Jonah Rank

Rosh Yeshivah, Hebrew Seminary

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Jan 21, 2022, 8:15 AM

End the filibuster. Take on antisemitism.

The terror of the hostage standoff that took place at Beth Israel in Colleyville last weekend reminds us that antisemitism is alive and well in the United States. It is nothing short of a miracle that Beth Israel’s rabbi...

Mar 2, 2020, 6:43 PM

Are Women Electable? Jewish History Says Yes.

As Americans follow the developing Democratic presidential campaigns—the polls, the debates, the policies, the vote tallies—many Democratic voters who aim to see Trump removed are nervous about wasting their one and only vote in the Democratic Primaries. With at...

Feb 20, 2020, 3:54 PM

If climate change destroys the rest of the world, it destroys Israel too

A building is engulfed in flames at a vineyard during the Kincade fire near Geyserville, California, on October 24, 2019. (Josh Edelson / AFP)

It is because I care about Israel's future that I'm voting for the US candidate who convinces me he or she will do everything possible to keep our planet livable

Jan 5, 2020, 4:29 AM

Rules for a depth-over-breadth Jew doing Daf Yomi

"I'm a slow learner." "I like to read very closely and carefully." "It takes me about 2 hours to get through a page of Talmud; I don't have that kind of time." "Daf Yomi is not for me." I've recited some variation or...

Sep 28, 2019, 1:24 AM

Transcript: Trump’s High Holiday Call (9.27.19)

WARNING: Satire follows. If you require this warning, I advise reading no further. Several American rabbinic representatives were invited to a phone call with President Trump taking place on September 27, 2019 at noon EST. The following is a 'transcript'...

Dec 23, 2012, 7:00 AM

Whose Was Heschel?

In order to attain an adequate appreciation of the preciousness that the Jewish way of living is capable of bestowing upon us, we should initiate a thorough cleaning of the minds. Every one of us should be asked to...

May 24, 2012, 2:33 AM

Becoming Nobody: My Last Time (?) With Women of the Wall

I had never felt more divided. Yesterday, as I stood in front of dozens of young men dancing in a circle marked by high levels of testosterone, I struggled to hear my own prayers over those Carlebach niggunim sung and...

Apr 23, 2012, 11:38 PM

Missing the Wall & The Religious Misogynists’ Arresting Development

Today, I missed the Wall. While living in Jerusalem for the academic year, I've made it a point to pray each month with Women Of the Wall. After my first time praying with WOW (a great acronym), I realized that I...

Feb 24, 2012, 2:50 PM

Saying No To Haman and Yes to Joy: An Adar Morning With Women of the Wall

Today is the first of the Hebrew month Adar, and the rabbis say it’s a time of abundant joy (Babylonian Talmud, Ta’anit 29a). What the rabbis don’t say so explicitly though is that this also is a time of reflecting...

Feb 20, 2012, 11:08 AM

Are We Ready To Meet God In New Places?

If they even apply, gay and lesbian Jews may not enroll as students of the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary, Israel's only program for training Masorti rabbis. The Israeli Masorti movement is an offshoot of the North American Conservative Jewish movement. I...

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About Me

Jonah Rank serves as President and Rosh Yeshivah of Chicagoland's pluralistic Hebrew Seminary: A Rabbinical School for Deaf & Hearing. An award-winning Jewish songwriter, he earned an MA in Jewish Thought and was ordained in 2015 at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Rabbi Rank served as the Maskil (“Teacher-of-Tradition”) at the Shaar Shalom Synagogue in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where his spouse, Rabbi Dr. Raysh Weiss, served as Senior Rabbi. Following his family’s return to the United States, he became the Director of the Shul School at Kehilat HaNahar in New Hope, Pennsylvania. Rabbi Rank previously was appointed to the Environmental Advisory Council in the Township of Lower Makefield, PA, and now lives with his family in Natick, MA.

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