This article was first published in The Jewish Independent, on March 17, 2006

San Francisco
While visiting Southeast Asia for half a year, Ellen and David Newman were deeply moved by the religious diversity surrounding them. “We saw many practising Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims,” David Newman recalled. “It led us to an even broader notion of many paths.”

Upon their return to the United States, the couple not only had culture shock but also felt hit in the face by what seemed like a sudden invasion of the Christian right into personal, medical and educational matters – demonstrated by the highly publicized Terry Schiavo case, the Pharmaceutical Bill of Rights (where pharmacists were refusing to fill birth control and morning after pill prescriptions) and the Kitzmiller vs. Dover case (the battle over a school board trying to replace a standard biology book with an intelligent design book based on Christian Science).

All told, Newman said, “It seemed like an America we didn’t recognize. We felt that, as Jews, we needed to be more informed [about what was happening].” In response, Newman – president of Congregation Sherith Israel in San Francisco – approached the leaders of the Lifelong Learning Committee at his congregation, suggesting the idea for what […]