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.
ABC7NY: Jewish community in NYC search for answers amid deadly Israel Hamas war
Oct 11, 2023
Safety is something many often take for granted, but there was comfort inside the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue on the Upper West Side Wednesday night. “We lost more Jews in one day this week than in any other time since the holocaust,” said Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch. So, hundreds of Jewish New Yorkers gathered in solidarity. They filled up the balcony and sat on the floor, packing out the synagogue in search for the answer to the question: what do we do now? “The question for us is do we want to stand up or cower,” said Rabbi Hirsch.
CBS New York: Worshippers gather at Upper West Side synagogue to show support for Israel
Oct 11, 2023
Hundreds gathered on the Upper West Side on Wednesday to comfort one another in their grief for the victims of the attacks in Israel, reported CBS New York’s Ali Bauman. “There is no force in the world more powerful than the united spirit of the Jewish people in urgent times,” said Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, who called the emergency service three days before Shabbat. “I think most American Jews are not doing well. We’re deeply pained, deeply sorrowed, worried about not only the hostilities now, but the war to come,” he said.
Times of Israel: American Jewish groups offer broad support to Israel after assault from Gaza
Oct 7, 2023
After the early-morning infiltration attack, organizations from across the political spectrum released statements supporting the Jewish state and condemning Hamas. “There will be a time for investigating what went wrong. For now, we pray for the souls of the dead and the full recovery of the wounded… We pray for the wellbeing of the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces as they seek to bring Hamas terrorists to justice and ensure the safety of Israeli civilians,” said our Rabbi Ammi Hirsch.
The New Yorker: The Quiet Revolutions of the Sabbath
Sep 30, 2023
In Genesis, God rests after creating the world; in Exodus, God commands the Israelites to rest: “Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work.” In the new documentary “Sabbath,” our Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch argues that the fourth commandment was “a revolutionary concept” that “changed human history,” because it is believed to be the first time a religious or political authority, instead of requiring work, had required rest.
Times of Israel: American Jews are partners in the destiny of our people
Sep 26, 2023
Fifty years after the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War, Rabbi Ammi Hirsch reflects on his experience as a 14-year-old new Israeli immigrant and the Jewish state’s brilliant successes and unresolved disappointments over the intervening decades. But “there is something about the Jews that makes it difficult for us to live together,” he says of the ongoing civil discord in Israel. “For our own self-dignity, we” — American Jews — “will continue to voice our clear and unreserved moral resistance to extreme elements of the Israeli government.”
Haaretz: ‘U.S. Jews Don’t Understand Yet That the Judicial Coup Is Like Nothing Israel’s Seen Before’
Sep 20, 2023
Haaretz New York correspondent Judy Maltz notes that many American Jews don’t understand “the gravity, the severity and the existential crisis” that the judicial overhaul represents for Israelis. She speaks as well about the painful dilemma of rabbis like Ammiel Hirsch, who have told her that while they “support the protest movement with their entire heart, they will not be out in the streets here in New York” protesting Netanyahu or encouraging congregants to do so. She added that Hirsch said he would join the protests every week if he were in Israel, but that if New Yorkers were to see him out in front of the Israeli consulate demonstrating against Netanyahu, “they would immediately assume he had joined the boycott movement against Israel.”
Haaretz: How Israel Will Feature – or Not – in the High Holy Day Sermons of New York’s Rabbis
Sep 14, 2023
Many of New York’s rabbis will be addressing the situation in Israel during their High Holy Days remarks this year. Teasing his upcoming Yom Kippur sermon, Rabbi Hirsch said: “How can you speak about Israel now and avoid discussion of the crisis in the country? I think people really want some rabbinical guidance on an issue like this that affects the entire Jewish community – though they are not necessarily seeking answers.”
The New York Times: Israelis Have Been Protesting for Months. Now, Americans Are Joining Them.
Sep 11, 2023
In the New York Times, our Rabbi Ammi Hirsch remarks on the vital stake American Jews have in Israel’s well-being.
Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle: Local rabbis inspired at convention to ‘Re-Charge’ the Reform movement
Jul 23, 2023
Three Pittsburgh rabbis discussed with the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle the ideas that inspired them from the Re-CHARGING Reform Judaism Conference, with one of the rabbis already presenting the three main themes of Rabbi Ammi Hirsch’s keynote address at Shabbat services and through “conversations during morning minyans.” Another rabbi who attended the conference said it “reignited the idea of a relationship with Israel as well as building Jewish literacy to help live a life outside of the synagogue.”
JBS-TV: In The Spotlight: Ammiel Hirsch
Jul 10, 2023
Rabbi Ammi Hirsch joins JBS-TV’s Abigail Pogrebin to discuss Zionism, the recent Re-CHARGING Reform Judaism Conference, and his new book “The Lilac Tree,” a collection of his thoughts developed over the past 20 years on life and death, science and faith, politics and morality, the past and the future.
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