Daily Reform prayer? There’s an app for that [Forward]
Following the recent release of the Reform movement’s Kabbalat Shabbat siddur in iPad form, the movement has now released an update featuring daily morning prayers. The Jewish Daily Forward reports:
“The new application, which costs less than $5, was launched at the annual gathering of the Central Council of American Rabbis that began Sunday in Boston. More than 500 rabbis from North America, Israel and Europe are attending the three-day conference for professional development and Torah text study.
i’T’filah is the first non-Orthodox electronic prayerbook, according to Rabbi Hara Person, publisher of CCAR Press, which produced the app. By the end of this week, the audio component will be available, which will allow users to hear the prayers in chant form.”
Developing nuanced Jewish animal welfare ethic: kosher factory farms? [Jerusalem Post]
Judaism demands that its followers maintain an ethic of compassion and care for all beings, human and otherwise, says this article by Rabbi David Sears. If so, what does this say for current trends in factory farming, environmental sensitivity and stewardship? Could some factory farms, in fact, be halakhically humane? Sears writes:
“However, there are factory farms that are exceptions to the rule.
In the belief that animal slaughter can be humane, animal scientist Dr. Temple Grandin of Colorado State University in particular has pioneered efforts to improve animal welfare conditions. Dr. Grandin created a set of humane standards under the aegis of the American Meat Institute (AMI). Many of these standards have been taken up by factory farms, but they are not legally required.
Inhumane practices have a long, dark past in the American food industry, and the Jewish community cannot be blamed for them. However, we must not implicitly condone such practices, rationalizing that we have not directly violated Jewish law. The establishment of higher humane standards is a moral undertaking for which we, as willing participants in the system, must take responsibility. Implementing change is certainly within our reach. The real question is if enough people care.”
10 Jewish women everybody should know [Huffington Post]
In this article from the Huffington Post, Rabbi Laura Geller shares the inspiring stories of the lives of women who have made an impact on the face of the Jewish people throughout the years:
“The spirit of those women in the generation of the Exodus from Egypt has been the spirit of Jewish women throughout the generations, women who never gave up hope that they could make the world better for their children and their children’s children and for all the children of the world. We celebrate that legacy during Women’s History Month as we begin to prepare for Passover.”
The repercussions of France’s recent anti-Semitic killings [Forward]
In the day after the murder of four at a Jewish school in France has rocked the country, and much of the world, the Jews of France experience the aftershocks as the ultimate question, “What next?,” hangs in the air. The Jewish Daily Forward reports:
“Official reaction around the world to the attack was swift. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attack had a ‘strong, murderous anti-Semitic motive.’ The Vatican called it a ‘heinous’ crime, and the White House called it ‘outrageous and unprovoked.’
However, remarks by European Commission Foreign Minister Catherine Ashton about the attack in Toulouse angered some.
‘The days when we remember young people who have been killed in all sorts of terrible circumstances – the Belgian children having lost their lives in a terrible tragedy and when we think of what happened in Toulouse today, when we remember what happened in Norway a year ago, when we know what is happening in Syria, when we see what is happening in Gaza and Sderot and in different parts of the world – we remember young people and children who lose their lives.'”
