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IN THIS
ISSUE:
REGEV TO INSTALL POLAND'S FIRST POST-WAR PROGRESSIVE
RABBI
Rabbi Uri Regev, President
of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, will officiate at the
installation of Rabbi Burt Schuman as spiritual leader of Beit Warszawa,
Poland’s first post-war Progressive community. The ceremony will take
place October 20 during Kabbalat Shabbat services at the Warsaw
congregation, making Schuman its first full-time resident rabbi, as well
as the first Progressive rabbi for Poland since 1939.
Says Regev, “Our worldwide
movement sees the appointment of Rabbi Schuman as a milestone not only
for the Polish Jewish community, but for Jews everywhere. [His]
appointment to provide rabbinic leadership to liberal Jews will ensure
spiritual and educational vitality during the rebirth of active Jewish
life in Poland and across Europe after the Holocaust.”
Schuman was ordained at
Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York in 1995.
Since then, he had been serving as spiritual leader of Temple Beth
Israel in Altoona, Pennsylvania. He is the author of numerous articles
and curriculum guides, as well as a children’s book, and has served on
curriculum committees for the Union of Reform Judaism and on various
task forces of the Central Conference of American Rabbis.
Moving to Warsaw in June,
Schuman expressed a desire “to let the Jewish world know with absolute
certainty that Progressive Judaism is not only on the map in Poland, it
is on the march.” He has already established a blog, a great deal of
which will be oriented toward community outreach. It can be accessed at
http://joo.com.pl/rabbis_blog/.
Founded in 1999, Beit
Warszawa currently has some 200 members. It serves not only as a venue
for Progressive worship, but for courses and lectures, cultural events,
family activities and Israel-oriented programming. It also offers
support to developing Progressive communities elsewhere in Poland. Just
one example is the Shabbat services Rabbi Schuman led over the weekend
of August 25-26 at the Galicia Jewish Museum in Krakow - the first
worship services to be held under Progressive rabbinic auspices in the
southern Polish city since 1939.
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FIRST-EVER PROGRESSIVE MARRIAGE CEREMONY IN KHARKIV
Rabbi Mikhael Kapustin
recently performed his first wedding ceremony as spiritual leader of the
Progressive congregation in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv by uniting
Karina and Roman Pisminetsky in holy matrimony on July 18. Kapustin took
up his position last May. But the garden ceremony also marked the
city’s first-ever Progressive wedding.
Kapustin said that both
Karina and Roman had Jewish ancestors but grew up in typical “Soviet”
families, in which past religious affiliation was overlooked in favor of
complete assimilation. Nevertheless, they “found it important to sign a
ketubah and get married according to Progressive Jewish
tradition,” having made a “conscious choice to start a Jewish family.”
Kapustin adds that, for
most of those present, it was the first time they had ever been to a
Jewish wedding. “It was a very special and meaningful moment,” he says,
“not just for Karina and Roman, but for everyone who witnessed the
ceremony.”
Being new to the subject
of weddings, Kharkiv’s Progressive community lacked a chuppah, so
Karina sewed one - a white square bordered with golden embroidery, and a
blue Star of David in the middle. Following the ceremony, she and Roman
generously donated it to the community, where Kapustin hopes it “will
serve many more Jewish couples.”
Rabbi Mikhael Kapustin
performs Kharkiv’s first-ever Progressive Jewish wedding ceremony.
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IMPJ
HOLDS ANNUAL SUMMER CAMP UNDER SHADOW OF WAR
As reported in recent issues of WUPJnews, the Israel Movement for
Progressive Judaism literally worked overtime while ministering to the
needs of Israelis – movement members and non-members alike - during the
recent hostilities in the north. Yet during this time, the IMPJ
continued to seamlessly serve its constituents.
One
example of this dedication was the eighth annual Morton and Beverley
Rechler Family Foundation Havaya Camp, held in July at the Kfar Silver
youth village near Ashkelon. Some 600 campers aged 8-18 took part in
such activities as swimming, group sports and arts and crafts, as well
as sessions focusing on Progressive Judaism, Jewish study and prayer.
There were three age groups: Youngsters aged 8-10 stayed for a week,
those aged 11-14 stayed for two weeks, and the high school-aged campers
stayed for the entire month. Unfortunately, a lack of space meant that
applicants had to be turned away. As with previous years, the staff
consisted of leaders of Noar Telem, Israel’s Progressive youth movement,
as well as participants in the IMPJ’s mechina program,
a year-long
course for high school graduates that prepares them for the rigors of
army life.
A special activity had campers providing social assistance to the needy,
with one group traveling to an Israeli Bedouin village to tutor young
schoolchildren, and another picking produce destined for the hungry (see
photo below). Among the campers themselves, about 100 came from
disadvantaged families and attended with the assistance of IMPJ
stipends. Another facet of the Havaya summer camp had many of the high
school-aged campers undergo special training during the course of the
school year in order to serve as counselors for younger campers. “This
reflects Noar Telem’s belief in youth empowerment,” says camp director
Sharon Abulafia, who called it a policy of “For Youth, By Youth.”
With
the last two weeks of camp taking place at the height of the fighting,
the counselors spent additional time providing emotional comfort to
campers from the north - who were understandably anxious about their
families back home. (In an eerie twist of fate, IMPJ and Noar Telem
staffers had considered holding this year’s summer camp in the north,
but at the last minute decided against it.) Following the final camp
session, the IMPJ rented the Kfar Silver youth village (and, later,
other locations) in order to house Israeli refugees who had fled the
fighting (see
WUPJnews #
221)
Havaya campers harvest onions to help feed the hungry.
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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.
-
World Union’s
International Humanitarian Awards Dinner honoring Betty B. Golomb
and Rabbi Jonathan A. Stein in New York City, September 10, 2006
-
Rabbinical ordination at
Abraham Geiger College in Potsdam, Germany, September 14, 2006 –
the first ordination of liberal rabbis on German soil since 1942
-
Shared Destiny – the World Union’s International Humanitarian
Awards Celebration honoring Rabbi Roberto D. Graetz, Lorry Lokey and
Joanne Harrington in San Mateo, California, October 8, 2006
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Special World Union
Mission to South America, November 9-20. (Adobe Reader required
for this download)
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