Jewish Links at Congregation B'nai Israel

Searching the Jewish Web

Maven--The Jewish Web Index
http://www.maven.co.il/
This is THE jewish search engine. Over 6,000 Jewish sites are listed. You can search by category or by phrase. While it doesn't have everything, it has the most. This is your first stop in looking for Jewish information.

Adult Learning Opportunities

B'nai Israel Links for Learning Torah

MyJewishLearning.com
is a comprehensive and interactive Jewish learning resource for unaffiliated individuals and Jewish organization members that presents objective and authoritative information from a wide variety of Jewish perspectives. The content is presented in a multi-layered Guided Learning structure, and includes Discussion areas and other tools for registered users to share with their peers, all for free. MyJewishLearning.com launched on Nov. 19, 2002 / Hanukkah 5763 with major support from philanthropists Edgar M. Bronfman and Lynn Schusterman.

Maqom - The place for Jewish Learning
This site is run by Rabbi Judith Z. Abrams of Houston, TX. Maqom is an on-line academy of Jewish study for Jewish adults. It does not matter how much or how little experience you have with being a Jewish learner. This site will give you the opportunity to develop your own insights into classic Jewish texts including the Talmud and Tanakh (Hebrew Bible).

CLAL - The Center for Jewish Leadership and Learning
CLAL works to preserve and strengthen Jewish life for the 21st century through its work with the national and local leadership of the Jewish people of North America. Acting as educator, facilitator and consultant for the Jewish community, CLAL promotes the goals of Jewish continuity and renewal. The pillars of CLAL's philosophy are living pluralism, dynamic engagement with Jewish texts and with the experiences of the Jewish people, and a commitment to the sacred unity of clal Yisrael, the Jewish people in its entirety.

Jewish Student Online Research Center
The Jewish Student Online Research Center (JSOURCE) has been created to offer students-and anyone else with access to the Internet-facts about virtually every aspect of Jewish history. JSOURCE is a cyber encyclopedia that covers past and current issues related to anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, Israel, Judaism, U.S.-Israel relations and Zionism.

National Yiddish Book Center
The National Yiddish Book Center's site offers information on: programs and exhibits about Yiddish literature, Yiddish culture, and Yiddish language; hard-to-find Yiddish books; an online edition of Pakn Treger, the English magazine of the National Yiddish Book Center; and other resources for Yiddish. The National Yiddish Book Center is a young, non-profit organization dedicated to rescuing unwanted and discarded Yiddish books and sharing the treasures they contain- the culture and sensibility of the past thousand years of Jewish history-as a wellspring of contemporary Jewish creativity.

Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion
HUC-JIR is the seminary of the Reform movement. It has campuses in New York, Cincinnati, Los Angeles and Jerusalem. Rabbis, Cantors, Educators and Jewish Communal Workers receive their professional training there. The New York campus has a Kollel-or community learning program-for adults, and the College - Institute will be beginning a comprehensive program of distance learning. This is where much of the thinking about the future of Reform and Judaism in general takes place, and it is worth a visit.

UAHC Department of Adult Jewish Growth
Resources for adult learning from the Reform Movement.

Based at the University of Tel Aviv, this museum documents the history of the Jewish communities outside the land of Israel.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
This is the national memorial to the Holocaust, located on the Mall in Washington D.C.

Family Resources

Jewish Family and Life
This is a web-zine (a web-based magazine) with articles, stories, games and web links. It provides a wide variety of ways to enhance and inform Jewish family living. There are sections primarily for kids, but most of it is written for an adult perspective. A great resource for dealing with the tough questions our children present on a daily basis.

Michigan Jewish Online Education
This is a page from Detroit that takes you on a tour of Bar/Bat Mitzvah and coming of age. Even though some of the people it talks about are from Detroit (rather than our community, it is a pretty cool site and filled with very useful information. They will eventually expand it to cover the entire life cycle.

The Jewish Parent Page
The Jewish Parent Page informs and educates about the Jewish holidays and their customs. It is a resource to enrich your understanding of Jewish tradition. The Jewish Parent Page includes blessings, prayers, historical backgrounds, and creative ways to celebrate the Jewish festivals. Recipes, holiday how-to's and activities are included. The Jewish Parent Page is written by Barbara Binder Kadden, the regional educator for the Northern California and the Pacific Northwest Councils of the UAHC.

Virtual Jerusalem
This is one of the great catch all sites for Jewish and Israel related topics. It includes contests, a live web-cam of the Western Wall (no the wall doesn't move, but the images at different times of the day are interesting), a virtual history tour, and many other interesting items. Great for adults and kids!

Reform Judaism Jewish Parents' Page
This page covers most holidays and several other important topics.

Rabbi Amy Scheinerman's Homepage
This is a great place for learning and exploring a wide assortment of topics. It's also a lot of fun!!!

Israel

Magen David Adom Magen David Adom (MDA) is Israel's National Emergency Medical Service (EMS), with over 650 emergency ambulances in operation, providing 24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a-year emergency ambulance and coronary rescue services to all Israel hospitals. With violence and acts of terror escalating, MDA is seeking renewed support.

The New Israel Fund is a philanthropic partnership of Israelis, North Americans and Europeans that works for equality and social justice for all of Israel's citizens. Since its founding in 1979, NIF has granted more than $100 million to more than 600 organizations in Israel - organizations dedicated to safeguarding civil and human rights, bridging social and economic gaps, and fostering tolerance and religious pluralism.

Givat Haviva This site promotes dialogue among people and nations and can be read in three languages: Hebrew, Arabic and English.

Birthright Israel's founders created this initial five year projects to send 10,000 young adults Jews from all over the world to Israel as a gift in order to diminish the growing division between Israel and Jewish communities around the world; to strengthen the sense of solidarity between Israeli youth and Jewish communities around the world; to increase the number of return visits to Israel; and to promote the role of Israel as a powerful resource in Jewish learning.

The Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel The ICCI is an umbrella organization for institutions and individuals in Israel promoting interreligious and intercultural understanding. As a coordinating body, the ICCI strives to strengthen and broaden good relations among different faith communities in Israel.

The Jewish State: A Century Later by Alan Dowty One of America's most thoughtful political scientists and Israel Studies experts has his recent book online and available for free. This book/web site is for the serious student of Israel society.

Americans for Peace Now Shalom Achshav [Peace Now], the largest grassroots movement in Israel's history, was founded in 1978 by 348 reserve officers of the Israel Defense Forces. Experience had convinced them that while Israel must always be ready to defend itself, violence is not the answer to the age-old conflict in the Middle East. Americans for Peace Now [APN] was founded in 1981 to help Shalom Achshav pursue a lasting and equitable peace in the Middle East and to build an informed and empowered pro-peace American public.

The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism on Israel Issues

ARZA/World Union
The Association of Reform Zionists of America/World Union for Progressive Judaism is the organization that connects North American Reform Jews to Reform and Progressive Jews in Israel and the rest of the world.

Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism (Reform Movement in Israel)
The home of Reform Judaism in Israel, including the Israel Religious Action Center, which is spearheading the struggle for pluralism and our place in Israel.

Kibbutz Yahel (1st Reform Kibbutz)
http://www.ardom.co.il/desveg/yahel.htm

Kibbutz Lotan (2nd Reform Kibbutz)
http://www.kibbutzlotan.com/

Beit Midrash-A Liberal Yeshiva in Jerusalem

Israel's Embassy in Washington, DC

Israel Foreign Ministry
Click here to sign up for regular e-mail updates on news and events in Israel.

Prime Minister of Israel's Office
Go right to the source!

The Jerusalem Post
The English Daily of the State of Israel.

The Jerusalem Report Magazine
A bi-weekly journal of news and commentary.

Ha'aretz, English Edition
This web site provides a translated edition of the Israeli Daily Newspaper, Ha'aretz. It is a very interactive site and includes nearly all sections of the newspaper including features, op-ed and magazine, in addition to the news. There is also a feature that allows you to download one of a collection of photos of daily life in Israel, which installs itself as your desktop wallpaper. This is a great way to become or stay connected to Israel and Israelis, seeing the world through their eyes, or at least the eyes of their media.

Israel's Sports - Preparing for the Maccabiah
From the Judo Mats to the Basketball Courts

Entertainment in Israel - A Review of Film, Music, Theater, and Comedy

Tzedakah and Gemillut Chasidim
(Social Justice and Loving, Kind Deeds)

Jewish Family Service
Jewish Family Service is involved in more aspects of our community than most people imagine. On their new site you will learn all about the agency and the work it does. You will also find a Jewish Community-wide Calendar of events. This is a great place to learn about the needs of our community, how they are being met and how you can help. Meet the people associated with JFS and investigate a host of volunteer opportunities.

The Religious Action Center of Reform Judasim
has been the hub of Jewish social justice and legislative activity in the nation's capital for over 40 years. It has educated and mobilized the American Jewish community on legislative and social concerns as an advocate in the Congress of the United States on issues ranging from Israel and Soviet Jewry to economic justice and civil rights, to international peace and religious liberty. RAC is the Washington office of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC), whose 900 congregations across North America encompass 1.5 million Reform Jews, and the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), whose membership includes over 1700 Reform rabbis.

ZIV Tzedakah Fund
The Ziv Tzedakah Fund is about Mitzvahs - Doing Good Things and about Tikkun Olam - Fixing Up the World with whatever talents and resources we have as individuals. And it is about Mitzvah heroes, Giants of Human Action (as well as of the Human Spirit), most of whom are just ordinary people who found their way one way or another into Mitzvah work and have grown, assumed their True Selves, and exceeding their old visions of who they thought they were. Names, address, phone numbers, faxes, e-mails, web-sites: we offer them all to you so you can get involved with their work. We trust them all. Pick what you like, what you are good at, and as Nike would have it - Just do it!

Lifeline for the Old - Yad L'kashish
Nearly three decades ago, Myriam Mendelow z"l, a former school teacher was working with he elderly of Jerusalem, visiting them in their homes. After seeing countless people who had given up on living and whom society had allowed to give up, she determined that "To Be is to Do." Working with the city of Jerusalem to obtain a site, she created a series of sheltered workshops for seniors. Today they rebind the books of school children, make wooden and fabric toys, and create a whole line of ritual and gift items. Each is paid a small salary for their work and may purchase a hot lunch after work at Yad L'kashish. Half of the overhead for the workshops is raised by the sale of their work. The rest comes from donations. A must for any visit to Israel or the web.

The Giving Page: A Tzedakah and Tikkun Olam Resource
This is a general resource for those who would like to explore opportunities for Mitzvah work. It will take you to many more links that will help you spend your tzedakah funds and your volunteer time in meaningful ways. You can also find a game about Maimonides' ladder of tzedakah.

Reform Judaism

The Union of American Hebrew Congregations
This is the Movement's virtual home. From here you can find your way through almost any related Jewish subject, demographic group or program from coast to coast and around the world.

What is Reform Judaism?
Just what it says, this site is an overview of Reform.

Jewish/Judaism Resources on the Internet
A great links page for Jewish Surfing

National Federation of Temple Youth
Connect with Reform Youth across North America

If you have found a site on the internet which you think our congregants might like to visit please send us the URL (web address).