We have been having a conversation in the Jewish community about gender for more than three decades. During that time there have been some remarkable changes: the ordination of women rabbis, the proliferation of egalitarian prayer services and bat mitzvah as a rite of passage.So why do we still need to talk about gender? Because in a critical aspect, the gender gap still persists in the Jewish community.
News briefs
The concert at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas was advertised as a \”night to remember,\” and it lived up to the hype.
Howard Rieger, the top professional of organized American Jewry as president and chief executive officer of the national organization United Jewish Communities (UJC), figures that criticism comes with the territory.\n\n\”Any time you make changes, some people will admire you and some will not,\” he said in a phone interview. \”If you can\’t keep that in perspective, you become immobilized and don\’t belong in this position.\”
Passover is a holiday near and dear to Marc Jaffe\’s heart. So when the \”Seinfeld\” and \”Mad About You\” writer went to a friend\’s house for a seder last year, he was let down when an Elijah\’s entrance gag bombed.
\”They shook the table. I thought, \’You gotta be kidding me,\’\” he said. \”You gotta have better effects than that.\”
Environmentalism may be trendy, but expensive hybrid cars and solar paneling aren\’t the only ways of being fashionably green.
Two years ago, Camp Ramah in California embarked upon a major solar energy project, effectively becoming the first Jewish overnight camp west of the Mississippi to adopt greener energy options. With the installation of a solar energy system atop the dining hall of our 75-acre Ojai campgrounds, Ramah has become a leader in the Jewish community when it comes to reducing environmental pollution and dependence on foreign oil. The system purchased by Ramah is designed to reduce toxic emissions by approximately 4.4 million pounds of carbon dioxide, 11,000 pounds of nitrous oxide and 35,000 pounds of sulfur dioxide over the life of the system.
The problem of plastic grocery bags is explored.
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