IN THIS ISSUE: 

• IRAC PETITIONS TOP COURT OVER FUNDING DENIAL FOR CONVERSION COURSES

• LBEC USING PARALLEL CURRICULA TO PARTNER WITH DAY SCHOOLS WORLDWIDE

• PLAUT COMMENTARY PROJECT REACHES MILESTONE

• LIBERAL MOVEMENT IS FIRST IN BRITAIN WITH SAME-SEX COMMITMENT LITURGY

IRAC PETITIONS TOP COURT OVER FUNDING DENIAL FOR CONVERSION COURSES
The Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC) has petitioned the country’s Supreme Court on behalf of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism (IMPJ) regarding government funding for its conversion courses. The IMPJ currently operates 11 conversion courses throughout the country, and most candidates in the courses are new immigrants. IRAC’s petition targets the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, which has earmarked funding only for those organizations that prepare immigrants for Orthodox conversion. However, the petition also targets the prime minister’s office, which oversees state conversion mechanisms. Einat Hurvitz, acting director of IRAC’s legal department, calls the funding policy “discriminatory” and “unreasonable,” adding that it runs counter to a previous high court decision that said the state cannot limit its recognition solely to Orthodox conversions. The IRAC petition also calls for a freeze on that portion of the Absorption Ministry budget that reflects the IMPJ’s estimated share of conversion course funding, at least until the court hands down its decision. Meanwhile, Tel Aviv’s Congregation Beit Daniel recently hosted a Shabbat experience for some 110 conversion candidates who are participating in IMPJ-run courses. The program included study sessions, a seminar on intercultural migration, Shabbat worship, and a visit to Beit Hatfutsot, the museum of Diaspora communities. It was organized by Rabbi Yelena Rubinstein, director of IMPJ programs for new immigrants, and by Rabbi Meir Azari, Beit Daniel’s spiritual leader.

 

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LBEC USING PARALLEL CURRICULA TO PARTNER WITH DAY SCHOOLS WORLDWIDE
The Leo Baeck Education Center (LBEC) in Haifa has begun a partnering project with 26 Jewish day schools in English-speaking countries that aims to reinforce Israel’s ties with Jewish communities around the world. The project, which is being implemented by the LBEC-based Lokey International Academy of Jewish Studies and employs parallel curricula for students in grades 5-8 and 10, actually consists of a number of programs. Yachdav (Together) is a two-year curriculum for students in grades 5 and 6 designed to instill in children a renewed sense of Jewish identity and deeper understanding of what it means to be an active member of the Jewish People. It employs e-mail and video-conferencing to help the youngsters explore their own identity while learning about their partners' families, communities, beliefs and connections to the Jewish world. Shorashim (Roots) is designed to help pre-bar and -bat mitzvah students explore their family history by using interviews, the Internet, maps, documents, photographs and family heirlooms, with a focus on Biblical characters, whom the program literature calls “our earliest common ancestors,” in order to “trigger Jewish perspective on every topic.” The Tzmatim (Junctures) program employs a unique and dynamic way of looking at Jewish history in the Land of Israel - one that portrays the development of Judaism as seven junctures - from Abraham to Zionism. It, too, uses e-mail and video conferencing to help the pupils learn about each other's families, communities, beliefs and Jewish identity. Finally, the Israel Counts program emphasizes the special qualities of each of the shiva minim (seven species of fruit). A number of the programs are scheduled to conclude with a meeting between the Israeli and Diaspora classrooms either in Israel or abroad. For further information on LBEC's partnering project, send an e-mail to yaelkb@leobaeck.org.il.

 

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PLAUT COMMENTARY PROJECT REACHES MILESTONE
The World Union recently concluded the translation into Russian of the first book of the world-renowned Plaut Modern Torah Commentary. As with the translation of Genesis, the subsequent books will include introductory passages explaining each week's Torah portion, as well as running commentary on key words and phrases, extensive notes on related themes, and supporting text with references from different historical periods. Each of the 12 weekly portions of Genesis appeared on the Web site of the Russian Progressive movement (www.reform.org.ru) during the week corresponding with the Torah reading, beginning on Simchat Torah (see WUPJnews #177). Naftali Itenberg of the World Union's Jerusalem office, and Rabbi Gregory Kotlyar, who returned to Israel last summer after four years as Progressive rabbi of Russia, will continue their translation work, the goal being to post the remaining books of the Plaut Commentary on the Russian movement's Web site within the year. The World Union is also looking for ways to make the project available to those who lack computers. In the photo below, World Union President Rabbi Uri Regev (right) is shown with Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut (center) and Rabbi Jonathan Plaut during a meeting on the project last month in Toronto.

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LIBERAL MOVEMENT IS FIRST IN BRITAIN WITH SAME-SEX COMMITMENT LITURGY
Britain’s Liberal Jewish movement has become the first religious organization in the UK to introduce a liturgy for same-sex commitment ceremonies in parallel with the Civil Partnership Law, which took effect earlier this month. Called “Covenant of Love, a Service of Commitment for Same-Sex Couples,” the liturgy, according to a Liberal Movement press release, is a “compendium of texts from which rabbis, and lesbian and gay couples, can choose material to construct a Commitment Ceremony.” The ceremonies can take place anywhere, including a synagogue, following registration at a civil registry office. Although individual rabbis have “officiated at private ceremonies…for years,” it marks the movement’s first “official public endorsement and support” regarding the issue of same-sex ceremonies. Work on the liturgy took about three years. “Although some of the materials are devised from the Jewish marriage service," says the press release, “the aim is not simply to imitate a wedding but to create a ceremony at once similar and different, celebrating love within a committed and faithful partnership of two Jews.” The movement is also preparing a leaflet called “Lesbian and Gay Jews and Same-Sex Relationships” that explains its policies regarding lesbian and gay individuals and couples. Four lesbian and two gay rabbis are currently among the 31 full members of Liberal Judaism’s Rabbinic Conference.

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