Cherie and Fred Half, lay leaders of the World Union’s North American Advisory Board, and members of Congregation Beth Am, Los Altos Hills, California, reported on a very successful fundraising event at the end of February.
Congregation Beth Am has for about 20 years been underwriting our twin congregation in Poltava, Ukraine. Our committee has made a name for ourselves as we have partnered with other committees at our temple creating home cooked dinners for events. We hold other events under the Poltava banner to raise funds which now includes the Rabbinic Studies Program in Moscow. Last Saturday, we had a “trivia night” event which has been building over the last six years.
Charlie Rothschild and I felt it was a perfect opportunity to highlight the new Ibero-American Institute that Rabbi Roberto Graetz has nursed using highlights from video interview with two of their rabbinic students: Andrea Kulikowski, from the CIP in São Paulo, and Hernán Rutstein from Buenos Aires. The interview was taped at the North American Advisory Board Meeting in Phoenix. We wanted to illustrate the broad scope of the World Union and its vision for the future in South America, Spain and other Latin American countries. The event was very successful, raising over $2,000 USD.
Meet Andrea Kulikowsli and Hernán Rutstein and learn more about the new Ibero-American Institute for training Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking Reform rabbis in the video below.