Jonathan Freirich, at The Blogs

May 20, 2026, 4:31 AM

I began writing this on Friday, May 15, while at the airport. “A Jewish Country Song”, Sitting in Newark en route to Florida. Meeting my mother at a United gate. We find out my aunt died while queuing to board. I hate that “God’s...

May 15, 2026, 4:38 AM

Beit Kaplan on RRC’s Honoring Professor Diner

I post this as Secretary to the Board of Beit Kaplan: The Rabbinic Partnership for Jewish Peoplehood Beit Kaplan Statement on the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College’s Honorary Degree for Professor Hasia Diner Beit Kaplan: The Rabbinic Partnership for Jewish Peoplehood (Beit Kaplan) was...

Dec 30, 2025, 4:58 AM

The Power to Read

“Reading into or reading out of: reading scripture should make us uncomfortable and ask us to learn.” Find this interesting? Please register for the upcoming class inspired by it: Original and Amendable: Reading the US Constitution in Light of Rabbinic Legal...

Oct 24, 2025, 11:36 PM

Make the call

I should have made the call. Now he’s gone. A great person, a mensch (a person of integrity), one of my most important teachers, Rabbi Michell Chefitz (z’l – may his memory always be for blessings), died earlier this week. The...

Sep 23, 2025, 12:02 AM

Are we there yet?

Words from seven years ago still relevant today. L'Shanah Tovah - a good year to all. Rosh ha-Shanah Evening 1 Tishrei 5779 Sunday, September 9, 2018 Temple Beth Zion, Buffalo, New York Torah opens with God speaking the world into being: וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֖ים יְהִי־א֑וֹר וַיְהִי־אוֹר And God...

Sep 20, 2025, 1:21 AM

You are a good Jew

Welcome to the season of apologies, the weeks leading up to Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, when many of us try to make amends for any wrongs we committed in the last Jewish Year. Regardless of the season, when...

Sep 12, 2025, 6:28 PM

Peanut Butter, Chocolate, and Getting Along

Why can’t we all get along? Yesterday's anniversary of September 11, 2001, and the day before’s horrific shooting and murder of Charlie Kirk, may his memory serve as a blessing, amplify the seriousness of our crisis of getting along. The original...

Jul 16, 2025, 10:07 PM

We still need persuasion

It is about respect. “What is the most rigorous law of our being? Growth. No smallest atom of our moral, mental, or physical structure can stand still a year.… In other words, we change – and must change, constantly, and...

Nov 14, 2024, 5:33 AM

Good Faith in People

“How are you?” “Hmm…I am doing OK, if I don’t think too much about it.” This is an unsatisfying if honest beginning to a potentially good conversation. I know, because one of the best conversations I’ve had “post November 5, 2024”...

Oct 11, 2024, 10:35 PM

Tonight I said a blessing

near your mother, who asked, “The Mets won?” Worthy of a blessing for sure. “…who gives us life, who stands us up, who brings us to this time…” was for your and my conversation about car maintenance. “I just talked to our son about what...

About Me

Jonathan Freirich was ordained at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in 1999. He holds dual affiliation with both Reconstructing Judaism and the Reform Movement. He earned an Executive Master of Public Administration from Syracuse University in 2023. His work blends rigorous scholarship, pastoral wisdom, and a lifelong commitment to justice and healing with a compassionate understanding that we all need to be seen for who we are.

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