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IN
THIS ISSUE:
REGISTRATION STILL OPEN FOR IMPJ BIKE RIDE
FUND-RAISER
So far, 32 cyclists from Israel, the US, Canada and Britain have signed
up for the third annual Riding4Reform bike ride, a five-day fund-raising
event sponsored by the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism that will
take place March 26-30. Participants must raise a minimum of $2,000 in
pledges, all of which goes toward IMPJ community projects. Unlike
previous years, when the route began in the north or south and ended in
Jerusalem, this year's route will both start and finish in the capital
city. Subject to change, it will take in the Beit Shemesh/Beit Guvrin
area to the south before heading northwest to the greater Tel Aviv area,
northeast along the Yarkon River to Rosh Ha'ayin, northwest to Ra'anana
and Netanya, south to Modi'in, and eastward back to Jerusalem via the
suburb of Mevasseret Zion. As the Tel Aviv-Netanya leg will coincide
with Israel's Election Day - a national holiday - it will be open to
anyone who wishes to ride along. Cyclists interested in participating in
the full event must be 18 or older (17 if accompanied by a parent or
guardian) and capable of completing the approximately 300-mile route in
the allotted time. To register or sponsor a rider, go to
www.riding4reform.org or
contact moti@impj.org.il.
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TOUCHING MOMENT AT ANNUAL BEIT MIDRASH FAMILY RETREAT
The Beit Midrash, a program for Hebrew speakers at Mercaz Shimshon-Beit
Shmuel, the World Union’s education and cultural center in Jerusalem,
recently held its annual “Shabbat Yachad (Together)” retreat, in which
students bring their family for a weekend of study and Shabbat worship.
This year the retreat was held at the Negev Paradise Hotel in Beersheva.
Ofer Shemer, director of education and culture at Mercaz Shimshon-Beit
Shmuel, relates the following: “On Saturday morning, we held
Reform-style services (although about 40 percent of the students are
Orthodox). The seventh aliya was given to student Sylvia Yaoz, and when
she was finished she told us a story that moved us all. She had been
born into an Orthodox family from Greece. Naturally, she said, it had
been absolutely forbidden for her to even look at the Holy Scriptures.
Now here she was, able to touch the Torah and even read from it - all
while wearing slacks! - and despite the synagogue prohibitions of her
youth, nothing terrible happened. The entire time she spoke she gripped
the Torah. Students and teachers were moved to tears and later hugged
her excitedly. This is her seventh year studying at the Beit Midrash.
She suffers from multiple sclerosis and is confined to a wheelchair.
Despite her severe disability, she never misses a session and has never
missed a Shabbat Yachad. It was the first time in her life that she was
called to the Torah.”
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WORLD
UNION HOLDS NUMEROUS PRE-HOLIDAY SEMINARS IN FSU
With the assistance of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of
Religion, the World Union held a number of seminars in the former Soviet
Union just prior to Chanukah that focused on both this festival and the
upcoming Tu B'shevat holiday. Pre-holiday seminars also take place each
year just prior to Pesach and Rosh Hashana, and have proven to be an
effective mechanism for imparting knowledge and leadership skills for
Progressive Jews in the FSU. One of the pre-Chanukah seminars this year
took place in St. Petersburg, Russia, as part of a recent conference for
Progressive educators (see WUPJnews #188). It attracted some 120
participants, about half of them members of the local chapter of the
Netzer Olami youth movement. It was led by Olga Marcus, Alona Pisnaya
and Irina Belskaya, the World Union's education coordinators in Russia,
Ukraine and Belarus, respectively, and by Jhanna Zlotnik, overall FSU
coordinator for Netzer Olami, and Netzer/Russia coordinator Evgeny
Lezhenko. Another seminar was held in Kiev for 60 congregational leaders
and Netzer Olami members from Ukraine. It was led by Kharkov-based Rabbi
Michael Kapustin, HUC-JIR/Jerusalem student rabbi Stas Woyzehovich,
Netzer/FSU coordinator Zlotnik and Netzer/Ukraine coordinator Anna
Luzhnova. An additional seminar was held in Minsk for 30 Netzer Olami
leaders from throughout Belarus. It was led by Minsk-based Rabbi Grisha
Abramovich, HUC-JIR/Jerusalem student rabbi Ilana Baird, Netzer/FSU
coordinator Zlotnik and Netzer/Belarus coordinator Natalya Elman. Yet
another seminar was held in Riga, Latvia, for Progressive leaders from
the Baltic States. It was led by Rabbi Gregory Kotlyar, now based in
Israel after four years as Progressive rabbi of Russia; Natalya Ioffie,
Netzer coordinator for the Baltic States; and Netzer/Russia coordinator
Lezhenko. Coordinating the overall seminar efforts this holiday season
was Alex Kagan, the World Union's FSU director.
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NOTED REFORM SCHOLAR TO LEAD EDUCATIONAL TOURS TO EASTERN EUROPE
Professor Paul Liptz, Education Director of the World Union's Saltz International Education Center, will lead an educational tour to
Lvov, Kiev and Odessa June 26-July 6 in conjunction with the World
Union. The tour will include visits to sites of Jewish interest, with
background lectures by Liptz. There will also be visits to Progressive
congregations. For more information on the itinerary, go to
http://downloads.wupj.org/home/kiev.pdf. Professor Liptz is a social
historian who also teaches on the Jerusalem campus of Hebrew Union
College-Jewish Institute of Religion and at Tel Aviv University. He is
recognized as an outstanding scholar-in-residence and has long been
escorting study groups of this type. Immediately after the Ukraine tour,
he will lead a nine-day educational tour of Warsaw, Krakow and Berlin in
conjunction with ARZA World, the tourism arm of the Association of
Reform Zionists of America; for more information go to
http://www.arzaworld.com/tours/2006/EducationalTour.html. In
October, he will lead a tour to Budapest and Prague, again in
conjunction with the World Union – see
http://downloads.wupj.org/home/prague.pdf.
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