• From the Editor's Desk
• Masorti in the News
• Tamar Youth Center Dedicated
• NOAM Shlichonim
• Brenda Kaufman Berman Memorial Lecture
• Havruta - Moreshet Yisrael Outreach Program to Russians
• Tu Bishvat Seder at Yotzer Or
• Contact information
• Subscriptions and distribution

From the Editor's Desk

Mishenichnas Adar Marbin B'simcha - when Adar begins, happiness is increased.  With the new month entering, new hopes emerge.  The newly formed government has started talks with the Palestinians once again, and religious ?pluralism is on the agenda of its Minister of the Interior, who intends to speak at the coming RA convention in Houston, as you can see below.

Congratulations to Kehillat Moreshet Yisrael of Jerusalem, which will celebrate its eleventh annual dinner on February 13th, honoring Annie & Harry Allen, who have both worked for years supporting many Israeli, Jewish and Masorti causes.  To note, last month this Kehillah hosted the Shechter Rabbinical Seminary ordination ceremony.

On a last note, I would like to thank Rabbis Barry Schlesinger and Peretz Rodman for their work on formulating a Prayer for the Victims of the Southeast Asian disaster .

Joe Brown
Resource Development Director, Masorti Movement in Israel

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Masorti in the News

The Jerusalem Post recently ran a feature interview with Rabbi Ehud Bandel, President of the Masorti Movement.  The interview, which can be viewed here, surveyed the condition of the Masorti Movement in Israel, its obstacles and challenges, and the way it overcomes them.

In addition, in a recent interview, Ophir Paz-Pines, newly appointed Israeli Minister of the Interior and former member of Kehillat Yaar Ramot, expressed his support for the Masorti Movement, and said that he intended to speak at the up-and-coming International Rabbinical Assembly Convention in Houston.  This interview can be viewed here.

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Tamar Youth Center Dedicated

On January 24, 2005 the Tamar Youth Center at Kehillat Hod Vehadar in Kfar Saba was dedicated.  This Center will serve as a resource center for NOAM madrichim in the Sharon area and host national NOAM programs. 

The center was dedicated in memory of Tamar Dvoskin, an active member of NOAM and Hod Vehadar, who was killed in a hit and run bike accident at the age of 21, eight years ago.  The ceremony was held on the eve of Tu B'Shevat, and so a number of the invitees planted seedlings, including Danny Dvoskin, Tamar's father, Rabbi Ehud Bandel, President of the Masorti Movement, Avinoam Granot, Kfar Saba City Council member, and David Marcus, President of Kehillat Hod Vehadar. 

Also attending the ceremony were Dr. Irit Zmora, chairperson of the Masorti Movement, David Ginsburg, chairperson of the Movement's Resource Development Committee, and Yitzhak Wald, former mayor of Kfar Saba.  Young members of the congregation performed a dance in memory of Tamar.

The Center has already hosted a national meeting of 40 NOAM youth leaders, and will serve this kind of activity on an ongoing basis.

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NOAM Shlichonim

 NOAM (Masorti Youth Movement) ambassadors Anat Gordon and Naomi Ro'an, and NOAM director Ze'ev Kainan spent a week at Columbus, Ohio.  Representing NOAM, the Masorti Youth Movement, these Israelis met with local youth at Tifereth Israel, Beth Jacob, Columbus Torah Academy, the Columbus Jewish Day School and other institutions, such as the Columbus Jewish Foundation . 

Advocating respect and collaboration among all streams of Judaism, the visit was sponsored by Congregation Tifereth Israel and a grant from an anonymous Columbus Jewish Foundation fund-holder in memory of Jack Roth, who was a major advocate of Masorti's mission.  The NOAM Shlichonim presented Jack Roth's widow, Janice, a plaque commemorating Jack's dedication and commitment to Masorti in Israel.

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Brenda Kaufman Berman Memorial Lecture

"A New Culture of Patients' Safety" is how Yoel Donchin, Professor of Anesthesiology at the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical School, described the thrust of his work at the recent Brenda Kaufman Berman Memorial Lecture.  His message included a documentary film entitled "...Things Like This Happen..." which relates Brenda's story and its implications for medical responsibility, and which was cosponsored by the Brenda Fund and Hadassah, Israel.

This film has already been shown as a teaching tool to 3,000 medical personnel in Israel.  Prof. Donchin spoke of the epidemic number of medical errors resulting in death each year in America and in Israel, and of the need to change the system from within the hospitals.  He stressed the changes already taking place at the Hadassah-Hebrew University Hospital at Ein Kerem, and the need for continuing open dialogue within medical teams as well as human engineering.

The memorial lecture took place at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies where Brenda had been a rabbinical student, on January 16, 2005. 

The evening opened with Rabbi Ehud Bandel, President of the Masorti Movement, presenting the Brenda Fund annual grants to Rabbi Yonatan Rudnick, for his pioneering work in hospital chaplaincy, to the NOAM youth movement for its work in environmental preservation, to Kehillat Yotzer Or for its groundroots work, to the "Warm Home" project of Kehillat Moreshet Avraham, to the Kiriat Bialik project to help the needy run by Kehillat Hakrayot, to the Children's Cookery Project at the Jerusalem Shelter for Battered Women, and to the social action projects run at Kehillat Bet Israel in Netanya.

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Havruta - Moreshet Yisrael Outreach Program to Russians

Kehillat Moreshet Yisrael recently renewed its outreach efforts to Jerusalem's Russian-speaking community.  At the suggestion of Ruth Bonder z"l, who originally ran the synagogue's program for Russian Olim, Avinoam Sharon, the congregation's spiritual leader, undertook reviving the initiative in a new format.

The new program is called Havruta, a term that means society, friendship or partnership in study. It was developed with the assistance of Yosef Begun and Rabbi Michael Rivkin, and with the support of Dr. Yair Paz of Midreshet Yerushalayim. The program is intended to provide a congregational alternative to the usual synagogue-and-prayer-community format, so that members of the Russian-speaking community can reconnect, examine and express their Jewish identity in an open, pluralistic and Jewish environment. 

The program has begun with weekly meetings, lectures and discussions in the Beit Midrash of Beit Knesset Moreshet Yisrael, at the Fuchsberg Center for Conservative Judaism.

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Tu Bishvat Seder at Yotzer Or

Dozens of children with their families sat together in a small room in the Lazarus Center in Jerusalem's Talpiyot neighborhood on the evening of Tu Bishvat, alongside NOAM counselors and volunteers, NOAM Rabbi Claudia Kreiman and Rabbi Uri Ayalon, of Kehilat Yotzer Or.  The group sang Tu Bishvat songs together, and held a Seder Tu Bishvat, where texts relating to the land are read, and the various fruits of Eretz Israel are eaten.

Aviel Avrala, a third-grader Ethiopian child who lives in the neighborhood, came with his mother and younger brother.  He listened intently to every word Michal, the tutoring program coordinator of Yotzer Or, said, hoping to win the Tu Bishvat bingo that followed the Seder. 
Kehillat Yotzer Or is a grassroots community, which reaches out to families of the lower socio-economic strata, hoping to provide them with the means to express their Judaism in a meaningful way.

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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

Donations

Israel and all other countries: to the offices in Jerusalem (above).

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