifts to the Divine. Montreal scholar Shai Peretz notes:

“Given the strong correspondence between the two adjacent Torah sections, the question is of the chicken and the egg. Which element impacts on the other? Do our offerings to God yield blessings, or do God’s blessings lead us to make offerings to God?”

These fascinating questions hint at a deeper reality. As my bar mitzvah student Quinn Chambers suggested,

“It is interesting to find these patterns in the Torah, since Torah is filled with so many laws and religious ideas. Perhaps these mathematical patterns show that the Torah is not just a bunch of pretty ideas, but rather that it is also connected to the laws like mathematics and logic that govern life.”

Once you recognize these patterns in the text, it becomes more difficult to consider math/science and religion to be completely separate arenas of existence.

May the mathematical beauty of Birkat Kohanim open your eyes to the religious elegance in our world.

So Everyone Has a Home They Can Afford

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Kipnes) — Tue, 27 May 2014 15:04:00 +0000

A Teaching by Rabbi Julia Weisz
Rabbi Weisz is my partner-rabbi at Congregation Or Ami, Calabasas, CA.

Several Saturdays a year, thirty at-risk youth from Panorama City step out of vans onto the beautifully kept green grass parks of Calabasas. Or Ami teenagers greet them, whistles around their necks, and act as their coaches for the day. Leading them in water balloon toss, football, capture the flag, basketball, kickball, arts and crafts and other sports activities. These Sports Clinics are for New Directions for Youth, an after-school program that helps keep children and teens off the street, out of drugs and alcohol and away from gangs. They are an amazing opportunity for Or Ami teens, families and rabbis to interact with individuals who live in a very different reality from their own.

A few weeks ago, at our last clinic, the NDY staff gathered around, munching on bagels generously provided by Or Ami families. I went over to welcome them and asked how they were all doing. Two staff members, in particular, expressed feelings of frustration and sadness. These two staff members are responsible for picking up the New Directions children and driving the vans to the Sports Clinics.

They explained that just that morning, the staff picked up two children from a homeless shelter. The month before they were picked up from an apartment. They explained that this was a trend the staff had been noticing for some time. Most of the parents of these children work full time jobs. Some even pick up extra work in the evenings and on weekends leaving young children alone with no care or supervision. The parents shared with the staff that they could not afford to pay rent AND provide food for their children. So, they had to choose. They chose food over shelter, left their apartment and moved into a homeless shelter.

Having to choose food over shelter.
We live in a world and in a state where many working families cannot have both food AND shelter. This is appalling.

It is stories like the ones from the NDY staff that open our eyes to the affordable housing crisis in California. Currently, 22% of households in California are paying more than 50% of pre tax income for housing. Even worse, 39% of working households in Los Angeles spend more than half their income on housing. Spending more than half their income on housing is absurd, but this is the reality.

I love getting my nails done. While chatting with my manicurist I hear many of her personal stories. She works in Calabasas but lives in Little Tokyo in a small two bedroom apartment with six relatives, all to make rent more affordable. She shares a bedroom with her husband and two teenage daughters. She commutes so far away because she cannot afford to live close to work. This is her reality.

A few weeks ago I had a conversation with a friend's mother. She is in her 60s and shared with me how stressed she is each month when the bill comes from her mother's senior living apartment building. She cannot believe how expensive it is for her mother to live there and is considering moving her in with a roommate. Her mother is 93 years old. A 93 year old with a stranger for a roommate? This is her reality.

The housing crisis is not just a Panorama City issue but a California one.
The reality, not a lot of California state money is going to affordable homes. The reality, so many Californians CANNOT pay their rent or mortgage.

Historically, Jews are all too familiar with the need for shelter. Our ancestors, our matriarchs and patriarchs -Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob, Rachel and Leah - all lived in tents, shelters susceptible to heavy rains, strong winds, desert heat and freezing cold. For years, the Israelite people wandered in the desert without a permanent dwelling place wondering when and where they would find a home. And Jews wandered again without a permanent home when first emigrating from Europe to America.

As Reform Jews, we value the importance of Tikkun Olam, repairing the world. We hear the call of the 8th century prophet Isaiah, who charged the Israelite people to bring those without a home into the house.

We can help bring those without a home into a house.

Here is how we can help.
Reform California is comprised of Reform rabbis and lay leaders around the state who are working in partnerships across race, class and faith to help repair our broken state. Right now we are working on bringing more affordable housing to California.

There are a few proposals asking that the state allocate money for the building of these homes that will be presented on Capitol Hill the end of June. The proposals focus on investing significant Cap and Trade funds in the building of affordable homes in California. All housing built using Cap and Trade Funds must lead to the reduction of Green House Gas Emissions. There is an opportunity here to both build affordable homes in California AND reduce greenhouse gases to protect our environment. The Legislature will be voting and we have the chance to raise our voices in support of building more affordable homes in California for those in need.

LEARN MORE: By reading this information sheet.

EMAIL YOUR STATE LEGISLATORS: I invite you to contact your California State Senator and Assembly Member, if you would like to support the proposal to allocate a significant amount of money to building affordable homes. You can send an email to your Senator and Assembly member by clicking here.

ATTEND THE LOBBY DAY: If fighting for affordable housing is an important issues for you to tackle, or you are interested in seeing what it is like to get a bunch of Rabbis and lay leaders from California synagogues together around social justice issues, join me in Sacramento on June 2. We will fly there in the morning, lobby at Capitol Hill, hear and share stories around the housing crisis, we will make sure our voices are heard before flying back in the later afternoon. We can work together to help bring shelter to those in need. Email Rabbi Julia Weisz for more information.

Shelter Us Beneath Thy Wings
The Hashkiveinu prayer is said each night before going to sleep. In it, we ask God to spread over us a shelter of peace. It is hard to envision someone feeling that peace when they are fighting every day for shelter.

May we someday live in a world where homes are affordable, where children can sleep in their own beds, not in homeless shelters. We can work together to help build shelter for those in need.

Only then, will we know peace.

Ken Yehi Ratzon, May this be God's will. Amen.

A Formula for Engaging Jewish Teenagers

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Kipnes) — Sun, 25 May 2014 19:05:00 +0000

Working with teenagers is simply heartwarming. We experienced this yet again at our recent Havdala Under the Stars, Congregation Or Ami’s year-end gathering of our Triple T (Tracks for Temple Teens) youth program.

Picture this: a large group of teens - 7th to 12th grades - sitting around a campfire, singing songs, playing games, and grouping and regrouping in ever changing configurations of young people. Bucking trends in Jewish life - where so many teens drop out soon after B'nai Mitzvah - these teens showed up smiling. (Thanks to the URJ's Campaign for Youth Engagement, we rethought our entire youth program.)

Rabbi Julie Weisz, the energetic visionary behind Congregation Or Ami’s Campaign for Youth Engagement, invited the teens to reflect upon what made their Triple T time so meaningful. The responses were heartwarming:

Making new friends
Being a madrich (counselor) at the 4th-6th grade retreat
Creating a movie short with my JEWTube track
Working with the younger atudents as a MIT (Madricha in training)
Leading sports days for the at risk kids in Future Coaches
Creating social action projects with VolunTEENS
Being part of LoMPTY
Going to regional NFTY SoCal events
Bonding with everyone here

It seems that our faculty and rabbis have hit upon what we believe is a formula for continued youth engagement:

Relationship building.
Leadership development.
Multiple pathways (we call them "tracks") to participation.
Confirmation as the culmination for all tracks (including youth group)
Choices.

And lots of listening, loving and patience.

Youth work is incredibly exciting, deeply rewarding, intensely frustrating, and ultimately so incredibly important. Just as teens are coming into themselves, we youth professionals get to love them, accept them unconditionally, and present Judaism to them as a healthy pathway to finding oneself. There are moments, so many moments, when the neural connections are fired up just right, and through their time in temple, they find the acceptance and love that they deeply crave.

Of course along the way they go through all the same struggles as everywhere else. And so they experience social anxiety, face cliquishness, lose elections, and feel slighted. Because it is all real life. Being a teen is frustrating and often painful. Being a teen's parent is a lesson in powerlessness and oftentimes frustration as we sit on the sidelines unable to fix it all.

That's why youth professionals often make a real difference. When we do it right - listen, love, eschew simple problem solving in favor of long-term growth and compassionate struggle - the synagogue becomes a safe place for young people to learn and grow.

As our teen songleader led us to close the evening with a sweet havdala ceremony, the teens enjoyed a group hug, evidencing with their physical closeness the reality that permeates their hearts. This diverse group of kids are finding a path forward - past B'nai Mitzvah and into young adulthood. The path is not always straight. The temple cannot shield them (or their parents) from heartache, but there is no question that the combined efforts of caring, engaging faculty and available, committed rabbis can provide a safe loving space for our teens.

Lo alecha ham’lacha ligmor – the work with teens is a continuous, never-ending process. But when approached with an open mind and an open heart, it is even the exhaustion is exhilarating.

Engaging Seders: Give Each Guest a Seder Responsibility

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Kipnes) — Sun, 13 Apr 2014 08:51:00 +0000

Passover invites us to place ourselves within the story of the Exodus from Egypt. In the Haggadah we read: Bechol or vador chayav adam lirote et atzmo k'eelu hunyatzah mimitzrayim - in each and every generation a person must see him/herself as if he/she went forth from Egypt. The Seder calls us to journey personally to the promised land, from hopelessness to hopefulness, from pain to healing, from oppression to freedom.

As such, the Seder itself needs to involve every person, a feat easily accomplished with one quick email sent to your guests. Imagine asking guests to prepare to share something specific during the Seder. Your email sent even the day before the seder could delineate his/her role, giving each one time to think about a meaningful presentation.

Here's Our Pre-Seder Email
Our pre-Seder email looks something like this. Like we did, you should substitute your guests' names for descriptions that fit. Use our suggestions and/or make up your own. In parentheses after each assignment, we suggest times in the seder to make the presentation. To remember the story, check out pages 7-9 of my friend's online Haggadah.

Dear family and friends:

Lest our seder become boring, we are asking each of you to come prepared to participate actively in our Seder. We will be using a Haggadah but the really meaningful experience will come from what each of us bring from our own lives to the Seder.

So here are your seder participation assignments. Plan for a 3-5 minute presentation. Feel free to email or call me if you have questions or have something different you would rather share. But please, take time to prepare. And know this: no prepared sharing, no food for you. Enjoy preparing:

Infant: You are baby Moses in the basket on the Nile. Have your parent(s) create a costume for you, with a basket to "float" in. Your older sibling(s) - or your parent(s) - can help reenact the Nile moment. [Maggid - telling story of the Exodus]

Video Gamer: You are an accomplished video game player. Your challenge is to connect the games you play with the Passover Seder. Choose one of your favorite online games; print out a few screen shots. Prepare to explain the game, how it works, and two ways that this game illuminates lessons relevant to the story of Passover and the exodus. [Before Yachatz - Creating the Afikomin]

Musically Inclined Child/Adult: You are a lover of music and especially musical theater. Choose one or two modern songs or Broadway show tunes that shed light on the journey to freedom in any of its forms - physical freedom, emotional freedom, spiritual or economic freedom. Be creative. Come with copies of the lyrics or a recording of the song. Be ready to play or sing these songs and to share how they harmonize with the teachings of Passover. [Before Dayeinu]

Dramatically Inclined Child/Adult: Before we sit down to the Seder, please gather all the children and prepare a short dramatic play about the exodus story. I am attaching a brief review of the story. Use costumes from our costume box or clothes from mom and dad's closet. [Maggid - Telling the Story]

Musician: You can provide musical accompaniment during the Seder where possible and comfortable. Music and words for Dayeinu and other prayer and songs can be found on the internet. Any modern songs you can play that talk about freedom would also be appropriate for our Seder. [Throughout the Seder]

Middle School Student: What have you learned in your history class about ancient Israelite or Egyptian culture? How can lessons from history in general help us love better lives today? You be the teacher and teach us. [Before Maggid - Telling the Story]

Person Who Visited History Museums: You recently history visited museums depicting _________ {fill in the blank}. What did you learn there that sheds light on the important lessons past and future of the Seder/Passover story. (Perhaps guests can report about a visit to a Holocaust museum, museums recounting the civil rights movement, locations of Japanese internment, important places in the LGBT rights movement or other similar locations.) [Before Ten Plagues]

Older Teen or College Student: You are learning about communities struggling with their own enslavement, their own Egypts. Teach us about one such community in the world today. Where is their Egypt, that dark, narrow place which torments them? Who is their Pharaoh, the one most responsible for their oppression? How can we be the Moses and Miriam to help lead them to freedom or how can we help nurture their own leaders? [Before Matzah]

Parent of Young Child: As a new parent, you have an opportunity to use the Seder to mold your child's spiritual life. What are one or two spiritual lessons you hope will enhance his spirituality in the coming years of Seders together. [After Urchatz - Symbolic Washing]

New Parent: As a new parent, this is your first Passover with your child. What are kind of world do you promise to strive to create so she won't have to wander so much in life? [After Rachatzah - Symbolic Washing]

Person who Visited Israel: Tell us: In what ways is Israel the Promised Land still today? During your visit, when did you feel like you were spiritually enlivened? Though our people reside in the Holy Land, in what ways are we still wandering in the wilderness? [Before Nirtzach - Next Year in Jerusalem]

Older Adult: Over the years you have celebrated many a Passover, each time focusing on the unique issues of the moment in life. Share with us one example of a Passover gone by which was particularly meaningful in the way it captured the lessons and values of the festival. [After Urchatz - Symbolic Washing]

Older Adult: Over your years you have seen pharaohs rise and fall, enslaving physically and/or spiritually peoples or individuals. Similarly, you have seen people make it to the promised land of freedom. Share with us one example of a journey to freedom - personal or national - that you witnessed in your lifetime. [Before Maror - Bitter Herbs]

Photographer: The Haggadah speaks of four children, representing four ways of connecting to Judaism. Print four pictures - your own or those of others - that capture an interpretation of four ways of engaging Judaism. You may use pictures of people, animals, places. Explain how these teach about Jewish living. [Before Four Children]

Businessman: The karpas or greens are dipped in salt water. The karpas - and the egg - represent the promise of spring and of new life and new hope. From your work in the world of business, share with us how a new spring is dawning for the world through these efforts. [Before Karpas]

Lawyer: As someone who deals with the laws of our nation/community, you know how laws can enslave and laws can free. Describe one way that the law is still used to oppress one subgroup in our country. Explain what is happening to change this law. [Before Ten Plagues]

Medical Professional: You work in healthcare. Access to adequate healthcare and the lack thereof is a plague for our generation. In what ways have you seen access to healthcare become more of a plague and what are hopeful signs that the plague is lifting? [After Ten Plagues]

Grandparent: You have a grandchild and are anticipating celebrating Jewish life with her. What are central Jewish ideas and values that you hope to pass onto her as she grows. How is a Passover Seder an opportunity to do so? [Before Yachatz - Breaking the Matzah]

Thank you all ahead of time for preparing. We will weave your presentation throughout the Seder. Your efforts will make our Seder that much more engaging.

See you all at the Seder.

Why Rabbis Need Rabbinical Conventions

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Kipnes) — Fri, 04 Apr 2014 18:10:00 +0000

I’m just back from the Central Conference of American Rabbis convention, a gathering of 600 Reform Rabbis from all over the United States, Canada, Israel, Europe, South America and elsewhere. Four fabulous days of inspiring worship, thought-provoking speakers, pastoral skill-building sessions, and insightful study of our Jewish texts.

I return home with Evernote(books) filled with ideas and insights for the many roles I live as an American Reform Jewish congregational rabbi. In fact, each day was so packed with large plenary gatherings and small group meetings that my mind was working in overdrive from 7:00 am through midnight.

One of the most poignant events occurred at a location twenty-minutes away from the Convention Hotel. That night, eleven people gathered at a local restaurant in a private room for dinner.

The dinner took place during intentionally set time for “dinner with friends and colleagues.” Along with other sessions and the plenaries, this dinner allowed us to address one of the most significant reasons we rabbis need to attend rabbinical conventions: to find solace and strength in the company of colleagues.

Over dinner, we laughed, joked, kvetched, kvelled, commiserated and counseled each other. We reflected upon the distinctive role and responsibility of being a rabbi in our contemporary Jewish community.

As we played musical chairs - switching places between courses – we shared triumphs and tribulations. This one sought advice on how to deal with a particularly thorny pastoral problem, while that one teased out new approaches for a difficult issue of organizational governance. These two compared notes on the challenges of youth engagement as those two shared strategies for keeping our own young ones from becoming too encumbered by the challenges of living in the Jewish public eye.

These four discussed new ways to think about the congregational rabbinate, while those four debated the perspective on Israel in Avi Shavit’s book, My Promised Land. From the personal to the professional, the macro to the micro, we wove memories of our past through the realities of the present and into the hopes for the future.

I left dinner sated: full of delicious food, helpful advice, meaningful insights and a clear sense that the shared challenges we face are surmountable because we have others to guide and support us.

Why do rabbis need rabbinical conventions?
While being a rabbi is an especially rewarding profession, it can be challenging, exhausting and emotionally depleting. Only in gatherings of rabbinic colleagues can we let our metaphoric hair down – of course, I have none left because I shaved my hair to raise money and awareness to fight pediatric cancer (but that’s another blogpost). In this safe space among people who know and understand can we find sessions and support to rejuvenate ourselves and lift each other up spiritually.

So four days away is both a short time and a lifetime, because in those brief moments away from the 24/7 responsibilities of leading a sacred community of our holy people we regain perspective and gain new perspectives to dive back in and lead and partner anew.

So to my dinner companions – my friends – I say thank you for rejuvenating me.

To our CCAR leadership and the Convention Program Committee, I say Todah Rabbah (thank you so much) for creating moments to find new meaning.

And to my synagogue – Congregation Or Ami (Calabasas, CA) – I offer my profound appreciation for making it possible to leave and come back. I and we will benefit greatly from this experience.

I'm Going BALD ... for Kids with Cancer

noreply@blogger.com (Paul Kipnes) — Mon, 24 Mar 2014 17:24:00 +0000

I have so much hair... It may not look like much, what with my crown peaking through. But I'm really okay with my unadorned cranium.

Because, compared with kids with cancer, I'm really one hairy dude.

So when I was asked to put my few follicles on the line to raise awareness and funds to combat childhood cancer, I jumped at the chance to test my supposed lack of vanity.

On Tuesday, April 1st - one week from today - in the midst of a Rabbinical convention, I will be shaving my head, along with 36+ other rabbis. 36 Rabbis Shave for the Brave.

I agreed to do this shave for Superman Sam, a sweet and funny 7 year old who contracted refractory acute myeloid leukemia. The son of a pair of rabbi friends, Sam got a bone marrow transplant, was doing really well. My friends, dearly connected to Sam's parents, organized this event to ... just be able to do something more.

And then, something horrible happened. The leukemia came back. And over their blog, Sam's parents shared the story of how they had to tell their son, a sweet wonderful 8 year old, that he was going to die. Sam died on December 14, 2013 at 12:33 am. His mother wrote ""He died peacefully and calmly and quietly at 12:33 a.m.," she wrote on her blog. "He was not in fear or in pain. And for that I am eternally grateful."

We missed the deadline to find a cure for Sam and his family. And we are missing the deadline for too many other kids too.

More children are lost to cancer in the U.S. than any other disease—in fact, more than many other childhood diseases combined. Before they turn 20, about 1 in 300 boys and 1 in 333 girls will have cancer. Worldwide, a child is diagnosed every 3 minutes. In the 1950s, almost all kids diagnosed with cancer died. Because of research, today about 85% of kids with the most common type of cancer will live. But for many other types, progress has been limited, and for some kids there is still little hope for a cure. You can learn more at St. Baldrick's, a non-profit that organizes shaves to raise money for research.

So I'm joining together with 36+ other rabbis to shave our heads in hopes of raising money and raising awareness. My goal is to raise $5,000 before I go under the razor. We only have 7 days to do it.

Will you donate to my Shave for the Brave?
In Superman Sam's memory?
In honor of all those kids struggling with cancer?
In memory of those who we failed to help?

I'm tired of burying people, kids before their time. let's do something about it.

Please make a meaningful donation.
I'll make sure Sam's parents know the good that you are doing. And I'll send you a before and after picture too.

Donate here. Donate NOW.