IN THIS  ISSUE: 

• WORLD UNION ANNOUNCES MISSION TO SOUTH AMERICA AND HISTORIC CONFERENCE

• U.S. "KESHER” AMBASSADORS CONNECT WITH PEERS IN ARGENTINA

• TEACHER AT LBC, CALLED "GREATEST BRITISH JEW," DIES

   

WORLD UNION ANNOUNCES MISSION TO SOUTH AMERICA AND HISTORIC CONFERENCE
The World Union is sponsoring a 12-day mission to South America in mid-November that will coincide with the Conference of the Jewish Communities in Latin America, a groundbreaking four-day gathering being held in partnership with Masorti Olami, the worldwide Conservative movement. The optional conference in the Uruguayan resort of Punta del Este will take place November 16-19.

The mission will be led by Rabbi Joel Oseran, the World Union's vice president for international development; Rabbi David Gelfand, who chairs the Task Force on World Jewry of the Central Conference of American Rabbis; and Jerry Tanenbaum, who chairs the World Union's Yad B’Yad Task Force for Latin America.

“This trip to Argentina, Chile and Uruguay will be like no other because we have built it especially to see Reform Judaism in action in each of the countries to be visited,” the mission leaders said in their recent letter of invitation. “While including all the famous and traditional tourist sites, we will also spend quality time with members of our Reform movement in each of the countries. And perhaps most exciting of all, we will have the opportunity to participate in a historic conference of Reform and Conservative Jews from throughout the region, coming together for the first time under the official auspices of both movements." (See www.ccjal.com.br for conference details.)

World Union leaders described the mission to South America as ”a most fitting affirmation of the charge recently proclaimed at the Union for Reform Judaism’s board meeting, encouraging Reform Jews throughout the U.S. movement to assist and promote Progressive Judaism worldwide.”

Click here to download an informational flyer for the World Union mission.
 

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U.S. "KESHER” AMBASSADORS CONNECT WITH PEERS IN ARGENTINA

Twenty-two Reform college students from across the U.S. recently traveled to Argentina to learn more about the country and its Progressive Jewish communities, and to participate alongside their Argentine peers in social action and education projects. The students are members of KESHER (Hebrew for "connection"), a campus program of the Union for Reform Judaism (www.keshernet.com), and were the third group of "KESHER Ambassadors" to travel to Argentina.

In Buenos Aires they pitched in at a soup kitchen operated by the Javurah Center, part of a network of voluntary organizations operated by Fundación Judaica, which provides food, medicine, clothing and other support services for the disadvantaged. On their first Shabbat they attended Friday evening services at the Progressive movement’s Congregation NCI-Emanuel, where Rabbi Sergio Bergman, head of the country’s Progressive community and founder of Fundación Judaica, led a traditional tisch, the community's Shabbat evening meal with the rabbi. The next morning they attended services at the city’s other Progressive congregation, the Libertad Synagogue.

Their time in Buenos Aires also included a visit to the Arlene Fern School, a Reform Jewish day school, where they led the students in song. Fundación Judaica and the Arlene Fern School are just two of the projects supported by the World Union’s Yad B'Yad Task Force, which assists the growing Latin American Progressive movements and their social action and education programs. "How important it is to broaden the horizons of our youth, both those from North America and the youth they bind with in Argentina," said Yad B’Yad chair Jerry Tanenbaum prior to the group's departure. "It will without a doubt be a life-changing experience."

The KESHER Ambassadors also traveled to Avigdor (see photo below), a colony established in 1936 for German-Jewish refugees, where they painted a synagogue and elementary school, and attended an inspiring Shavuot service in which the Torah portion was read in Hebrew, English, and Spanish. Back in Buenos Aires, they participated in Shabbat programming by the local branch of Netzer Olami, the World Union’s international Zionist youth movement.

Many of the students described their experiences in Argentina as eye opening and transformative. One noted that the trip reinforced her perception of the "connection that exists between Jews, a connection capable of overcoming language barriers.” Another described the trip as “absolutely essential to all…students interested in experiencing life, politics, education, social action, and Judaic values” in action. Before returning home, they were encouraged to speak about their experiences next year on campus and to maintain ties with their Argentine peers.

This year’s KESHER Ambassador program was made possible through the generous support of the David Heller Family Foundation, with additional support from the North American Federation of Temple Brotherhoods. The group was led by Rabbi David Wolfman, director of the Union for Reform Judaism’s Northeast Council; Rabbi Elliott Kleinman, URJ director of programs; and Rachel Grant Meyer, a KESHER program associate.

2006 KESHER Ambassadors at Avigdor

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TEACHER AT LBC, CALLED "GREATEST BRITISH JEW," DIES
Rabbi Louis Jacobs, who, as teacher of Talmud and other Jewish tracts at Leo Baeck College, influenced the lives of many Progressive rabbis, died July 1 in London at age 85.  The Manchester-born Jacobs was considered a Talmudic genius and ordained as an Orthodox rabbi, but later was barred from a top seminary post by then-chief rabbi Israel Brodie after publishing "We Have Reason to Believe," in which he sought to reconcile modern Jewish thought with Orthodox theology.  Also barred from returning to the Orthodox pulpit, Jacobs and a number of followers founded a new congregation that gave rise to Britain's Masorti (Conservative) movement.

World Union president Rabbi Uri Regev called him "a most significant figure" in the Jewish world, and Rabbi Tony Bayfield, who studied under Jacobs, called him "the greatest Jewish scholar whom I have had the privilege of knowing and learning from."  Jacobs was remembered at a recent rabbinic conference marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of Leo Baeck College.  “We mourn for the loss of such a great rabbinic mind and prolific scholar," said LBC vice principal Rabbi Michael Shire.  "It was he who gave us a reason to believe.”   As cited in the obituary published in The Forward, "A recent poll by the Jewish Chronicle, Britain's leading Jewish weekly, ranked Jacobs as 'the greatest British Jew,' ahead of such figures as Chaim Weizmann and Sir Moses Montefiore."

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