Arzenu Admin's Blog Posts Tagged 'Rabbi' (19)

This week, Anat Hoffman, executive director of the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), celebrated her 10-year anniversary with the organization. Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center (RAC) of Reform Judaism in the US, and Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), offered…

The ARZENU family joins the Reform movement in mourning the passing of Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut in Canada last week.

Rabbi Plaut, who died at 99, published a volume of commentary on the Torah and Haftarah, which has become the standard Chumash used by the Reform movement world-wide.

“God is not the author of the text,” Rabbi Plaut wrote in the volume’s introduction, “the people are; but God’s voice may be heard through theirs if we listen with…

Rabbi Richard G. Hirsch’s new book, For the Sake of Zion, Reform Zionism: A Personal Mission, was launched in Jerusalem on Monday, June 27. Gil Troy, a professor of history at McGill University in Montreal and the author of numerous books, who currently lives in Israel, wrote an article for The Jewish Week about Rabbi Hirsch and his latest book.

At a time when we read constantly about the crises of Liberal Zionism and Reform Zionism, Rabbi Hirsch, at…

Rabbis Eric Yoffie, Gilad Kariv and Danny Allen, Arzenu’s Joan Garson and IRAC’s Anat Hoffman join together in opposing dangerous new legislation passed in Israel

In response to legislation passed Tuesday by the Knesset, which will allow for civil proceedings against individuals or organizations found to be instigators of anti-Israel boycotts and bars companies from bidding for Israeli government tenders if they participate in boycotts, including in the West…

On June 16, 14 young adults between 18 and 35 from Canada, Australia, South Africa, UK, France, Denmark, Germany, Czech Republic and Israel met in Jerusalem for a five-day seminar on Reform Zionism sponsored by the WUPJ, Arzenu and TaMaR, and with the support of the World Zionist Organization. The focus of the seminar was to discuss and define the challenges facing Reform Zionism today in Israel, the Diaspora and among young people. …

I read with great sadness and considerable anger the editorial in the May 4 Jewish Ledger by Carol Greenwald, Ph.D., about the selection of Rabbi Richard Jacobs as President of the …

The following correspondence between Les Rothschild, president, ARZA Canada, Gilad Kariv, chief executive, IMPJ, and Rabbi Tamar Kolberg, Kehilat Ra'anan, are just a few of the letters and messages received by the Kehilat Ra'anan community after the most recent desecration of its synagogue.

Dear Gilad,

On behalf of ARZA Canada I want to express our shock and sadness about the desecration of our congregation in Ra'anana. As…

Natan Sharansky, chair of the Jewish Agency and former Soviet Union Refusenik, recently spoke to students and faculty members of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR). The event, which was sponsored by ARZA, ARZENU, the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism (IMPJ), the College…

Dear Friends

Eight years ago, I traveled to Brisbane to serve the UPJ local congregation on the High Holy Days. I’m looking at the pictures from the city and the rest of Queensland on the TV screen and it is hard to capture the might of the water and the tragedy. We share with you the grief for the life that was taken. I hope your congregants are safe and that this is also the situation of the synagogues in the city and on the coast. Please let us know if there is any type of support…

Once again, the Rotem Conversion Bill has become a subject of concern. And once again, our colleagues in Israel, led by Rabbi Gilad Kariv and counsel at IRAC, in cooperation with ARZA USA, the Conservative Movement and the Federations of North America, and with the support of Natan Sharansky, Chair of the Jewish Agency, have addressed the issues.

There is a moratorium to which the Government has agreed, to permit a negotiated solution to the problem, now extending until July 2011.…

The observant Jewish Left is a rather new phenomenon in Israel – whether Reform, Conservative or modern Orthodox. The creation of Meimad in 1988 was the first time that modern Orthodox Israelis showed an interest in promoting peace and human rights on a political level.…