Brit shalom, also called alternative brit, brit ben, brit chayim or brit tikkun, is a naming ceremony for newborn Jewish boys that does not involve circumcision. It is intended to replace the traditional brit milah, and is promoted by groups such as Beyond the Bris and Jews Against Circumcision. The term is generally not used for girls, since their naming ceremony does not involve circumcision.
The Swig Program in Jewish Studies and Social Justice is a Jewish studies program at the University of San Francisco in San Francisco, California. Originally founded in 1977, and re-established in 2008, it is the only program in the world to formally link the fields of Social justice and Jewish studies. It offers a minor in Jewish Studies and Social Justice (JSSJ), an annual Social Justice Lecture, an annual Human Rights Lecture, an annual Social Justice Passover Seder, intermittent films, presentations, and workshops, a study-abroad course, and Ulpan San Francisco.
The Jewish Community High School of the Bay is a coeducational, college preparatory high school located in the Western Addition Neighborhood of San Francisco, California. Founded in 2001, JCHS is a pluralistic Jewish high school.
Valley Beth Shalom is a Conservative synagogue in Encino, Los Angeles, California. With approximately 1,500 member families it is one of the largest synagogues in Los Angeles and one of the largest Conservative synagogues in the United States. Newsweek includes it on its list of America's 25 Most Vibrant Congregations, saying "Valley Beth Shalom continues to be one of America's most relevant and community-minded synagogues."
Menachem Creditor is the Pearl and Ira Meyer Scholar-in-Residence at UJA-Federation New York, founder of Rabbis Against Gun Violence and an author whose work has appeared in the Times of Israel, the Huffington Post, the Jewish Week, the Jewish Daily Forward, and the Wall Street Journal. He sits on the Social Justice Commission of the Rabbinical Assembly is a member of the Chancellor's Rabbinic Leadership Team at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and serves as an advisor to the One America Movement.
Temple Sinai is a Reform synagogue located at 2808 Summit Street in Oakland, California, United States. Founded in 1875, it is the oldest Jewish congregation in the East San Francisco Bay region.
The Angel Orensanz Center is a landmarked art and performance space in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York. It was originally built as a synagogue, running through a succession of congregations, and continues to be used as one occasionally. The building is located at 172 Norfolk Street, between Stanton Street and East Houston Street. It was erected in 1849, making it the oldest surviving synagogue building in New York City, and the fourth-oldest surviving synagogue building in the United States. It was the largest synagogue in the United States at the time of its construction, and is one of the few built in Gothic Revival style.
Congregation Beth Israel Judea is a Reform synagogue located at 625 Brotherhood Way in San Francisco, California. It is the result of the merger of the Conservative Congregation Beth Israel and the Reform Temple Judea.
Congregation Rodef Sholom, founded in 1956, is a Reform Jewish Congregation located on the Lonee C. Hoytt Jewish Campus in San Rafael, California. Prior to its establishment, Shabbat services were held at the Marin Jewish Community Center, established in 1946 at Mission and Forbes Street. The congregation met at the center until 1962 when it moved to its current location. The congregation shares a campus with the Osher Marin JCC and the Brandeis Hillel Day School. Rodef Sholom has been affiliated with the Union for Reform Judaism since 1957. The congregation receives its name, meaning "pursuers of peace," from a Talmudic quote by Rabbi Hillel: "Be among the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving people and bringing them closer to the Torah."
Congregation Beth Jacob Ohev Sholom is an Orthodox synagogue located at 284 Rodney Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York. It is the oldest Orthodox congregation on Long Island, and one of the last remaining non-Hasidic Jewish institutions in Williamsburg.
Pamela Frydman is an American rabbi. She is the founding rabbi of Or Shalom Jewish Community, a San Francisco Jewish Renewal congregation.
Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple is a Reform Jewish temple in Beachwood, Ohio, the oldest existing Jewish congregation in the Cleveland area. The name Anshe Chesed is Hebrew for "People of Loving Kindness". The congregation's membership exceeded 2,000 families in the mid-1990s.
Michal Mendelsohn became the first presiding female rabbi in a North American congregation when she was hired by Temple Beth El Shalom in San Jose, California, in 1976.
Reuben Zellman is an American teacher, author, rabbi, and musician. He became the first openly transgender person accepted to the Reform Jewish seminary Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 2003.
Peninsula Temple Sholom (PTS) is a Reform Jewish Congregation in Burlingame, California. It was founded in 1955, and since then, has constantly grown its congregation and has expanded its facilities to include a social hall, a Religious School and a Preschool. For five decades, its services were led by Rabbi Gerald Raiskin, who changed the legacy and history of the temple until his passing in 2006. Throughout the years, PTS clergy and lay leaders have continued to lead services for hundreds of reform Jews in the Bay Area and is an influential place for them to find community and practice Reform Judaism.
Nehirim was a national community of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ) Jews, families, students and allies that was founded in 2004. The organization ceased operations at the end of 2015.
Alan Lew (1943–2009) was a Conservative rabbi best known for establishing the world's first Jewish meditation center and for his work bridging Jewish and Buddhist traditions. Lew was often described as "the Zen rabbi," a phrase that he himself used in the title of his book One God Clapping: The Spiritual Path of a Zen Rabbi.
