I rarely speak autobiographically, but when I was recently asked, by the Reconstructionist movement, to reflect on my 50 years as a rabbi, to an audience from across the country on Zoom, I was both honored and challenged.
Benjamin Franklin once wrote that “the good that we can do together surpasses the good that we can do alone.” That’s what a congregation is or should always aspire to be: a community that wants to improve the lives of everyone in it and one that brings healing and love to the world as a whole.
Look at what we have all created together over more than three decades! This is what I’ve...Read more...
Rabbi Arnold Rachlis has been the spiritual leader of University Synagogue since 1991, guiding us since 1987 from a small havurah looking for a more modern approach to Judaism to a 600+ families center for dynamic and innovative Judaism. He leads with a focus on a humanistic philosophy that sees God not as a supreme being, but as inspiration, creativity, conscience, consciousness and motivating us toward human growth and social justice. Rabbi Rachlis has created a joyous environment which affirms individuality and is inclusive – men and women, gay and straight, Jewishly learned and not, Jewish and not Jewish – welcoming all to learn, explore and connect at University Synagogue.
