Arnold M. Eisen is a religion professor at Stanford University in California. He co-wrote the book The Jew Within: Self, Family and Community in America (Indiana University Press, 2000). The book looks at the results of surveys Eisen and his co-author conducted with American Jews. The book states that American Jews are less attached to Israel and […]

Linda Thal is co-director of the Yedidya Center for Jewish Spiritual Direction in California and co-director of Morei Derekh, a two-year, retreat-based distance program. She serves as a consultant to the Central Conference of American Rabbis’ Committee on Rabbinic Spirituality and did her doctoral dissertation on spiritual direction.

Rabbi Shefa Gold is director of the Center for Devotional Energy and Ecstatic Prayer in Jemez Springs, N.M. She teaches workshops and retreats on chanting, devotional healing, spiritual community building and meditation. Shefa combines her grounding in Judaism with a background in Buddhist, Christian, Islamic, and Native American spiritual traditions and says she returned to Judaism because […]

Rabbi Leila Gal Berner is a Reconstructionist rabbi who founded Lev Tahor: A Center for Jewish Soulwork in Kensington, Md. The center offers programs to encourage personal spirituality through Jewish practice. Rabbi Leila is the founding director of the Center for Jewish Ethics at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and professor of philosophy and Religion Department at American University […]

Rabbi Tamara Miller leads Capital Kehillah, a center that encourages personal growth through the teachings of Judaism, in Washington, D.C. The daughter of an Orthodox rabbi, she has served in Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist congregations. She is director of pastoral care at George Washington University Hospital.

Read a June 13, 2007, New York Times story about an African-American congregation in Mamaroneck, N.Y., that serves as an official hiring site for largely Hispanic day laborers. One expert says very few of the nation’s hiring sites are associated with African-American churches.

Read a March 21, 2010, Huffington Post column on whether the black church supports immigration reform.

Ellen M. Umansky is a professor of religious studies at Fairfield University in Connecticut, where she teaches many courses, including one on women in Judaism. She focuses on Jewish history in the U.S. and England, leadership and women’s spirituality. She wrote the book From Christian Science to Jewish Science: Spiritual Healing and American Jews.

Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins is rabbi emeritus of the Jewish Center of Princeton, N.J. He is also a lecturer, educator and author of Jewish and general press.