RSS
Egalitarian yeshiva Hadar Institute will become long-term tenant of Congregation Shaare Zedek
(New York Jewish Week) – The Hadar Institute is moving on up — to a recently renovated synagogue where the egalitarian yeshiva says it can continue to grow.
Since 2007, the Jewish educational institution has run many of its programs out of West End Synagogue, a Reconstructionist congregation at 69th Street and Amsterdam Avenue on the Upper West Side. But starting this fall, Hadar will move 24 blocks uptown to become the long-term tenant of Congregation Shaare Zedek.
Shaare Zedek, a Conservative congregation established in 1837, sold its building in 2017 under the terms of a deal that saw it demolished and replaced by a 14-story condominium. For the past six years, Shaare Zedek has been holding its Shabbat morning services offsite, but it will be moving back into a space in the completed condo building this fall as well.
“Our in-person community has really been at the core of what we’re trying to do,” said Rabbi Elie Kaunfer, Hadar’s president and CEO. “That’s why new space and expanded space is so important for our goal of bringing people together to learn and pray together.”
Hadar, which was founded in 2006, has expanded significantly in recent years, offering a range of learning programs that engage more than 35,000 people annually and, earlier this summer, ordaining its first cohort of rabbis. It has five satellite locations outside New York City and an annual budget of $10 million.
The Hadar Institute’s move to Shaare Zedek will also place it in the same building as Kehilat Hadar, an independent egalitarian prayer community that shares a name and some founders with the Hadar Institute, though they are separate organizations.
In 2019, Shaare Zedek began a partnership with Kehilat Hadar in which the two congregations pray together on Shabbat and collaborate on other programs. Shaare Zedek’s president, Michael Firestone, told the New York Jewish Week that Shaare Zedek and Kehilat Hadar hope to formally merge into a single entity after the move.
Shaare Zedek and Kehilat Hadar will occupy three stories of the new condo building — a space that will include a social hall, sanctuary and offices — when they move in, Firestone said. The Hadar Institute will use that space as well.
“It will be Hadar Institute during the week with learning and Shaare Zedek and Kehilat Hadar on Shabbat and holidays with davening,” or prayer, Firestone said. “We’re very proud and excited that they’ll be the long term tenant. Together with our partners, we’re aiming to build a hub for traditional egalitarian davening and Torah study on the Upper West Side of Manhattan for the benefit of the whole community.”
Kaunfer said the Hadar Institute “loved” being at West End Synagogue but that it “outgrew the space.” The Shaare Zedek location, he said, will enhance what he called the organization’s “global reach” because it will have the technological capability necessary to handle the institute’s online programming.
In an email sent on Tuesday to the Hadar Institute community, Kaunfer wrote that the organization is seeking to raise $1 million to fund the move. The sum will enable the Hadar Institute to design and renovate offices and classrooms as well as set up the online learning technology.
“Hadar is here for the long term and our doors are open to anyone who is seeking Jewish learning and prayer in the manner that we offer it,” Kaunfer said. “So we’re super excited to welcome people to this new space.”
—
The post Egalitarian yeshiva Hadar Institute will become long-term tenant of Congregation Shaare Zedek appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
RSS
Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself. Really?
JNS.org – If I asked you to name the most famous line in the Bible, what would you answer? While Shema Yisrael (“Hear O’Israel”) might get many votes, I imagine that the winning line would be “love thy neighbor as thyself” (Leviticus 19:18). Some religions refer to it as the Golden Rule, but all would agree that it is fundamental to any moral lifestyle. And it appears this week in our Torah reading, Kedoshim.
This is quite a tall order. Can we be expected to love other people as much as we love ourselves? Surely, this is an idealistic expectation. And yet, the Creator knows us better than we know ourselves. How can His Torah be so unrealistic?
The biblical commentaries offer a variety of explanations. Some, like Rambam (Maimonides), say that the focus should be on our behavior, rather than our feelings. We are expected to try our best or to treat others “as if” we genuinely love them.
Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, in his classic text called the Tanya, argues that the actual feelings of love are, in fact, achievable provided that we focus on a person’s spirituality rather than how they present themselves physically. If we can put the soul over the body, we can do it.
Allow me to share the interpretation of the Ramban (Nachmanides), a 13th-century Torah scholar from Spain. His interpretation of the verses preceding love thy neighbor is classic and powerful, yet simple and straightforward.
“Do not hate your brother in your heart. You shall rebuke him, but do not bear a sin because of him” by embarrassing him in public. “Do not take revenge, and do not bear a grudge against your people. You shall love your fellow as yourself, I am God” (Leviticus 19:17-18).
What is the connection between these verses? Why is revenge and grudge-bearing in the same paragraph as love your fellow as yourself?
A careful reading shows that within these two verses are no less than six biblical commandments. But what is their sequence all about, and what is the connection between them?
The Ramban explains it beautifully, showing how the sequence of verses is deliberate and highlighting the Torah’s profound yet practical advice on how to maintain healthy relationships.
Someone wronged you? Don’t hate him in your heart. Speak to him. Don’t let it fester until it bursts, and makes you bitter and sick.
Instead, talk it out. Confront the person. Of course, do it respectfully. Don’t embarrass anyone in public, so that you don’t bear a sin because of them. But don’t let your hurt eat you up. Communicate!
If you approach the person who wronged you—not with hate in your heart but with respectful reproof—one of two things will happen. Either he or she will apologize and explain their perspective on the matter. Or that it was a misunderstanding and will get sorted out between you. Either way, you will feel happier and healthier.
Then you will not feel the need to take revenge or even to bear a grudge.
Here, says the Ramban, is the connection between these two verses. And if you follow this advice, only then will you be able to observe the commandment to Love Thy Neighbor. If you never tell him why you are upset, another may be completely unaware of his or her wrongdoing, and it will remain as a wound inside you and may never go away.
To sum up: Honest communication is the key to loving people.
Now, tell me the truth. Did you know that not taking revenge is a biblical commandment? In some cultures in Africa, revenge is a mitzvah! I’ve heard radio talk-show hosts invite listeners to share how they took “sweet revenge” on someone, as if it’s some kind of accomplishment.
Furthermore, did you know that bearing a grudge is forbidden by biblical law?
Here in South Africa, people refer to a grudge by its Yiddish name, a faribel. In other countries, people call it a broiges. Whatever the terminology, the Torah states explicitly: “Thou shalt not bear a grudge!” Do not keep a faribel, a broiges or resentment of any kind toward someone you believe wronged you. Talk to that person. Share your feelings honestly. If you do it respectfully and do not demean the other’s dignity, then it can be resolved. Only then will you be able to love your fellow as yourself.
May all our grudges and feelings of resentment toward others be dealt with honestly and respectfully. May all our grudges be resolved as soon as possible. Then we will all be in a much better position to love our neighbors as ourselves.
The post Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself. Really? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
‘Nonsense’: Huckabee Shoots Down Report Trump to Endorse Palestinian Statehood
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee looks on during the day he visits the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Saturday dismissed as nonsensical the report that President Donald Trump would endorse Palestinian statehood during his tour to the Persian Gulf this week.
“This report is nonsense,” Huckabee harrumphed on his X account, blasting the Jerusalem Post as needing better sourced reporting. “Israel doesn’t have a better friend than the president of the United States.”
Trump is set to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. The leader’s first trip overseas since he took office comes as Trump seeks the Gulf countries’ support in regional conflicts, including the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and curbing Iran’s advancing nuclear program.
However, reports citing administration insiders claimed that Trump has also set his sights on the ambitious goal of expanding the Abraham Accords. These agreements, initially signed in 2020, normalized relations between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan. The accords are widely held to be among the most important achievements of the first Trump administration.
The post ‘Nonsense’: Huckabee Shoots Down Report Trump to Endorse Palestinian Statehood first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
US to Put Military Option Back on Table If No Immediate Progress in Iran Talks
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy-designate Steve Witkoff gives a speech at the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena on the inauguration day of Trump’s second presidential term, in Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
i24 News – Unless significant progress is registered in Sunday’s round of nuclear talks with Iran, the US will consider putting the military option back on the table, sources close to US envoy Steve Witkoff told i24NEWS.
American and Iranian representatives voiced optimism after the previous talks that took place in Oman and Rome, saying there was a friendly atmosphere despite the two countries’ decades of enmity.
However the two sides are not believed to have thrashed out the all-important technical details, and basic questions remain.
The source has also underscored the significance of the administration’s choice of Michael Anton, the State Department’s policy planning director, as the lead representative in the nuclear talks’ technical phases.
Anton is “an Iran expert and someone who knows how to cut a deal with Iran,” the source said, saying that the choice reflected Trump’s desire to secure the deal.
The post US to Put Military Option Back on Table If No Immediate Progress in Iran Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.