WUPJ Library

Recent Issues By: Rabbi Dr. Walter Rothschild, Rabbi of ‘ Or Chadasch ‘ Liberal Jewish Community, Vienna, Austria ”These are the commandments and the ordinances which the Lord commanded Moses to the people of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.” With these words the Book of Numbers ends – Bamidbar, […]

Recent Issues Parshat Matot-Massei (Numbers 30:2-36:13) By: Rabbi Dr. Walter Rothschild is Rabbi of ‘Or Chadasch’ Liberal congregation , Vienna, Austria. Although this double-sidra includes many fascinating topics – cities of refuge, female inheritance rights and more – my eye was drawn to a less dramatic verse: Numbers 34:16f.: ”And God spoke to Moses: These […]

by Rabbi Haim Shalom, Jerusalem Campus Director of Outreach and Recruitment, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion This week’s parashah, Masei, meaning “The Journeys of” [the children of Israel] is an apt one to finish the book of Numbers: throughout the book, the children of Israel have been on a journey – traversing the desert, […]

by Rabbi Billy Dreskin, Woodlands Community Temple , White Plains, NY I love the story of the daughters of Tz’lophekhad.  I mean, since when do women catch a break in the Torah?  And not only do these ladies get a hearing from Moses, but the names of all five daughters are mentioned three times in […]

Recent Issues By: Rabbi Jonathan E. Blake, senior rabbi of Westchester Reform Temple in Scarsdale, New York, USA Morality in War, Then and Now I first wrote about Parashat Matot in 2008 for the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) Reform Voices of Torah online column. My comments here draw substantially on those remarks published earlier, […]

Recent Issues Parshat Matot-Massei (Numbers 30:2-36:13) By: Rabbi Dr. Walter Rothschild is Rabbi of ‘Or Chadasch’ Liberal congregation , Vienna, Austria. Although this double-sidra includes many fascinating topics – cities of refuge, female inheritance rights and more – my eye was drawn to a less dramatic verse: Numbers 34:16f.: ”And God spoke to Moses: These […]

By Rabbi Mindy Avra Portnoy, Rabbi Emerita, Temple Sinai , Washington, DC It’s almost the end of the journey – 40 long years of wandering, one generation with dim memories of slavery and a miraculous redemption; the other, born in the midbar , the wilderness, ready to get on with it, yet filled with fears […]

by Rabbi Alan David Londy, D.Min., New Reform Temple , Kansas City, MO Zionism was always intended to bring Jewish unity. The Zionist movement has its roots in our ancient vision of a messianic reunification of the dispersed Jews throughout the world. This ingathering of the Jews is more than bringing all Jews to one […]

by Rabbi Dr. Deborah Kahn-Harris, Principal, Leo Baeck College , London, UK I was about eight years old when I started refusing to do the pledge of allegiance at school. At the Jewish day school in Houston I attended growing up, the American flag was raised daily, and we were asked to place our hands […]

Recent Issues By: Rabbi Danny Burkeman, Rabbi at the Community Synagogue in Port Washington, New York, USA. He is a former Board member of the World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ) Dealing with Religious Extremism It’s not easy being a religious person today. I often worry that religion as a whole gets very bad press […]

Recent Issues Parashat Pinchas (Numbers 25:10-30:1) By: Rabbi Rene Pfertzel, Keren Or, Lyon, France and Finchley Progressive Synagogue, London, UK Religion has a very bad reputation nowadays. Dreadful actions are perpetrated in the name of religion, not only in the Middle East, but also in our developed, well-educated first world. Religion is used as a […]

Recent Issues by Rabbi Dr. Gábor Lengyel, Kehilat Ez Chajim , Hanover, Germany, and Guest Lecturer at the Leibniz University, Hanover Parashat Pinchas is a very difficult chapter where Pinchas, the priest, plays the leading role. It was Pinchas who, towards the end of the wandering through the desert, put an end to the immoral ways […]