IN THIS  ISSUE: 

• ISRAELI CONGREGATIONS MOVE FORWARD WITH NEW FACILITIES

• NEW JERSEY TORAH SCROLLS START LIFE ANEW IN BELARUS

• COMPLETE REMARKS BY STEVEN WEITZ, OF TEMPLE BETH-EL IN HILLSBOROUGH, NEW JERSEY, DURING THE CONSECRATION OF A TORAH SCROLL DONATED TO CONGREGATION EMUNAH IN VITEBSK, BELARUS, MAY 7, 2006

ISRAELI CONGREGATIONS MOVE FORWARD WITH NEW FACILITIES

Two congregations affiliated with the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism have taken major steps toward planting Progressive Judaism more firmly on the scene.

Congregation Beit Daniel of Tel Aviv dedicated Mishkenot Daniel, its new culture/education center and guesthouse in Jaffa, during ceremonies held June 18.  Set to open in November, the facility will have 60 guestrooms, as well as function halls and classrooms.  There are also plans for a synagogue.  In his remarks, Senior Rabbi Meir Azari recognized Gerard and Ruth Daniel, Mishkenot Daniel's main visionaries and benefactors - and past officers of the World Union – who could not be present due to illness.  "Throughout the years, [they] have been teaching us a lesson in the true meaning of dedication and devotion.  Their love of Tel Aviv-Jaffa is boundless, and their belief in the realization of this vision was our point of refuge during difficult times."  Among those present at the ceremony were Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres, Tourism Minister Isaac Herzog, Tel Aviv-Jaffa mayor Ron Huldai, and leaders of the World Union, including its chairman, Steven Bauman, and its president, Rabbi Uri Regev.  For more information on Mishkenot Daniel, click here.

Just a few days earlier, in the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Hasharon, members of Congregation Darchei Noam broke ground for their first synagogue building after almost two decades of efforts to secure land from the local council – a struggle that took them all the way to Israel‘s Supreme Court.  Led by Rabbi Yehoram Mazor, the longtime secretary of MARAM (the rabbinic council of the Israeli Progressive movement), Darchei Noam has some 400 members of all ages and has been using a high school auditorium for services and activities.  The new building will have an expandable sanctuary with seating for up to 350, two all-purpose rooms, a computer-equipped library, administrative offices that include a rabbi’s study, and basement space for future development.  To view an artist’s rendering of the facility, click here.

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NEW JERSEY TORAH SCROLLS START LIFE ANEW IN BELARUS

Congregation Nefesh of Brest, Belarus, recently held its first b’nai mitzvah ceremony (a triple) with a Torah donated by Congregation Sha'arey Shalom of Springfield, New Jersey.  The scroll had been carried to Moscow last July by Sha’arey Shalom member Larry Lerner, who is also a member of the World Union’s FSU committee.  There it was presented to Congregation Nefesh during a moving Shabbat morning ceremony (see WUPJnews #157).

Lerner returned to the former Soviet Union last month, traveling to Brest for the b’nai mitzvah ceremony of Victor, 24, Masha, 26, and Nina, 17.  “They have been studying without the aid of a rabbi or Jewish paraprofessional,” he writes.  “Their leader in this endeavor is a volunteer, Victoria.  They all have been taught about the Jewish holidays, Jewish history, culture, and conversational Hebrew, as well as studying the Torah portions.  None of them had any knowledge of Judaism before entering the program.  This will be the third bar mitzvah class for Brest, and the first for adults.”

The b’nai mitzvah ceremony, continues Lerner, is held in a “small, back-alley cellar that passes for the Jewish Community Center.  The Torah still weighs a ton, but it felt lighter as I led the procession through the crowd.  Many did not know what they were to do, and others tentatively reached to touch the cover.  Grisha [Rabbi Grisha Abramovich, the World Union’s rabbi in Belarus – ed.] guided Victor, Masha and Nina as they read from the scroll.  Victor had stage fright, but survived smiling.  Nina looked so proud as she finished.  Everybody gave a speech.”

Afterwards, Lerner continued to Vitebsk, where he joined Rabbi Arnold Gluck and former congregation chair Steven Weitz of Temple Beth-El in Hillsborough, New Jersey.  They had just brought a Torah to that city’s Congregation Emunah after some uncanny timing that led to the shidduch.  Says Mandy Eisner, who directs the World Union’s Shomrei Torah Donation Program, “In December of last year, I got a call from Rabbi Gluck, who wanted to donate a Torah.  On the very same day, I received an e-mail from Rabbi Grisha with a request for a Torah for Vitebsk.  I figured it was meant to be.”

During the Torah consecration ceremony, Weitz told the members of Congregation Emunah that the donation grew out of a 2004 decision by Temple Beth-El’s board of trustees to “take responsibility for transmitting Torah to future generations.  I believe in our continuity as a people for one reason above all others: Because we Jews embrace Torah and its teachings as our way of life."  (Weitz’s complete remarks appear below in the Addendum section.)

Rabbi Gluck told the congregants that the Torah donation is just the beginning.  “Our president is enthusiastic about our ongoing relationship with you.  We will propose to our board that we invite our congregation to be ‘honorary members’ of congregation Emunah by contributing $1 per person per month."

Donating a Torah through the World Union's Shomrei Torah Donation Program is a great way to help Progressive Judaism plant even deeper roots in the former Soviet Union and elsewhere around the world.  If you or your congregation have a Torah to spare, or know of one, please contact Mandy Eisner.

Rabbis Grisha Abramovich (left) and Arnold Gluck (right), with Arkady Schulman, a historian, literary magazine editor and prominent member of Congregation Emunah, who was given the honor of lifting the Torah at the consecration ceremony. 

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ADDENDUM

COMPLETE REMARKS BY STEVEN WEITZ, OF TEMPLE BETH-EL IN HILLSBOROUGH, NEW JERSEY, DURING THE CONSECRATION OF A TORAH SCROLL DONATED TO CONGREGATION EMUNAH IN VITEBSK, BELARUS, MAY 7, 2006

Shalom, chaverim!  I am so very happy to be here with you today!  I have dreamed of this journey for almost three years.  Finally, I get to stand here with you all, my brothers and sisters in Progressive Judaism.  Let me tell you the story of how today came to be, and how my fellow Jews from Temple Beth-El in New Jersey decided to send Rabbi Gluck and me here with this sefer Torah for your Vitebsk community.

In early 2004, our temple board of trustees agreed that our congregation would take responsibility for transmitting Torah to future generations.  Part of our efforts to be shomrim Torah, we met by fulfilling the 613^th and last commandment in Torah: with the help of a sofer or scribe, we wrote our own sefer Torah.  And, as many of you know, we had the honor of hosting Rabbi Abramovich at our siyyum celebration last September as he helped us complete our scroll.

At the same time we decided to write our own Torah, we also resolved to take seriously the principle  (kol Yisrael arevim zeh ba-zeh) that says as Jews, we are all responsible for one another.  What we hoped to do was raise enough money to acquire a sefer Torah that we would donate to a Progressive Jewish congregation in the FSU.

But of the many communities in need, why Vitebsk?  It could only have been God’s will!  One day, Rabbi Gluck was on the phone with a woman in Los Angeles from the World Union for Progressive Judaism asking her if she knew of a congregation in the FSU that needed a Torah.  At the very time they were speaking, she received an e-mail from Rabbi Abramovich asking if anyone could possibly get a sefer Torah to Vitebsk.  We were told that your community had been waiting over 12 years for a Torah of your own.  How privileged we are at Temple Beth-El to gift you this sefer Torah today.

Although many Jews in America have roots in Eastern Europe and Russia, most of us have lost our connection to this part of the world.  I know that, in the 20^th century, Jews from this region endured unspeakable hardship and oppression.  And, in the past few days, this lesson has been burned into my memory, as I visited places in Minsk and Vitebsk where the Angel of Death slaughtered our Jewish brothers and sisters.  Yet, after all this, we Jews endure!  I see the proof of this here in Vitebsk: in your beautiful kindergarten children, in being warmly welcomed into the Frumin family home and learning from their sons Philipp and Gleb that they want to become Bar Mitzvah, and in seeing you all here today.

I believe in our continuity as a people for one reason above all others:  Because we Jews embrace Torah and its teachings as our way of life.  Because Judaism demands that we learn and live the words that Adonai gave to Moishe Rabbenu at Sinai.  And because the great truth about life that exists as Torah is what will sustain our people in America, in Belarus and around the world.

So, chaverim, on behalf of my friends and fellow congregants from Temple Beth-El, accept this gift of Torah, given with full hearts and best wishes for you all.  And as we say whenever we conclude the reading of one of the five books of Torah, “Chazak Chazak V'Nitchazek” - Be strong, be strong, and we will be strengthened!

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