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IN
THIS ISSUE:
ANOTHER MILESTONE FOR
PROGRESSIVE RABBINIC SEMINARY IN GERMANY
Several years of coordinated efforts by the World Union and the
leadership of Germany’s Progressive rabbinic seminary have led to a
series of significant milestones in the history of Reform Judaism in
Europe. Just last week, according to an official announcement, the
Bundestag (German parliament) approved the equivalent of nearly $200,000
in annual funding for Abraham Geiger College, the country’s first
rabbinic seminary since World War II, matching monies pledged by the
Zentralrat (Central Council of Jews in Germany) and doubling the
amount already approved by the federal Ministry of Home Affairs.
Geiger College principal, Rabbi Walter Homolka, noted that this is one
of the few instances in which Germany’s federal budget is actually being
increased. The move follows a series of meetings with German officials,
including Chancellor Angela Merkel and key ministers and legislators,
during which Rabbi Homolka, World Union chairman Steven M.
Bauman, vice chairman Leslie Bergman and president, Rabbi Uri Regev,
stressed the need to secure funding for rabbinical training in Germany
(see WUPJnews #’s 205 and 208).
This September, Geiger College will ordain the first three rabbis of any
stream of Judaism on German soil since the Holocaust. In thanking
Chancellor Merkel for the increased federal funding, Regev this week
renewed an invitation for her to attend the ordination.
“Everywhere I travel,” noted Rabbi Regev, “people I meet are greeting
the news of the upcoming ordination, and of substantive funding for the
seminary by the German government, with great excitement, as well as an
appreciation of both the concrete and symbolic significance of these
developments.”
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ISRAEL MOVEMENT CONFERENCE
BREAKS ATTENDANCE RECORDS AND SENDS OUT A MESSAGE
In an overwhelming demonstration of communal strength and sense of
purpose, a record-breaking 1,450 registered participants gathered from
May 18 to 20 for the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism’s 17th
biennial convention in and aound Tel Aviv. The theme of the conference,
“Progressive Judaism and the Israeli Family,” was addressed from many
different perspectives at more than 30 workshops and activities
throughout the weekend.
Participants ranged in age from infants to veteran congregation members,
and included 100 members of the IMPJ Young Adult Forum and more than 50
members of Noar Telem, the Israeli Zionist youth movement.
The enthusiasm and feeling of unity that filled the convocation sent out
the message that “together we have more strength, more impact, more
power and more meaning for the lives of each of us as individuals,
families and congregations,” noted IMPJ chairperson, Paula Edelstein.
At the festive opening session (see photo), two new congregations were
formally welcomed into the Israeli movement: Congregation B’vat Ayin of
Rosh Ha’ayin, near Petach Tikva, and Congregation Yadid Nefesh, in the
northern town of Karmiel (see WUPJnews #181 and #200, respectively).
Representing the World Union at the conference were Rabbi Joel Oseran,
vice president for international development, and Lesley Sachs, vice
president for administration. Says Oseran, “The spirit was high; the
presentations were top quality; the Shabbat evening service on the lawn
at Sh’fayim was filled with joy and blessing; the sense of movement was
profound and the overall mix of participants (young and old, kibbutznik
and city-folk, first-timers and veterans) merged to create a real
‘happening’ that left everyone inspired.” IMPJ executive director Iri
Kassel added, “Let us all hope that the convention will be another step
in strengthening the movement and Reform Judaism in Israel.”
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WORLD UNION PROJECT
STRENGTHENS PROGRESSIVE JUDAISM IN BALTIC STATES
Helping young Jews in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia to understand and
celebrate the holidays of Pesach and Shavuot helps build enthusiasm for
Progressive Judaism in the former Soviet Union, according to the World
Union’s Rabbi Gregory Kotlyar, who led a recent seminar for more than 30
young people in Riga.
Jan Tzifris, a student at the World Union’s Institute for Modern Jewish
Studies in Moscow, helped in leading the series of lectures, study
sessions and even a traditional Pesach seder that the young people
hosted for 20 adult Riga residents. Organizers included Natashe Yoffe,
Netzer coordinator for Latvia, and Netzer activist Masha Briede.
The seminar took place during the Omer, the period of counting
days between the two holidays, which served to connect them. This and
previous holiday seminars held in the region over the past year and a
half have created a core group of dedicated and enthusiastic young
people who hope to strengthen Progressive Judaism in the former Soviet
Union in general, and in the Baltic States in particular.
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TWO
PROGRESSIVE LEADERS RECEIVE HIGH HONORS
The World Union for Progressive Judaism congratulates and commends two
of its leading activists for their recent distinguished honors:
Rabbi John Levi,
the World Union’s former regional director for Australia, New Zealand
and Asia, received an honorary doctorate on May 11 from Australia’s
Monash University. Rabbi Levi was the first native Australian to be
ordained (at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion) and
return to Australia to lead a congregation. He is Rabbi Emeritus at
Temple Beth Israel in the Melbourne suburb of St. Kilda, co-founder of
the Council of Christians and Jews in Australia and deputy president of
the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.
Rabbi Levi is a noted historian, whose next book, due out later this
year, profiles prominent Jews from 18th and 19th century Australia and
is based on a Monash University PhD thesis he wrote on the subject.
Ted Young,
an American-born professor at Delft University of Technology and a
leading member of the Liberal Jewish movement in the Netherlands, was
named Ridder in de Orde van de
Nederlandse Leeuw (Knight
in the Order of the Netherlands Lion) on April 28, the eve of the
national festival for the queen’s birthday. The award was made in
recognition of Young’s contributions to the university in research,
academia and administration, as well as for his leadership in the
country’s Liberal movement.
Young serves on the
executive board of the Dutch Union of Liberal Congregations and chairs
its education and publication arm. He also is a member of the academic
committee of the Levisson Institute, the Dutch movement’s rabbinic
seminary, and a former board member of the Liberal congregation in The
Hague.
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