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Books CCAR Press

‘The Sacred Struggle’: Holding onto Judaism During Challenging Times

The Sacred Struggle: Jewish Responses to Trauma, coedited by Rabbi Lindsey Danziger and Rabbi Benjamin David, is the newest anthology from CCAR Press. In this excerpt from the introduction, Rabbi David discusses the Jewish history of trauma and how his experience with cancer inspired the book.  

We twenty-first-century Jews are, of course, well versed in trauma. With the lessons of the Holocaust still ringing in our ears, we have encountered no shortage of stinging antisemitism and hatefulness in our own day.

Whether in Charlottesville, Pittsburgh, Poway, Jersey City, or Monsey, the relentless attack on Jews and Judaism has shaken all of us. We have grieved together and in time adjusted to a “new normal” in which antisemitism is less an abnormality and more a reality to be wary of every day. We do so amid a post-9/11 world that feels at times desperately unstable: a world where school shootings happen with regularity; where racism, homophobia, transphobia, and xenophobia are rampant; where bullying and cyberbullying plague our children; and where the natural world is under attack by forces that range from small to existential.

We feel in our heart for Israel—all the more so since October 7, 2023—too often maligned or outright denigrated by the international community, even as we mark the highly imperfect record of our beloved Israel. Terror within and outside of Israel has wounded our Israeli family for generations and, by extension, all of us.

How do we not turn to anger? Or, better yet, how do we cling to a Judaism of relevance and hope even in our anger and frustration? How do we maintain a relationship with a benevolent God in illness, in mourning, in dire sadness and frustration? Is it acceptable for a long-standing relationship with Judaism and the Divine to change following a period of distress? What does it mean to reevaluate one’s sense of Jewish heritage from a hospital room or a place of quiet grief? This book will explore these important questions, and more.

To be clear, by choosing to title this book The Sacred Struggle, we are not saying we believe nor will we argue that everything happens for a reason, nor offer up a type of theology that is clichéd or unhelpful. Rather, this title affirms that the act of struggle itself can become part of our sacred life journeys. By bringing together writers who have experienced profound hardship and been changed by that hardship, this book aims to shed light on what it means to hold onto Judaism during life challenges and give permission to earnestly evolve in our relationship to faith.

Rabbi Danziger and I both experienced cancer early in our rabbinic career. We were both young parents at the time, with young kids. We each learned a lot about trauma—trauma of the body and the spirit, and how trauma affects a family and community. Cancer is what brought us together, and our journey since has led to the creation of this book. We have both thought at significant length about the ways in which trauma can be life altering, both in ways that are negative and in ways that are surprisingly positive. We have both thought extensively about the pains we each carry and that our people carry. We have wondered together about themes of healing and change, both as human beings and as rabbis. This book comes therefore from both a deeply personal and professional viewpoint.

The Sacred Struggle begins with a useful definition of trauma from Dr. Betsy Stone before exploring the theme of trauma from a textual angle: What do our earliest sources teach us about Jewish responses to trauma? The chapters explore Biblical, Rabbinic, and contemporary approaches to trauma. We then examine different areas of potential trauma: the trauma of acute and chronic illness and how physical challenges impact our emotional and spiritual well-being; the trauma that can result from being marginalized because of race, gender, ability, or illness; the impact of personal and communal violence, from the streets of Memphis to the school halls of Parkland, from terror events to sexual assault; the trauma of natural disasters and the all-too-familiar trauma of pandemics; the trauma that can occur when one is part of a larger community that may be toxic, unhealthy, or simply not present; and finally, the trauma of family loss, which manifests as divorce, infertility, stillbirth, and death of loved ones.

Of course, just because we chose to group certain experiences of trauma does not mean that we are equating the experiences; every trauma is different, as is each of these beautiful, harrowing chapters. Indeed, each chapter goes to a highly vulnerable place; there is great honesty in this book. We believe that within these pages there is something for everyone. We have all lost. We have all been hurt. We can likely all find value in exploring the tools that these brave authors present us.


Rabbi Benjamin P. David serves Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. He is the coeditor of The Sacred Struggle: Jewish Responses to Trauma and editor of Seven Days, Many Voices: Insights into the Biblical Story of Creation.

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Books CCAR Press High Holy Days

Facing the High Holy Days in a Time of Brokenness

Alden Solovy is the author of Enter These Gates: Meditations for the Days of Awe from CCAR Press. In this post, he shares how he’s turning to two books to find meaning this year.

The High Holy Day season calls us to go from the experience of brokenness to the presence of God, from the pain of loss to the promise of renewal, from the worst of what we experience to the best of what we can imagine. We need—I need—the High Holy Day season this year more than ever.

This season of introspection and improvement arrives for me in the nick of time. I’m surprised by how much harder it has been to begin this year’s journey of self-examination. How could it possibly be any more difficult than last year, in the days leading up to the first anniversary of October 7, 2023? Consumed with writing in the aftermath of the attack that year, I completed my High Holy Day book Enter These Gates: Meditations for the Days of Awe to give voice to the pain of our times and to elevate—against all odds—the call for hope, renewal, justice, peace, and life revived. Turns out, I wrote the book for myself.

Yes, I’m turning to my own book to find meaning this year. I typically find ongoing meaning by continuing to write, not by returning to my work, with the exception of public readings. I simply recommend my books to others, hoping they will find meaning and comfort in my words, and I keep writing. Yet I haven’t fully moved on emotionally and spiritually since October 7, and today my own book is speaking to me as if it is someone else’s voice.

My book, in fact, is singing a duet with another book of poetry, prayer, and inspiration. My heart is drawn to what Rabbi Karyn Kedar writes about the beginning of the High Holy Day journey, which is to experience and examine brokenness. It peaks on Tishah B’Av when we commemorate the destruction of the two temples in Jerusalem. As she writes in her new book Unfolding: A High Holy Day Companion, “The month of Av grounds us with a simple warning: Humanity has an unlimited desire and capacity to create love, but at the same time, humanity has the will and the means to destroy itself. Av asks us to dwell in our desire to live an elevated life…”

I want to dwell in the desire for an elevated life. I want to live in a nation that elevates life. With hostages still in captivity, a two-year set of wars within wars, frequent sirens and trips to bomb shelters, starvation in Gaza, and with global antisemitism spiking, I am putting my hope and faith in this season of introspection to help me find not answers, but ways of being. How to be an Israeli-American progressive Zionist who has no faith in the Israeli government. How to be a Zionist who has given my life to this land, but demands a better government and a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.

“The High Holy Days can lift us on words of Torah and prayer to the heights of our best selves,” I write in the introduction to Enter These Gates. “The days also call forth the deepest moments of our vulnerability and pain.” We use that vulnerability and pain as medicine, as a path to healing ourselves as a pivotal step in healing the world.

This year, I am taking Rabbi Kedar’s Unfolding, and my own Enter These Gates, into my first High Holy Day pulpit as an HUC rabbinical student. It is a selfish act of love for myself and the community in which I will serve. It is a selfish act for the people of Israel to demand a better nation for ourselves and the world. It is a selfish act for all of Klal Yisrael for each of us to do everything we can to find the best of who we are and of what God expects from us.

So many prayers need to be prayed. I begin with this one, the opening piece of Enter These Gates. It is called “Pervasive Peace.” Cantorial soloist Rebecca Schwartz composed compelling music for this prayer, which can be heard on YouTube.

Pervasive Peace

May it be Your will, God of our fathers and mothers

That the year ahead brings a pervasive and complete peace

On all the inhabitants of the earth,

Beyond all the dreams of humanity.

,יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלְּפָנֶֽיךָ, אֱלֹהֵי אֲבוֹתֵֽינוּ וְאִמּוֹתֵֽינוּ

שֶׁהַשָּׁנָה הַבָּאָה תָּבִיא שָׁלוֹם מֻחְלָט וְשָׁלֵם

,עַל כָּל־יוֹשְׁבֵי תֵבֵל

.מֵעֵֽבֶר לְכָל־חֲלוֹמוֹת־הָאֱנוֹשׁוּת

Y’hi ratzon mil’fanecha, Elohei avoteinu v’imoteinu,

Shehashanah habaah tavi shalom muchlat v’shaleim

Al kol yosh’vei teiveil,

Mei-eiver l’chol chalomot ha-enoshut.


Alden Solovy is a rabbinical student at Hebrew Union College who lives in Jerusalem. His books include Enter These Gates: Meditations for the Days of Awe, These Words: Poetic Midrash on the Language of Torah, This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New DayThis Joyous Soul: A New Voice for Ancient Yearnings, and This Precious Life: Encountering the Divine with Poetry and Prayer, all published by CCAR Press.

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Books CCAR Press High Holy Days

Understanding the Spiritual Journey from Tishah B’Av to Yom Kippur

Rabbi Karyn D. Kedar is the author of Unfolding: A High Holy Day Companion from CCAR Press. In this excerpt, she explains the special rhythm of the Jewish calendar from the months of Av to Tishrei.

My wondering is my prayer. Beauty is my prayer. My spiritual agitation is my prayer. My prayer is the quiet by the window, which frames my thinking room as the sun sheds an early hue. I have sought silent amazement all the days of my life. I linger.

And I invite you to linger with me. This volume is my attempt to synchronize our spiritual search for meaning with the heartbeat of a few weeks of the Jewish calendar. It is an ode to our mortality, a song to our sense of impermanence. The words are meant to scratch at our imperfections. If we are flawed, and we truly are, then what is our worth? How do we find our purpose within the cracks and fissures of our being? Where do we find meaning?

We live and tarry in these questions for just a few weeks, from Av to Elul to the beginning of Tishrei. This becomes an arch where we slowly become aware, touching our existential longing to live deeply, intently, lovingly, and meaningfully. It is an invitation to a spiritual unfolding.

We begin with Tishah B’Av, the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av—a time of mourning and remembering the many calamities that have befallen the Jewish people. The month of Av is a solemn period grounded in historical circumstances that encourages deep personal reflection. The Temple was destroyed on the ninth of Av in 70 CE because of human frailty; we chose hate over love, and all was lost for the nation. So too, with us—when we give in to negativity, we lose so much. Destruction, we learn, is caused by senseless hatred. Redemption will come with love.

We begin here, in the ashes, for we learn from our tradition that we are but dust. We are of the earth and will return to the earth. This is not a statement of self-deprecation—after all, we are also taught that we stand on holy ground—but rather a call for a humble perspective. It is the reality of human nature to rise and to fall, to love and to hate, to give and to withhold. The month of Av grounds us with a simple warning: Humanity has the unlimited desire and capacity to create and love, but at the same time, humanity has the will and the means to destroy itself. Av asks us to dwell in our desire to live an elevated life—an unfolding toward loving rather than fear.

Nestled between the lowliness of Av and the overwhelming spirituality of Tishrei is the ethereal month of Elul. Elul invites us to contemplate thoughts of forgiveness, love, and beauty. For the entire month, we sing songs of penitence, praying. Praying that we will be forgiven, for we are deeply flawed. Praying that we can forgive, for we are afraid to let go. Remembering that we are created for glorious things—if we can live a life of strength and resilience, depth and compassion.

Love is not a feeling but a spiritual state, not an emotion but a practice. We yearn for an expansive love that lifts us and connects us to our highest impulses. To be gentler with ourselves and find greater self-love. To embrace our relationships with open hearts and understanding. To find a faith grounded in the awareness that love abides and abounds if only we reach for it.

The mantra of the month of Elul is Psalm 27, recited daily: “There is only one thing I seek, to gaze upon beauty all the days of my life” (verse 4). We consider words and concepts such as God, holiness, love, and beauty. For me, they are synonymous and the dwelling place of the aspirational soul.

The calendar leads us further into the thicket of reflection, self-awareness, moral accountability, and spiritual elevation. The first ten days of the month of Tishrei are called the Ten Days of Repentance. For weeks now, we have readied ourselves for the intensity of these ten days. We have practiced sustaining a thoughtful and contemplative pose, thinking about where we have come from, who we are, and who we desire to become. We have tended to our wounds, nurtured our hearts, and immersed ourselves in matters of the spirit. It is healing to realize that these days begin with Rosh HaShanah, a celebration of Creation, when the world shines new and we know that the power to recreate ourselves lies within our attention and intention to do so. The shofar sounds, a clarion call to awaken what lies dormant within so that we may journey ever deeper into repentance and forgiveness, unfolding into a deeper sense of self.

And then Yom Kippur. We are tired, humbled, ecstatic with hope, crying out one last time. We deny ourselves food and drink. On this holiest of days, with nowhere to go, we go inward. We use metaphors that create a sense of urgency like “the gates begin to close” and “seal us in the Book of Life.” We sing one more time of sin and repentance, rocking ourselves, hopeful that we can find the way, the path to a deeper life. A more thoughtful life. A forgiving life. And we bring our generations with us, immersing ourselves in loss and memory and the acute understanding that we are mortal. Morality is the demanding consciousness of Yom Kippur, bidding us to live better, deeper, and kinder. From dust. To dust.


Rabbi Karyn D. Kedar is an author, poet, spiritual counselor, inspirational speaker, and rabbi emerita at Congregation B’nai Jehoshua Beth Elohim in Deerfield, IL. She is the author of Omer: A Counting, Amen: Seeking Presence with Prayer, Poetry, and Mindfulness Practice, and Unfolding: A High Holy Day Companion, all from CCAR Press.

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Books CCAR Press

‘A Blessing for the Laborers’ by Rabbi Laura Novak Winer

CCAR Press and Women of Reform Judaism have recently copublished Covenant of Justice: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations from Women of Reform Judaism. This powerful collection amplifies the voices of female, nonbinary, and genderfluid contributors, addressing vital topics such as racial equity, climate justice, gender equality, and reproductive rights. Grounded in the Jewish value of tikkun olam (repairing the world), the book serves as both an inspiring resource and a call to action.

In this excerpt from the volume, Rabbi Laura Novak Winer shares her blessing for those who work in the food industry.

A Blessing for the Laborers

As Jews, we often say a blessing before eating a meal, known as HaMotzi. We thank God for bringing us bread, food, and sustenance. Yet, it is not only God who brings us this sustenance. Shouldn’t it be incumbent upon us to also remember and offer blessings upon those who labored to grow and harvest this food? With these laborers and farmers in mind, I suggest we offer these additional words of thanks and gratitude in our daily prayers and/or as an addition when reciting HaMotzi.

מִי שֶׁבֵּרַךְ אֲבוֹתֵינוּ וְאִמּוֹתֵינוּ יְבָרֵךְ אֶת הָאֲנָשִׁים
שֶׁעוֹבְדִים בְּשָֹדוֹת בַּפַּרְדֵּסִים וּבְבָתֵּי חֲרֹשֶׁת לְהָבִיא
.לָנוּ אֶת הָאֹכֶל הַטָּרִי וְהַבָּרִיא הַזֶּה
Mi shebeirach avoteinu v’imoteinu, y’vareich et haanashim
she-ovdim b’sadot, bapardeisim, uv’vatei charoshet l’havi
lanu et ha-ochel hatari v’habari hazeh.

May the One who blessed our mothers and fathers bless the people who work in the fields, in the orchards, and in the factories in order to bring to us this fresh and healthy food.


Rabbi Dr. Laura Novak Winer, RJE, is the Director of the Master of Educational Leadership program at the HUC-JIR Rhea Hirsch School of Education in Los Angeles, CA. She is a contributor to Covenant of Justice: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations from Women of Reform Judaism.

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Books CCAR Press

Psalms for Our Most Meaningful Moments: Rabbi Jade Sank Ross on ‘To You I Call’

Rabbi Jade Sank Ross is the author of To You I Call: Psalms Throughout Our Lives from CCAR Press. In this interview, she discusses encountering challenging aspects of psalms and how they can provide meaning during significant life moments.

What inspired you to write To You I Call?
To You I Call grew out of my rabbinic capstone project, completed in 2018. What I love most about being a rabbi is making Judaism approachable for people who feel like they don’t know enough or don’t know where to begin. I want people to understand the richness of Jewish tradition, especially its texts, and to feel personally connected with it. As I began serving as a congregational rabbi, I was most often asked questions like: “Is there something I can say when I light a yahrzeit (memorial) candle?” “Is there something authentically Jewish I can say when I am sitting in the waiting room as my doctor reviews my test results?” “It’s the Shabbat after a deeply divisive election. How can I express my relief or despair in a way that is deeply rooted in Jewish tradition, but also responds to the events and emotions of my daily life?” For me, the psalms provided the answers to these questions.

What was the most challenging part of working on this book?
As I worked on this book with the CCAR Press editorial committee, we arranged and rearranged the way that the psalms were organized many times. We reworded the section subjects and the language we used to refer to various moments over years. We assigned moments to psalms and psalms to moments, swapping them around again and again. Making decisions required making assumptions about those using this book, and that was a big challenge!

Additionally, the psalms sometimes contain problematic texts and metaphors that may not speak to us in the twenty-first century. These include, but are not limited to, descriptions of violence, vengeance against enemies, gendered language, and theologies that don’t resonate with our own (for example, Psalm 137:9: “Happy is the one who seizes your children and dashes them against the rock”). When this comes up for me, I often focus on just one or a few verses of a psalm. This approach alleviates tension and allows me to take what I need from the psalms while releasing the problematic texts. I always try to remember too that psalms are poetry, and almost all poetry is metaphor. The beauty of metaphors is that they can be redefined. Ultimately, I see this book as an invitation and a starting point. I hope that it can be a resource and a space to see the psalms as poetry, prayer, and song to inspire readers’ spiritual journeys.

Can you recall a time when a psalm spoke directly to a personal experience?
Psalm 45, which I’ve assigned to the modern life-moment of “holding a child for the first time” (p. 135 in To You I Call), spoke to me on the occasion that my children were held by their great-grandmothers for the first time. My children are named in memory of their great-grandfathers, the deceased beloveds of their living great-grandmothers. I particularly love Rabbi Richard N. Levy’s translation (used in my book) of Psalm 45. It starts as “a song of love” and continues, “a heart bubbling with good…gird yourself with glory and glitter…God has anointed you with oil of joy…” I realized that the imagery of God anointing with oil was familiar to me from Psalm 23. We say Psalm 23 in times of mourning, and Psalm 45, with the same imagery of God anointing with oil, is so strikingly for the exact opposite moment, yet still one borne of overflowing love—here bubbling, glittering, and with the hope of new beginnings.

How do you recommend that readers use To You I Call?
My vision was to make the psalms more accessible and easier to navigate so they could be seamlessly incorporated into moments of prayer and carried anywhere. To achieve this, the seventy-two psalms in the book are divided into six broad categories. Each category is further divided into specific moments and experiences. When reading the psalms, I often find myself focusing on just one or a few verses.

To guide readers, I selected one verse from each psalm included in the book, which is featured in Hebrew and bolded in the English translation. I also wrote kavanot (prayerful intentions) to help connect moments from our lives with these ancient words. Of course, by making these decisions, I made assumptions about the reader’s emotional responses to particular moments. In using this book, you might find these divisions inaccurate or one-dimensional. To help guide readers, I included suggestions in the footnotes of each psalm to at least one other psalm in the book.

I invite you to explore what you are feeling at any moment—beyond the way I’ve divided the contents and beyond the specifics of the occasions identified, even among the remaining seventy-eight psalms that are not included.


Rabbi Jade Sank Ross serves the Community Synagogue in Port Washington, New York. She is the author of To You I Call: Psalms Throughout Our Lives, published by CCAR Press.

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CCAR Press Passover Pesach Poetry

‘Elijah Is with the Hostages’ and ‘Our Story’: Two Poems for Passover

Poet and liturgist Alden Solovy, a CCAR Press author, shares two poems for Passover:

At the end of the Passover Seder, people around the world say that we have told the tale, followed by “next year in Jerusalem.” Few, if any, actually act on that aspiration. In one sense, it is the impossible dream. We all—even those of us who actually reside here—aspire to live in the heavenly Jerusalem, the fantastic, archetypal dream of Messianic wholeness and peace, with the word of God radiating into all of existence. And our story is far, far from completed. I offer this, then, as a new aspiration to add to the end of our Seders. It is, in part a response to October 7, in part a call to remember the long arc of our history. My suggestion: say this prayer-poem followed by “next year in Jerusalem.”

Our Story
Our story is not complete.
Oh no.
There will be more highs
And lows,
But the ending,
Oh my,
Will be tremendous.
This is faith.
Faith knows
That our story is not complete,
And the ending
Is beyond
All our hopes
For joy and wonder.

Elijah Is with the Hostages
Elijah,
The prophet who will announce salvation and peace,
Will not visit your Pesach Seder this year.
Don’t fill the cup. Don’t waste the wine.
The prophet is exhausted,
Pleading with the heavens for the hostages
Pleading the heavens for the displaced,
The grieving and lost.

Find hope in your own hands,
In deeds of repairing the world
And acts of lovingkindness.

Elijah is not coming to your Seder.
The work of healing the world,
And bringing redemption,
He has left to us.



Alden Solovy is a liturgist and rabbinic student based in Jerusalem. He is the author of This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New DayThis Joyous Soul: A New Voice for Ancient YearningsThis Precious Life: Encountering the Divine in Poetry and PrayerThese Words: Poetic Midrash on the Language of Torahand Enter These Gates: Meditations for the Days of Aweall published by CCAR Press. His poetry can also be found at ToBendLight.com.

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Books CCAR Press Poetry

‘Planting Evermore’ by Rabbi Heather Miller

CCAR Press and Women of Reform Judaism have copublished Covenant of Justice: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations from Women of Reform Judaism. This powerful collection amplifies the voices of female, nonbinary, and genderfluid contributors, addressing vital topics such as racial equity, climate justice, gender equality, and reproductive rights. Grounded in the Jewish value of tikkun olam (repairing the world), the book serves as both an inspiring resource and a call to action.

In this excerpt from the volume, Rabbi Heather Miller shares her poem, which presents planting as a metaphor for tikkun olam.

Planting Evermore

There is earth under my fingernails.
Just like the ones who came before me
and those who came before them as well.

We are a people who work the land.
Tilling it with swing after swing of sharp objects
under the blazing sun.

We are committed to the blistering work,
dedicated to the process of opening things up.
Dedicated to transforming hardened land to
soft earth ready to receive seeds. The seeds
of all that we wish to grow. Seeds of compassion.
Seeds of intellect. Seeds of justice.

We tend the land knowing that it demands of us
the keenest of attention.
We remember when once something else got
in the way. And our labors were lost.
As if erased by entropy encroaching in.

And so we plow and till and plant and tend.
Diligently.
The seeds of compassion, intellect, and justice.
And we wait patiently for the fruits of our labors,
sweet peace, to ripen on the branch,
for all children to taste.


Rabbi Heather Miller is the founder of Keeping It Sacred, a global progressive Jewish community dedicated to exploring sacred Jewish texts, deep learning experiences, ritual practice, and the pursuit of social justice. She is a contributor to Covenant of Justice: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations from Women of Reform Judaism.

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Books CCAR Press Passover

How to Design an Inclusive Seder: Alan S. Yoffie on ‘Sharing the Journey’

Alan S. Yoffie is the author of Sharing the Journey: The Haggadah for the Contemporary Family, published by CCAR Press. In this interview, he shares insights on creating a meaningful and inclusive Passover experience.

What inspired you to create Sharing the Journey: The Haggadah for the Contemporary Family?
When my son, a recent college graduate, announced that he was bringing a young woman of another faith to our seder, I wanted her to be comfortable with our traditions and to embrace our family’s celebration of freedom. When I was not able to find a Haggadah with a special focus on the inclusion of persons of other faiths, I decided to create one.   

Was there something new you learned while working on the book?
We tell the story of the Exodus using symbols—some traditional and some new ones reflecting our contemporary times. A symbol I included in the Haggadah that I had not used in my family seders was the return of the second half of the middle matzah to the seder plate as a symbol of hope for the oppressed and a symbol of the responsibilities of freedom for free people. 

Sharing the Journey was illustrated by Mark Podwal, z”l. What role does the artwork play in the Haggadah?
My goal for artwork for Sharing the Journey was to amplify the voice of the text, add richness and beauty to the seder, and for the artwork to be a learning tool that encouraged seder participation and discussion. I was fortunate that a library curator at Yale University was able to provide me with the contact information for Mark Podwal, a prize-winning artist with a strong color palette, a sense of Jewish history and a demonstrated ability to tell stories through his artwork. His illustrations greatly enhance the Sharing the Journey seder experience.

What are some tips for creating Passover seders that are engaging and meaningful for all ages?
Welcome a little chaos while engaging children and encouraging discussion. Introduce a contemporary reading or question about freedom every year. At the conclusion of the seder, ask everyone (who is willing) to share a blessing they have received or a special family memory of Passover. Make the story of the Exodus your own. 


Alan S. Yoffie is the author of Sharing the Journey: The Haggadah for the Contemporary Family published by CCAR Press. Mr. Yoffie wrote The Seder Leader’s Guide, also available from CCAR Press, which includes two CDs (instrumental and vocal) that provide a “musical companion” for the Seder.   

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Books CCAR Press

Author Interview with Rabbi Mary L. Zamore: ‘The Sacred Table: Creating a Jewish Food Ethic’

Rabbi Mary L. Zamore is the editor of The Sacred Table: Creating a Jewish Food Ethic from CCAR Press. In this interview, she shares the lessons the volume teaches us as we look forward to celebrating Tu BiSh’vat.

What inspired you to edit The Sacred Table: Creating a Jewish Food Ethic?

The Sacred Table was the result of my deep involvement in the modern Jewish food movement, which included my serving a mashgichah, a supervisor for a kosher bakery. I also was part of a thought leadership group assembled by the CCAR to examine for the Reform Movement the role of ethics, traditional Jewish teachings, spirituality, and other dietary practices. The Sacred Table was my answer— an anthology to provide the material for educated choices.

Was there something new you learned while working on this project?

The fun part of editing an anthology is that you can assemble your dream team of scholars and experts. The knowledge and points of view far exceed what any one author can offer. Every author expanded my learning and passion for the topic.

What lessons does The Sacred Table teach as we look forward to celebrating Tu BiSh’vat?

When people think of Jewish dietary practices, they usually focus on keeping kosher. Jewish ritual practices are only a fraction of the rich spectrum of food related teachings. The modern observance of Tu BiSh’vat draws our attention to our relationship to the earth. The Sacred Table challenges individuals and communities to consider the impact of our food choices on the environment.

The Sacred Table was published in 2011. Does the book speak differently to us today?

I feel The Sacred Table has only become more relevant with every year, as the human relationship with food and its production has become more broken. The book provides approachable chapters, including shorter narratives, to explore ritual, spirituality, and Jewish teachings on the treatment of workers, animals, the environment, feeding the hungry, and personal health. It creates a beautiful opportunity to learn from Jewish tradition and adapt these teachings to our modern tables.


Rabbi Mary L. Zamore is the executive director of the Women’s Rabbinic Network. She is the editor of The Sacred Table: Creating a Jewish Food Ethic and The Sacred Exchange: Creating a Jewish Money Ethic, both published by CCAR Press.

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Books CCAR Press

Creating a Nuanced Biography of Rabbi Alexander Schindler, Who Shaped Today’s Reform Judaism

Michael A. Meyer is the author of Above All, We Are Jews: A Biography of Rabbi Alexander Schindler, now available from CCAR Press. In this excerpt from the preface, he highlights the life and legacy of one of Reform Judaism’s most impactful leaders.

Rabbi Alexander Moshe Schindler (1925–2000) was a central figure within American Judaism whose significance has yet to be fully understood. His successor as president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC, now called Union for Reform Judaism, or URJ), Rabbi Eric Yoffie, believes he was the “last great national leader of American Jewry.”1 His good friend for many years but frequent political adversary, Henry Kissinger, called him “a preeminent figure of conscience and leadership, not only within the American Jewish community, but for all concerned with human issues around the globe.”2

It was Alexander Schindler who brought Reform Judaism to the height of its influence. Within a favorable American environment, his charisma and vision allowed it to grow to its maximum size and energy. Whereas other well-known Reform Jews of the twentieth century, such as Rabbis Stephen Wise and Abba Hillel Silver, gained their fame on account of their Zionist advocacy, Schindler’s reputation rests in large measure upon his activism within the congregational union of Reform Judaism.

With passion and effect, he brought into existence an institutional structure that reached out to Jews on the periphery of Jewish life and welcomed them into the religious community. Unafraid of lively debate—indeed nourishing it—he recognized that the unprecedented increase in interfaith marriages demanded acceptance of the intermarried rather than rejection if Jewish life within an enticing American society were to flourish. Although more traditional Jews objected vociferously, he advocated acceptance of patrilineal descent as a marker of Jewishness so that children whose fathers alone were Jewish would not be lost to the faith. Though with less success, he likewise sought to strengthen the Jewish community with an influx of non-Jews coming from outside its sphere, who would be drawn to its faith and customs.

Schindler was a highly controversial figure not only with regard to the institutional changes he advocated within Reform Judaism but also with regard to his independent stand in relation to the policies of Israel. He was the first Reform leader to also be a principal leader of American Jewry as a whole. Elected as a Reform rabbi to chair the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in 1976, he was widely respected across the religious spectrum. When, during Schindler’s term as chair, Menachem Begin was elected prime minister of Israel, Schindler was able—against all expectations—to bridge the gap between a liberal American Jewry and a prime minister whose views on the State of Israel lay far to the right. Schindler’s own opinions on Israel combined a deeply felt Zionism with a willingness to discard a tradition that American Jews should always blindly accept current Israeli policies. He saw the Diaspora as having an ineluctable responsibility to share in shaping the Israeli future.

He was a talented and effective speaker, listened to by his rabbinical colleagues, by the Reform laity, and by government officials in the United States and Israel. By conviction and practice a Reform Jew and critical of Orthodox rigidity, he nonetheless regarded other forms of Judaism with due respect. He defined himself and wanted to be remembered as an ohev Yisrael, a lover of the Jewish people in its totality.

Unafraid of espousing causes unpopular among many American Jews and non-Jews, Schindler spoke out for LGBTQ rights, full racial equality, and a clear separation of church and state. He had close connections with a range of key civil rights leaders, including Jesse Jackson, Andrew Young, Roy Wilkins, and Bayard Rustin. Never cowed into suppressing his opinions, he dealt forcefully with American presidents and legislators.

Yet, despite these markers of significance, to this day there is no published Schindler biography.3 I have given voice not only to Schindler’s admirers but also to those who were critical of him or his policies. Here and there I have also included my own critical remarks. Like all significant figures, Schindler had professional and personal shortcomings. Despite my respect for him as a person and a leader, I have sought to achieve a balanced account. It is my hope that these pages will enable future generations to better judge and appreciate Rabbi Schindler’s place in Jewish history.

Notes

1. Conversation with Rabbi Eric Yoffie on November 27, 2022.

2. Henry A. Kissinger, “A Tribute,” in The Jewish Condition: Essays on Contemporary Judaism Honoring Rabbi Alexander M. Schindler, ed. Aron Hirt-Manheimer (New York: UAHC Press, 1995), ix.

3. There are, however, at the Klau Library of Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati two unpublished rabbinical theses that deal with aspects of Schindler’s career: Karen Companez, “Rabbi Alexander M. Schindler: A Thematic Biography” (2002) and Lynne Goldsmith, “Bridge to the Future: Alexander Schindler and His Influence on the Development of Reform Judaism’s Outreach Program” (2007).


Michael A. Meyer holds a doctorate in Jewish history from Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, where he served as professor of Jewish history for fifty years. He is the author of Above All, We Are Jews: A Biography of Rabbi Alexander Schindler from CCAR Press.