|
IN
THIS ISSUE:
MUSLIM
RELIGIOUS LEADER VISITS HAIFA CONGREGATION
Emir Muhammad Sharif,
leader of Haifa’s Ahmadiyya Muslim community, spoke of the need for
peace and coexistence last month during Kabbalat Shabbat services at Or
Hadash, one of the city’s two Progressive congregations. Or Hadash’s
spiritual leader, Rabbi Edgar Nof, is active in local interfaith
efforts, and the congregation is planning to hold joint events with
Haifa’s Ahmadiyya community in the near future. The emir’s talk on
March 17 marked International Anti-racism Day and was facilitated by the
Israel Religious Action Center. In it he said the Ahmadiyya Movement,
founded in 1889, emphasizes the use of original religious texts. Later
interpretations, or “misinterpretations,” as he called them, have led
many Muslims to turn toward hatred rather than love and mutual respect.
According to Dr. Jesse Lachter, immediate past president of Or Hadash
and translator for a visiting delegation of Boston-Haifa partnership
programs, Emir Sharif also dwelt on more serious issues. “Not shying
away from the hard stuff, the emir explained the concept of Jihad. The
very word, he said, makes many people who misunderstand it anxious.”
Lachter said Emir Sharif explained that “Jihad” consistently appears in
the Koran as meaning a great, devoted and sincere effort, and never in
the context of war or enmity, and that the Koran says a Muslim should
feel more love toward his fellow man than a mother feels for her child -
even if the other person considers the Muslim his enemy. Lachter adds
that the aforementioned Boston-Haifa partnership has supported various
projects aimed at promoting pluralism and brotherhood among the city’s
varied communities.
Back to “In this Issue”
ODESSA CONGREGATION TAKES
DELIVERY OF "SANTIAGO" REPLACEMENT SCROLL
Members of the Progressive congregation in Odessa, Ukraine,
recently welcomed the arrival of a new Torah to replace a scroll stolen
just before Rosh Hashana. “It was a
remarkable celebration, attended by the representatives of Jewish
organizations, as well as by the JDC’s director and the director of the
Israeli cultural centre in Odessa,” says Rabbi Alex Dukhovny, chief
Progressive rabbi of Ukraine. “The youth leaders brought out the Torah
scroll under the chuppah and into the sanctuary, and the
‘marriage’ between the Aron Kodesh and the scroll began. Songs
and speeches and dances and chocolates were part of the joyful
evening.” Also present at the celebration were members from Temple
Shaaray Tefila of Bedford Corners, New York. The group was led by Rabbi
David Greenberg and Dr. Joel M. Hoffman, and had come to Odessa to visit
a local orphanage. “Rabbi Greenberg spoke on our behalf, telling the
group that his grandfather had left Ukraine with nothing in his hands,
but Torah in his heart,” says Hoffman. “How proud and perhaps
astonished would his grandfather be to know that his grandson was
physically welcoming Torah back into the lives of Jewish Ukraine.” The
scroll was donated by Templo Or Shalom and Congregation Yakar,
both of Santiago, Chile (see WUPJnews #200); its transfer was
facilitated by Jerry Tanenbaum, chairman of the World Union’s Yad B’yad
Task Force, which supports the development of Progressive Judaism in
Latin America.
Back to “In this Issue”
US
REFORM RABBI TO SERVE WARSAW CONGREGATION
Rabbi Burt Schuman of
Altoona, Pennsylvania, has been appointed senior rabbi at Beit Warszawa
of Warsaw, Poland, an affiliate of the World Union. When he assumes the
pulpit this summer, he will become Poland’s second full-time
congregational rabbi, and the first to serve a Progressive congregation
in that country since World War II. According to World Union vice
president for development Rabbi Joel Oseran, “this is a critical
development in the life of the congregation and will help ensure its
continued growth and success within the worldwide community of
Progressive Judaism. The World Union will work closely with Rabbi
Schuman and Beit Warszawa to ensure maximum cooperation and
assistance." Schuman has been serving as spiritual leader of Temple
Beth Israel in Altoona since being ordained at Hebrew Union
College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York in 1995. Before
beginning his rabbinic studies, he was executive director of the Jackson
Heights-Elmhurst Kehillah in the New York City borough of Queens. He
called it “an honor and a privilege” to serve Beit Warszawa. “For me,
this position completes a circuit begun when my Yiddish-speaking
grandparents emigrated to America from the regions of Krakow and Lwow,
and instilled in me a profound love of Judaism, Yiddish culture and
Yiddish literature. What an extraordinary experience it is to return to
these roots.”
Back to “In this Issue”
HISTORIC
B’NOT MITZVAH CELEBRATED BY HAMELN CONGREGATION
The Progressive
congregation in Hameln recently celebrated its first double bat mitzvah
by calling to the Torah Evelina Boraschanska and Greta Golbereg, both
recent immigrants to Germany from the former Soviet Union. Held on
Shabbat Trumah, the service was led by Rabbi Irit Shillor (with the
girls in the photo below); Shillor visits the Hameln congregation four
times a year thanks to a grant from the World Union’s European Region.
The girls prepared for the historic b’not mitzvah under the supervision
of Orly Kenig, the emissary to Germany for the Netzer Olami youth
movement. The service was attended by some 100 congregants and guests,
and was conducted in Hebrew, German and Russian. According to
congregation leader Rachel Dohme, the girls spoke in their Drashot
about the importance of building a new synagogue in Hameln, emphasizing
that it is people who make a synagogue valuable. “With a younger
generation like this,” says Dohme, “we are sure Jewish life in Germany
will grow and prosper.”

Back to “In this Issue”
|