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IN THIS
ISSUE:
REGEV INSTALLS
POLAND’S FIRST RESIDENT POST-WAR PROGRESSIVE RABBI
World Union president Rabbi Uri Regev
presided over the installation of Rabbi Burt E. Schuman as spiritual
leader of Beit Warszawa, Poland’s first post-war Progressive
congregation, on Friday evening, October 20. Schuman is the first
resident Progressive rabbi to serve in Poland since World War II.
"The appointment of Rabbi
Schuman is a milestone not only for the Polish Jewish community but for
Jews everywhere,” said Regev. “His rabbinic leadership will ensure the
spiritual and educational vitality of liberal Jewish life during its
rebirth after the Holocaust in Poland and across Europe."
Schuman, who received
Regev’s blessing while holding a Torah, said: “Tonight is the
realization of a dream, of serving a community in my ancestral homeland.
I think it’s a tremendous watershed for the liberal movement. We are on
the map in Poland.”
Schuman was ordained at Hebrew Union
College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York in 1995, after which he
served as rabbi of Temple Beth Israel in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where he
remained until arriving in Warsaw. He is the author of numerous
articles, curriculum guides and a children’s book, and has served on
curriculum committees for the Union for Reform Judaism and on task
forces of the Central Conference of American Rabbis.
Beit Warszawa, an affiliate of the World
Union, serves as a center not only for liberal worship, but for
lectures and courses in a variety of Jewish-oriented subjects,
activities for young children and their parents, and Israel-oriented
programming. It is also a venue for cultural events, including concerts,
theatre performances and exhibitions. In addition, its staff provides
technical assistance, support and visits to developing Progressive
communities elsewhere in Poland.
The installation of Schuman received wide
coverage in the Polish and international media. A report by the
Associated Press said his arrival “represents another milestone in the
revival of Jewish life nearly extinguished by Adolph Hitler” and was
picked up by media around the world, from the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer to the
China Daily. A pdf version of the former can be viewed
here (Adobe reader required).
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WORLD UNION HOSTS PUBLIC DIALOGUE ON RECENT WAR AND
ITS AFTERMATH
For three days during Sukkot, the World
Union's headquarters in Jerusalem was the site of open discussion and
lively debate concerning last summer's war with Hezbollah and its
aftermath. The event, which took place in a giant sukkah on the patio of
Mercaz Shimshon-Beit Shmuel, was part of Sukkat Tzedek, the social
awareness program the World Union holds each year at this time.
Sponsored jointly with the Israel Movement
for Progressive Judaism, the Israel Religious Action Center, the Israel
movement's Young Adults Forum and the Israel Broadcasting Authority’s
Channel One, Sukkat Tzedek this year featured a series of panel
discussions and presentations on wartime decision-making, the
performance of the Israel Defense Forces, post-war protests by
reservists, home front preparedness, the state's obligations to citizens
under fire, and wartime rights and obligations of the media. Some of the
sessions were broadcast live on Channel One.
Leaders of the Israeli Progressive movement
were joined during the panel discussions by top political and defense
figures, and by academics, journalists, government spokespersons,
northern mayors and protest leaders. In special sessions each day,
members of the public were invited to speak about their wartime
experiences, their testimony being taped for a future Channel One
documentary. Each day concluded with a study session devoted to related
issues in Jewish texts. The study sessions were led by rabbis and
educators from the Progressive movement.
"We see ourselves as the ideological
and physical home for public debate on issues concerning social justice,"
says Lesley Sachs, who as World Union vice president for administration
oversees the cultural activities at Mercaz Shimshon-Beit Shmuel.
"We explored the moral and ethical dilemmas of the war, starting
from the decision to wage it, and on through its impact on the country's
soldiers and citizens. It's an obligation we
have to ourselves, to society, and to the country as a whole."
Anat Hoffman, executive director of the Israel
Religious Action Center, drives home a point at Sukkat Tzedek during a
panel discussion on the home front in wartime. With her are (l-r) MK Avshalom Vilan (Meretz-Yahad); broadcast
journalist Oded Shahar, who served as moderator; MK Avishai Braverman (Labor); and Ma'alot mayor
Shlomo Buhbut.
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WOMEN’S MISSION TO COINCIDE WITH CONNECTIONS 2007
Women of Reform Judaism, a
generous partner and supporter of World Union programs, will conduct a
10-day mission to Israel next March that includes participation in
Connections 2007, the World Union’s 33rd international convention.
The WRJ mission, “Israel:
A Woman’s Journey,” will feature dinner sessions with a leading
female political figure and with Israel’s top spokeswoman; a seminar and
walking tour of Tel Aviv with a renowned English-speaking woman poet; a
study session on “Women and the Talmud and Torah” with Rabbi Ada Zavidov,
chairwoman of MARAM, Israel’s Progressive rabbinic forum; and
opportunities to observe and meet with participants in programs of the
Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism, including a special bat mitzvah
program for secular schoolgirls. There will also be visits to religious
and historic sites, a cocktail reception with top Israeli fashion
designers and a day at the renowned Carmel Forest Spa.
The last five days will
feature full participation in Connections 2007, which is scheduled to
open with a reception attended by Israel’s prime minister. Details and
registration information are available at the convention web site:
http://www.wupj.org/Connections2007.
WRJ is a vital partner of
the World Union in its work of rabbinic training and placement to grow
and sustain Progressive Judaism worldwide. Through its YES Fund (Youth,
Education and Special Projects), it helps to support rabbinic training
on the Jerusalem campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of
Religion and to underwrite World Union financial aid for individual
rabbinic students there and at Leo Baeck College in Britain and Abraham
Geiger College in Germany. WRJ also helps fund World Union programs in
the former Soviet Union, provides support for Israeli congregations, and
assists with the funding of Reform/Progressive programs elsewhere around
the world, for example in Latin America.
WRJ Provides Women’s
Perspective
In related news, WRJ is
publishing an historic new Torah commentary written from the perspective
of women. It is a collaboration by some 80 rabbis, cantors, theologians,
bible scholars, archaeologists and poets, all of them women representing
a wide range of Jewish affiliations.
A sample parashah
from “The Torah: A Women’s Commentary” will be released next month when
some 300 North American congregations, sisterhoods and study groups
comprising about 10,000 participants sponsor Torah study sessions to
coincide with Parshat Chayei Sarah, using text from the commentary. The
full 1,500-page volume, published by WRJ and the URJ Press, will appear
in late 2007.
“History has been written
by men," WRJ executive director Shelley Lindauer told the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency. "Men were the ones who wrote the history of the
Torah, and women’s voices got pushed to the background. We want to hear
more about what the matriarchs said, some more about the women
characters in the Torah. The goal of this is to bring women’s voices to
the forefront.”
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UPCOMING EVENTS
-
Register now for
Connections 2007 – the 33rd International Convention of the World
Union for Progressive Judaism, March 15-20, 2007, in Jerusalem
-
Special World Union
Mission to South America, November 9-20. (Adobe Reader
required for this download)
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