Reflections on the URJ Biennial Leslie Katz

I just spent an amazing weekend at the URJ Biennial in Washington DC with Linda Silverman Levine, Rabbi Klein, Lindsay Tarnoff, my son Marc and 6000 Reform Jews from all over the world. For three days, it was nonstop from early morning until after mid-night. The days and nights were filled with learning sessions, tefillah , music and concerts. The highlights of the weekend were Shabbat Services on Friday Evening and Saturday morning and President Obama's speech on Friday afternoon. Imagine what it was like to worship with 6000 fellow Jews on Friday night and then all attend a Shabbat dinner together. (It supposedly broke a record for the largest Shabbat Dinner ever!) On Saturday morning we all assembled again for Sabbath morning worship and heard a wonderful farewell sermon from Rabbi Eric Yoffie (retiring head of the URJ).

Friday afternoon was a day that I will always remember. I was very excited that I would have the opportunity to hear President Obama speak. (It was worth waiting on line for over two hours just to be admitted into the auditorium.) He was invited to speak to us in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Religious Action Center, the Social Justice arm of the Union for Reform Judaism. He gave a very moving speech, incorporating parts of our weekly Torah portion, talked about many social justice issues which have been and are important to the RAC, and how they are in line with his policies, and expressed his unwavering support for Israel. Every Biennial launches certain platforms or initiatives. This year the URJ's initiative was the Campaign for Youth Engagement. The youth are the future of Reform Judaism, and I loved watch-ing and listening to the 300+ NFTY teens enthusiastically celebrating Shabbat, singing at the song sessions and concerts, and listening to Obama's speech. I returned home physically exhausted, but emotionally and spiritually charged. It was a great weekend, and I'm ready to pack my bags for San Diego's Biennial in 2013!