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Email this pageIssue # 298
Issue #298 – 7 February 2008 / 1 Adar I 5768
IN THIS ISSUE:
FIRST ISRAELI PROGRESSIVE CONGREGATION CELEBRATES GOLDEN JUBILEE
AMERICAN BAR MITZVAH SEEKS HIS ROOTS IN GERMANY
PROGRESSIVE COMMUNITY CONTINUES FIGHT AGAINST HATE CRIMES IN UKRAINE
FIRST ISRAELI PROGRESSIVE CONGREGATION CELEBRATES GOLDEN JUBILEE
Kehilat Har-El of Jerusalem, Israel’s pioneer Progressive congregation, has begun a year-long celebration of its golden jubilee (see WUPJnews #295). Founded in 1958 as the 'Association for the Renewal of Religious Life in Israel, it is the forerunner of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism.
The World Union was involved with Har-El from the outset. “From the very beginning,” says founder and past president, Werner Loval, “Congregation Har-El had the encouragement and blessings of the World Union. It was its president at the time, Rabbi Maurice Eisendrath, who in 1958 sent us our first rabbi, Rav Herbert Weiner.” Loval adds that the World Union’s bulletin, the forerunner of WUPJnews, reported on the new congregation in its March, 1958 issue.
“We received our first two sifrei Torah in the summer of 1958,” Loval says, “from Rabbi Richard Hirsch, who headed a World Union-sponsored NFTY group from the U.S.” [Hirsch later became the World Union’s executive director and moved its headquarters to Israel in 1973 – ed.] “At the convention of the World Union in London in July, 1959, Professor Schalom Ben-Chorin was invited to address the delegates on the subject of ‘Liberal Judaism in Israel.’ Rabbi Jacob Shankman, then the director of the World Union, told the delegates, ‘The Jerusalem group [Har-El] has brought religious ferment in Israel to the surface and its efforts have been widely publicized and discussed.’
“In August, 1960, Rabbi Jerome Unger was sent to Jerusalem as the representative of the World Union and became our rabbi. The World Union appropriated $15,000 to provide for his salary and subsidize his work. ‘The beginnings were modest but the decision was an historic one,’ Rabbi Shankman wrote in his report to the conference of the World Union in 1961. You will agree,” concludes Loval, “that our 50th anniversary is a major milestone in the growth and development of the World Union for Progressive Judaism.”
Har-El kicked off its jubilee festivities on Thursday, January 10, just prior to the Shabbat on which the weekly portion of Bo was read from the Torah. "We celebrate Har-El's birthday every year on the Shabbat of parashat Bo," explains its cantor, Evan Cohen, "because the congregation's first service was held that Friday evening" in 1958.
The opening event was an exhibit of art works by congregation members, in recognition of the strong influence of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, the congregation’s neighbor for many years in the Rehavia section of Jerusalem.
Rabbi Ada Zavidov and Cantor Cohen led a festive Friday night Kabbalat Shabbat service, accompanied by Dennis Sobolev on guitar and by the Nechama choir, conducted by Jana Pritzker. They enjoyed a gala Shabbat dinner at the nearby Sheraton Plaza Hotel, which was sponsored by New York City's Congregation Emanu-El.
On Shabbat morning, a joint service was held at Har-El together with the Hebrew Union College, represented by Cantor Professor Eliyahu Schleifer, pianist Anastasia Sobolev (wife of Dennis, mentioned above), and flautist Jeanne Schaffer. Rabbi Tovia Ben-Chorin, who served for many years as Har-El’s rabbi, gave the d’var torah. After the service, there was a festive kiddush sponsored by Congregation for Reform Judaism in Orlando, Florida.
Shabbat ended with evening services led by Rabbi Zavidov and Cantor Cohen, accompanied by harpist Regina Spitkovsky, and a special Havdalah service co-led by the children from the congregation's preschool. The evening program continued with a panel discussion - dedicated to the memory of Professor Schalom Ben-Chorin, one of Har-El's founders and its first spiritual leader - on the topic: “Is Liberal Judaism a Viable Alternative in Israel?”
Later this year the celebrations will continue with a cantorial concert, while the jubilee will also be marked at the IMPJ biennial, May 23-24, 2008.
Left to right: Rabbi Ada Zavidov, harpist Regina Spitkovsky and Cantor
Evan Cohen (holding his daughter, Rina) at Saturday evening services.
Har-El’s preschool director, Ruth Nechmad, shows her students the
Havdalah candle.
Founder and past president, Werner Loval, studies the program at the
art exhibition that kicked off Har-El’s jubilee celebrations.
Photos: Gloria Kohn, Kehilat Har-El
AMERICAN BAR MITZVAH SEEKS HIS ROOTS IN GERMANY
Jared Allen of Atlanta, Georgia, recently crossed the Atlantic with members of his family to become a bar mitzvah at Beth Shalom Synagogue in Munich, Germany. Rabbi Dr. Tom Kucera, Beth Shalom’s spiritual leader, officiated at the December 29 ceremony.
The bar mitzvah was the culmination of a journey to commemorate members of Jared’s family who had perished in the Shoah, to visit places of historical significance to the family and to honor the triumph of Judaism’s survival. Their itinerary included the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam as well as Terezienstadt, where five family members were sent before being deported to Auschwitz.
They also visited Stuttgart, home of Jared’s maternal grandmother, Inge Marx Robbins. One week before Kristallnacht, when she was nine years old, she and her immediate family were able to escape from Germany. Others in her family, including her own grandparents, perished in the Holocaust. Jared dedicated his bar mitzvah service to her.
“Our original plan was to have the bar mitzvah at the synagogue in Stuttgart that my mother attended when she was a child,” says Alli Allen, Jared’s mother. “It was burned and rebuilt but is now an Orthodox synagogue. I decided to explore other options in hopes of finding a Reform synagogue as close to Stuttgart as possible.” The Allens are members of Temple Sinai, a Reform congregation in Atlanta.
Allen turned to the Web site of the World Union for Progressive Judaism and found her way to Rachel Dohme, a leading figure in the German Liberal movement, who suggested she contact Beth Shalom, a congregation of some 250 members and a World Union affiliate. Its spiritual leader, Rabbi Kucera, speaks English, and although services there are in German and Hebrew, many of its original members are American expatriates and English is used on special occasions.
Jared prepared for his bar mitzvah with tutors in Atlanta and in weekly phone calls with Rabbi Kucera.
“Jared led a beautiful and moving service in which his grandmother took part,” says Kucera. “His immediate family was present, as well as Beth Shalom’s board and members.” Kucera adds, “At the conclusion of [Jared’s] haftarah, he was showered with candy and presented with a gift from the community. Everyone present agreed that this was a truly memorable and joyous occasion.”
Allen added, “We will be forever grateful to Rabbi Kucera and Beth Shalom for their tremendous warmth and support, and for welcoming us into their community with open arms.”
There was also a special family friend on hand – Walter Ott, a Righteous Gentile who was responsible for restoring the Jewish cemetery in Buttenhausen, the German hometown of Jared’s great-grandfather. Ott also established a museum dedicated to the Jews of Buttenhausen that, according to Jared’s mother, includes family memorabilia.
“Walter Ott has been working on behalf of the Jews of Buttenhausen for several decades,” she says, “and this was the first bar mitzvah he ever attended. He has been a special friend of our family for many years [and] we honored him by inviting him to read a prayer on interfaith relations in his native German. This was a true journey back to our German roots.”
Rabbi Tom Kucera (in gold tie) with Jared Allen (to his left) and Jared’s
family. Jared's grandmother, Inge Marx Robbins, is to Kucera's right.
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PROGRESSIVE COMMUNITY CONTINUES FIGHT AGAINST HATE CRIMES IN UKRAINE
As reported in WUPJnews #292, Ukrainian intelligence officials have enlisted the help of Progressive Jewish leaders in Crimea in an effort to stamp out xenophobia in the region. As part of this effort, Anatoly Gendin, executive director Simferopol's Progressive congregation and chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Crimea, recently appeared on television to talk about hate crimes.
"Members of various ethnic groups and communities took part in a panel discussion on whether there is racial intolerance in Ukraine," says Gendin. "Non-Ukrainians complained that young hooligans often attack them, but almost everyone else on the panel said all is well."
"Then, when it was my turn," he says, "I cited the findings of a research institute that show a steep rise in anti-Semitic incidents in recent years. I said that over the course of several years, rocks were regularly thrown through the windows of our synagogue until we installed a security fence, window bars and security cameras. I also mentioned the fact that Ukraine's state intelligence service saw the need to establish a special department to combat xenophobia and anti-Semitism, and said that this in itself proves there is a problem."
Gendin attended an initial meeting with a top intelligence official, together with Rabbi Mikhail Kapustin, the World Union’s Simferopil-based religious leader for Crimea and Efim Trachtenberg, chairman of the Simferopol Progressive community and representatives of other Jewish groups. During that meeting, which grew out of a directive by President Viktor Yushchenko to obtain input on hate crimes from members of minority groups, the official provided his personal cell phone number and invited everyone present to phone him directly in case of anti-Semitic attacks.
Following Gendin's TV appearance, Rabbi Joel Oseran, the World Union's vice president for international development, praised him for this new aspect of his work. "Your effort to speak the truth," Oseran wrote in a recent e-mail, "and to inform your community about the reality of anti-Semitism, is very important and praiseworthy."
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UPCOMING EVENTS
February 14-24 – North American Council’s first Learning and Leadership Seminar in Israel at the World Union's Anita Saltz International Education Center
February 21-27, 2008 – Annual conference, TaMaR Olami, various locations in Israel
March 6-16, 2008 - Second URJ Adult Study Program in Israel at the World Union's Anita Saltz International Education Center
March 13-16, 2008 – Biennial conference of the World Union’s European Region, Vienna, Austria
May 15-19, 2008 – World Union mission to St. Petersburg, Russia for the dedication of Sha’arei Shalom Synagogue-Center
May 23-24, 2008 – Biennial conference of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism
July 3-13, 2008 – World Union mission to Brazil and Argentina, culminating in the biennial conference of the World Union’s Latin America region, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
March 17-23, 2009 – CONNECTIONS 2009 – The 34th international convention of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv
