LIFE IN ISRAEL

Masorti's Campaign for Ashkelon & Sderot (Yom HaAtzmaut Newsletter 2008)

Because of the expanded rocket attacks from Gaza against Sderot, Ashkelon and nearby areas, the entire Conservative Movement is getting behind a new emergency fundraising appeal being coordinated by the Masorti Foundation.

In Ashkelon, where the Masorti Movement has long had a large and active kehilla (community) with a kindergarten program involving about 200 children, the immediate need is to reinforce parts of the synagogue building, including putting shatter-proof glass on some large windows.

In Sderot, where the Masorti Movement has already arranged more than two-dozen day trips to take residents on excursions to Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv or other locations, more such trips are planned. In addition, Masorti's "MAROM" program for young adults, which has sponsored several lectures and films in Sderot, is expanding its program activities there.

All contributions for help for Ashkelon and Sderot may be sent to the Masorti Foundation, Suite 832, 475 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10015, with a check payable to Masorti Foundation or paid online at www.masorti.org. Checks or online donations should be accompanied by notes that the funds are designated for the emergency appeal.

Fuchsberg Arranges Israeli Goodies (Spring Newsletter 2008)

Perhaps you'd like your Israeli friends and family to receive a holiday gift basket? The United Synagogue's Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center can arrange to send gift baskets within Israel to friends and family, as well as to immigrant soldiers without family support. Visit www.uscjisraelbaskets.com to place your order. A portion of each sale will be donated to scholarships for programs at the United Synagogue Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center.

Ramah Programs Seeks Sifrei Torah (Spring Newsletter 2008)

Ramah Programs in Israel is interested in acquiring one or two small Sifrei Torah, either as a donation or for minimal cost, for use throughout the year on various Ramah programs. Proper recognition will be provided to the donating congregation or individual. For more information, contact Rabbi Ed Snitkoff, Director, Ramah Israel Seminar, ed@ramah.co.il, Tel: 972-2-679-0243, ext. 203.

New Schechter Center in Tel Aviv (Spring Newsletter 2008)

With over $2 million having been raised, out of a total goal of $3.2 million, the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Tel Aviv Schechter Center for Jewish Culture was held at the end of 2007. The building project in the Neve Zedek neighborhood includes the restoration and transformation of the historic Lorenz House, which was built in the 1880's and served over the years as a cafe, wedding hall, soldiers' club and movie theater, into a Jewish house of learning.

When completed, the Center will be the home of the Midreshet Iyun program for pluralistic Jewish learning and Kehillat Sinai, both headed by the Rabbi Roberto Arbib, a graduate of the Schechter Rabbinical School. It will also house a TALI early childhood center as well as other Schechter-affiliated programs.

Masorti Celebrates 30th Anniversary (Spring Newsletter 2008)

The Masorti Movement in Israel celebrated its 30th anniversary this past December with a two-day public conference, capped by a gala dinner. Among the honorees at the festive event was Hershel Blumberg of Chevy Chase, MD, the founder and past Chair of the Masorti Foundation for Conservative Judaism in Israel and a former Vice-President of MERCAZ USA.

Since its founding, the Masorti Movement has grown to include some fifty centers throughout the country, from traditional synagogues to innovative projects, such as Rabbi Uri Ayalon's "Yotzer Or", the Masorti kehilla in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Talpiot which last Fall received a "Synagogue 3000" innovation grant funded by the Nathan Cummings Foundation.

MERCAZ Deputy Heads KKL Committee (Spring Newsletter 2008)

Orr Karassin, one of three MERCAZ Olami/Green Zionist representatives to Keren Kayemet L'Yisrael-Jewish National Fund Board of Directors, was appointed in July as the Chair of the Higher Education, Research Environment and Ecology Sub-committee of the KKL's Funds Committee. The Funds Committee manages some 70 endowment funds, dedicated to such varied purposes as education and research, social welfare and community development, which were left to the KKL as bequests.

Karassin's plans include radically changing the criteria for selecting projects to insure that all funded activities contain a clearly applicable and cutting edge environmental theme. She also sees her position as an opportunity to promote Masorti-inspired "green" social ideals by making grants available to students who have demonstrated proven leadership qualities and a commitment to environmental issues.

Ex-Chief Rabbi's Words Stoke Hatred (Spring Newsletter 2008)

Israel's Masorti Movement threatened legal action against former Sephardi Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu for saying during his weekly Torah lecture last November that "the reek of hell wafts" from Reform and Conservative synagogues, and it is therefore forbidden to walk by them.

In his lecture, Eliyahu related that he was once invited to a circumcision in a building that contained three synagogues, one Orthodox, one Conservative and one Reform. The Orthodox synagogue, he said, was on the top floor, "and I wondered how I would enter and pass by these synagogues, from which the reek of hell wafts...They told me that there was a sort of kitchen through which one could go up without passing those synagogues, and I told them that I would only go up via that kitchen, and only if I would not pass the entrances to those forbidden synagogues."

This is not the first time that the former Sephardi Chief Rabbi has made wild assertions against non-Orthodox Jewry. Last Spring, rabbi Eliyahu accused the Reform Movement, which arose in the 19th century in Germany, with angering God and thereby causing the Holocaust: "Those reformers of religion started in Germany, and because it is said that the wrath of God does not distinguish between the righteous and the evil ones — this was done."

Todah Rabbah (Winter Newsletter — 2007-2008)

MERCAZ thanks its friends and suppporters and especially Temple Beth Sholom and the Ravitz Family Kindness Fund (Cherry Hill, NJ), Congregation Beth Am (San Diego, CA) and the Little Neck Jewish Center (Little Neck, NY) for enabling us to sponsor three busloads of children from Sderot on "fun days" this summer.

Over a 3-day period in early August, the three MERCAZ buses were part of seven busloads organized by the American Zionist Movement to transport families from this beleaguered town to spend in Jerusalem a day of fun, which include touring the Knesset, visiting museums and picnicking in tranquility. In addition to the bus trips, funds that MERCAZ raised also were used to underwrite the cost of two children of Sderot to participate in the two-week day camp run by Netzach Israel, the Masorti congregation in the neighboring town of Ashkelon.

Mazal Tov (Winter Newsletter — 2007-2008)

. . . to Evelyn Seelig, former President of MERCAZ USA (1998-2002) who was elected a Vice-President of the American Zionist Movement at its biennial convention in October.

. . . to Rabbi Tzvi Graetz who has been appointed the new Executive Director for MERCAZ Olami and Masorti Olami, succeeding Rabbi Joseph Wernik who retired in June 2006. Graetz, a second generation Masorti sabra, was ordained by the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary in Jerusalem and served for the last four years as the rabbi of Kehilat Shevet Achim in the Gilo neighborhood of Jerusalem. Previously, he directed the Masorti Movement's NOAM youth movement and served in the United States as a USY shaliach. The son of Rabbi Michael Graetz, the retired spiritual leader of Congregation Magen Avraham in Omer, "Tzvika" is a graduate of Hebrew University, with a BA in Talmud and Political Science and an MA in Administration of Non-Profit and Public Institutions.

Masorti Judaism: New Growth And Directions (Summer Newsletter — 2007)

While news stories about the Masorti Movement tend to concentrate on current legal battles over limitations on religious pluralism being heard by the Israeli Supreme Court, quietly behind the scenes, new less controversial developments within the Movement and throughout the other Israeli institutions of Masorti Judaism point to new growth and directions.

For example, this past fall, an organization responsible for planning and developing for the Jerusalem area an "alternative cemetery" was formally registered. The new organization, known in Hebrew as "Menucha Nechona", brings together Israelis from all sectors of society — Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, secular, Russian immigrants and local civic leaders — to provide an alternative to the standard Orthodox practices that govern most Israeli funerals, such as the prohibition on the use of caskets and the saying of kaddish by women.

To date, the only such "alternative cemetery" currently operating is in Beersheba. However, leaders of the new Jerusalem organization, including Rabbi Tzvi Graetz, spiritual leader of the Masorti congregation Shevet Achim in the Gilo neighborhood of Jerusalem, are optimistic that with the public support of Jerusalem mayor Uri Lupoliansky, himself Ultra-Orthodox, the new cemetery will become a reality soon and answer the needs of Israelis looking for an alternative burial arrangement for their loved ones.

Another behind-the-scenes development is the publication by the TALI Education Fund of a new prayer book for the 30,000 children studying in TALI (Hebrew acronym for "enriched Jewish studies") classrooms throughout the country. The siddur, entitled "Yachad BiTefillah" ("Together in Prayer") comes to provide an age-appropriate prayer book for children whose parents have enrolled them in the special school program to gain additional Jewish, but not Orthodox, enrichment over and above what is typically provided in the state secular schools.

Among the innovations found in the new prayer book are the substitution of the positive blessings "Who made me in His image" and "Who made me Israel" for the negative-phrased blessings in the preliminary prayer service, the abbreviation of the traditional weekday Amidah and the inclusion from the Sabbath liturgy of the prayers for the State of Israel and for the IDF.

The TALI Education Fund (TEF), which is part of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies, is the professional lifeline for the 1,300 TALI teachers and principals who work with the more than 30,000 schoolchildren and their parents in the nearly 1,000 classrooms throughout Israel, providing them with the tools and training needed to create a "Solomon Schechter School-like" Jewish environment for their community of students and parents.

Of course, the legal battles for religious pluralism still continue. Recently, the Masorti Movement celebrated a victory in its struggle with the Israeli government over the question of paying for the right to pray at Robinson's Arch. As reported in the last MERCAZ USA newsletter, for the past year, worshippers arriving after 8:00am at Robinson's Arch, the area designated for egalitarian prayer services at the southern end of the Western Wall, were being required to pay an entrance fee of 30 NIS ($7.00) since the site is located within the Davidson Archeological Park.

Now, with an agreement reached in February between the Masorti Movement and the government on the eve of a second hearing by the High Court of Justice, worshippers will be able to enter the archeological park for free until 10:30am on weekdays and on Friday evenings and holidays. As Rabbi Barry Schlesinger, President of the Rabbinical Assembly-Israel Region, remarked, "The Conservative Movement sees this as recognition of the right for non-Orthodox worshippers to pray as they see fit at the Western Wall."

MERCAZ USA President Dr. Stephen S. Wolnek remarked: "We can be proud of the growth of Masorti Judaism in Israel. In our own way, as the lobby of the Conservative Movement in the World Zionist Organization and Jewish Agency, we are partners in this growth through the annual JAFI 'stream' allocation of about $1.7 million for these institutions, including $700,000 for the Masorti Movement, $400,000 for the Schechter Institute and $400,000 for the TALI Education Fund."