• From the editor's table
• High Holiday Message from Rabbi Ehud Bandel
• Poll: One Third of Israelis Prefer Conservative or Reform Synagogues
• The Battle for Masorti Conversion: Is the End in Sight?
• "Masorti Kotel" Officially Opened
• From Damascus to Kiryat Bialik: The Story of a Torah Scroll
• Contact information
• Subscriptions and distribution

From the editor's table

With the advent of the new year, it brings me much pleasure to announce that a new NOAM branch has been opened in Modiin. This is the seventeenth branch of NOAM in Israel, and I can only hope that it symbolizes the growth of Masorti activities nationwide. For me, personally, the Masorti Movement comes as a new move, and after only two months here, I already feel at home. The warmth of the Jerusalem Office, and the guidance from my predecessor Mikie Goldstein, has helped my integration here immensely.

But I am not the only new face in the Movement. Olya Weinstein is our new Marom coordinator, replacing Rivka Rosenbaum, and Ziva Nativ has been hired to replace Judith Edelman-Green as Director of the Bar/Bat Mitzvah for the Special Child, who is leaving us after ten years of faithful and devoted service.

Shana Tova U'Metuka,
Joe Brown
Resource Development Director

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High Holiday Message from Rabbi Ehud Bandel

In the Musaf service of Rosh Hashanah, we recite the three sets of verses known as Malchuyot (sovereignty), Zichronot (remembrance), and Shofarot (trumpets). In the Malchuyot passage, the universal dimension of our tradition is emphasized, crowning God over the entire universe and expressing the yearning for Tikkun Olam - fixing the whole world, not just the Jewish part of it. In the Zichronot verses we focus on the particular aspect, the unique covenant between the God of Israel and the people of Israel, manifested through Torah. In Shofarot, we articulate the hope to hear before long the Shofar of Kibbutz Galuyot - the gathering of the Diaspora, and the liberty of the Jewish people in its homeland.

These three motifs are the essence of the ideology of the Masorti Movement in Israel. The document of principles which we formulated this year shows the commitment to the three pillars of: Democracy, Judaism and Zionism. A close look into the Rosh Hashanah Musaf service may reveal that these pillars are the practical expressions of Malchuyot, Zichronot, and Shofarot. The universal principles specified in the concept of Democracy are the essence of Malchuyot. The individual's commitment to Judaism, based on Torah and Mitzvot, is at the heart of Zichronot. And the Zionism we pride ourselves on is the ultimate expression of Shofarot. And so, the message of Masorti Judaism in Israel is indeed the eternal and everlasting message of Jewish tradition.

During the High Holidays we gather in synagogues throughout the world, directing our eyes towards Jerusalem, and praying for the realization of our highest aspirations in these three aspects. May our prayers be heard, and may we all be signed and sealed to a healthy and prosperous year.

Rabbi Ehud Bandel, President
Masorti Movement in Israel

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Poll: One Third of Israelis Prefer Conservative or Reform Synagogues

A Dahaf poll commissioned by IRAC (The Israel Religious Action Center of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism) published on the eve of Rosh Hashanah reported that 13 percent of all Israelis who planned to attend services during the High Holy Days will attend either a Reform or Conservative synagogue rather than an Orthodox synagogue. Furthermore, the survey uncovered that 40 percent of those who planned to go to services said that if they had the option of attending a non-Orthodox congregation within walking distance of their homes, they would do so, and 40 percent of those who are not attending services would if there were a Reform or Conservative synagogue nearby. They said that the "non-egalitarian nature of Orthodox services, in which families are segregated by gender, is what prevents them from attending services."

"The survey debunks the theory that Conservative/Masorti Judaism in Israel is an irrelevant American import," said Rabbi Gordon Tucker, chair of the board of the Masorti Foundation for Conservative Judaism in Israel. "Rather, Israelis are thirsting for a meaningful religious alternative."

"This year, the Movement's High Holy Day ad campaign encouraging people to come to Masorti congregations was particularly successful because of the way the message meshed with what Israelis want: to sit together as a family," said Rabbi Ehud Bandel, president of the Masorti Movement in Israel. "Given the traditional, yet egalitarian nature of Masorti congregations, the Masorti Movement is able to offer a comfortable Jewish experience, unequalled in any other Israeli synagogue."

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The Battle for Masorti Conversion: Is the End in Sight?

A long and bitter struggle on recognition of non-Orthodox conversions performed in Israel is about to reach its end. After the High Court ruling of February 2002 that the State must recognize conversions performed by Israeli Conservative and Reform rabbinic courts for purposes of registration, the only question remaining was whether a non-Israeli converted by these rabbinic courts may be granted Israeli citizenship, based on the Law of Return. The State was asked to submit its response within three months.

In a meeting on this subject recently held at the Prime Minister's Office, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz stated that the only legal way to prevent granting Israeli citizenship to persons undergoing a Reform or Conservative conversion in Israel is by changing the Law of Return. PM Ariel Sharon responded by saying that while the government is not going to change the Law of Return, its current policy of accepting only Orthodox conversions will be upheld. This position avoids conflict both with North American Jewry and with the ultra-Orthodox parties in the Knesset, with whom he has been holding coalition talks. According to a Haaretz report, PM Sharon instructed the AG to present the Ne'eman Commission recommendations before the courts, thereby denying the validity of non-Orthodox conversions for purposes of citizenship.

In response, Rabbi Ehud Bandel, president of the Masorti Movement said: "Presenting the so-called "Ne'eman Commission recommendations" throws sand in the eyes of the Court and the Israeli public. These "recommendations" do not exist at all, since the Commission report was never signed, due to the Chief Rabbinate's obstinate refusal to accept its proposals. The Masorti Movement's partnership with the "Joint Institute for Jewish Studies" is based on the precondition that the Movement does not waive its demand to have fully recognized the conversions its rabbinic court carries out." The Masorti Movement anxiously awaits the official government stand, to be presented to the High Court of Justice.

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"Masorti Kotel" Officially Opened

On August 17, the section of the Western Wall located next to Robinson's Arch known as the "Masorti Kotel" was officially inaugurated. Also home to an archeological garden, this section has served the Masorti Movement for the past five years. The new site, adjacent to the Wall itself, was constructed in response to a watershed High Court ruling last year barring the Women of the Wall group from publicly worshiping at the Western Wall main plaza. The High Court ruled that the government had to assign a nearby alternative site where women will be able to worship while wearing prayer shawls and reading from the Torah, worship that has provoked anger and violence from Orthodox worshipers in the past.

Speaking at the event, Cabinet Secretary Israel Maimon highlighted the values of justice and peace, and was supplemented by a letter from former Cabinet Secretary MK Isaac Herzog. Anat Hoffman of the Women of the Wall railed about the ultra-Orthodox brutality and Director General of the Ministry of Tourism, Aharon Domb tried to placate her, stating this is a step in the right direction. President of the Masorti Movement, Rabbi Ehud Bandel, called the development "an important step toward the equality of the streams of Judaism in Israel," adding that the movement holds that it is the right of any movement to pray according to their beliefs at the Western Wall.

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From Damascus to Kiryat Bialik: The Story of a Torah Scroll, by Abraham Hasson

My family arrived in Damascus, the capital city of Syria in the 19th century, led by my great-grandfather, Rabbi Meir Hasson. There he purchased a house with a plot of land, to which he added a few rooms and built a synagogue. For this purpose he bought a Torah scroll and commissioned the writing of two additional scrolls, one very large and the other small. The two large scrolls did not have a dedication, except for stating that Rabbi Meir Hasson purchased them. The third scroll was dedicated to the memory of Kadhun Hasson, wife of Meir, who died prematurely in 1887. The Hebrew spelling of the Jewish year is TRH"M (Terachem) instead of the conventional TRM"H (Tarmach), indicating a supplication to God to take mercy on the soul of the deceased and of those left behind. The dedication is inscribed in a mother-of-pearl inlay at the top inside part of the casing, on both right and left sides.

The round wooden scrolls cases were covered with a colored velvet fabric and embossed with silver plates hand-hammered into a floral bas-relief. On top of the cases are elaborate Rimonim, and on the inside panel of the smaller case is the dedication to my great-grandmother. The three books are written on deer-hide of a light cream color, and the letters are beautiful.

In 1962 our family made Aliyah, and the synagogue continued to operate under the hands of my late uncle David Hasson, who remained in Damascus two additional years. After he made Aliyah the synagogue was managed by those worshippers who came regularly to the services. In 1992, when Syrian Jews were allowed to leave the country, nearly all of them did so. One of the congregants did not want to leave the Torah scrolls. He packed them into suitcases and used his contacts at customs so they would not search his baggage, since according to Syrian law it is forbidden to take antiques out of the country. When he reached New York he handed my cousin the scrolls in return for a very handsome pecuniary consideration, to cover the bribery and overweight expenses.

My cousin, who runs a synagogue in New York, was very pleased to receive the Torah scrolls. He left two of them in his synagogue, and gave the third to my brother, who was in New York at the time. My brother decided that I should have custody of the Torah scroll, as there is a better chance of our using it here at our Masorti congregation in Kiryat Bialik.

Six years ago our daughter Naamah celebrated her Bat-Mitzvah, and recently we celebrated the Shabbat Chatan and Calah of my daughter Iris and her husband Yoav. In both cases, the two daughters of the Hasson family read on very important celebrations of their lives from the scroll dedicated to the memory of their grandmother's grandmother, thus continuing the family, its traditions and the traditions of the Jewish People. We thank God that we have been so privileged.

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Contact information

e-masorti is produced by the Development Department of the Masorti Movement in Israel.
13 Ben Yehuda Street, PO Box 7559, Jerusalem 91074 ISRAEL Web: www.masorti.org
Telephone: +972 (2) 624 6510 Fax: +972 (2) 624 6869 E-mail: development@masorti.org

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