Shabbat 3/12/05
Day 2 – Shabbat/Saturday 3/12/05
Following breakfast (the King David puts out quite a spread) I went to services at Hebrew Union College just down the street from our hotel. On this campus are facilities for the college, the World Union of Progressive Judaism (WUPJ) and the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism. The Reconstructionist Movement is also a member of the World Union and uses the campus for its rabbinic program and other programs. At the behest of Jane Susswein, a member of our delegation and a past lay president of the national Reconstructionist body I attended their service. (The nice part about being in favor of religious pluralism is you get to experience other approaches.) It was a young group and they davened (prayed) with plenty of kavenah (enthusiastic spirituality).
Around noon several of us met Uri Regev, the head of the WUPJ, for a tour of the campus and lunch. The campus is simply beautiful and has perhaps the best view of Jerusalem bar none. Uri told a story about how the site was selected. Despite the availability of then safer locations, land just up the hill from “no man’s land” (the ceasefire line in Jerusalem) because it was nearest the Old City. This was a dangerous spot since Jordanians would frequently take potshots across the line. This all took place in the 60’s before the Six Days War. When the war was won in ’67 suddenly the property was the best real estate in the city. It was like the joke about buying property in Nevada and waiting for an earthquake to have a view of the ocean…but this was no joke.
At lunch Uri spoke to us about the Reform Movement’s efforts in Israel. He started talking about the weekly portion which relates how the Israelites in the desert would follow the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, both provided by God. Today, however, we are not so fortunate to have clear guidance from above. How we as a people deal with each other as we try to discern the direction we should take has become a critical issue for our ability to maintain our community.
Uri spoke of the successes and challenges of the Movement. Last year the Reform congregation of Beit Daniel in Tel Aviv provided programming for 10,000 Jews, school children and their parents, in an effort to make Judaism more accessible to secular Israelis. Over 1000 wedding ceremonies were performed by Reform rabbis even though those weddings are not recognized by the State and the couples have to be married civilly outside of Israel. Six hundred children attended Reform camp in Israel last year. The number of bnai mitzvah has grown and grown with one congregation providing over 200 ceremonies last year.
Uri and Yanatan Livney, an Israeli lay leader, talked about the Beit Medrasha program. This is an adult study program in which Jews of every stripe from non-religious to Orthodox come and study Jewish texts at the campus. It has been a great success and has greatly advance respect and pluralism.
Yanatan made the case for what he called “affirmative action”. The liberal streams, unlike the Orthodox, receive no government support. Without support from Diaspora Jews to help level the playing field pluralism and choice will wilt. He frankly called on us to weight our support in favor of the liberal streams. Uri likewise pushed for favoring programs that either included participation by members of the non-Orthodox streams or contained discussion of all streams in the curriculum.
Uri also spoke of the Reform approach to Jewish education in the schools. The movement has focused on training teachers in the secular schools to present Judaism in creative and meaningful ways. It has also focused on congregation based pre-schools and kindergartens. My sense is that the while the movement applauds alternative religious schools and programs such as the Massorti’s Tali schools, it has concluded that there will always be state schools and that these students can be best reached by their teachers with the assistance of congregational rabbis.
A couple of hours later we met with a group of teens from the MetroWest High School in Ra’anana. There were about 20 of them all around 16 years old. This group was in Jerusalem for seminars and to attend liberal religious services in preparation for their visit to our community. What a great group of kids…attractive and smart. They are coming to visit our day schools and Hebrew schools.
We talked about what to expect when they come to the U.S. I told them about my family’s hosting of Gal and Nadav and what a good experience it was for all of us. Our group told them to expect the “parents” with whom they stay to be more concerned about where they are at any given time. (Kids in Israel go in and out much more as they please than here.) We told them to expect that kids their age in the U.S. may be a little less mature since Israeli kids will soon go into the army and their parents treat them as being more responsible. We were asked about anti-Semitism. Generally the kids were told that it was not an issue. I, however, said that they would not experience it but that it does occur in schools…usually by a wise guy who just thinks he’s funny but sometimes an intended hurtful comment. I believe we helped to set their minds at ease.
Later that evening we met with a group of teens from Noam, the Conservative Israeli youth group. We joined together in a havdallah service. (The fresh spices they used smelled great.) We then discussed their program. What sounded special is that they bring Jewish thought and values into almost all their programming. This is not the case in most secular youth groups. The group also read a fable that taught about the importance of a people remaining connected.
The rest of the evening was for dinner and shopping. We walked to Ben Yehuda and walked around the area. I lead the group to the French restaurant I was at in May and we enjoyed a great meal. From there we did some shopping on Ya’el Solomon which is off Ben Yehuda and has some nicer shops. And then, back to the hotel and my weak attempt at sleep.
Gary
Following breakfast (the King David puts out quite a spread) I went to services at Hebrew Union College just down the street from our hotel. On this campus are facilities for the college, the World Union of Progressive Judaism (WUPJ) and the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism. The Reconstructionist Movement is also a member of the World Union and uses the campus for its rabbinic program and other programs. At the behest of Jane Susswein, a member of our delegation and a past lay president of the national Reconstructionist body I attended their service. (The nice part about being in favor of religious pluralism is you get to experience other approaches.) It was a young group and they davened (prayed) with plenty of kavenah (enthusiastic spirituality).
Around noon several of us met Uri Regev, the head of the WUPJ, for a tour of the campus and lunch. The campus is simply beautiful and has perhaps the best view of Jerusalem bar none. Uri told a story about how the site was selected. Despite the availability of then safer locations, land just up the hill from “no man’s land” (the ceasefire line in Jerusalem) because it was nearest the Old City. This was a dangerous spot since Jordanians would frequently take potshots across the line. This all took place in the 60’s before the Six Days War. When the war was won in ’67 suddenly the property was the best real estate in the city. It was like the joke about buying property in Nevada and waiting for an earthquake to have a view of the ocean…but this was no joke.
At lunch Uri spoke to us about the Reform Movement’s efforts in Israel. He started talking about the weekly portion which relates how the Israelites in the desert would follow the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, both provided by God. Today, however, we are not so fortunate to have clear guidance from above. How we as a people deal with each other as we try to discern the direction we should take has become a critical issue for our ability to maintain our community.
Uri spoke of the successes and challenges of the Movement. Last year the Reform congregation of Beit Daniel in Tel Aviv provided programming for 10,000 Jews, school children and their parents, in an effort to make Judaism more accessible to secular Israelis. Over 1000 wedding ceremonies were performed by Reform rabbis even though those weddings are not recognized by the State and the couples have to be married civilly outside of Israel. Six hundred children attended Reform camp in Israel last year. The number of bnai mitzvah has grown and grown with one congregation providing over 200 ceremonies last year.
Uri and Yanatan Livney, an Israeli lay leader, talked about the Beit Medrasha program. This is an adult study program in which Jews of every stripe from non-religious to Orthodox come and study Jewish texts at the campus. It has been a great success and has greatly advance respect and pluralism.
Yanatan made the case for what he called “affirmative action”. The liberal streams, unlike the Orthodox, receive no government support. Without support from Diaspora Jews to help level the playing field pluralism and choice will wilt. He frankly called on us to weight our support in favor of the liberal streams. Uri likewise pushed for favoring programs that either included participation by members of the non-Orthodox streams or contained discussion of all streams in the curriculum.
Uri also spoke of the Reform approach to Jewish education in the schools. The movement has focused on training teachers in the secular schools to present Judaism in creative and meaningful ways. It has also focused on congregation based pre-schools and kindergartens. My sense is that the while the movement applauds alternative religious schools and programs such as the Massorti’s Tali schools, it has concluded that there will always be state schools and that these students can be best reached by their teachers with the assistance of congregational rabbis.
A couple of hours later we met with a group of teens from the MetroWest High School in Ra’anana. There were about 20 of them all around 16 years old. This group was in Jerusalem for seminars and to attend liberal religious services in preparation for their visit to our community. What a great group of kids…attractive and smart. They are coming to visit our day schools and Hebrew schools.
We talked about what to expect when they come to the U.S. I told them about my family’s hosting of Gal and Nadav and what a good experience it was for all of us. Our group told them to expect the “parents” with whom they stay to be more concerned about where they are at any given time. (Kids in Israel go in and out much more as they please than here.) We told them to expect that kids their age in the U.S. may be a little less mature since Israeli kids will soon go into the army and their parents treat them as being more responsible. We were asked about anti-Semitism. Generally the kids were told that it was not an issue. I, however, said that they would not experience it but that it does occur in schools…usually by a wise guy who just thinks he’s funny but sometimes an intended hurtful comment. I believe we helped to set their minds at ease.
Later that evening we met with a group of teens from Noam, the Conservative Israeli youth group. We joined together in a havdallah service. (The fresh spices they used smelled great.) We then discussed their program. What sounded special is that they bring Jewish thought and values into almost all their programming. This is not the case in most secular youth groups. The group also read a fable that taught about the importance of a people remaining connected.
The rest of the evening was for dinner and shopping. We walked to Ben Yehuda and walked around the area. I lead the group to the French restaurant I was at in May and we enjoyed a great meal. From there we did some shopping on Ya’el Solomon which is off Ben Yehuda and has some nicer shops. And then, back to the hotel and my weak attempt at sleep.
Gary
posted by Gary A at 6:17 AM
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