Contemporary Jewish Life

When facing times of transition, loss, and challenge, people often turn to a synagogue or other Jewish institution for guidance.

When a Loved One Dies is a guide from the new pastoral care

Jonathan Shmidt Chapman shows us how to tell Bible stories to children.

Coming for Passover 2024, a haggadah that recognizes the heroism in Jewish culture and its contribution to our world and the enduring story of freedom that began with the ancient Exodus.

Discussion Questions for BREATH TAKING

• What expectations did you have for this memoir before you began reading it? How did you feel once you had finished?
• Chapter One of Breath Taking describes how Jessica and her husband first learn that something serious is threatening their daughter's health. What do we as readers learn about the author and her approach to being in the world at that moment? How does that initial impression change as we learn more of her story?
• Jessica emphasizes the need for joy to be louder than sorrow. Explore how the family finds moments of joy and how these moments become anchors in the face of heartbreak.
• There is much to make you cry in this book. Yet for all its seriousness, there are still many moments of levity and fun in Jessica's

Communities of Meaning: 

Conversations on Modern Jewish Life Inspired by Rabbi Larry Hoffman 

Coming January 2024

Larry Hoffman has had a singular impact on contemporary Jewish life in North America. He has taught us that Judaism is an unending conversation and as a tribute, 36 leading thinkers have engaged him in dialogue about the big questions in American Jewish life. The resulting book invites us into that conversation and challenges us to think creatively about the ideas and institutions that will shape Jewish life in the twenty-first century.  

This book takes stock of the century of transformation in American Jewish communal life and celebrates the diversity of expressions and ideas that define modern Judaism. It is thus a fitting guide for Jewish communal leaders engaged in organizational transformation and for observers of American religious

Yom HaShoah begins this year on April 17. 

Each passing year brings on a greater urgency to recall this dark time in our history. With fewer living witnesses able to tell their stories firsthand, we need a new way to fulfill the responsibility that Holocaust survivors have entrusted to us - to remember, to tell the story, and to act. 

Plan now using a powerful new approach.

Light from the Darkness: A Ritual for Holocaust Remembrance is a 45-minute, structured seder-like experience that helps the next generations remember and honor the Holocaust. It can be done either in-person or virtually. And it is deeply moving.

“It’s out

For all of us, the past few pandemic years have been scary and disorienting. For teens in a hunkered-down society, it’s also meant losing opportunities to develop independence.  

“What our teens need in this moment is support for finding their voice and finding their autonomy. Then we’ll slowly see the pain and fear untangle,” says Michelle Shapiro-Abraham, an award-winning teen educator and director of strategic innovation and youth programs at the Union for Reform Judaism. 

She points to two new resources that are committed to lifting up teen voices and showing them that they can “claim their power.”