Rabbi Sid Schwarz
Rabbi, social entrepreneur, non-profit CEO, author
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January 7, 2015

Climate, Shmita and Consumption

sid.schwarz Articles Ecology, Environment, Shmita, Sustainability

There are times when even atheists have trouble denying that there is a “hand of God” at work in history. How else to explain the coincidence of the largest ever gathering of humanity to assemble around the world to highlight the urgency of global action on climate change the week before Rosh haShana 5775, a […]

December 7, 2014

Judaism’s Moral Imperative to End Poverty

sid.schwarz Sermons and Speeches Bible, Poverty, World Poverty

This talk was delivered at the annual meeting of the World Bank held in Washington D.C. in October 2014. Rabbi Sid was part of a panel of clergy that was invited to offer their respective faith tradition’s approach to poverty *** Judaism is a tradition of text and interpretation. The Torah, or the Five Books […]

December 7, 2014

Hanukkah and Human Rights

sid.schwarz Articles Hanukkah, human rights

Normally we think of human rights in an international context. But recent events in our country have highlighted how the human rights of African Americans are routinely violated by police departments all around the country. White America may now be waking up to a reality that Black America has lived with for decades. Some of […]

October 17, 2014

Memory and Identity-A Kol Nidre sermon

sid.schwarz Sermons and Speeches Identity, Kol Nidre, Memory, sermons

I’ve been thinking a lot about memory recently, but I can’t remember why. Sorry. That is a cheap laugh. Here is a better one. Three elderly people are sharing with one another the trials of aging. One says: “Sometimes I catch myself standing in front of the refrigerator with a jar of mayonnaise in my […]

October 9, 2014

Israel: A Season of Reckoning

sid.schwarz Articles human rights, Israel, social justice

The season of reckoning is upon us. For Jews, the sentiment will likely evoke thoughts of the upcoming Days of Awe. Both the Hebrew month of Elul and then the ten days of repentance that starts with Rosh HaShana and ends with Yom Kippur is the time when Jews are called upon to go into […]

June 5, 2014

Can Zionism be the Answer?

sid.schwarz Articles Israel, Jewish people, Next Gen Jews, Zionism

Students of American Jewry often point to 1967 as a watershed in the evolution of the American Jewish community. The anxiety that American Jews felt in the weeks leading up to the Six Day War was palpable. There was no evidence that Israel could defend itself against any concerted Arab military assault, no less a […]

April 21, 2014

Loyalty, Truth and Freedom of Expression

sid.schwarz Articles art, censorship, Israel, Jewish community, theater

Given the controversy surrounding Theater J’s production of Motti Lerner’s play, The Admission, at the DCJCC, I expected a full scale indictment of Israel’s conduct during the 1948 War of Independence. Instead I encountered a play that probed the complexity of war, politics, memory, ethnic identity, love and survival with astounding sensitivity and nuance. Ever […]

March 18, 2014

A Jewish Approach to the “Differently-Abled”

sid.schwarz Articles, Sermons and Speeches Disability, Jewish views

I did not know a thing about Jewish Disability Awareness Month (JDAM) until a member of my synagogue called and told me that she was going to make it happen at our congregation. As the founding rabbi of Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation in Bethesda, MD, I still periodically lead services. It was determined by the […]

February 24, 2014

Limiting Debate on Israel Will Only Hurt Us

sid.schwarz Articles

The current controversy brewing in the Hillel universe is only the latest example of a Jewish community polarized over how we can or can’t talk about Israel. The guidelines, developed by national Hillel in 2010, were designed to provide a basis upon which a local Hillel could prevent overtly anti-Israel groups from speaking under the […]

February 7, 2014

Does Jewish Renewal Have a Future?

sid.schwarz Articles, Featured, Megatrends Book Tour

I recently had the opportunity to spend some time at the annual gathering of Ohala, the rabbinical association of the Jewish Renewal movement, and at a shabbaton led by students studying at Aleph, the rabbinical training program of the movement. Although I knew quite a few people at the conference, I came as an outsider. I […]

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