Clergy Blog

Sometimes you make unexpected connections. Volunteering with the Newark Conservancy, I learned of its ongoing need for barrels to collect rain.  I happened to mention this to TBA member Rich Kesselhaut, who responded, “I have more barrels than I know what to do...

Dear Fellow TBA Members, On the fourth Sunday each month, the Social Action Committee joins our partners, the NAACP of the Oranges and Maplewood and Elmwood United Presbyterian Church, in Café 5000, an effort in which we gather at the church to serve a hot meal to the...

The Women’s Rabbinic Network is an organization for women rabbis of the Reform movement. This year’s biennial convention was held in Baltimore last week, and the theme for our time together was Sh’ma Koleinu—hear our voices. The goal of the convention was to learn...

Dear Friends, One week each year, we open our spiritual home to those in need through the Interfaith Hospitality Network. Mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, men and women. By warmly welcoming others here, we engage in one of the greatest Mitzvot.  Most are...

The Oranges and Maplewood Unit of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) hosted its 104th Annual Freedom Fund Gala on Sunday, April 30. The Oranges and Maplewood Unit of the NAACP represents Essex County towns including Belleville,...

January 27 was International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The White House’s statement for the day did not mention Jews. Rather than admit a mistake, the White House has gone on to defend this glaring omission. I agree with Professor Deborah Lipstadt (the film Denial is...

It’s Monday afternoon here, and I’m sitting in the business center of the Dan Panorama, at which I’ve logged enough nights over twenty years to call it a genuine home away from home.  This morning our group of thirty nine hit the Old City, walking from the Zion Gate...

Something extraordinary happened to our Director of Jewish Learning Melissa Weiner and Jewish Learning Program Special Projects Coordinator Arleen Lichtenstein. They were shopping for the Annual Midday Run, , the distribution of donated clothing and food to those in...