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IN
THIS ISSUE:
AVI CHAI-FUNDED SEMINARS IN FULL SWING IN FSU
A series of training
seminars for counselors at Progressive summer camps in the former Soviet
Union is well underway at five locations in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and
the Baltic States. The weekend sessions are held monthly or bi-monthly
and provide enrichment in Judaism, Jewish history, Jewish literature and
Israel to regional leaders of Netzer Olami, the World Union’s
international Zionist youth movement, who will form the backbone of this
year’s camp staff.
The seminars are being underwritten by the Avi Chai Foundation (see
WUPJnews #210) and led by the World Union’s FSU-based rabbis and
educators, and by rabbis and students from the Jerusalem campus of
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. There are also guest
lecturers. For example, the Jewish Agency’s representative in Belarus,
Igor Gittelman, lectured on the Israeli-Arab wars during the most recent
seminar in Minsk, exemplifying the high level of cooperation between the
Jewish Agency and the Progressive movement there and elsewhere in the
FSU.
Last year there were a record eight summer camps in the FSU for 850
youth and young people aged 11-27. This year a total of 11 camps are
planned for an anticipated 1,000 campers, including a camp just for
university students. A full report on this year's camps will appear in
WUPJnews at the end of the summer.
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"PRAGUE PROJECT" CONCLUDES WITH SHABBATON
Twenty-three
participants in a groundbreaking adult education course at Beit Simcha,
the Progressive congregation in Prague, marked the course's conclusion
with a shabbaton (weekend retreat) conducted by the World Union June
9-11.
Held in the Czech
countryside, the retreat was led by Tom Kucera, a Czech national who
will become one of the first three rabbis to be ordained on German soil
since World War II during ceremonies in September at Abraham Geiger
College, the Progressive rabbinic training seminary in Berlin. World
Union vice president for international development Rabbi Joel Oseran
attended the shabbaton and noted that Kucera "truly won the
hearts of all the participants with his charm, knowledge, teaching
skills and charisma. Participants engaged in serious Torah study for
nearly an entire day (quite possibly the first time many ever studied
Jewish texts in depth), and would have gone on had not time run out."
Oseran brought with him a
number of prayer shawls from Jerusalem. "The look in peoples' eyes when
they put on their own tallit for the first time was powerful.
And we did what I learned to do in the FSU - call up to the Torah those
who never before had an aliyah, all the while holding over them a
tallit as a chuppah, signifying their symbolic marriage to
their tradition and heritage, as represented by the Torah. There were
as many tears as there were trees in the forest outside, including a few
of mine."
The shabbaton and
the nine weekly classroom sessions that preceded it grew out of a 2005
proposal by US Reform activists Jim and Liz Breslauer to fund an effort
that would help strengthen Beit Simcha. After they and the World Union
settled on an adult education framework – which quickly became known as
the "Prague Project" – it was decided to open the registration to
Prague's entire Jewish population. In the end, the response was so
overwhelming that applicants had to be screened in order to winnow the
class down to fit the 30 available spaces.
The course was a "huge
success," said Oseran, with high attendance levels and positive
feedback. "We believe the time is ripe for the Progressive movement to
make major inroads into Prague's Jewish community," he added. "Working
closely with local Progressive leaders, we at the World Union are proud
to be taking an active role in advancing Jewish life in
this historically rich and important locale."
Participants in the recent shabbaton in the Czech Republic
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ITALIAN CONGREGATION TO GET TEMPORARY FULL-TIME RABBI
Rabbi Robert A. Rothman,
rabbi emeritus of Community Synagogue in Rye, New York, will assume the
pulpit of Shir Chadash, a Progressive congregation in Florence, Italy,
through June of next year. The decision came after a winter visit to
Israel by Rothman and his wife, Miriam, at which time they discussed
possible service opportunities abroad with World Union officials.
Rothman retired in 1997
after serving the Rye congregation for 31 years but is no stranger to
volunteering his time, having returned to the US last July after serving
as interim rabbi at Congregation Bet David in Johannesburg. “I think
more retired rabbis should be serving far-flung congregations which
could not otherwise afford a permanent, full-time rabbi,” he says. “It
is a mitzvah which grants great rewards, not only to the congregation,
but to its rabbi.”
While in Florence, Rothman
will conduct Shabbat and holiday services, teach adult education
courses, work with families and promote interfaith activities. He will
also assist at another Progressive congregation, Milan’s Beth Shalom.
“To transmit Jewish ideas, history and values to receptive congregants
in diverse communities is a privilege for me,” he says.
Rothman is a 1957 graduate
of Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, and served as a chaplain in the
US Naval Reserve for 23 years. He and his wife are the parents of three
grown children and currently live in Rye Brook, New York, where he
continues to lecture and officiate in life-cycle ceremonies.
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CONDOLENCES
- TO GERARD DANIEL AND FAMILY
The World Union for
Progressive Judaism notes with profound sadness the passing of Ruth
Daniel, our beloved friend, longtime leader, and past financial
secretary. Her vision, passion and support were invaluable in
contributing to the growth and strengthening of Progressive Judaism in
Israel, and to Reform Jewish communities throughout the world. A native
of Germany, Ruth escaped the Holocaust by moving to Tel Aviv, and always
retained an abiding love for that city, even after moving to the US.
With her husband Gerry, a past president of the World Union, she helped
make possible the construction of Beit Daniel in Tel Aviv, Israel’s
largest Reform synagogue and community center. Her illness
unfortunately prevented her from attending the June 18th dedication of
Mishkenot Daniel, the Reform cultural and education center, youth hostel
and synagogue in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, which was attended by the nation’s
leading government and religious dignitaries. She will be sorely missed
but forever remembered for her love of, and commitment to, the dream of
Progressive Judaism in the Jewish state. Our heartfelt condolences go
out to Gerry, their children and grandchildren.
Steven Bauman, Chairman
Rabbi Uri Regev, President
- TO GORDON SMITH
The World Union extends
its sincerest condolences to Gordon Smith, Vice Chair, Finance, on the
passing of his father, Samuel Smith z”l, a former executive secretary of
the World Union. The funeral was held June 25 in London. May his
memory be for a blessing.
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MAZAL TOV
The World Union extends a
hearty mazal tov to Rabbi Rich Kirschen, director of the Anita Saltz
International Education Center, on the bat mitzvah of his daughter, Gili.
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