Jewish Reconstructionist Federation

REGISTRATION FOR PEARLS FROM PEARL 2012 IS LIVE NOW! http://jrf.org/pearl/sessions/2012
PEARL (Providing Education and Resources for Leadership) the distance-learning program offered by JRF, provides meaningful information and strategies beneficial to congregational leaders, members, clergy, educators and staff. Expert speakers partner with JRF professional staff and lay leaders to support the strengthening of congregations and havurot, grow leadership, deepen Jewish spiritual life and continue critical tikkun olam/social justice work. With input from JRF congregational leadership, clergy, staff and board members, a variety of PEARL topics are selected each year. Click on the attachment below for a complete Guide to PEARL Congregational Leadership Resources.

See an alphabetical listing of all PEARL sessions since 2008
http://jrf.org/pearl/archive  read more »

As the JRF and the RRC continue to restructure our movement for a better future, JRF has created a timeless Legacy Tribute Book in honor of our congregations. This keepsake memento will walk our members through the years of Reconstructionist history and highlight each of our communities in story and pictures. We are looking for your help to make this once-in-a-lifetime tribute book a reality. Would you consider making a gift to the JRF to support our lasting legacy?
 read more »

JRF, RRC and the RRA are sponsoring organizations of The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL's) 2012 Jewish Environmental and Energy Imperative Declaration. Rabbi Mordechai Liebling, the Director of the social justice rabbinic training program at RRC was there signing on our movement’s behalf as were numerous other Jewish leaders from among the 50 signing leaders. Among the singers are Bob Barkin, interim EVP of JRF and Rabbi Richard Hirsh, Exec-Dir of the RRA (see http://coejl.org/jecc/signatories/).  read more »

Hydrofracking is a new form of drilling for natural gas and oil that is on the brink of a huge expansion.  Jews Against Hydrofracking is encouraging every Jewish community to learn about this issue by screening Gasland, a documentary that asks the question, is fracking safe?  Plan a screening in your living room, synagogue, JCC, or youth group as part of the 100 Jewish Communities Wake Up to Hydrofracking Campaign. More Information
 read more »

JRF joins East Africa Relief

https://www.jdc.org/jcdr_main.html
Countries in the Horn of Africa including, Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Djibouti are experiencing the worst drought in 60 years. As a result, millions of people are in desperate need of food and water. Livestock and crops are deteriorating due to the lack of access to water and malnutrition is on the rise. A famine has been declared in a number of regions of Somalia and elsewhere, causing hundreds of thousands of people to flee to neighboring countries.  read more »

A number of us in the Jewish and larger social justice streams have been tracking the issue of child slave labor and the chocolate industry (Hershey is not the only or worst culprit here) for some time. My cousin’s son gave a dvar challenging his congregation to audit their chocolate choices in 2009 at his bar mitzvah. He came to this issue by identifying with Joseph being tossed down the pit and crying out with no one to hear him, abandoned by those he loved (his dvar Torah is attached on this page). You will also see a Fair Trade Chocolate Seder, an Adat Shalom supplement supplied to me by Rabbi Erin Hirsh, some information from Fair Trade Judaica who are organizing their own Jewish community campaign, links supplied by Cantor Eric Schulmiller of Reconstructionist congregation RSNS, NY. You may have your own information, which I invite you to send to me at SZevit@jrf.org. For thousands of children on this planet, slavery is not a historical event, but a current reality. We can make a difference.  read more »

This February, the Reconstructionist Community of the Bay Area welcomes the Women’s Torah, the first Torah in history to be created and embellished by an international community of women and the first to be sewn together in community.

The Torah is the handwritten parchment scroll of the first five books of the bible. All over the world, Jews read and study from the Torah during religious services and other times. The Hebrew letters must be hand-written by a trained scribe on special parchment using special ink and quills. Learning to become a Torah scribe requires painstaking training that takes many years. Until the Women’s Torah Project (WTP), only men scribed Torahs.  read more »

The JRF-GreenFaith Partnership

GreenFaith and the JRF through the Department of Congregational Services and Tikkun Olam are pleased to announce a three-year partnership to promote a deepening of JRF’s existing environmental initiatives. GreenFaith is a leading national interfaith environmental coalition whose mission is to help diverse religious communities become environmental leaders.  GreenFaith is a leading interfaith environmental coalition whose mission is to educate, equip and empower diverse religious communities for environmental leadership.  Founded in 1992, GreenFaith offers a range of programs that help faith-based groups nationwide put their beliefs into action for the earth.  The Jewish Reconstructionist Federation has had a long-standing commitment to environmental stewardship and the role of the Jewish people in building sustainable communities (http://jrf.org/Sustainable_Synagogue_Resources).  read more »