WUPJ Library

Tekiah, Shevarim, Teruah / commentary for Rosh Hashana by Rabbi Michel Schlesinger, Congregação Israelita Paulista (CIP) (for the Portuguese version, please scroll down or click here ) Of all the symbols related to the High Holidays, the shofar is the one which draws most of our attention. This ancient musical instrument was used in biblical […]

How many lies are contained in the phrase “A mosque at ground zero”? Erev Rosh HaShana 5771 by Rabbi Gary M. Bretton-Granatoor, Vice President, World Union for Progressive Judaism / Congregation Da’at Elohim – The Temple of Universal Judaism, New York City There is something very strange and wonderful about this scene.  In fact, what we […]

“The Islamic Cultural Center in My Jewish New Year’s Prayers” – on Akedat Yitzchak (Genesis 22:1-24) By Rabbi Mark L. Winer, Senior Rabbi, West London Synagogue At the season of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hoshana, a time for taking stock has been established.  God commands us as Jews to confront the world in which […]

By: Rabbi Ferenc Raj, PhD Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Beth El, Berkeley, CA, USA; Founding Rabbi, Congregation Bet Orim, Budapest, Hungary Jewish Memories “Our existence is not in vain. There is a Divine earnestness about our life. This is our dignity. To be invested with dignity means to represent something more than oneself. The gravest […]

Recent Issues By Rabbi Paul (Shaul) R Feinberg, PhD, Associate Dean, Emeritus and Adjunct Associate Professor of Education, Emeritus, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion , Jerusalem, Israel. “The last word has not been spoken, The last sentence has not been written The final verdict is not in It is never too late to change […]

by Rabbi Ann B. Folb, Arlington, VA Ha’azinu , “pay attention,” “give ear”, and so begins the Torah portion which is the last to be assigned for Shabbat morning during our liturgical year. We have come almost full circle in our readings. Chapters 33 and 34 are read on Simchat Torah morning. Moses has been […]

Recent Issues By: Rabbi Bennett F. Miller, Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple , New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA Change is Certain; Don’t take surveys: and Don’t be dismayed! Ah! The parashah between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur! In the midst of the time of the year when we are considering “who will live and who will […]

Recent Issues By Rabbi Gary A. Glickstein, Temple Beth Sholom , USA Will you sing about me when I’m gone The rapper Kendrick Lamar recorded a song he wrote with Marilyn and Alan Bergman and Quincy Jones. The words Lamar raps relate mostly to a world you and I only read about in the news […]

By Rabbi Y. Lindsey bat Joseph, Executive Director, Sol Mark Centre for Jewish Excellence Vayeilech is the shortest sidrah in the Torah. Covering just one chapter in Deuteronomy, in the annual reading cycle it is often paired with the preceding sidrah Nitzavim from which many Reform synagogues read on Yom Kippur morning. Vayeilech opens with […]

Recent Issues By: Rabbi Phil Cohen Ph.D, Rabbi of Temple Israel , West Lafayette, Indiana, USA Atem nitzavim hayom kulchem lifnei Adonai Eloheichem (Deuteronomy 29:9)/ Thus begins this week’s sidrah . All of you, from all levels of society, stand here today at the river’s edge in the presence of God. All of you have […]

Jews of all denominations tend to talk about ourselves in collective terms: ‘Progressive Jews’; ‘Liberal Jews’; ‘Reform Jews’; ‘Reconstructionist Jews’; ‘Orthodox Jews’; ‘Chassidic Jews’; ‘Secular Jews’; ‘Cultural Jews’; ‘Socialist Jews’; ‘Radical Jews’ … Some of these terms connect with actual organisational structures – like the ‘World Union for Progressive Judaism’. Meanwhile, ‘Chassidic Jews’, for example, […]

There are parts of the Torah that catch our eye just because of the way they are inscribed on the scroll itself. Key letters are adorned with ‘crowns’, sometimes extra dots appear above words and in some cases letters are enlarged. In this week’s Torah portion, Nitzavim-Vayeilech, there are unusual dots over the words lanu […]