sid.schwarz Articles Covid 19, Dayenu, Elijah the Prophet, layers of meaning, Pesach, Rituals, symbolism of ancient rituals
Pesach is a time of the year when I am, once again, overwhelmed by the beauty of our tradition’s sacred texts, liturgy and rituals. They are prisms of meaning. For generations, Jews used these sacred texts and rituals to give meaning to their life experience. More frequently than not, the life experiences of our ancestors […]
sid.schwarz Articles Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation, Beth Israel, Clergy Leadership Incubator, Finding a Spiritual Home, Kenissa: Communities of Meaning Network, PANIM: The Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values, Rabbinate, René Cassin Fellowship Program, RRC, Vocation
There is a delicious irony in being asked to write the lead article for an issue devoted to “Joy in the Rabbinate” as I mark 40 years since being ordained. I say that because if one were to read the essay that accompanied my application to RRC in 1975 it could well have been titled […]
sid.schwarz Articles Beth Cousens, Debbie Friedman, Eric Fingerhut, FedLab, Jewish Federations of North America;, Jewish innovation, Jewish start-ups, Kenissa: Communities of Meaning Network, Naomi Less, Rabbi Isaiah Rothstein
In the opening chapter of my book, Finding a Spiritual Home: How a New Generation of Jews can Transform the American Synagogue (Jewish Lights, 2000), I share a vignette from a moment at the 1995 General Assembly of the Council of Jewish Federations (now called the Jewish Federations of North America or JFNA) that took […]
sid.schwarz Articles Climate Crisis, Complicity, Donald Trump, Greta Thunberg, Holocaust, Me Too Movement, Raoul Wallenberg, Republicans, Rescue of Danish Jewry, Yom Kippur
Because it is Kol Nidre, it seems appropriate to start with a confession. But my confession will be made much easier based on an informal poll of the room: How many of you read Superman comic books when you were growing up? My confession: At the age of 10, I avoided books like the plague […]
sid.schwarz Articles creativity, innovation, Jewish community, Kenissa, portals of Jewish life, re-imagining Jewish communal life
I have spent a considerable amount of my professional time over the past twenty years in the field of synagogue transformation. In my book, Finding a Spiritual Home: How a New Generation of Jews can Transform the American Synagogue, I argued that the American synagogue was stuck in a model that developed in the two […]
sid.schwarz Articles community service, developing world, Haiti, Jewish education, Jewish service missions, Jewish spirituality, service learning, tikkun olam
When I accepted an invitation from the Israeli organization, Tevel B’Tzedek, to travel to Haiti a few months after the devastating earthquake in 2010 and to do some teaching for their disaster-relief team on the ground, little did I know that it would lead to one of the most fulfilling projects of my rabbinic career. […]
sid.schwarz Articles Christine Blasy Ford, feminism, human dignity, Kavanaugh nomination, MeToo Movement, oppression of women, Patriarachy, tzelem elohim
The testimony of Christine Blasy Ford to the Senate Judiciary Committee followed by that of Brett Kavanaugh captured the attention of the nation. We know that the surfacing of various accusations against Brett Kavanaugh by several women and the corroboration of his party-going and beer drinking during high school and college was not sufficient to […]
sid.schwarz Sermons and Speeches American civic division, assault on truth, chesed, erosion of American democracy, healing the American divide, kindness, Mr. Rogers
It seems appropriate to begin a Kol Nidre sermon with a small confession. The standard conversation starter in American society is: “How are you doing?” How many times are you asked that question each year? Hundreds of times. Maybe more. There probably is an App that can count it, but please don’t tell me what […]
sid.schwarz Articles communities of meaning, emerging Jewish communities, innovation, intentional communities, Jewish community, Jewish identity, social entrepreneurship
I recently was invited to make a presentation to deans from eight different rabbinical seminaries. The topic was how to better equip their students with some tools so that they can be more successful at driving innovation in the institutions that they will serve in the future. I observed that when I founded a synagogue […]
sid.schwarz Articles community building, developing world, Haiti, Jews, Jews with hammers, service learning
When I accepted an invitation from the Israeli organization, Tevel B’Tzedek, to travel to Haiti about a year after the devastating earthquake in 2010 to do some teaching for their disaster relief team on the ground, little did I know that it would lead to one of the most fulfilling projects of my rabbinic career. […]