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.

The Elat Chayyim Retreat Center is a place for spiritual contemplation for Jews. During the Labor Day weekend of 2006, the retreat moved from its longtime home in Accord, N.Y., to Falls Village, Conn.

Reform Rabbi Rachel Cowan is executive director of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, which uses Torah study, prayer, mindfulness meditation, yoga, and spiritual direction and retreats to nurture deeper spirituality among rabbis, cantors and lay people. Rabbi Cowan is author to a number of books and publications, including Growing Up Yanqui (Viking Juvenile, 1975) and Mixed Blessings (Penguin Books, […]

Stacy Abramson is executive director of Reboot, which seeks to “reboot” Jewish traditions, particularly for young people, through innovation, including salons across the country, journals, books and films. It’s based in New York City.