Rabbi Lauren Grabelle Herrmann, Saturday, January 29, 2022 When Dr. Mordecai Kaplan began the SAJ 100 years ago, the Jewish community and the world were at a turning point. In the Jewish community, he saw, on the one hand, a refusal among traditionalists to integrate new understandings of science and…

The Psalmist says: “Zeh HaYom Asah Adonai. Nagila V’nism’cha Bo: This is the day that The One Made, Rejoice and Celebrate on it!” (Psalm 118) 100 years! 100 years! 100 years of prayers in this very room, no matter which way the ark was placed and which direction the congregation…

I would like to invite you to stop whatever you are doing, stop fiddling with your computer or papers in front of you for a moment and just rest for a moment. Find a comfortable seat, feel your feet on the ground. If you feel comfortable, close your eyes. Invite…

The poet Sheenagh Pugh writes her wonderful poem “Sometimes”: “Sometimes things don’t go, after all, from bad to worse…./A people sometimes step back from war, elect an honest man,/ decide they care enough that they can’t leave some stranger poor.” In honor of the shofar sound-both a call towards repair…

A Piyyut Created primarily from responses from SAJ members to the question: “What will you not take for granted after the pandemic”: May it be your will, Eternal One, that the coming year be, for us, and for all your people, the House of Israel wherever they may be, and…

Rosh HaShanah 2021/5782 Dedicated to Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan z”l and all those who started the Society for the Advancement of Judaism in 1922 Imagine, for a moment if you will, that you are an Israelite, wandering in the rough and unforgiving desert. You are scared and exhausted when you are invited to participate…

Shabbat Shalom! Two weeks ago, Dubbs Weinblatt, the Associate Director of Education and Training for the New York area at Keshet (an organization that works for the full inclusion of LGBTQ folks in Jewish life), wrote a heart wrenching and personal piece in Alma, an online magazine called “There are…

We find ourselves in the midst of a violent conflict that started in Jerusalem and has spread to all of Israel and to the West Bank and Gaza. As members of Jewish communities with family and friends and many deep connections, there is fear for Israel and her citizens; concern…

Emor 2021, Rabbi Lauren Grabelle Herrmann The second section of Parshat Emor which we read this past Shabbat shifts the focus from the priests to the people who are instructed to celebrate the holy days year, proclaiming them as sacred occasions. The section begins with the initial offering of the…