Tagged URJ Biennial

Inside the biggest American Shabbat service of the year

Friday night prayers at the Union for Reform Judaism Biennial featured a 78-person choir and screens projecting the words of the service, Dec. 13, 2019. (Rob Dicker/Union for Reform Judaism)
December 18, 2019 /

CHICAGO (JTA) — Josh Nelson sat onstage in front of 5,000 people, accompanied by eight other musicians and perched next to a ginormous video screen bearing the words to one of Judaism’s central prayers, the Shema. It was the largest Shabbat service in America and the apex of the… Read more »

Debates with Israel weigh on Reform movement’s largest-ever gathering

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, addresses delegates at its 2017 biennial in Boston, Dec. 7, 2017. (Courtesy of the Union for Reform Judaism)
December 11, 2017 / Penny Schwartz, JTA

BOSTON (JTA) – President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel became an unexpected agenda item as 6,000 members of the Reform movement from across North America gathered here for their four-day convention. Addressing the Union for Reform Judaism’s 2017 biennial on Friday, Sen. Elizabeth… Read more »

Outreach to interfaith families strengthens the Jewish future
February 3, 2014 / Rick Jacobs, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — All in favor of a strong Jewish future say “aye.” On that core question, there is resounding unanimity, but there have been some unnecessarily polarizing articles in the Jewish press suggesting that we have to select either endogamy or outreach. Nonsense! Such binary thinking reduces… Read more »