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Shabbat Shalom!

Thank you Rabbi Appel, Rabbi Berezin and Cantor Alexander

3 weeks ago I attended my first meeting as a member of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) North American Board (NAB).  The URJ is the umbrella organization that links together more than 800 synagogues including Temple Israel and more than one million Reform Jews in North America. It is a privilege to follow in the footsteps of our own Jane Rips and Gary Kaplan (of blessed memory) in service on the URJ Board and I am grateful for their support, guidance, and friendship.

We covered a lot of ground over a single 24-hour stretch but there were two major topics - Israel and the history of sexual misconduct under the URJ umbrella.  Both of these topics are big and heavy and challenged many of us in that room in New York and many of us in this room here in Omaha.  

I’ll start with Israel.

And wow, so much has changed in the weeks since our meeting.  The proposed judicial reforms are on hold at least until the end of Passover - and - another flare up in violence just this week including today.

Israel’s Supreme Court is the only check protecting democracy and preventing another theocracy in the Middle East. Israel does not have a written constitution that guarantees freedoms or even articulates the ideals of the country. 

At our meeting, we were joined in-person by Member of Knesset (MK) Rabbi Gilad Kariv, the first Reform Rabbi to hold a seat in the Knesset and a member of the Labor Party.  We also heard from Orly Erez Likhovsky, Director of the Israel Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. They gave us the very latest update about events on the ground and appealed to us take action.  We were stunned to have a Member of the Knesset come and ask Diaspora Jews to get involved with Israel’s domestic politics. 

That’s a big deal.

That’s the political struggle.

And coming out of this meeting I have been thinking about an even deeper struggle for me -  of reconciling the idea that “they” - these extreme right-wing Jewish zealots who are in control of the Israeli government  are still part of “we” - K’lal Israel.  This is the same “we” that all of us  were talking about at our Seders as “we were once slaves in the land of Egypt”.  I don’t know what it will take for me to embrace these groups as part of “we” and it’s hard to see these groups embracing me, but all of us need to find the path to get there if Israel as an idea is to survive.

While the situation is changing quickly, there are three specific things each of us can do: (1) stay on top of it through American and Israeli news sources (2) speak up about this with your family and friends and (3) consider joining Association Reform Zionists of America - in the past weeks I made my first contribution ever to ARZA.  

The URJ asked us to come back and put out an ask for a congregation to be a contact person for Israel-related issues.  Is there someone here tonight that would be willing to take on that role? 

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The second topic was also upsetting but necessary - the beginning of the process of T’shuvah for the harm that has been done under the URJ umbrella.

In 2021, the URJ asked anyone who had experienced sexual misconduct in URJ spaces, including camps, the Religious Action Center programs, events or workplaces, to share their stories with an independent law firm conducting an investigation. The report was released in February 2022 and it is posted in full on the URJ’s Ethics Accountability website.  

While this report was released just over a year ago, this was the first in-person Board meeting where the topic was discussed. 

URJ Board Chair Jen Kaufman appointed an Ethics Accountability Task Force to oversee the implementation of the recommendations of the Report. The URJ Board has made Ethics Accountability a key Reform Movement priority, and we are making progress in this regard. 

There are three key steps that the URJ is taking to implement the recommendations of the Ethics Accountability Task Force

First, Training Leaders. - This team focuses on educating and training the many cohorts of volunteers and lay leaders within the URJ, to enable them to fulfill their roles in fostering a culture of accountability, responsibility, and safety.

Second, Restorative Processes -  The URJ has retained two experts in the field of restorative justice, Dr. Guila Benchimol and Dr. Alissa Ackerman to lead the project called “Building a Very Narrow Bridge”. The goal of this victim/survivor-centered work is to do everything we can to heal the relationship between individuals who were harmed and the institutions that had the responsibility for keeping them safe.  This work began in September 2022 and we heard a detailed update on it at this meeting.

Third, Congregations including Temple Israel – The URJ is pushing for congregations to adopt a written Congregational Code of Conduct.  The goal is for 75% of congregations to have adopted, or be in the process of adopting, an ethics code by High Holidays in 2023. 

We need a working group from across our congregation who want to help craft a code of conduct for our congregation.  There are a lot of resources and templates to build from, the work will be talking through how to shape this language for our community.  This effort will start later this spring, likely take 3-4 meetings with the goal of having it adopted by our Board before the high holidays. Would anyone here like to help with this?
     
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These are both hard hard topics. And at the same time, attending this meeting was absolutely inspiring and uplifting.  Please reach out to me if you are interested in the longer version, I’m happy to share more, but for tonight I do want to share two specific experiences that bring me back to this community with a refilled bucket of energy, hope, and compassion.   

The first is about our congregation.  Temple Israel has a strong national reputation.  People know us, they ask about us. Multiple Board members I didn’t know and the President of the URJ, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, all asked about us all said nice things about our community’s history and our contributions to the movement.   

It was a great reminder that we in this room are part of something larger, something that truly is a movement and we are adding to this story of making Jewish life relevant and meaningful to people inside and outside our community.  

That there is thriving Jewish life in Omaha Nebraska and in collaboration with Tri Faith is a real inspiration to Jews everywhere.  People told me how they are often stuck in their bubbles of New York Jewish life and for them to know that we are here, it lifts them up, it makes them feel energized.  We are not a minor player or otherwise forgotten, we are part of something special.

The second is more personal.  Judaism has played different roles at different points in my life. I suspect that is similar for many of you.  I have tended to see those patterns only looking backwards - what role did Judaism play in my life: as a teenager, as a college student, as a new parent etc. 

But this URJ meeting switched that frame for me - instead of looking backward for reflection,  I am looking forward with inspiration about the role Judaism will play in my life ahead.  I’m excited to think in clear terms about how Reform Jewish values will explicitly be the starting point for my service to the Jewish community and even a clearer through line with my personal and professional lives. I see starting with Jewish values as a way to launch positive feedback loops and upward spirals. 

I am energized to think even more creatively and expansively about how my actions and ideas start with and develop in a Jewish context - I think they will make my contributions feel meaningful in a profoundly different way. 

The URJ’s vision is a world in which Judaism enables all people to experience peace and wholeness (shalom), justice and equity (tzedek), and belonging and joy (shayachut and simcha).

There are immediate and significant challenges we all see in Israel, in the US, in Nebraska, in our communities. Meeting those challenges will not be fast or easy.  But we also won’t abandon them because that vision is too important. 

Peace, wholeness, justice, equity, belonging, joy - these are the core of Reform Jewish values in action.

I truly believe that vision is coming together over the longer term because of the work we are all doing.  

I am honored to be a part of the URJ leadership and be a connector from our community to the movement that is working toward that vision.

Shabbat Shalom.

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Watch the entirety of Friday’s service here. 

Temple Talk is a recap of sermons given from the Bimah for those who missed a Sermon or who wanted to revisit the words spoken at a previous sermon.