Rabbi Sid Schwarz
Rabbi, social entrepreneur, non-profit CEO, author
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December 8, 2020

Wrestling with our Demons

sid.schwarz Articles blessings, face to face, God Wrestling, panim el panim, reconciliation, Self-doubt;, stealing the birthright, unconditional love, vulnerability

Genesis Ch. 32 contains the well-known story of Jacob’s night of wrestling the angel in advance of his reunion with his brother Esau. They have not seen each other since Jacob stole Esau’s birthright and ran away to save himself from Esau’s potential revenge. It is tempting to use the story as a lesson about […]

November 10, 2020

A Rabbinic Call to Uphold Truth and Democracy

sid.schwarz Articles assault on truth, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, moral courage, rabbinic courage, truth, US elections; democracy

By Rabbis Sharon Brous, Laura Geller, Jack Moline, Sid Schwarz and Shmuly Yanklowitz

To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven.  This political moment is a time for rabbis and clergy of all faiths to speak out forcefully to protect both truth and democracy.

October 17, 2020

Jewish Communities of Meaning: An Emerging Trend

sid.schwarz Articles communities of meaning, Covid 19, emerging Jewish communities, Jewish community, Jewish Federations, Jewish identity, Jewish start-ups, Kenissa: Communities of Meaning Network, legacy Jewish organizations

I have spent a considerable amount of time over the past 20 years in the synagogue transformation space.  I currently direct CLI, a two-year fellowship for rabbis on visionary thinking and change management. On our website, we curate a monthly synagogue innovation blog which includes some truly transformational ideas that are re-imagining synagogues for the […]

September 29, 2020

Longing for Face Time

sid.schwarz Articles Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation, American tribalism, Beloved Community, compassion, covenantal community, Covid 19, Eclipse of God, Emmanuel Levinas, Face Time, Golden Rule, holy community, Ira Eisenstein, Martin Buber, panim el panim, PANIM: The Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values, reaching out to the "other"

Every good sermon has at least one compelling metaphor. Here is mine for this evening; it is visual (a camera shot of the empty sanctuary). When I learned back in July that Adat Shalom would only be holding remote services for the High Holydays, I was overtaken by a deep sadness that I felt in […]

June 28, 2020

Jews and Racial Justice: Making Amends or Avoiding Responsibility?

sid.schwarz Articles Blacks; African-Americans; Communities of Color; Dr. Martin Luther King, civil rights, racial justice

David Axelrod, a former top aide to President Barack Obama often credited with masterminding his two successful campaigns for the presidency, recently published a column in The Washington Post that hit me between the eyes and sat heavily on my heart. Axelrod and I about the same age. He was too young to have been active in […]

May 18, 2020

Synagogue Innovation in the Age of Corona

sid.schwarz Articles Adaptive Leadership, Clergy Leadership Incubator, CLI, Coronavirus, Covid 19, Pandemic, rabbis, religious innovation, Synagogue innovation

I know that I am not alone in being impressed at how quickly the Jewish community was able to provide program content via the web as much of North America moved to “shelter in place.” As we begin to adjust to our new, surreal lives, more is being written about the shape of our post-pandemic […]

April 13, 2020

Pesach in a Time of Pandemic

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 […]

February 4, 2020

Joy in the Rabbinate

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 […]

November 21, 2019

JFNAs Remarkable Pivot, and Me

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 […]

November 3, 2019

The Complicity Trap

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 […]

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