Shabbat in Jerusalem

CCAR Convention - Day 5

Shabbat in Jerusalem. That simple phrase says it all for those who have experienced it.

Moving and meaningful worship with colleagues at Merkaz Shimshon, a beautiful facility at the headquarters of the World Union for Progressive Judaism headquarters whose broad picture windows frame a view of David's Citadel, the Temple Mount and the Old City, and a day spent with friends in study and strolling through the Old City made for a very special Shabbat.

Of special note... this was the third straight day of rain in a country that has been threatened by months of drought. Noting that our Amidah during this period includes the phrase Masheev Haruach u-Moreed Hagashem (You cause the wind to shift and the rain to fall), we began to joke that it took the prayers of 350 Reform Rabbis in Jerusalem to bring an end to the drought! Of course, I don't think our Hareidi friends would agree! :-)

Even though it rained throughout the day, nothing could dampen our spirits or dowse the sparks of the spirit inflamed by a Shabbat in Jerusalem.

Eilu V' Eilu - Partners in Study and Worship

CCAR Convention - Day 4

Today was a day devoted to study and worship. CCAR Rabbis joined with Israeli colleagues and lay people from across the Jewish spectrum in the first ever Pluralistic National Beit Midrash. As a Metrowest resident, I took great pride in the fact that our Jewish federation was one of the primary sponsors of this unique event.

After a session featuring teachers from a wide range of Israeli Jewish life, we broke up into small study groups of four (two Americans and two Israelis in each). Among my study partners was Rabbi Maya Leibovitch of Congregation Mevasseret Zion, the first Israeli- born woman to be ordained as a Rabbi. Together we explored the role that Israel and the Hebrew language play in our Jewish identities. Among our texts was a modern Israeli song whose refrain declares:

I have no other country
even if my land is aflame
Just a word in Hebrew
pierces my veins and soul

In all it was a powerful day of learning and connection.

After a brief stop at Mahane Yehuda (the Jewish outdoor market) to pick up rugellah at Marzipan Bakery as a gift for my hosts, I was on a bus making my way north to Zichron Yaacov to spend Erev Shabbat at Sulam Yaacov, Temple Shalom's sister congregation in Israel.

In a few more weeks they will be moving into their permanent home built on city donated land with a state supplied building, one of the first such non-Orthodox congregations to receive such support and recognition. This evening, I joined them in worship in their temporary quarters at the local WZO offices. It was a beautiful service which, while conducted entirely in Hebrew, would have felt comfortable to any Temple Shalom member. Filled with music by Debbie Friedman, Danny Freelander, Jeff Klepper, Beth Schafer and Craig Taubman, the service was primarily one of joyful communal singing and traditional prayers.

After services, Temple President Gideon Gerzon welcomed me into his home for a wonderful Shabbat Dinner with his family. It was perhaps one of the nicest Shabbat evenings I have ever enjoyed in Israel. Dinner lasted well into the evening, ended only by the need to make a 10 pm bus back to Jerusalem. As we wished each other L'hitraot and Shabbat Shalom, plans were made to return for another visit the next time we are in Israel and to renew the ties between our communities.

Celebrating Tel Aviv's 100th Birthday

CCAR Convention - Day 3

Today's entire program was located in Tel Aviv, Israel's first modern Jewish city. We began in groups of four or five, and were led on walking tours of various areas of the city by Tel Aviv residents. The group I was with found its way to a lovely beach front coffee shop. There our hosts shared their story of surviving the shoah, making their way to Israel, settling in Tel Aviv and, in recent years, helping to build a Reform synagogue in the city.

After our tour, we spent time at Mishkenot Ruth Daniel, a center for progressive Judaism in Jaffa. There we heard from the mayor of Tel Aviv and enjoyed seminars on such subjects as Arab-Jewish Coexistence in the city, Liberal Jewish Education in Tel Aviv schools, and an exploration of Tel Aviv/Yafo's historic marketplaces.

The highlight of the day came that evening before dinner during a visit to the Nalaga'at Deaf-Blind Theater. A performance of the play "Not by Bread Alone" by a troupe of deaf-blind actors was a moving and enlightening look into the world of ability and dis-ability. It is a theater troupe that is unique to Israel. Among the more fascinating aspects of this non-profit is that it is supported in part by proceeds from a restaurant and cafe staffed by deaf-blind waiters.

After the play we had the chance to meet personally with the actors and break bread with them. It was an unexpected and unique experience which my colleagues and I agreed would be a meaningful one to add to any of our Israel tours.

Lessons Learned Along the Yarkon

CCAR Convention - Day 2

The first full day of programming at the CCAR convention was devoted to Tikun Olam. We were offered a variety of excursions around the country devoted to some of Israel's most pressing Social Justice issues.

In the Middle East, and especially in Israel, water is among the most precious of commodities. Despite near universal recognition of this fact, the dumping of industrial and human waste into Israel's waterways is one of her most pressing environmental issues. A group of us traveled to Tel Aviv accompanied by representatives of Tzalool (clear waters) to learn first hand about this issue and their efforts to address it.

Our first stop was the Yarkon River. Until 1997, the Yarkon was primarily known for the beautiful Tel Aviv city park whose boundaries it defines. However, about 12 years ago it was the scene of a deadly tragedy that remains a black mark in Israel's collective memory. During the opening ceremony of the Maccabiah Games, the Australian Team was crossing a bridge leading to the stadium when it collapsed sending athletes into a Yarkon river choking with toxic pollutants. Ultimately, at least two of the four deaths among the Australian team were attributed to the waters of the Yarkon rather than the collapse itself.

Since that time, a dedicated effort to clean up the Yarkon has ensued. Starting from the site of the '97 collapse, our group went for a guided bike tour (yes, even in Israel I found a way to go biking) along the Yarkon to see the results of those efforts and learn what Israel's environmental movement is doing to ensure clean water for future generations. Through a mix of legal controls on dumping and the use of natural methods for cleansing waterways, the Yarkon is slowly coming back to life. Water fowl and aquatic animals were visible throughout our ride and we saw rowers return to a stretch of the river from which they had been formerly banned. I hope to take a future Temple Israel trip on a similar tour of education and exploration.

All is not well, however, as we soon learned. Our excursion concluded with a visit to the industrial city of Ashdod where local activists took us for a visit to the infamous Metaplex pipeline which continues to dump significant toxic waste into the Lachish river. This pollution not only threatens the country's limited water supplies, but has made a mess of local recreational areas. The people of Ashdod shared with us their efforts to replicate that which the people of Tel Aviv are now accomplishing.


After returning to Jerusalem, I had the pleasure of meeting Temple Shalom member Samara Schwartz for dinner. Samara is currently studying at Pardes, a liberal yeshiva, in their program to train Jewish educators for North America. Hearing about her experiences as a student in Israel brought back fond memories of my own student days and made for an enjoyable close to a fascinating day.

Visiting Rishon Lezion and our Ethiopian Partners

CCAR Conference - Day 1

After an uneventful flight, I touched down in Tel Aviv and made my way to the David Citadel Hotel in Jerusalem where the CCAR conference was taking place.

After settling in and washing up, I soon found myself on the road again. Amir Shacham, MetroWest UJA's Israel Operations Director drove my colleague, Rabbi Elyse Frishman and I to Rishon Lezion for a "pre-convention" program. We went to Rishon Lezion to see the many projects that MetroWest is supporting for the significant Ethiopian community there. In particular we wanted to here about Addis Tasfa, the Ethiopian Microloan Project of Rabbi Soffin's Jewish Helping Hands Foundation, which I spoke about over the Holy Days.

We arrived at the Community Center in Rishon where we were met by Nadav Calderone, our congregation's Rishon (Israel emmissary), who is enjoying a vacation with his family and is looking forward to returning to our community in a few days (Nadav has since returned to Israel to be with his family). Nadav grew up in Rishon Lezion, spent alot of time at the community center and had some very good friends among the Ethiopian community. I shared with him the deep connection that Temple Shalom forged with that community while they were still in Ethiopia, through the Million Quarter Project. In response, he shared some of his experiences with his Ethiopian friends who are now settled in Israel.

After a brief tour of the Community Center (where last summer the MetroWest Diller Fellows, including Temple Shalom's Marissa Goodkin, volunteered as counselors at the Day Camp), we met with representatives of Atzmaut and Addis Tasfa. Atzmaut is a highly successful program sponsored by the United Jewish Communities of Metrowest New Jersey aimed at helping Ethiopian families successfully integrate into Israeli society. Over the past five years, a portion of our federation contributions have provided Ethiopian Jewish families of Rishon L'tzion with family education and support, educational enrichment for children, community building activities and vocational training. Already more than 10% of Rishon's Ethiopian families have been impacted by this program.

In Rishon, I visited the after-school tutoring program run by Atzmaut. The very sweet young girl in the picture to the left was very excited to share with me the reading assignment she was working on with her tutor. It all felt very familiar. Except for the venue and the fact that the book was written in Hebrew, it could have been Rockaway Borough and a Temple Shalom Reads student!

The main reason for our visit was not simply to experience the successes of our community's past outreach to this community, but to learn about a new program that is in its initial stages and which will in many ways build upon that which has come before it. Over the Holy Days, I shared with you Rabbi Soffin's idea for a Micro-Loan project to help the Ethiopian Jews now that they are settled in Israel, much as our congregation's Million Quarter Project sought to help them while they were in Africa dreaming of the land in which they now live. That project is now a reality in the form of Addis Tasfa (Amharic for "A New Hope), a project of his Jewish Helping Hands foundation.

Phase 1 is already complete with the hiring of Hedvah, the program's Ethiopian Administrator (picture here with Mordechai, Atzmaut's coordinator). Phase 2 will soon begin with approximately 40 candidates engaged in an intensive four month training program of business management and planning. After the holidays, Phase 3, the awarding of the micro-loans will take place. In addition, many of the program graduates will find themselves able to get more traditional business loans and will receive support in doing so.

That this program has already been received with great appreciation and anticipation was made most clear by the attendance of the community's Kes (Rabbi) Samai (pictured) at our meeting. Addis Tasfa has the potential to make a significant difference in the life of this new immigrant community and to integrate them more fully into the life of Israeli society. Moreover, it deeply reflects our tradition's ideal that the highest forms of tzedakah are those that give another the ability to be self-supportive.

Over the Holy Days, I asked each family to consider a minimum $20 donation to this important effort. If you have not yet done so, please consider doing so now and if you are able please consider a more significant contribution to help build this community with whom we have deep and long-standing ties.

(For those who wish, I have available in my office an in-depth explanation of this project.)

Join me for the CCAR Conference in Jerusalem

I have been thinking for some time about the idea of starting a Rabbi's blog for Temple Shalom. The idea would be to offer occasional posts about what I am doing as Rabbi of Temple Shalom, things that are happening at the congregation, and ideas and perspectives that I think might be of interest.

This year's annual meeting of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) is being held in Jerusalem and, as I prepared to leave for Israel this past weekend, I thought this might be a good time to experiment with the idea of a blog for Temple Shalom. Through this medium, I hope to share my experiences in Israel with you. I will attempt to offer you a post for each day of the conference highlighting a particular program or activity in which I have participated that day.

I invite you to share your comments along the way and let me know what you think about a particular post or about the blog in general. If this "experiment" during my time in Israel is a success, I hope to continue the blog on a regular (though, certainly not daily) basis upon my return.

I hope you enjoy my postings and I look forward to your comments.