|
IN
THIS ISSUE:
ISRAELI
MOVEMENT REMAINS A SOURCE OF STRENGTH IN THIS TIME OF NEED
The Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism
has mobilized on behalf of the members of its northern congregations –
and others – who live in areas affected by the current
cross-border fighting.
The IMPJ is matching individuals and families
with members of its congregations in the center of the country who have
volunteered to open their homes until the fighting subsides. In
addition, with the conclusion of its annual summer camp, it has rented
the Kfar Silver youth village near Ashkelon for an additional week in
order to house people living on the firing line. "We decided to
go forward with this important project with no idea where the money
would come from," says IMPJ associate director Gusti Yehoshua-Braverman.
"We know that there are times where you must take a risk in order to
lower another risk! This is, for me personally, the meaning of the
expression, 'All of Israel is responsible for one another.'"
The Israeli movement's Keren B’kavod and
Kehilat Tzedek social action projects continue to provide assistance,
the former in transportation services in areas where bus and train
schedules have been interrupted, the latter in temporary housing
solutions for people with disabilities. In a joint project with Israel’s
Masorti (Conservative) movement, a hotline in English, Russian, Spanish
and Hebrew, manned by social workers and rabbis, has been set up for new
immigrants.
As many of those who have remained behind
have been confined to bomb shelters for days (and nights) on end, the
IMPJ, in conjunction with the Israel Religious Action Center, organized
“conference-call services” last Friday evening, with a toll-free phone
hook-up to Kabbalat Shabbat prayers at Tel Aviv’s Beit Daniel and
elsewhere. Quite appropriately, the weekly portion (actually, a double
portion - Matot-Masei) concluded the Book of Numbers, with the
traditional declaration, “Hazak, hazak v’nithazek – Be strong, be
strong, and be strengthened.”
"The number of people in
need who turn to us," says the IMPJ's Yehoshua-Braverman, "is
unfortunately much greater than we can afford to assist. I can share
with you my feeling that each time we turn a family away, it is as if we
are sending this family to an unknown destiny. It is a huge
responsibility." (A new letter from Gusti
appears in the Addendum section below.)
The Progressive institution that appears to
have been hit hardest by the situation is Haifa’s Leo Baeck Education
Center, whose campus atop the Carmel includes a school, as well as
facilities that provide summer services and activities to thousands of
families. Eran Dubovi, deputy director of LBEC, says a number of
Hezbollah rockets have landed close by, and despite having numerous
shelters and safe areas, the campus was forced literally to shut down.
“[A]ctivity this week has
been totally halted," he wrote on July 21. "All of Leo Baeck’s 520
employees have been forced to stay home. The community centre has been
shut down. The summer camps have been shut down. The sports center,
which is a source of revenue, is also under stoppage. All summer
activities of the community center in its various satellite centers
throughout Haifa have been stopped, rendering us unable to serve
thousands of children, youth, special education pupils, new immigrants,
needy Jewish and Arab families, special needs populations, the elderly
and others."
This week, however, LBEC
received the go-ahead from civil defense authorities to reopen some of
its programs, including a day camp for pre-schoolers that will operate
in a bomb shelter. It will also put an underground parking facility at
the disposal of the municipality for programs for children and youth,
including arts and crafts activities and films.
If you wish to
make a secure monetary contribution through the Israel Religious Action
Center's emergency fund, please click
here. (NOTE: Enter "For IMPJ emergency fund" in the field labeled
"Any other message for us.") To offer encouragement or other
forms of support for the Israeli movement, its members and affiliates,
contact IMPJ spokeswoman
Galit Eliassi. To read more on the
situation, go to
www.urj.org/Israel
or
www.arza.org.
Back to “In this Issue”
WORLD UNION UPGRADES STRUCTURE AND ACADEMIC STATUS OF
MACHON
The World Union has added
a third year to the curriculum of the Institute for Modern Jewish
Studies, its Moscow-based Jewish community worker training program. In
addition, the program, also known as “Machon,” is now affiliated with
the prestigious Russian State University for the Humanities, meaning
participants will earn university credits during the course of their
studies. These changes will take effect at the start of the 2006-2007
academic year.
The first year of the
program, says Alex Kagan, World Union director for the FSU, will consist
of classroom studies – three days a week at Machon, and twice a week in
the university framework. The second year will consist of five months of
study in Israel, including volunteer work in the Sar-El army program,
and seven months of community work in the FSU, during which time there
will be two study seminars. During the final year, the students will
work in their home communities and attend three study seminars. At the
end of the year they will write a term paper and undergo a final
interview that, together, determine whether they will be assigned a
position as a Progressive community worker.
The Machon program turned
out nine graduates this year; five will continue to work either with
Progressive congregations or in the wider Jewish community.
Since the first class
graduated in 1995, nearly 35 Machon graduates have chosen Jewish
communal service as a career. Over 20 currently work with the
Progressive movement, either directly with congregations or with such
Progressive organizations as the World Union and the Netzer Olami youth
movement. Others are working with the wider Jewish community, primarily
with the Joint Distribution Committee.
Four graduates - Michael
Farbman, Alexander Lyskovoy, Gregory Abramovich and Mikhail Kapustin -
have been ordained as rabbis and are currently serving the Progressive
movements in the FSU (Lyskovoy as director of Machon). Four more -
Leonid Bimbat, Yuri Kadnikov, Alina Treyger and Tatiana Sakhnovich - are
currently studying toward the rabbinate, while an additional two -
Evgeny Plushenko and Eugeniy Plukhin - are headed for rabbinical school.
Two others – Olga Marcus and Ira Zachozaya - completed advanced degrees
in Jewish education and are now helping to establish a formal education
system for Progressive communities in the FSU.
First-year Machon students, 2006. Also: foreground / left - Rabbi
Alexander Lyskovoy, Machon director, and right - cantorial soloist
Dimitry Karpenko, instructor; 2nd row / 2nd from right - Rabbi
Nelly Shulman, instructor; back row / far right – Rabbi Joel Oseran,
World Union vice president for international development, 2nd from right
- Alexander Kagan, World Union director of FSU, and 3rd from right -
Valery Sheinin, executive director, World Union Moscow office
Back to “In this Issue”
GERMAN
MOVEMENT HOLDS ANNUAL CONFERENCE IN SPANDAU
Over 180 members and guests participated in
the latest annual conference of the Union of Progressive Jews in
Germany, held in early July in Berlin. The UPJ is the roof body for a
score of liberal congregations, as well as for Young and Jewish (the
German branch of the Netzer Olami youth movement), ARZENU/Germany, and
Abraham Geiger College, Germany’s first post-war rabbinic seminary.
During the conference, the UPJ welcomed its 20th and 21st congregations,
from Kiel and the Ruhr Valley.
The four-day conference program included
workshops, seminars and prayer services described by spokeswoman Rachel
Dohme as “an exciting exchange of hands-on methodology,
discussion and practice [that] lent itself to strengthening the
spiritual, educational and social network for the German Progressive
movement.” Dohme said the session leaders,
both from Germany and abroad, “offered a wide palate of
interesting and thought-provoking workshops and seminars in German and
Russian, which stimulated the participants and underscored the diversity
of Jewish life in Germany today.”
(A large percentage of the
UPJ’s members are natives of the former Soviet Union. Dimitry Karpenko,
a cantorial soloist for the Russian movement – see photo above – was a
guest cantor and led music workshops at the conference, providing just
one example of how the World Union shares staff and expertise among its
regions.)
The multi-language prayer
services throughout the conference were particularly beautiful, says
Dohme, being led by Progressive rabbis and congregational lay leaders.
“Geiger students conducted the Torah service with competence and
confidence,” she adds. “Especially moving was the Havdallah service, led
by members of the national youth movement, who extended blessings to the
UPJ, its congregations and Israel in between the stirring tones of
violins.”
Participants at a plenum
session moved to separate the rabbis serving Germany’s Progressive
movement from the movement’s European Bet Din (religious court), and
link them instead with the General Bet Din of Germany, one of two in the
country. This move is viewed throughout the movement as a positive step
in the UPJ’s integration into existing Jewish structures in Germany,
which began with the recognition of Progressive congregations late last
year by the Central Council of Jews in Germany following a protracted
political struggle led by the World Union. Conference goers were also
invited to an upcoming milestone at Geiger College, which will graduate
its initial class of rabbis in September – making them the first rabbis
to be ordained in Germany since World War II.
Back to “In this Issue”
UPCOMING EVENTS
·
Join us in
Jerusalem, March 15-20, 2007, for Connections 2007 – the 33rd
International Convention of the World Union for Progressive Judaism.
Further details soon.
·
Special
World Union
Mission to South America,
November 9-20. (Adobe Reader required for this download)
·
World Union
International Humanitarian Awards Dinner honoring Betty B.
Golomb and Rabbi Jonathan A. Stein in New York City, September 10, 2006
·
Shared Destiny
– the World Union International Award Celebration honoring Rabbi
Roberto D. Graetz, Lorry Lokey and Joanne Harrington in San Mateo,
California, October 8, 2006
Back to “In this Issue”
ADDENDUM
NEW
LETTER TO FRIENDS OF THE ISRAEL MOVEMENT FOR PROGRESSIVE JUDAISM BY IMPJ
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR GUSTI YEHOSHUA-BRAVERMAN
July 24, 2006
Dear Friends,
Twice in my life, I
remember myself spending time in a bomb shelter. The first time was as a
little girl in the Six Day War, and the second time was during the Yom
Kippur War. I carry these memories with me today, and they are still
traumatic.
Thirteen days have passed
since this war began. The northern part of Israel is under heavy missile
attack. [App0roximately 20] civilians have lost their lives and hundreds
more have been wounded. It's a war against civilians. Those who weren't
able to leave have been forced to spend days and nights in bomb
shelters.
The bomb shelter - a tiny,
cramped place, which all of a sudden needs to accommodate a number of
families, sometimes strangers to one another. The bomb shelter that just
two weeks ago was a storage room for bikes has now to function as a
common bedroom, living room, dining area and family room. No privacy and
a lot of psychological pressure. Imagine your own family having to spend
13 days and nights cramped together - tough? Now imagine that there is
no foreseeable deadline to your stay - harder? Now imagine that 10 more
families from the neighborhood need to stay with you - impossible? Now
imagine that somebody from the outside is threatening you life -
unbearable!
The fact that some people
who had a place to go decided to leave their homes really did save a lot
of lives! You can imagine how difficult it is to pick up and leave your
home, your bed, pillow, blankets and toys, but the alternative is to
risk your life or live in a constant state of fear in
sub-human conditions.
Ten days ago I wrote an
e-mail asking people to open their homes and hearts to host families
from the north. The response was heart warming.
It is our wish that in
another week, it will be all over.
The reality is far from
this. We cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel. The needs of our
northern neighbors, as well as their generous hosts, are growing. All of
the families (both the hosts and the guests) are, understandably, in
desperate need of privacy.
We are searching,
endlessly, for creative solutions for them and for many other families
that see in our movement a source of salvation.
We cannot let them down!!!
Therefore, we have
undertaken a new initiative. We decided to book the "Abba Hillel Silver"
Village, where our summer camp took place until today, for one more
precious week (which is the limit the village is ready to allow).
The number of people in
need who turn to us is, unfortunately, much greater than we can at this
time afford to assist. I can share with you my feeling that each time we
turn a family away, it is as if we are sending this family to an unknown
destiny. It is a huge responsibility. Tomorrow we will offer a solution
to 100 people. We decided to go forward with this important project with
no idea where the money would come from. We know that there are times
where you must take a risk in order to lower another risk! This is, for
me personally, the meaning of the expression, "All of Israel is
responsible for one another." Moreover, this is, for us as a movement, a
time when we can show our "power" as a meaningful stream within Judaism.
There is so much more to
do and so many other people who need us: old, young, babies, new
immigrants and adults. They are all looking for help .Our duty is to be
there for them!!!!
Dear friends, it's time to
pray and take action!!!!
I know that together we
can make it.
Sincerely,
Gusti Yehoshua-Braverman
Associate Director, IMPJ
Back to “In this Issue”
|
