I’m working on site feeds and other ways to link this blog with Facebook and Twitter but until then… I am now tweeting @jon roos Thanks to my trusted advisor, Shemesh, I also understand that nobody tweets with an underscore in their screen name. Haters gonna hate anyway so I’m not changing it. I understand I may be a total loser. Read More »

The recently released video of US Marines urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban fighters dishonors our country and demands punishment. However, the outrage also struck me as odd. I once heard Sister Helen Prejean talk about the way the death penalty sows hate in our society. Read More »

In case you have not been following the stories from Israel about religious efforts to impose greater control over women in the public sphere. Read More »

I just did it and I hope you will, too. I joined Temple Sinai’s WIN/Clean Currents partnership. The temple gets a $20 donation, you get electricity sourced from renewable (wind) producers and you show your support for the Sinai-WIN partnership. Read More »

It is a question that often comes up after High Holy Day sermons: How dare you? How dare you… ask for money from the bima? tell me I’m not a good person unless I come to temple more? take a position on the Read More »

Yesterday at Arlington National Cemetery, a memorial was dedicated to the Jewish chaplains who have died while in service to our country over the decades.  The memorial stands on “Chaplains’ Hill” next to the memorials for Protestant and Catholic chaplains. Read More »

Prayer can be an indicator, like a barometer of sorts.  Just look at the Senate chaplain.  Washington Post’s 2chambers blog traces the increasing anxiety of his prayers over the past few days as failure and default came ever closer.A longtime Navy chaplain and Seventh-Day Adventist minister, retired Admiral Barry C. Read More »

When noon came, Elijah mocked them, saying, “Shout louder! After all, he is a god. But he may be in conversation, he may be detained, or he may be on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and will wake up.” So they shouted louder… Read More »

I have been to Israel six times: 1986, 1990, 1997 (when I lived here for a whole year), 2007, 2008, and right now. The changes that we can see in Israel are immediately evident in the food and the restaurants and the cultural feel here. Once upon a time you couldn’t get a decent burger anywhere although you could find a bad one in a few spots. Read More »

I took my son and attended a briefing at the Brookings Institution titled, “Libya and the Responsibility to Protect” (you can download the full audio here). Read More »

A few weeks ago at our temple’s annual meeting, we had a spirited debate over God.  In approving changes to our temple’s by-laws a few months ago, the mission statement made no reference to God.  A temple member pointed out that the original mission statement of the congregation was quite God focused. Read More »

LeBron, Weiner, Confirmation, the annual meeting or the Tonys got you down? Here’s a short video worth watching as it covers God, religion, the internet, faith in humanity, and the importance of organ donation in about 10 minutes.  The link was forwarded to me by Daniel Serwer – check out his blog peacefare.net. Read More »

Ok, so the predicted rapture and end of the world did not materialize as predicted last Saturday (although the predictor has revised his forecast to Oct. 21st).  However, the whole shpiel produced some funny dialogue about how Jews should behave following the rapture. Read More »

You guys don’t miss a beat. First, of all I’m sorry that I went off line from this blog for so long. I really didn’t know you cared – or at least I didn’t know you were reading. In three unrelated conversations this past week, people mentioned that they check here frequently and like to see the perspective offered. Read More »

I’ll let this posting from Ron Kehrmann speak for itself.  He wrote “An Open Letter to Pink Floyd Lead Singer Roger Waters: Condemn this Brutal Massacre.”   You joined the cultural boycott against Israel two weeks ago. Read More »

I should have known that the one subject that could shake me from my blogging torpor was not Israel, war, the Reform Movement or anything other than… Bar Mitzvahs.  Perhaps I see through new eyes because my own child is less than six months from his bar mitzvah and now attending his peers’ services and parties regularly. Read More »

Inevitably, when leading a discussion about Israeli politics or society, somebody asks about haredim (so called “ultra-orthodox Jews” also, in some circles, ”black-hatters”). Read More »

The Alban Institute’s founder, Loren Mead, put out this list on the Institute’s weekly e-mail.  I have abridged the content but not changed the list itself. Does this list apply to Sinai? Does it matter to you personally whether it does or doesn’t?  Each point has a question that flows from it. Read More »

The New York Times story about on-line bar mitzvah preparation caught lots of attention (at least for a few minutes).  You should read it if you have not.  It offers a window into some basic problems we face in the American Jewish community today. Read More »

For immediate release Temple Sinai Board of Trustees announced tonight that God has been found and returned to the temple’s mission statement.  “Apparently, God had been inadvertently lost these past ten years,” says Rabbi Jonathan Roos, “we were pleased to see how easy He was to find. Read More »