All Blog Posts Tagged 'Reform' (33)

ARZENU and the Israel Reform Movement has helped secure Kibbutz Lotan a NIS 3.7m grant from the JNF/KK"L for the construction of a bird-watching park as well as other eco-projects.

Read the full story below in a letter from Executive Director at Kibbutz Lotan, Mike Nitzan.…

Help us make the Kotel (Western Wall) a place for all Jews - not just the ultra-Orthodox who are currently in sole control of the holiest site in Judaism as well as the Western Wall Heritage Council, who administers the holy site.

By signing the petition you call for religious pluralism on the Western Wall Heritage Council by opening up the council to members from other streams of Judaism such as Reform and Conservative Judaism as well as secular Jewish…

In a letter to the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism (IMPJ), Minister of Defense, Ehud Barak and Minister of Trade, Industry and Commerce, Shalom Simchon congratulate the movement on "its historic accomplishment of the State's recognition of Reform and Conservative Rabbis".

In addition, both Ministers offer their support in IMPJ's further struggle to end discrimination of non-Orthodox streams of Judaism in…

Starting on Monday June 18th, the leadership of ARZENU the International Federation of Reform and Progressive Zionists together with participants from the World Union for Progressive Judaism and the IMPJ (Israel Reform Movement) will be gathering in Jerusalem to participate in the annual World Zionist Organization's Va’ad Hapoel (…

On May 5, Anat Hoffman, Executive Director of Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), appeared on CNN’s show Amanpour. to talk about her struggle to fight the ultra-Orthodoxs’ increasing influence on both public and religious life  in Israel and to secure equal rights of Israeli women.…

Last week, ARZA Canada held a week-long program for members, which included remembering Israel's fallen soldiers on Yom HaZikaron and celebrating Israel's 64th birthday during Yom Ha'atzmaut. 

As part of the program, the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism (IMPJ) produced a video to thank ARZA Canada for its support over the years. Click …

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…

This year, in honour of Israel Independence Day, ARZA Canada – in conjunction with the newly-formed ARZA Canada Rabbinic Council – will launch the first-ever ARZA Canada Week across Canada from April 22 to 28, 2012. 

The aim of ARZA Canada Week is to produce programmes and activities that will enable this week to become a highlight of ARZA Canada’s calendar each year. This year, both Yom Hazikaron and Yom Ha’atzmaut…

On Wednesday last week, the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism (IMPJ) and the Council of Progressive Rabbis (CPR) in Israel issued a statement on the social protests that are currently taking place on the streets of all Israeli major cities.

The people’s voice is as God’s voice

This year, the period of “Between the Straits” (bein ha-meitzarim) has seen an outpouring of protests throughout Israel. Citizens have…

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…

Recently, I was fortunate enough to spend a busy 10 days in Israel, taking part in three conferences, which brought together Jews from across the world to talk about the future of Israel and Progressive Judaism.

The first was a ‘Young Adults Reform Zionist Leadership Seminar’, the second was the Presidential Conference, organised under the auspices of President Shimon Peres in Jerusalem, and the third was the Va’ad Ha’poel of the World…

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…

Deputy Mayor Ronit Weintraub says the desecration of the synagogue 'reflects a religious radicalization in Ra'anana'; Vandals sprayed a Star of David on the synagogue's outer wall and the words 'it is beginning' over it.

Vandals smashed the windows of a Reform synagogue in Ra'anana and sprayed ominous graffiti on the wall before dawn yesterday."All the windows were shattered and broken glass filled the prayer hall and playground…

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.…

Chevre

Our challenges continue with respect to the Conversion Issue in Israel. I will summarize here the current state of affairs. As you all know, MK David Rotem introduced a bill (Rotem I) in July to give authority de jure in Israel on all conversion matters to the Chief Rabbis.

The Reform Movement, in partnership with the Jewish Federations of North America…