Sublime

“All Israelites are responsible for one another” (Shevuot 39a).

Jews-by-choice also bring with them a unique passion for Judaism. Many speak of “falling in love” with Judaism for a variety of reasons: because it invites them to wrestle with God, because it identifies the home as a sanctuary, because Judaism is inseparable from a call to social justice. For born-Jews whose Jewish education and connection stopped

The Mosaic books see the family as the great educational institution. The Babylonian exile added the synagogue. The period between the Maccabean uprising and the fall of Jerusalem saw the emergence of three other intellectual centers: the academy or yeshivah, the bet midrash or house of study, and the school. The school was for children, the bet mi

Natan Sharansky, a world-renowned human rights activist

Questioning, debating, and interpreting aren’t merely tolerated in Judaism—this is Judaism, and this process is the key not just to our survival, but to our success as well.

I believe the core reason Hadar succeeded is because it did not attempt a big-picture reinvention of Jewish tradition or practice.

shifting the operative frame of the American Jewish experience from one of institutional preservation to one of communal empowerment.

With the ease of communication through e-mail, Hadar made sure to add another forum: a personal thank-you via e-mail to each volunteer. This became a signature feature of volunteering at Hadar

Our interpretive tradition is the reason why Judaism still exists—the reason why I am here today typing these words—and it is the tradition that I honor as I type them.