Media coverage of Stephen Wise Free Synagogue has included feature articles and highlights in the many local, national and international news outlets. Below is some select coverage that highlights the synagogue.
Press inquiries may be directed to Communications Director Ryan Greiss at rgreiss@swfs.org or (212) 877-4050, ext. 267.
SAPIR Journal: It Is Still October 7
Mar 18, 2024
“October 7, 2023, forever changed Jewish history. The cataclysm is so profound that it will take years to fully understand. Time froze. It is still October 7,” writes Rabbi Ammi Hirsch in SAPIR Journal, outlining the pressing challenges Jews in the United States face around Zionism, antisemitism and Western liberalism, and urging the virtues of moderation.
New York Dreamers Podcast (Hebrew) with guest with Rabbi Ammi Hirsch: Jewish families in America are being torn apart…
Feb 29, 2024
Speaking (in Hebrew) with Haaretz’s Haim Handwerker, our Rabbi Ammi Hirsch discusses how and why such a large gap has arisen between the young Jews who are increasingly organizing against instead and their Zionist parents.
Haaretz (Hebrew): The Black-Latino American Congressman who Supports Israel, Right Now
Feb 27, 2024
Rep. Richie Torres of New York — the first member of Congress who is Afro-Latino and openly gay — “is a beacon of light for many liberal Jews in the United States,” writes Haaretz’s Haim Handwerker. Our Rabbi Ammi Hirsch told Handwerker that Rep. Torres is “our hope to push back the radical left.” (In Hebrew)
The Jerusalem Post: What does Judaism say about saving hostages? Halachic authorities explain
Feb 9, 2024
Pidyon shvuyim, the redemption of captives, is a major obligation of the community, according to Torah law. The Jerusalem Post Magazine’s Atara Beck spoke with five spiritual leaders — including our Rabbi Ammi Hirsch — for their perspectives.
Jewish Insider: Meet the college president unafraid of speaking out against terrorism
Jan 17, 2024
Our Rabbi Ammi Hirsch’s sister, Ora Hirsch Pescovitz, who is president of Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, was among the first — if not the first — and few university presidents to issue a statement condemning the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.
NY Jewish Week: 10 Jewish ways to mark Martin Luther King Day in New York this year
Jan 11, 2024
This weekend, communities around the United States will celebrate the life and legacy of civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Here in New York City, Jewish communities will honor King by hosting interfaith Shabbat dinners, providing community service opportunities and more. The Upper West Side’s Stephen Wise Free Synagogue will hold a Shabbat of Service on Saturday at 1:00 p.m., where volunteers will help make sandwiches and pack up meals to feed hungry New Yorkers and resupply NYC community fridges.
NY Jewish Week: Jewish advocates demand policy changes to combat antisemitism at NYC public high schools
Dec 22, 2023
While public discourse on antisemitism in schools has largely focused on college campuses, a series of activists say that the same trends are manifesting in New York City’s high schools. Rabbi Rena Rifkin, who works with about 250 middle and high school students at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, said that Oct. 7 had “opened the floodgates,” and made students more aware of persistent antisemitism, but that school hasn’t given them tools to cope with it. And while a range of voices are calling on schools to more proactively address antisemitism, Rabbi Tracy Kaplowitz cautioned, “If we rely on the media, public schools, private schools to deliver what should be a part of our kids’ Jewish education, they’re going to do a terrible job at it,” she said. “And they’re going to leave our kids lost.”
The New York Times: A Fraught Question for the Moment: Is Anti-Zionism Always Antisemitic?
Dec 10, 2023
The brutal shedding of Jewish blood on Oct. 7, followed by Israel’s assault on Gaza, has brought a fraught question to the fore: Is anti-Zionism by definition antisemitism? “We’re living in an increasingly post-religious age, and any Jewish community that walks away from the Jewish people, and its most articulate expression of our times — the Jewish state, the state of Israel — is walking away from their own future,” said our Rabbi Ammi Hirsch.
The Marker: How is the relationship with American Jews? Well, it’s complicated.
Dec 6, 2023
The war in Israel is also an opportunity to renew the close relationship that once existed between the state of Israel and American Jewry, writes Haim Handwerker. “We have an opportunity to restore the relationship — Israel is more united and world Jewry is more connected,” said our Rabbi Ammi Hirsch, who led a special event for some 800 New Yorkers to mourn the Oct. 7 attack and stand in solidarity with Israel. (In Hebrew)
eJewish Philanthropy: Reform rabbis on Amplify Israel Fellowship visit a ‘nation at war,’ bring experiences home
Dec 1, 2023
Unlike the dozens of missions and trips that have come to Israel since Oct. 7, the group of nine Reform rabbis who visited Israel from the United States last month weren’t there to show solidarity or to volunteer (though they did do both) but to learn. They were part of the Amplify Israel Fellowship, a newly launched initiative, led by Stephen Wise Free Synagogue’s Rabbis Ammiel Hirsch and Tracy Kaplowitz, that is meant to prepare the next generation of Reform rabbis to lead the movement, particularly on Zionist and Israel-related issues.
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