Julie Platt is the Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) and immediate past Chair of the Board of Directors of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and serves as Chair of the Foundation for Jewish Camp.
This Sunday evening, Jews around the world will begin the celebration of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Throughout the holiday, Jews of every conceivable background and belief – social, demographic, religious, ethnic and cultural – will hear the loud, piercing blast of the shofar. T…
This past week, our nation suffered yet another series of heinous acts of hatred and violence. Rather than become desensitized to the terror of a never-ending cycle of senseless deaths, we must focus on doing what we do best: building and sustaining community that brings people together. The…
This past year, from Pittsburgh to Poway, our community has been the target of hate and violence, manifested in two violent attacks against our houses of worship, with several additional plots prevented through the work of federal, state and local law enforcement.
At the same time, through …
Tomorrow night, we will begin the holiday of Shavuot, also known as the Festival of Weeks, in which we commemorate receiving the Torah at Sinai. For seven weeks, we have been counting the days since Pesach, tracking our journey to when we stood at Sinai and actually became “a People.” It…
The Jewish Federations of North America are once again in the alarming position of having to condemn another despicable act of hatred, anti-Semitism, and the vilification of the “other.” Six months to the day after the devastating massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, its…
