Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice

Articles written by Rick Jacobs


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  • Outreach to interfaith families strengthens the Jewish future

    Rick Jacobs|Feb 14, 2014

    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 a multi-dimensional and complex reality to a false choice. At the Union for Reform Judaism Biennial in San Diego a few weeks back, I challenged Jewish leaders to stop speaking “about intermarriage as if it were a disease. It is not.” I do not know... Full story

  • Israel must grant equality to women

    Rick Jacobs, JTA|Jul 5, 2013

    NEW YORK (JTA)—Is Judaism the problem or the solution to women’s equality? Try telling agunot, women who are chained to their husbands unable to obtain a get, a religious divorce, that they are equal to men. Overarching Jewish values like b’tzelem Elohim—that all people are created in the image of God—may teach equality, but the day-to-day reality of too many women tells us of a struggle that is far from complete. Is the pervasive inequality of women in Israel and in many other societies God’s will or men’s will? The majority of God language... Full story