Inclusion – Rabbi Jon 's Website and Blog

July 10, 2026

Solidarity Is an Extra Oath (Mattot/Mas’ei 5781/2021)

This was my D’var Torah for July 10, 2021, Parashyiot Mattot-Mas’ei. The opening refers to the phase of the Covid-19 pandemic we were in at the time. About six weeks ago, I flew to Minnesota to see my parents. Laurie and I made calculations, which we’re pretty strict about — about sitting crunched between two… Continue reading

B’midbar, Coronavirus, Current Affairs, Ethics, Inclusion, Leadership, Mas’ei, Mattot, Middot, Numbers, Parashat Hashavua, USA, Youth

Solidarity

July 2, 2026

A Jewish Leap of Faith Into Our Democracy (Yom Kippur 5783/2022)

This was my Yom Kippur morning sermon for 5783 (2022). As with other Yom Kippur morning words of mine, I was speaking right after the Haftarah, which is mostly from Isaiah 58, and the final words here are from there. When we all stood at the foot of Mt. Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments,… Continue reading

Current Affairs, Election, Equality, Freedom, High Holidays, History, Inclusion, Justice, Midrash, Tikkun Olam, Tzedek, USA, Yamim Noraim

July 2, 2026

Partners, Not Guests: Jews Building America, America Building Us (Yom Kippur 5780/2019)

This was my Yom Kippur morning sermon for 5780 (2019). As I generally do, I was jumping off from the spirit of the Haftarah of that day, which is mostly from Isaiah 58, and I conclude quoting the end of those prophetic words. One evening last fall I sat in the auditorium at Nashua High… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Calendar, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Equality, Freedom, High Holidays, Holidays, Holocaust, Inclusion, Terrorism, Tzedek, USA, Yamim Noraim, Yom Kippur, Young Jewish Adult, Youth

July 2, 2026

Why I Chose America

This is a D’var Torah I gave just before Independence Day 5776 (2016), for Parashat Sh’lach L’cha. I became an American for good the same year I had decided to become Israeli, and the same year I decided to become more observant, and the same year I pretty much decided to become a rabbi. I… Continue reading

#integratingamerica, Calendar, Conservative Judaism, Equality, Freedom, History, Immigration, Inclusion, Interfaith Dialogue, Justice, Parashat Hashavua, Sh’lach L’cha, Social Theory, Tikkun Olam, Torah, USA, Young Jewish Adult, Youth

June 19, 2026

Exploring Equality as American Jews as We Approach 250 (Parashat Korach 5786)

Here is my current draft of a D’var Torah for this Shabbat on Parashat Korach. It’s one of many in this period leading up and beyond July 4, the 250th anniversary of the U.S.A. June 20, 1776, was a Saturday just like this year. On that day the town meeting in Natick, Massachusetts, unanimously approved… Continue reading

Books, Calendar, Current Affairs, Equality, History, Inclusion, Justice, Korach, Leadership, Numbers, Parashat Hashavua, Social Theory, Torah, Tzedek, USA

April 29, 2026

Sterling Bans Silver For Life (Parashat Emor 5774)

This is the D’var Torah I gave for Parashat Emor in 2014/5774. How is this for a news headline from the week: “Silver Bans Sterling for Life.” That’s from NBA.com, the official website of professional basketball. Usually, “sterling” is the most refined kind of silver, but this week it’s been the opposite. Sterling is Donald… Continue reading

Civil Rights, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Emor, Ethics, History, Inclusion, Leadership, Parashat Hashavua, Torah, USA, Young Jewish Adult, Youth

Sports

January 6, 2026

Brotherhood, Evolving (Parashat Shmot, MLK Weekend 5783/2023)

This is excerpted and adapted from a D’var Torah I gave in January 2023, when MLK Weekend began on Shabbat with Parashat Shmot, the opening reading in the book of Exodus. Here I’ve omitted the (long) opening, which is very similar to most of the other words I have posted about those opening chapters of… Continue reading

Civil Rights, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Equality, Ethics, Exodus, History, Inclusion, Justice, MLK Day, Moshe, Parashat Hashavua, Shmot, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedek, USA, Young Jewish Adult, Youth

December 25, 2025

Not a Christian Nation, Mr. Vice President, But Yours and Mine

I published this post on Facebook on December 22. 2025, to much positive reception, so I am posting it here too. Sometime around when my family was lighting our last Chanukkah candles last night, the Vice President of the United States proclaimed in a speech at the Turning Point USA convention that the United States… Continue reading

Calendar, Chanuka, Chanukkah, Community Relations, Current Affairs, Freedom, History, Holidays, Inclusion, Interfaith Dialogue, Leadership, Tzedek, USA, Young Jewish Adult

December 10, 2025

Who is Courageous? A Chanukkah Answer from Aristeas to Us

Here is yet another version of my take on the takeaway today from the Letter of Aristeas to Philocrates, a Jewish work from the time of the Maccabees that presents its own view of Jewish position, role, and voice in a “modern” world. The question I’ve been speaking about the past few weeks leading to… Continue reading

Antisemitism, Chanuka, Chanukkah, Community Relations, Current Affairs, History, Holidays, Inclusion, Israel, USA

December 10, 2025

From the “Archives”: Parashat Vayeshev and the 50th Anniversary of JFK’s Assassination

I am updating my site with what I take to be interesting Divrei Torah (“sermons”) of mine that I hadn’t shared before. This one, connected with the Torah reading of the current week, I shared in November 2013. As I studied this parasha in light of all the commemorations of President Kennedy this week, I… Continue reading

Current Affairs, Dreams/Dreaming, History, Inclusion, Leadership, Parashat Hashavua, Power, USA, Vayeshev

November 2, 2025

College: Tocqueville Continued, John Stuart Mill

I really liked Tocqueville’s The Old Regime and the French Revolution. He argues that the French Revolution itself was not transformative, but that even with the conservative political reaction came social transformations that had been set in motion beginning in the 1600s and that those explain France in the 1800s better than the ideology of the… Continue reading

College, History, Inclusion, Social Theory

October 23, 2025

During the Flood, Inside the Ark — Learning From Bonhoeffer and the Freiburg School

This was my D’var Torah about Parashat Noach in 5783 (2022). This Torah reading centers on the Flood. This teaching here is about “during the Flood”, and at the end I discourage us from seeing our era as sliding toward the Flood. If we do see it that way, we still might ask the question… Continue reading

Current Affairs, Economics, Ethics, Holocaust, Hope, Inclusion, Interfaith Dialogue, Justice, Leadership, Noach, Noah, Parashat Hashavua, Tikkun Olam, Torah, Tzedek