Rabbi Jon 's Website and Blog

New web host, new look! Bear with me while I set things up and make sure the content and links I had before are updated in the coming weeks.

Equality

April 25, 2023

Israel’s Declaration of Independence

I am posting this on the eve of Israel’s 75th anniversary of independence. The translation is based on what I found on the Israeli Knesset website with my own revisions to bring the words closer to the Hebrew at the sacrifice occasionally of an equivalent… Continue reading

Calendar, Current Affairs, Equality, Freedom, History, Holidays, Holocaust, Israel, Justice, Peace, Prophets, Tzedek, Yom Haatzmaut
July 26, 2022

More Daughters of Tzelophechad, Less Pinchas: How to Stand Up Today

This is my D'var Torah from last Shabbat, Saturday, July 23, 2022. “It’s not a movement if everyone’s just sitting.” That’s a line from a conversation between then-Professor Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her 15-year-old daughter Jane in the film On the Basis of Sex, which is partly the story of how RBG, zichrona livracha, came… Continue reading

Community Relations, Current Affairs, Equality, Feminism, Gender, Inclusion, Justice, Leadership, Midrash, Moshe, Parashat Hashavua, Patience, Peace, Pinchas, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedek, USA
June 28, 2022

The Latest Religion and Schools Supreme Court Decision (and No More Government Benedictions for Me)

Posted June 27, 2022 on Facebook, so not quite as tight as what I usually write. This is what the top of my head looks like today and through next Monday at least, July 4. No matter what’s happened recently, I am celebrating our independence, freedom, and democracy, and wearing that above me as… Continue reading

#integratingamerica, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Education, Equality, Freedom, History, Inclusion, Interfaith Dialogue, Justice, Leadership, Peace, Speech Ethics, Tzedek, USA, Youth
June 23, 2022

The Supreme Court This Term, Religion and Abortion

This isn’t the absolute center of the issue around abortion and the Supreme Court. But the issues in this article in Slate are important, particularly as the Court has ruled also this week in the Maine school case and potentially will soon rule in the high school coach prayer case. The headline is both spot… Continue reading

Bioethics, Community Relations, Conservative Judaism, Current Affairs, End of Life, Equality, Ethics, Feminism, Freedom, History, Inclusion, Interfaith Dialogue, Justice, LGBTQ+, Theology, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedek, USA
June 20, 2022

In the Midst, All at Once: A Torah for Pride 5782

This was the D'var Torah I gave for Parashat B’haalotcha on June 18, 2022. When the same passage of Torah comes at you from four different sources the same week, you have to pay attention. I always look forward to Parashat B’haalotcha because it’s the start of the frisky Torah, the Torah of complaining. It’s… Continue reading

B’haalotcha, Conservative Judaism, Current Affairs, Education, Equality, Ethics, GLBT, Inclusion, Jewish Education, Justice, LGBTQ+, Parashat Hashavua, Synagogue, Temple Beth Abraham, Teshuvah, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedek, USA, Young Jewish Adult, Youth
May 5, 2022

Being an American Zionist

This is the text of a column i wrote in the New Hampshire Jewish Reporter for December 2021. I am posting this today on Yom Ha'atzmaut, Israel's Independence Day. I have been a Zionist since I was a kid. I didn’t become an American Zionist, though, until I was 22. That was when I decided… Continue reading

Calendar, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Environment, Equality, Ethics, Feminism, Freedom, History, Holidays, Israel, Jerusalem, Peace, Terrorism, Tikkun Olam, Tzedek, USA, Yom Haatzmaut
February 24, 2022

My Testimony on “Divisive Concepts”

I testified at two committees of the New Hampshire legislature on bills to change or repeal our new "divisive concepts" law — Senate Judiciary and House Education. I said essentially the same things at both hearings. Here it is, video and my written statement (they are the same). Mr. Chairman and Honored Representatives: Thank… Continue reading

#integratingamerica, 9/11, Antisemitism, Books, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Education, Equality, Ethics, Freedom, History, Holocaust, Hope, Immigration, Inclusion, Interfaith Dialogue, Jewish Education, Justice, Leadership, Study, Taking Sides, Teacher-Student Relationship, Tikkun Olam, Tzedek, USA, Youth
January 27, 2022

International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The day was chosen by the UN because it is the day in 1945 when the death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau was finally liberated after the world woke up too late to the extent of Nazi atrocities. In 1942, a week earlier in the calendar, the Nazi leadership had convened… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Calendar, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Education, Equality, Ethics, GLBT, History, Holocaust, Inclusion, Justice, Leadership, Shoah, Tikkun Olam, Tzedek, USA, Yom Hashoah, Youth
September 23, 2021

Integrating America: What I Hope To Get From This Year

Assignment: Complete this thought — "I am about to begin a year of study about America…" This is the final bit of preliminaries, before delving into history and literature. I wanted to put down a few of my own goals in taking a sustained, hopefully deep survey of American history since colonial times.… Continue reading

#integratingamerica, Books, Current Affairs, Education, Equality, Freedom, History, Hope, Immigration, Inclusion, Jewish Education, Justice, Study, Tikkun Olam, Tzedek, USA, Youth
September 13, 2021

Integrating America: The Original Horatio Alger Story

Assignment: Horatio Alger's novel Ragged Dick What motivates Dick when he faces key decisions? Who are his mentors and role models? What kinds of characters come across as "bad guys" and bad influences? Is America a place that really works the way Alger presents? ——— We started the course at least once with a… Continue reading

#integratingamerica, Books, Current Affairs, Education, Equality, Freedom, History, Middot, Money, USA, Youth
September 10, 2021

Integrating America: The Connected Critic

Leslie and I experimented with the readings for a short opening unit on how to study America. I advocated the first year for excerpts from the political philosopher Michael Walzer's Interpretation and Social Criticism. Walzer articulated the idea of the "connected critic", someone who was inside a society enough to be committed to its people and its… Continue reading

#integratingamerica, Books, Current Affairs, Education, Equality, Ethics, Freedom, History, Inclusion, Jewish Education, Justice, Study, Teens, Tikkun Olam, Tzedek, USA, Youth
September 9, 2021

“Integrating America” Revisited

#integratingamericaOops, I posted two items out of order! Two months ago I posted an almost-vow, and in the Jewish year we're headed into the season when we think about our vows… In reflecting on my state's new law around teaching about controversial topics, I suggested in July I might go back this year and… Continue reading

#integratingamerica, Current Affairs, Education, Equality, Freedom, History, Inclusion, Justice, Study, Teens, Tikkun Olam, Tzedek, USA, Youth