Rabbi Marc D. Rudolph

Rabbinic Action Committee Mission to Morocco                                                  January 20-28, 2015 This evening I want to share with you some of my impressions from my recent Rabbinic Action Committee Mission to the Jewish…

The Legacy of Anne Frank Last week we celebrated Tu Bishvat, or, The New Year of the Trees. The tree is an important symbol in Judaism. The torah is, after all, called the “Tree of Life” and the wooden scrolls upon which the parchment of the Torah is attached are called the “Etz Chaim” or,…

Dear Congregants and Friends, It has been a difficult week for France, for the world, and for the Jewish people. We have been riveted to our televisions once again by a vicious terrorist attack, this time in Paris.  We have seen a radical Islamic attack against the exercise of free speech, against the institutions of…

A Momentous Discovery Do you remember the first time you heard about email?  For me it was through the television show, Seinfeld. Jerry was sitting at a counter table with a young woman he had just met. They hit it off, and he asked for her number. “Let me give you my email,” she said…

Is prayer a waste of time? According to Reverend Tim Keller, many people do not pray because they feel that they are not being “productive”. I heard Reverend Keller as he was promoting his new book,  Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with G-d on a morning television interview show.  Reverend Keller said that people feel…

A Tale of Two Cities It happened in Jerusalem this week, in a religious neighborhood called Har Nof. It could easily have happened here – but did not. What happened at Har Nof, of course, was the murder of four Jews in the midst of their morning prayers and one Druze policeman who tried to…

To Choose to Be Jewish This evening I am going to talk about two people. One of these people chose Judaism. The other person did not choose Judaism, but wished he had. In my experience, people come to Judaism for a variety of reasons. Sometimes they fall in love with a Jewish person and want…

“For I have chosen him so that he will instruct his children and his household after him that they may keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just.” I was perusing the newspaper a few months ago when my eye caught the obituary of a man named Leo Bretholz. The name…

We Are All Immigrants One of the great pleasures of being a rabbi in Chicagoland is the opportunity to hear scholars from all parts of the world who come to our area to speak. That pleasure is only surpassed by sharing what I have learned with you, my congregation. This past Thursday I had the…

“Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what G-d and angels know of us.” Thomas Paine Speaking Up Monica Lewinsky was back in the news this week. She spoke at a forum, hosted by Forbes Magazine, to a group of a thousand entrepreneurs under the age of thirty. She spoke eloquently…