Union of Reform Judaism Website

The URJ website is the gateway to a vast amount of URJ resources. You can access self-study courses, read recent Reform Judaism commentary, or visit any of the 550+ other Reform congregations that maintain Internet websites.

The New Direction in Reform Judaism

A Statement of Principles for Reform Judaism adopted at the 1999 Pittsburgh Convention Central Conference of American Rabbis-May 1999 - Sivan 5759.

Join the iWorship Discussion Group

Several K.I. members enthusiastically recommend the URJ's iWorship discussion group.

What is a discussion group (also called a "mailing list")? A discussion group is the Internet analog of a membership-only group of people sitting around a conference table discussing a particular topic. However, in cyberspace, a group's members may be anywhere on earth where they can connect to the Internet. Any member of the group may mail a message that will be automatically disseminated other group members. Group members may similarly respond to other members' messages or initiate their own message threads.

The discussion group may have a moderator who filters messages to ensure that members keep within certain topic and mutual respect boundaries. The moderator may also limit membership. Some discussion groups/mailing lists give members the option of receiving either individual e-mail messages or a single daily digest that contains all of that day's messages (in the case of very active groups that generate a lot of messages).

What is iWorship? iWorship is a virtual discussion group that provides a forum for sharing information and ideas about Reform Jewish worship.

You can be a part of the ongoing conversation about Reform Jewish worship by joining Ritual/Worship Committee members, rabbis, cantors, and other Reform Jews interested in the prayer life of congregations.

Discuss a range of topics, including creating a vibrant congregational Shabbat morning service, innovative designs for worship space, and balancing the use of Hebrew and English in services.

By signing up, you will receive information and can participate in e-mail "conversations" about various worship topics that subscribers bring up. You are not required to participate in the conversations, but you'll probably want to!

How do I join iWorship?

Go to the sign-up page on the URJ website.

Lehigh Valley Jewish Websites

Jewish Genealogy-Trace Your Roots

Each year, many family stories disappear unwritten when our older relatives die.

Internet genealogy-related websites. If you wish to catalog your family history, there are many Internet sites and tools, both general and Jewish-oriented, to help you. The most comprehensive site, JewishGen®, will open a cornucopia of other resources for you. Another good sites is Shtetl. The JewishGen Usenet newsgroup, soc.genealogy.jewish, is a constantly changing bulletin board of Jewish roots questions and answers. To find birth and death information for almost any American who has died since the 1930's (and who had a Social Security number), try the strangely-named Social Security Death Index. Cyndi's List has more than 53,000 genealogy links and is another good starting point for your search.

K.I. resources. Besides the plethora of Internet resources, K.I.'s library contains an excellent collection of books related to Jewish genealogy. In addition, K.I. member Dr. Bill Tuffiash is an amateur Jewish genealogy expert . Bill has offered to help others get started on their roots search. You can telephone Bill at his office at 610/439-8171.

Genealogy software. After you've collected your family roots information, you'll want to write it down, possibly publish or share it with others. There are many commercial or shareware genealogy software products available. One of the best, Personal Ancestral File 5.0, a product of the LDS church, is now available for free downloading via the Internet. Personal Ancestral File 5.0 is a Windows based version of one of the most widely-used genealogical management programs for home computers. Personal Ancestral File 5.0 helps users organize their family history records. It can produce, in automated or manual form, records for personal family histories or charts and logs to help users in their search for missing ancestors. Mac users can purchase an equally adept genealogical application, Reunion.

Most good genealogy software applications allow you to save or retrieve data in a universal format called GEDCOM. Therefore, you can share your family roots information with others or import their files, even if they use a different software application.

Jewish Women's Archive

The mission of the Jewish Women's Archive is to uncover, chronicle and transmit the rich legacy of Jewish women and their contributions to our families and communities, to our people and our world.

Jewish women have always been an integral part of the history and continuity of their communities. Their stories, however, are virtually unknown. The mission of the Jewish Women's Archive is to uncover, chronicle, and transmit the rich legacy of Jewish women and their contributions to our families and communities, to our people and our world. 

The Jewish Women's Archive pages are for scholars. For activists. For mothers and daughters. For fathers and sons. For researchers, historians, and community members. For people who believe that everyone with a stake in history is a keeper of it and a partner in its transmission. 

 Maven-The Jewish Internet Portal

Maven is simply the most extensive portal to the Jewish Internet. What's a Jewish Internet portal? Think of Yahoo!, but filled with every imaginable Jewish resource, and you've got Maven. Take a look.

Kosherfinder-Your Guide to Everything Kosher

Kosher restaurants, Kosher food shops, books about keeping Kosher, Kosher travel, Kosher discussion boards, Kosher recipes, Kosher wines... did we omit anything? All this and more at Kosherfinder.

A.Word.A.Day

The music and magic of words--that's what A.Word.A.Day (AWAD) is all about. AWAD is a daily electronic publication from the wordserver at Wordsmith.Org. AWAD includes a vocabulary word, its definition, pronunciation information with audio clip, etymology, usage example, quotation, and other interesting tidbits about words to subscribers every day. You can think of it as a word trek where we explore strange new words. Words are usually selected around a theme every week. There is no charge to subscribe to AWAD and signing up is easy via the AWAD website.

Currently AWAD is subscribed by over 247,000 people in more than 176 countries. Adults and kids alike will enjoy and benefit from their daily AWAD e-mailing. Try it.

 

Mensa-Do You Have What It Takes?

Looking for stimulation beyond what you get at your daily grind? Join Mensa, the international society in which the sole requirement for qualification is a score at or above the 98th percentile on any of a number of standarized intelligence tests.