Debra Goetz

A woman with brown and grey hair smiling

Debra Goetz currently serves on the WRJ North American board and the Executive Committee of WRJ’s Southwest District. A native New Yorker, she lives in McAllen, Texas, where she is the immediate past president of Temple Emanuel’s Sisterhood.

hand holding a megaphone, voting buttons, and hands raised
Social Justice

Get Out the Vote on November 8th!

Abigail Fisher
Debra Goetz
Shoshana Dweck, VP of Social Justice, Temple Shaaray Tefila, Bedford Corners, NY
Over the past several years, it seems that so many of the things about which we, as Reform Jews, care have been under attack. Gun violence is still the norm; Roe v. Wade has been overturned; and People of Color and immigrants are still under attack. All that is not to mention the attacks on the very fabric of our democracy. What do all these things have in common? The best way to “fix” them; to move forward toward the sort of world we might actually like to have, is to vote.
Noach

Parashat Noach

Debra Goetz
While the rainbow is a sign from the Eternal as to the covenant not to flood the Earth, we can also take it as a beautiful reminder that we are to act on our values. In whatever way we can, we can act against corruption and for justice. Tzedek, tzedek tirdof, justice, justice you shall pursue (Deuteronomy 16:18.) For me, the social justice work of Women of Reform Judaism is a way to bring this concept into my own life, working on issues from racial justice to reproductive health and so many others.
Voices of WRJ

Voices of WRJ: Pinchas

Debra Goetz

In some ways, Parshat Pinchas has a little bit of everything: from Pinchas being rewarded for killing an Israelite and a Midianite, to a census, to Joshua being chosen as Moses’s successor, and ending with the description of the sacrificial ritual for festival