In 2010, we had the opportunity of traveling to Israel on an Israel Familiarization Trip. The trip’s goal was to help us learn how to lead congregational trips. Rabbis have a dual relationship with Israel, that of student and teacher. We turned to each other to learn how to bring these two roles together as we toured the country. Many of the sites we visited were ones we had visited on previous occasions. However, we had to learn to bring these sites to our congregants.
We discussed the potential for the “Disneylandification” of Israel and how to avoid creating a superficial visit to the country. We discussed how to intentionally design trips from the ground up to create a unified learning experience for our community. We discussed how to use the trips to create meaningful ongoing relationships with the country rather than one-time memories. Each night we prayed together and included in our prayers reflections from the day’s experiences. By traveling and learning with colleagues this trip provided us to with the tools we would then use to create Israel experiences for our own congregants.
Additionally, there is a difference between traveling with colleagues and traveling with congregants. When we travel with congregants, we become the teachers, and the experts, on everything. Our members turn to us because we have been there more than they have. When we travel with colleagues, we learn together and reflect with one another. We can be both the student and the teacher. We teach and learn with one another and we push each other to think about our experiences in new ways. Each day we were able to connect with colleagues and build relationships. Being able to spend time traveling together, talking on the bus, spending meals together, really deepened our sense of community and built collegial relationships among strangers in just a few short days.
Traveling in Israel is an experience like no other. We all know that. Any trip to Israel is rejuvenating; it inspires our Judaism, calls us back to our roots, uplifts us spiritually, offers us a unique experiential and immersive learning opportunity. We’ve taken those lessons we learned on our first trip together and put them to use- but not in a trip designed for our congregants- rather in a trip designed for you- our colleagues. We hope you will join with us from January 26-February 5 as we travel together with other colleagues and learn about Start Up Israel. Together we will push each other to realize how the entrepreneurial culture of Israel can influence our own rabbinates and how we can discover a unique aspect of modern Israel culture. More information is available on the CCAR website.
We hope you will join with us from January 26-February 5 as we travel together with other colleagues and learn about Start Up Israel. Together we will push each other to realize how the entrepreneurial culture of Israel can influence our on rabbinates and how we can discover a unique aspect of modern Israel culture. For more information visit the following website:
Yesterday, I had the privilege of meeting Pope Francis, accompanied by my wife, Susie, and members of a small delegation of Jewish leaders from IJCIC (International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations), of which the CCAR is a member.
We met at the Apostolic Palace, the Pope’s official residence, though he has chosen to live in more modest accommodations at Casa Santa Marta residence, adjacent to St. Peter’s Basilica. On the way to the meeting, we passed through a number of ornately decorated rooms, some containing elevated papal thrones. Our session, however, took place in an intimate, relatively unadorned parlor. The Pope entered without fanfare and sat in an armchair at floor level, garbed in a plain white cassock and comfortable-looking black shoes (no red Pradas!)
He told us that this was his first time, as Pope, to talk with an official group of representatives of Jewish organizations and communities, expressing firm condemnation of anti-Semitism, commitment to greater awareness and mutual understanding among Jews and Catholics, and genuine personal friendship.
The Pope told us that “Humanity needs our joint witness in favor of respect for the dignity of man and woman created in the image and likeness of God, and in favor of peace which is above all God’s gift,” concluding his remarks with “Shalom,” and asking for our prayers and assuring us of his own.
It was a moving and memorable experience to meet a man of such genuine humility, piety, sincerity and inner strength, who is already making a powerful impact on the Roman Catholic Church and a world of admirers.
Rabbi Rick Block is Senior Rabbi of The Temple – Tifereth Israel in Cleveland and Beachwood, Ohio, and President of the Central Conference of American Rabbis.
(The CCAR “Gang of Ten”: Rabbis Michael Namath, Baht Weiss, Sam Gordon, Esther Lederman, Greg Litcofsky, Ari Margolis, David Adelson, RAC Deputy Director Rachel Laser, and Seth Limmer)
It started as a question: as part of our Rabbis Organizing Rabbis campaign for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, would colleagues be interested in journeying to Washington, D.C. for a Rabbinic Lobby Day on Capitol Hill? If so, would Senators and their staffs be willing to meet with national representatives of CCAR, even from out of state? If so, would we as rabbis be able to make any impact on the success of the legislation’s passage through Congress?
The answer to all these questions, I discovered on our first Rabbis Organizing Rabbis Lobby Day, is a resounding: YES.
May 22 was an auspicious date for many reasons. We knew it was one of the final days Senators would be in town before their June recess. We knew we had a team of ten colleagues taking trains, planes and automobiles to meet up at our Religious Action Center. But we didn’t realize that late in the evening on May 21 the Senate Judiciary Committee would vote S. 744 [the bi-partisan bill for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, or CIR] out of committee by a margin of 13-5. When we entered the halls of Congress, our Senators all knew that a vote on CIR was coming their way.
After a thorough prep session at the RAC, our day began by meeting Senator Daniel Bennet [D-CO], one of the members of the bipartisan “Gang of Eight” who championed CIR. Led by David Saperstein (and together with our allies from the UUAA) we thanked Senator Bennet for his leadership, asked him how we could help ensure the passage of the Bill, and charged him (as he was happy to hear) to “get this work done”.
From that session, our own CCAR “Gang of Ten” fanned out over Capitol Hill to meet in smaller groups with the offices of seven key senators. We heard interesting messages from two other members of the Gang of Eight with whom we met: Dick Durbin [D-IL] charged us to help secure the vote of his IL colleague, Mark Kirk [R-IL]; Robert Menendez directed our focus to the House of Representatives, where his staff feels this legislation will face serious and sustained opposition. Angus King [I-ME] also reiterated a call to ensure the overwhelming passage of CIR in the Senate to put real pressure on the House.
Our teams also scheduled appointments with Senators whose previous statements and records led us to believe we would have to work hard to gain their support. In many ways, it was in these sessions where the real learning of the day took place, and where the greatest optimism was found. Joe Donnelly [D-IN], heavily influenced by the support the Catholic Conference of Bishops has put behind CIR, was encouraged to hear more faith groups speak of the moral arguments for the legislation he is leaning to support. His colleague, Dan Coats [R-IN, who had expressed dismay for President Obama’s DREAM act], turns out to be focused on the realism of CIR’s border-security measures, but seeks a comprehensive solution and is very open to the possibility of supporting S. 744. (Coat’s Legislative Director especially asked us to be vocal on the issue of why this bill didn’t provide “amnesty”, as that was the biggest negative public perception he felt his office needed to overcome.) Kay Hagan [D-NC], one of five Democrats who voted against the DREAM act, wouldn’t commit to a position, as she faces re-election in a state turning towards the other party. It was curious that we felt more encouraged by our meetings with “swing” Republicans than Democrats…..
The most interesting meeting of the day was with the office of Mark Kirk [R-IL]. The importance of Kirk’s leadership in widening the bipartisan support for CIR could be crucial, we had been told when meeting with Durbin’s staff. So it was with great hope and a sense of urgency that Chicago’s own Rabbi Sam Gordon began our session setting forth a compelling case. As conversations continued, we learned that Senator Kirk was open to supporting S. 744, and potentially even inclined to do so. The early and vocal advocacy of the faith community, we were told, was a large reason why. As the meeting became more and more encouraging, I felt emboldened to share the following with the Senator: thanks to Rabbis Organizing Rabbis, we already have a network of sixteen committed colleagues throughout Illinois who are poised to come out and support and help Senator Kirk arrive at (and keep to) the right vote on this issue. Sam Gordon listed the many cities in which Rabbis Organizing Rabbis can really make a very public difference for the Senator, and Kirk’s people widened their eyes at the opportunities, took business cards, and pledged to be in touch.
I learned a lot from a tremendously full day in D.C. From Rachel Laser and the RAC Staff, I learned how important it was, before going to Wasington, to advocate publicly on a local level (I was fortunate enough to have an Op-Ed published on Immigration Reform in the Jewish Week). Sitting with Senators and showing them my public commitment and leadership definitely made a difference. From my Just Congregations community organizing training I learned how having people on the ground in states gave us greater power and opportunity when talking with Senators. From the Senators and staffers with whom we shared such fascinating conversations, I came to understand how much of a real difference it makes in the policy and legislation of our nation that we as rabbis went door-to-door on Capitol Hill.
And, lastly, I learned how invigorating it was to walk through the halls of Congress with my colleagues, making a real difference in the governance of our country and the ways its people are able to enjoy justice, peace and civil liberties. I can’t wait to do it again.
Rabbi Seth M. Limmer is rabbi of Congregation B’nai Yisrael of Armonk, New York.
The Psalmist calls to us, “Serve the Eternal with joy!”
For three days, participants of the Consultation on Conscience heard from pollsters about faith and Tikkun Olam; we sat at the feet of US Ambassador Susan Rice, Sister Simone Campbell and “Nuns on the Bus,” and Rabbi Sharon Brous to discuss the role of faith in our pursuit of progressive social change; and we learned from staff at the Religious Action Center about how to lobby more effectively, about outstanding local social justice programs for our communities, and about the energetic Rabbis Organizing Rabbis Campaign for fair and humane immigration reform. We discussed violence against the human spirit, were weighted down with stories of gun violence and human rights abuses, and discussed how to face the obstacles of cynicism, callousness, and despair.
For a group of Balfour Brickner Rabbinic Fellows, we added powerful stories of the moments that called us to social justice; for some it was being bullied and beaten up years ago in high school; for others, it was the recognition we had been that bully. Powerful, prescient, evocative stories about the Divine spark bursting our hearts open and demanding we respond to the great moral injustices of our day with compassion, fortitude, and determination to make tikkun real.
And then, after sowing tears of pain and trauma, we responded to the call to Serve the Eternal with joy:
More than 20 of us went to a local Washington, DC bar where young professionals head after work. Teams of people were engaged in a karaoke competition, the contemporary version of a camp sing down.
What were a bunch of serious, social justice rabbis to do?
With words projected on the screen against the backdrop of contestants adorned in costumes from the fanciful Village People to the absurd Rocky Horry Picture Show to the romantic Dirty Dancing and music blared through the room, we danced.
It was powerful, joyous, effervescent. With laughter and movement, humor and a bit of awkward brilliance, we belted out lyrics to Time Warp and Time of My Life; we paused in the midst of our learning and pursuit of social justice to touch a different—and yet vital—part of our souls that longed to soar.
It was funny and fabulous and rejuvenating. And some of our colleagues can dance! For a few hours amidst the sacred work of the Consultation on Conscience, we opened our hearts and joyously sang a new song unto God.
“It’s astounding;
Time is fleeting;
Madness takes its toll.
But listen closely…”
Let’s do the time warp again!
Rabbi Michael Latz is the senior rabbi of Shir Tikvah in Minneapolis, MN.
Two members of Temple Beth-El’s young leadership at the Consultation
We in institutional Jewish life keep hearing how we are challenged by the under-35 demographic. They supposedly aren’t joiners. They “won’t” pay for Jewish life. To the extent there’s a secret to attracting them, we are told that eliminating the “institutional footprint” is the key.
But I’ve been at the Consultation on Conscience this week with a delegation of nine from Temple Beth-El in San Antonio, four of them young adults. That’s up from tiny delegations when there were any at all, and certainly no young adults, throughout my 21 years at the congregation. Admittedly, winning a Fain Award attracted some of us. But young adults are the real difference.
Rabbi Elisa Koppel recruited four 20-somethings to join us at the Consultation, aided by the RAC’s recognition of this demographic’s importance: The registration fee for the under 35 crowd was a manageable $50.
So who are these young adults? Three are Jews-by-Choice, and the fourth is well along the path to conversion. They are all LGBT: one lesbian and three gay men, including a couple whose marriage I officiated last month.
All four jumped at the opportunity to be part of our Reform Movement’s commitment to social justice, which was key to attracting them to Judaism. But these are not single-issue Reform Jews. The married couple keeps a kosher home. All four celebrate Shabbat regularly at Temple and at home. They are active in Machar, the Temple’s young adult engagement, and they volunteer at the free summer day camp, Beth-El Food and Fun, for underprivileged kids who live in the Temple’s neighborhood, the project
recognized by the Fain Award.
In other words, the “institutional footprint” is heavy in these young adults’ Jewish lives.
And here they are, using two days of their precious few annual vacation days, and plunking down real money for the experience, albeit appropriately reduced by the RAC and with some help from rabbinic discretionary funds toward the flights.
This Consultation experience, and Machar’s success, suggest a model for engaging the next generation of Reform Jewish leadership. Without dismissing other models, please consider this combination:
Participating in social justice.
1. Meaningful tikkun olam opportunities, engaging young adults both in groups of their contemporaries and in more diverse groups (like the Brickner Fellowship unites rabbis of different generations).
2. A public rabbinic voice for social justice, heard widely in the community, not only by those already engaged in our Jewish institutions.
3. Pricing structures that require young adults to make a commitment but are appropriate to their circumstances.
4. Celebrating a community that already includes Jews-by-birth and -by-choice, straight and LGBT, partnered and single, families of all kinds, who come on Shabbat and who don’t, etc., demonstrating the real diversity that comes naturally to this age group is key.
5. A relevant Shabbat worship experience, spiritually and intellectually stimulating, with regular reference to social justice.
6. Opportunities like the Consultation for the most engaged to celebrate their involvement and find partners across North America.
The slides in the front of the room at the Consultation this morning make clear that the under-35 crowd is changing America. In their demographic, even the majority of evangelicals support same-sex marriage! Jews, more than most Americans, understand celebrate the ways our society has changed since the 1950’s. We should be eager to embrace the changes that millennial even to our hallowed institutions.
When I sit with my young adult friends at the Consultation, this almost-50 rabbi is re-energized by their social justice commitment, by their rich Jewish lives, and above all by their vision of a society freed of discrimination and hatred, poverty and hunger, where “justice will roll down like a stream!”
Rabbi Barry Block has been named Rabbi of Congregation B’nai Israel in Little Rock, Arkansas, beginning July 1, 2013. Currently, Rabbi Block is on sabbatical as Senior Rabbi of Temple Beth-El in San Antonio, Texas, where he has served since 1992.
An e-mail arrived from the indefatigable Art Waskow reminding us that April 4th is the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.. The reminder included a photo from a demonstration at the Arlington National Cemetery along with valuable excerpts from King’s prophetic remarks about Vietnam delivered at Riverside Church.
From L to R: Rabbi AJ Heschel, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Reverend Ralph Abernathy, Rabbi Maurice Eisendrath, Rabbi Everett Gendler
The photo showed Rabbi Heschel to one side of King, and this prompted me to look at another photo of that demonstration. In this fuller one, King is flanked on the other side by Rev. Ralph Abernathy and Rabbi Maurice Eisendrath carrying a Torah, and beside them a youngish flag-carrying rabbi from Princeton, NJ (the latter, I).
I feel moved to share this with you on what will be the 45th anniversary of King’s tragic removal from our midst because we often forget to mention Maurice in the reminiscences about King. The Arlington National Cemetery ceremony was important, moving, and not heavily attended by public figures. Notably absent were any representatives of the Urban League or the NAACP. They disapproved of King’s challenging publicly the morality of our policy on Vietnam since LBJ, supporter of civil rights, was also the primary advocate of that very policy. But at this particular event there was Heschel’s blessed supportive presence, and there also was Maurice Eisendrath carrying a Torah in further support. Those of us who knew and cherished Maurice are fewer with the passing of the years, so this seems an appropriate time to mention him with the respect and affection that so many of us felt for him.
That Maurice came with a Torah to this particular act of moral witnessing captures perfectly some of his most admired qualities. This march, held on the sacred ground of our national cemetery, was solemn, not high spirited. It absorbed the painful testimony of surroundings that expressed human dedication, courage, suffering and sacrifice..The stated proposition of the march, that our engagement as a nation in Vietnam betrayed the basic American values for which these deceased had offered their lives, was not at that time a crowd pleaser. Pragmatic institutional calculations probably said, not great for UAHC fund raising, especially among big givers, and Maurice dearly loved and devoted his life to that institution. But justice is justice, the truth must be proclaimed, and so Maurice proclaimed it in his characteristically vigorous, energetic way. The real bottom line for UAHC (now URJ), after all, was prophetic Judaism, and Maurice was accountant par excellence in those calculations.
At this especially difficult period in King’s life, severely criticized by the leaders of the major civil rights organizations, suffering daily threats to his own life and to his beloved family, can we imagine what the presence of Rabbi Heschel, Rabbi Eisendrath, and the sefer Torah must have contributed to King’s morale and sense of Divine support? The attached photo may convey some of the mood.
As in life all of us were and are able to offer support to the righteous among us, so do the memories of those righteous ones, of King, of Heschel, and of Eisendrath, bless and sustain us.
Rabbi Everett Gendler is retired and lives in Great Barrington, MA.
This past January I had the privilege of serving as the co-chair, along with Arnie Gluck, of the CCAR’s trip to Israel. One of the foci of the trip was social justice in Israel, and as the trip approached, I grew increasingly concerned that I was about to spend a week hearing about everything that is going wrong in a land I love. I am delighted that the feeling with which I returned was hope. And last week, the CCAR Convention’s panel on Israel reaffirmed that hope. While Israel’s challenges are profound, many of the people in Israel who are working to address them, including our colleagues, are deeply inspiring.
MK Ruth Calderon
One of the biggest problems in Israel is the treatment of women. But panelist David Siegel, who serves as the Consul General of Israel in Los Angeles (serving all of Southwestern USA), delivered a message of careful optimism. He referred to one of my role models, Dr. Ruth Calderon, whose introductory speech in the Knesset has now been viewed on YouTube almost 225,000 times. If you have not yet watched it, drop everything, and do so now (there are subtitles).
MK Ruth Calderon’s speech demonstrated the power of so many things that I hold dear: Jewish teaching, progressive Judaism, strong female leaders, the ability of words to touch lives. Her speech was a potent reminder that sometimes strength lies not in physical force, but in being a great teacher. And that gives me hope.
The international attention to her speech has been analyzed along with the response to the arrests of participants in Women of the Wall (WOW), signaling that there is not only an increased awareness of women’s issues in Israel, but that there is enough momentum for us to engage in a discussion of both values and tactics. Panelist Rabbi Dr. Rachel Sabath Beit-Halachmi, our incoming National Director of Recruitment and Admissions and President’s Scholar at HUC, is a staunch supporter of WOW, and pointed out how their struggle has become a case study in some of the most salient questions facing Israel, including the role of women, the legitimacy of non-Orthodox Judaism, and the relevance of diaspora Jewry. I am not so naïve as to think that these issues will be quickly and easily resolved, but as women in Israel are standing up in the Knesset and at the Kotel, Jews around the world are paying attention.
It is quite possible that, as Rabbi Gilad Kariv (IMPJ’s Executive Director) suggested at the panel, the increased attention to WOW, which has been active for 25 years, is partly due to
Women of the Wall
Jerusalem’s illegally segregated buses. There is a lot that must be done to combat gender segregation in Israel, but I am encouraged by the work of the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), which won the supreme court battle to make segregation on public buses illegal, and has sent hundreds of “Freedom Riders” (including our CCAR group in January) to monitor whether the anti-harassment and anti-segregation laws are being upheld.
Adding to the influence of these politicians, activists, and advocates, are Israeli Reform rabbis serving in congregations, including Rabbi Maya Leibowitz of Kehilat Mevasseret Zion. She said at the panel that these rabbis “are change agents for the soul of the country.” As they help their congregants reclaim a Jewish spiritual life, they are also helping them to reclaim a message about social justice that is deeply rooted in our tradition.
Before closing the panel, Rabbi Gluck solicited the panelists’ requests to American Reform Rabbis. These included:
In messaging on Israel, tough love is good, but it can’t always be tough–when we criticize Israel, we also need to say what we’re proud of
Engage all levels of government
Bring Israel to the pulpit
Teach our communities about not just the start-up nation, but the “bottom up״ nation
Strengthen the commitment of Reform Jews to Israel, particularly by arranging home hospitality when we bring congregants to Israel
Remember that WZO elections are vital in Israel and encourage our congregants to register to vote
Send our young adults on Birthright trips
Join WOW at the Kotel for Rosh Chodesh
Don’t stop asking where the check is for Rabbi Miri Gold, whose historic victory in June 2012 entitled her to government funding for her work that she has not yet received
Continue to support Israeli institutions that are doing great work, and invest in the Movement.
David Siegel, Rachel Sabath Beit-Halachmi, Gilad Kariv, and Maya Leibowitz each, in their own way, provided sophisticated analysis of Israel’s challenges, but also provided hope, and the inspiration to act on it.
Rabbi Ariana Silverman serves Temple Kol Ami in West Bloomfield, MI.
Last week, I was given a wonderfully challenging task as the CCAR rabbinic staff member at the NFTY Convention: Take fifty participants from the Youth Engagement Conference and a two-hour prayer lab session, and plan multiple services for about 900 NFTY Convention participants. While seemingly impossible, I jumped at the opportunity. After all, we produce Visual T’filah and all the prayer books for the Reform Movement – I could do this!
Working with my colleague Rabbi Noam Katz and Jewish musician Dan Nichols, (and joined by Rabbis Erin Mason and Ana Bonheim) we were tempted to provide a handful of creative service examples (e.g. drumming, yoga, Visual T’filah) and to plan the services as quickly as possible.
But the conference was on youth engagement and simply presenting options and saying “pick one and go plan a service” did not seem to be an appropriate fit – and not consistent with CCAR’s current approach toward engaging people in prayer with many different Visual T’filah options. It was a lab, after all; we did not want to focus too much on product, but rather the service experience by the NFTYites.
We initiated the YEC prayer lab by asking the participants “what makes for great prayer?”
This conversation was modeled upon a version of Open Space, one of the frameworks for intentional conversations guiding the CCAR convention beginning just a few weeks after NFTY Convention.
YEC participants stood up one at a time and offered to host conversations around a topic of prayer particularly interesting or exciting to them. Topics included Hebrew in prayer, who is the service leader, using apps & cellphones in services, engaging through multiple intelligences, and more. Rather than utilizing the moment to plan a service, we spent our time talking about great prayer. The prayer lab participants were fully engaged, far more than if we had simply given them pre-determined service options, and we provided an amazing model for them to bring back to their youth groups.
And it worked! YEC prayer lab participants exclaimed that this was one of the highlights of the conference for them. One even said, “This is exactly what I needed.” Even more, the prayer experiences they crafted were some of the best moments of NFTY convention for the participants. One teenager said in reflection, “This was my first real moment of transcendent prayer.”
As the Youth Engagement professionals gathered at the end of the conference for a debrief and wrap-up, I was asked to summarize our learning and said: “We often hear that ‘if you build it, they will come.’ If you build a great service or program, the youth with come. But we learned through this prayer experience that ‘if you build it with them, they’ll already be there!”
I wonder how many CCAR conventions I have been to over the years. I remember the first. It was in Pittsburgh and I had just been ordained. As I walked up to the L-Z registration line, I was scared and excited until a lovely volunteer pulled me aside. “The registration line for the wives is over there,” she said kindly while pointing across the room. This memory surfaced recently when I told a friend I was going to the CCAR conference and she asked if I enjoy it. I do now, I said.
Those early conventions are pretty much lost in the haze of the years, but I remember moments like that. Since there weren’t many female rabbis, we all ended up being cycled and recycled through the various committees. In those years, there would only ever be one woman on any given committee. I remember once being on the Nominating Committee and suggesting two female names. We already have a woman, I was told.
All that seems like ancient history now although it was a mere 30+ years ago. For all that we wonder at times whether anything has changed, it turns out that much has changed, at least when it comes to the CCAR. We now come together with intention, defined by what we do as rabbis, not by our gender or sexual orientation. We take for granted that two of the five rabbinic members of our senior CCAR staff are women. Our immediate past president is a woman. Women have chaired our convention planning. The WRN is an ex-officio member of the CCAR board. The brochure for this next conference calls the CCAR “the organization for every Reform rabbi, retired, community-based, congregational, part-time, portfolio and full-time.”
The year I was directed to the wives’ registration line at that Pittsburgh Conference, the overwhelming membership of the Conference held congregational positions. My friends in Hillel simply didn’t bother coming since there was nothing there for them in the program (as well as a feeling of being invisible in contrast to the pulpit rabbis). The part-time rabbinate existed only for retired rabbis who still wanted to keep a hand in pulpit life. The rabbinate was a much narrower place.
And, in a not-so-well-kept secret, it turns out that not all male colleagues enjoyed CCAR conventions. Many of my friends joked about the “how big is yours” syndrome. They complained that the very convention that should allow us to relax and be ourselves often turned out to be a bastion of judgment and competition. They also wanted to talk about their personal doubts, their professional conflicts, and the challenges of balancing the rabbinate with family. They, too, yearned for a different, more truly collegial experience.
For many years after I left the full-time congregational rabbinate, I stopped coming to CCAR conventions. All kinds of considerations came into play. I served a part-time congregation without the financial resources to send me to conferences. I would have had to cancel patients in my private practice, which had both economic and psychological consequences. Since I was self-employed and funded my own vacations, I needed to be selective about how much time I spent away. If the choice came down to going to the CCAR convention versus going to visit my children, my children won.
Rabbi Ellen Lewis at 2012 CCAR Convention with Rabbis Michael Weinberg, Rabbi Ellen Weinberg Dreyfus, and Rabbi Steve Fox.
While all of the above reasons seemed valid at the time, I also confess that I wasn’t as drawn to going to the convention as I am now. For many years, the CCAR didn’t feel like the organization for every Reform rabbi, or at least not the organization for this Reform rabbi. The happy confluence of women’s entering the rabbinate and society’s undergoing parallel shifts has sparked many positive changes in the rabbinate and in our conference. We all know that there are changes yet to come, as acknowledged by the title of this conference (Rabbis Leading the Shift: Jewish Possibility in a Rapidly Changing World). I am happy about returning to these conferences. I am excited about seeing old and new friends. And yes, I plan to enjoy it.
Rabbi Ellen Lewis (www.rabbiellenlewis.com) has a particular interest in the integration of religious and psychoanalytical concepts and has worked at developing models of clinical supervision for rabbis, cantors, and other religious professionals. In her private practice, she works with rabbis and cantors in therapy and supervision. After her ordination at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1980, she served congregations in Dallas, Texas, and Summit, New Jersey, where she was named Rabbi Honorata. Since 1994, she has been the Rabbi of the Jewish Center of Northwest Jersey in Washington, NJ (www.jcnwj.org).
Rabbi Lewis is also a certified and licensed modern psychoanalyst in private practice in Bernardsville, New Jersey and in New York City. She received her analytical training in New York at the Center for Modern Psychoanalytic Studies (www.cmps.edu) and at present serves on the faculty of the Academy of Clinical and Applied Psychoanalysis (www.acapnj.org). She is a Fellow in the American Association of Pastoral Counselors (www.aapc.org).She can be reached via email at rabbiellenlewis@rabbiellenlewis.com or in her NJ office 908 766 7586.
On Rosh Hashanah 2006, following the Second Lebanon War, I spoke about my sense that I could simply stand at the bimah, say “Israel,” sit back in my seat, and we would all witness fireworks as people reacted from all sides with their feelings for, against and about Israel. It’s a sad reality that for so many in our Jewish community, Israel evokes such strong and passionate feelings. For many, there is a sense that we can no longer talk with one another civilly about the subject. In the round of house meetings held throughout my Temple Shalom community two years ago, we learned that one wide-spread concern is that civil discourse is all-too absent in our society these days. In the coming weeks, we will launch a project in which we will have the opportunity to direct our questions, feelings, concerns and passions about Israel into what we hope will be a congregation-wide opportunity for learning and civil discourse. We will have an opportunity to hear the first of a number of incredible speakers who will help us to move beyond headlines and talking heads to learn, and then challenge ourselves to engage one another in facilitated conversation around what we’ve heard and the questions, concerns and passions we each have.
However, as I sit here in Jerusalem, I am drawn to a different sense of the power of passion when it comes to Israel. It is the power of the passions of people I have met over the past week during the CCAR Social Justice and Solidarity Mission in which I was privileged to participate, and in the days since as I have shared coffee, meals and conversation with both friends and strangers from many walks of life in and around Israel, and in more recent days, Jerusalem. There are passions here beyond those found in the political sphere, which came to a head of sorts with last week’s elections. Yes, one can easily tap into abundant passion surrounding discussions of politics. And there is the fever which sweeps Israeli society around its sporting events (I write as the Israel Soccer Cup Final is beginning at Teddy Stadium across the street from where I am sitting and writing these words.) Rather, I am speaking about the passion I encountered in the people, of all ages and of many different backgrounds I have met during the past week.
Some examples: At the beginning of our CCAR Mission we met with the students at our Israel Progressive (Reform) Movement’s Mechina in Jaffa. In Israel, the mechina programs, which abound, are a sort of gap-year for high school graduates, before they begin their military service. The Hebrew word mechina means “preparation,” and the concept behind these programs is to give these young people an opportunity to learn, and do community service, all while maturing a bit before they enter the Army. The Reform Mechina program, has grown from 4 participants in its first year a decade ago, to the 50 students currently in the program. They study Judaism, Jewish texts and explore their Jewish identity, and they spend much of their time volunteering in the Jaffa area — in schools, in community centers, in nursing homes, and in many more settings, working with Jews, Christians and Arabs. These incredibly impressive 18-19 year olds choose to spend a year of social and communal service, for which they pay, while deepening their identity and sense of commitment.
Tira, an Arab-Israeli village in the center of Israel. Dr. Fadila was raised in Tira, one among a number of Arab-Israeli Villages in an area known as “the Triangle,”
Dr. Dalia Fadila
a wholly Arab area located in the heart of Israel. She received her Masters degree and Doctorate focussing on minority identity and status in society at Bar Ilan University (functionally an Orthodox institution) in Ramat Aviv. Dr. Fadila was the first Arab-Israeli woman to be appointed to a position in higher education in Israel. She has served in various teaching and administrative positions at Al-Qasemi Academy, an Arab College of Education in Bake El-Gharbiya, another Arab village in “the Triangle.” She served for a time as Acting President of the college and currently serves as Provost. An expert on organizational development and a researcher of American literature, women’s literature and ethnic studies, Dr. Fadila is deeply concerned with promoting quality education for Arab students and has established a network of private schools for teaching English called Q Schools – English Language and HR Development which utilizes a unique approach to learning/teaching English suited to Arab students and stemming from the need of these students to develop personally and professionally. The Q stands for quality. Sitting in her school in Tira, we watched and listened to a woman who believes she can changes the lives of young Arab students, and the Arab community through her network of Q Schools which to date has touched the lives of some 2000 students in just a few short years. Listening to Dr. Fadila was like watching flames dance as she captivated us and inspired the members of our group with her passion for education and with her belief that education can change lives and the world. While she is realistic that life for Israeli Arabs has a ways to go, she believes that change will be advanced by instilling a sense of pride, confidence and self-esteem, along with the tools for young Arab students to prepare themselves for life and careers in the 21st century. Dr. Fadila also serves on the faculty at the Israel Defense College in Herzilya. She is a tireless, passionate educator who is changing the world around her one life at a time.
Rabbi Aharon Leibowitz
There’s also Rabbi Aaron Leibowitz, a young modern-Orthodox rabbi who is standing up to the Israeli Chief Rabbinate and its Kashrut supervision as he seeks to help shopkeepers and restauranteurs run quality establishments without having to get caught up in the often tangled web of intrigue surrounding kashrut certification in Israel, which is widely known to involve extortion and graft. Or I could write about Elyasaf, a young social entrepreneur who has engaged in creating a number of start-ups in this “Start-Up Nation,” the most recent being Salon Shabazzi in Jerusalem’s Nachlaotneighborhood. The establishment hosts an alternative radio station (a remnant of 2011′s social protest movement); allows local artists and craftspersons to display and sell their wares, provides a cafe for the neighborhood which is also a meeting place for an incredibly diverse range of people; and by the way, has a washer and dryer in the basement, which neighbors are free to use. Elyasaf’s passion is for bringing people together — young and old, gay and straight, men and women, Christians, Muslims and Jews — you get the idea. And it is working!
Elyasaf at Salon Shabazzi with CCAR Mission members
We can be passionate about our feelings and concerns surrounding Israel. But this week I learned that there is abundant passion in Israel — for Israel and for change in Israel. These are stories we need to hear. We have to look and listen beyond the headlines and the politics which can all-too-often be discouraging. These are the stories of real people, real Israelis — Jews, Christians, Muslims and others whose passion can light flames in and for us to carry beyond the all-too-frequent challenges that many feel about this neighborhood over here.
More to come . . .
Rabbi Eric Gurvis
Rabbi Eric Gurvis the Senior Rabbi of Temple Shalom in Newton, MA.
However, we had to learn to bring these sites to our congregants. 
Traveling in Israel is an experience like no other. We all know that. Any trip to Israel is rejuvenating; it inspires our Judaism, calls us back to our roots, uplifts us spiritually, offers us a unique experiential and immersive learning opportunity. We’ve taken those lessons we learned on our first trip together and put them to use- but not in a trip designed for our congregants- rather in a trip designed for you- our colleagues. We hope you will join with us from January 26-February 5 as we travel together with other colleagues and learn about Start Up Israel. Together we will push each other to realize how the entrepreneurial culture of Israel can influence our own rabbinates and how we can discover a unique aspect of modern Israel culture. More information is available on the CCAR website.
