Joshua Levine Grater

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Jun 15, 2015, 10:04 PM

Rainbow Tzitzit: Pride Shabbat and Ever-Increasing Inclusion

Rabbinic disclaimer: I delivered this sermon this past Shabbat, so I apologize for last week's Torah portion being posted this week. However, as I discuss the part about the tzizit, or fringes, it is always applicable when discussing the...

May 11, 2015, 7:15 PM

My great big Catholic-Jewish-Israel dialogue adventure

As I spend my last few hours in Israel during this 9-day adventure, primarily to attend a Catholic-Jewish dialogue sponsored by the Neocatechumenal Way of the Catholic Church, I look out at the Haifa Bay to the south, and...

Apr 20, 2015, 12:06 AM

There is Danger, but it’s not 1933

I have a confession to make. I don’t know when it started, but it has been going on for several years in my head. Every Shabbat morning, or any early morning that I arrive at my synagogue (PJTC) before anyone...

Oct 31, 2014, 11:34 PM

Enough with Insanity

Albert Einstein’s famous quote about insanity, that “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” makes me insane. It has been beaten to death in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and yet we continue...

May 24, 2014, 2:06 AM

Preserving the Legacy of Rabbi Marshall T. Meyer

Rebbe Nachman of Bratslav, the great hasidic master, used to spend days in the forest, praying, singing, rolling around in the leaves and doing a spiritual practice known as ‘hitboddedut,’ private, personal communing with God and the soul. He...

Mar 27, 2014, 6:16 AM

Peace process: Do or die or what?

The phrase “moment of truth” is one that is being bantered around now in the realm of Middle East peace. Is this a “moment of truth” for the Israelis and Palestinians? If so, what are the consequences of knowing...

Feb 28, 2014, 7:11 AM

A different Jewish approach to countering “Israel Apartheid Week” on campus

Israel Apartheid Week on campuses around the country could be coming to a school near you, or maybe already has. These one-sided and often insidiously anti-Semitic demonstrations do nothing, in my view, to further the cause of peace and...

Jan 31, 2014, 4:05 AM

The push for peace: Don’t stop now!

I have been fighting for peace, fighting for the dream of ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, for the past two decades. Ever since that fateful night, November 4, 1995, when I watched the horrible images of Prime Minister Rabin’s assassination, from...

Jan 20, 2014, 8:40 PM

Dr. King, Moses and courage

I spent this past week on a mediation retreat, joining other alumni rabbis and cantors from around the country who have participated in a 2-year cohort of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, which I did several years ago. Silence...

Nov 24, 2013, 12:52 PM

Restore the rights of Israel’s Bedouin citizens

The government's demolition and relocation plan treats the Bedouins of the Negev Desert as a demographic threat

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About Me

Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater has been the spiritual leader of the Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center in Pasadena, California since 2003. He is an executive committee member of the Board of Directors for T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, co-founder and co-chair of AFPI, Abrahamic Faiths Peacemaking Initiative and is co-chair of J-Street's Los Angeles Rabbinic Cabinet.