Issue #384

Issue #384 – 3 June 2010 / 21 Sivan 5770

IN THIS ISSUE:

SALTZ CENTER HOLDS ANNUAL URJ JERUSALEM STUDY KALLAH

KRAKÓW CONGREGATION CELEBRATES FIRST BIRTHDAY

NETZER HOLDS SEMINAR IN ISRAEL AND GERMANY FOR TWO BRANCHES

NEW ISSUE OF REFORM JUDAISM MAGAZINE LOOKS AT THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE

CONDOLENCES

UPCOMING EVENTS


SALTZ CENTER HOLDS ANNUAL URJ JERUSALEM STUDY KALLAH

The Anita Saltz International Education Center held its fourth annual Union for Reform Judaism adult study kallah April 29 through May 9 at Mercaz Shimshon-Beit Shmuel, the World Union’s education and culture center/guest house in Jerusalem. The participants, all “committed lay leaders and active learners, according to Saltz Center director Rabbi Rich Kirschen, came to Israel from throughout the United States.

“As in years past, participants delved into issues regarding the relationship between the State of Israel, the Jewish People and Reform Judaism,” says Kirschen. “The program also worked with participants while they examined the many of aspects of culture, history and spirituality that make up the Jewish State. The itinerary presented a multitude of sacred sites and sacred texts along with fascinating Israeli experiences off the beaten path, while seminar participants wrestled with the issues of religion, sovereignty, ethics, power and powerlessness and more.”

Making up the seminar staff were, in addition to Kirschen, Saltz Center educator Paul Liptz ; Ariel Fogleman, who heads the tour guides course at the University of Haifa; Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion rabbinic student Josh Weinberg; Barak Raz, of the Israel defense Force’s spokesman’s unit; Jeremy Benstein, of the Heschel Center; Rabbi Meir Azari, spiritual leader of Beit Daniel, the Tel Aviv affiliate of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism; the IMPJ’s Lior Zalmanson; and Ezra Gardner of Omnium Capital Management.

“Once again, the seminar challenged and motivated American Reform Jews to connect and consider their relationship to Israel,” concludes Kirschen, “creating a deeper and more meaningful connection to share with their communities when they return home.”

For more information on the annual URJ Jerusalem study kallah, contact Rabbi Joan Glazer Farber at JFarber@urj.org.






Scenes from this year’s URJ Jerusalem study kallah. Top to bottom: Site visit to Jerusalem’s Russian Compound; learning about Jaffa’s mixed Jewish-Arab Ajami neighborhood (portrayed in the recent Academy Award-nominated film of the same name); hiking at Banyas in the Golan Heights.


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KRAKÓW CONGREGATION CELEBRATES FIRST BIRTHDAY

Beit Kraków, the Progressive community in the Polish city of the same name, recently celebrated its first birthday with a general meeting followed by a celebratory program.

“Over the course of the year we met over 160 times in various contexts, such as Kabbalat Shabbat, Shacharit and holiday services, Midrash Theater workshops and performances, various lectures, Hebrew classes, community excursions, etc.,” said Magda Koralewska, a board member of Beit Kraków. “Most of these meetings took place in the amazing space of the Galicia Jewish Museum…. It is a place where the memory of the past and the spirit of Jewish presence dwell together.”

Rabbi Tanya Siegel, a graduate of the rabbinic program at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion’s Jerusalem campus, is Beit Kraków’s spiritual leader and the inspiration for other Progressive communities springing up in Poland. “Bayit means home,” she told those who had come to mark the congregation’s first birthday. “But how does one start to build a home? We said ‘people.’ They are the founding stones of our home.”

The evening continued with chocolate cake and champagne, Yiddish and jazz melodies performed by congregational members, a presentation of images from events that took place at Beit Kraków during its first year, and a study session focusing on the meaning of community.

For a more complete account of the evening, as well as photos, click here.


A first birthday cake (and wishes for many more) in Kraków.


Popping the bubbly for a birthday toast. L’chaim!


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NETZER HOLDS SEMINAR IN ISRAEL AND GERMANY FOR TWO BRANCHES

Thirty members of the Israeli and German branches of Netzer Olami, the World Union’s international Zionist youth movement, held a joint, two-week seminar in April that took place in both Israel and Germany.

“We met in order to create new ties between us, to explore our Jewish Identity and to build a community,” says Gali Reich, youth director of the Union of Progressive Jews in Germany. “It was important for us to get to know each other and break any prejudices we had about the ‘other,’ and to understand about Jewish life in Germany and Israel. By spending a lot of time together and talking with each other, we learned that although we speak different languages and come from different cultures, we have much more in common that we first thought.”

The participants, aged 16-19, focused numerous questions: What are the Jewish communities like in Israel and Germany? How can Jews build a Jewish life in Germany in light of the past? How can we as Zionists love Israel yet still criticize some of its policies?

“Through these questions and many more, we came together to form stronger personal and Jewish Identities,” says Reich, who adds that much of the seminar focused on the media. “Visiting the Kol Yisrael radio station in Jerusalem and the ARD television studios in Berlin, we got to know the way news is made and edited. We discussed concepts like subjectivity and authentic reporting, and even recorded our very own radio show.”

The “Jewish” aspect of the seminar did not overlook spirituality, with the youth praying together each morning and evening, often learning new melodies. As the Israeli segment of the seminar took place partly during Pesach, they attended seders in local homes, while in Berlin they spent Shabbat with UPJ-affiliate Congregation Sukkat Shalom, in addition to visiting the city’s Jewish museum and Centrum Judaicum on Oranijenburg Street.

“We laughed together and cried together, challenged each other and also argued,” says Reich. “We taught each other words in our own language and had such a great experience and so much fun. We are all very happy we got the chance to be part of this program, and hope that the ties between us and our Netzer branches will continue and further develop in the further.”

For a more complete report on the seminar, click here to view a special blog.







Photos from the joint German-Israeli Netzer seminar.


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NEW ISSUE OF REFORM JUDAISM MAGAZINE LOOKS AT THE INTERNATIONAL SCENE

Reform Judaism magazine’s brand-new Summer 2010 issue features significant international content. It focuses on our Israeli Reform brothers’ and sisters’ struggles to coexist in peace with their Arab neighbors (Focus – Part II of III, “Israel by Israelis”). And the cover story sheds new light on the greatest canon of Western literature: What if the real playwright of the Shakespeare plays had been a Jewish woman who dared not acknowledge her authorship in Elizabethan England?

In addition, the issue highlights the differences between Mishkan T’filah and the brand-new Mishkan T’filah: The World Union Edition – how and why some of the prayers have changed.

Finally, the inaugural RJ column, “The Jewish Antiques Road Show,” offers the opportunity for free consultations about antique Judaica. Readers who send writer/Jewish antiques expert Jonathan Greenstein digital photographs (jgreensteinco@aol.com) will receive a brief history of the items and estimates of their market value – and, if they agree, might also see photos of them in a future “Jewish Antiques Road Show” column.

To learn more and share these stories, go to www.reformjudaismmag.org.


Summer 2010 cover of Reform Judaism magazine.


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CONDOLENCES

The leadership of the World Union extends its condolences to the family of Edward Moss (Ted) Waxman, a leader of Australian Progressive Jewry. Waxman served as president of Union for Progressive Judaism of Australia and New Zealand from 1990 until 1994, having begun his long string of community leadership stints by becoming president of Sydney’s Temple Emanuel in 1983, where he is credited with having been one of the prime movers behind the construction of a new administration and education wing. He later went on to be one of the founders of the city’s Emanuel School, a Jewish day school open to children from all streams of Judaism and where he served as president for almost a decade and a half. He leaves a daughter and a son, Dianne and Leon; his beloved wife Betty died in 2006. May his memory be for a blessing.


Ted Waxman z”l


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UPCOMING EVENTS

July 8-11, 2010 – Annual conference of the Union of Progressive Jews in Germany, Spandau-Berlin

November 25-28, 2010 – Biennial conference of the Union for Progressive Judaism in Australia, Asia and New Zealand, Canberra, Australia

February 7-13, 2011 – Connections 2011, San Francisco



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