News Update

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <Prozion1@aol.com>
Date: Sun, Dec 5, 2010 at 6:16 PM
Subject: News Update
To: Prozion1@aol.com

Dear Members,

Considering events in the north of Israel at the moment, we are sending a special email update this week to keep you informed about the tragedy and remarkable and ongoing efforts of our movement in Israel; who we have been in regular contact with.  The recent update from the IMPJ has informed us that the fire fighters how seem to have the fire under control.  Since the fire started, thousands of people have been displaced from their homes.  The fire has claimed at least 42 lives and more than 4 million trees on nearly 10,000 acres of land.  Israel is mourning for those they have lost, and aid for the victims is of the Movement's greatest concern at this moment.  

During the weekend:

• The IMPJ has been communicating with all the main agencies in charge of the crisis; agencies they have been in touch with since the Lebanon War in 2006.
• The IMPJ congregation in Haifa and the Carmel (Or Chadash, Shirat Hayam, Ohel Avraham and Sulam Yaakov in Zikhron Yaacov) are in touch with their members and staff from the evacuated areas.  They are all safe.  The Leo Beck school assisted it's students from Tirat Carmel and Ussfiya that have been evacuated. The students and their families are all safe, and the majority of them have already returned home.
• Congregation Ohel Avraham held Shabbat services and candle lighting in the firefighters' headquarters in Haifa university with the participation of hundreds of rescue workers and fire fighters.
• The Leo Beck students packaged during the weekend, hundreds of kits with food and supplies for the fire fighters. The community center has been opened as a rest area for rescue workers.
• Since this afternoon, Keren B'Kavod, with Leo Beck center are providing hundreds of hot meals for fire-fighters andrescue workers 

In the next 24 hours, as the focus in the North is moving from putting out the fire to rehabilitating the people and land that were affected we are adjusting to provide any help necessary.

• Noar Telem will assist Keren B'Kavod in packaging supplies for rescue workers and for displaced families.
• Noar Telem will be heading north to organize activities for the displaced children from kibbutz Beit Oren and Ein Hod, who are now residing in Kibbutz Nachsholim. 
• Keren B'Kavod is now focusing on identifying needs for the future, with our staff on-the ground visiting the area in order to determine how we can best help in rehabilitation.

Please pass this information around your communities.  We have also attached a misheberach that was written by the IMPJ. FPJ, the UK's fundraising arm for Progressive Judaism in Israel, is organizing an appeal for which you can donate to.  More information for this can be found at www.fpjie.org.uk.  Pro-Zion will send further updates throughout this crisis.

The Chair of the IMPJ wrote a couple of days ago asking us to reflect on the power of fire, for good and for evil, as we light the chanukah candles.  We urge you to do the same and think about both the miracles of Chanukah and of the victims of the tragedy in Israel.

Shavua Tov,

Charlie, Daniel and all at Pro-Zion 

Fwd: Update on the fire in the Carmel and on the IMPJ work

Our dear friends

 

Few hours ago Israel homeland security minister announced the end of the massive operation to stop the fire in the Carmel area. The Israeli troops will remain in the area during the next few days and the overseas support teams will start their way home tomorrow morning.

 

27 funerals were carried today across the country. All of the victims died on their way to save lives, including a sixteen years old fire troop volunteer from Haifa; a close friend of our NOAR TELEM group in Khilat Or Hadash.

 

Earlier today, we have asked Rabbi Gabi Dagan from Kehilat Ohel Avra'am in the Leo Beck center to share with us his fillings and thoughts. Gabbi was ordained this November in HUC Jerusalem. He grew up in a Modern Orthodox family in Hazor HaGlilit and served in the IDF as a Rabbi. In his reserve service during the second Lebanon War experienced many difficult moments as part of his duty to bring our soldieries to KEVER ISRAEL. Four years later in totally different circumstances he led his congregations in monuments of sadness and fear. When we asked him to write we didn't have any idea that his father was a fireman for more then 40 years.  

 

I'm attaching a translation of Gabi's words and also the Hebrew version.

 

The GMARA teaches us (Taa'nit 30 b) that those who mourn Jerusalem will rejoice with it while it is rebuilt. After 3 days of concern and mourning let us pray we will all celebrate with the rebuilding of the destroyed communities of Beit-Oren: Ein-Hod; Ein-Chod; Nir Etzion and Yemin Ord and with a flowered and green Carmel.

 

Gilad and Yaron

 

  

 

 

 

עו"ד הרב גלעד קריב

התנועה הרפורמית │ יהדות מתקדמת בישראל

 

Rabbi Gilad Kariv

Israel Movement for Progressive & Reform Judaism

 

טל': 

IMPJ Update from Carmel fires

Dear friends,

 

We are writing to update you with current news of the tragedy in the North of Israel. As thousands of people are displaced from their homes due to a massive wildfire, the fire fighters now seem to have the fire under control.  The fire has claimed at least 42 lives and more than 4 million trees on nearly 10,000 acres of land.  We are all in mourning for those we have lost, and aid for the victims is of the Movement's greatest concern at this moment.

 

 

During the weekend:

 

 

The IMPJ has been communicating with all of the main agencies in charge of the crisis: the government rescue head-quarters, the logistics center for the operation, the center for displaced families, and the mayors of Tirat Carmel and Ussfia.  We have been in touch with these agencies since the Lebanon War in 2006

 

• The IMPJ congregations in Haifa and the Carmel (Or Chadash, Shirat Hayam, Ohel Avraham and Sulam Yaakov in Zikhron Yaacov) are in touch with their members and staff from the evacuated areas. They are all safe. The Leo Beck school assisted it's students from Tirat Carmel and Ussfiya that have been evacuated. The students and their families are all safe, and the majority of them have already returned home.
• Congregation Ohel Avraham held Shabbat services and candle lighting in the firefighters' headquarters in Haifa university with the participation of hundreds of rescue workers and fire fighters.
• The Leo Beck students packaged during the weekend, hundreds of kits with food and supplies for the fire fighters. The community center has been opened as a rest area for rescue workers.
• Since this afternoon, Keren B'Kavod, with Leo Beck center are providing hundreds of hot meals for fire-fighters andrescue workers In the next 24 hours:

 

 

As the focus in the North is moving from putting out the fire to rehabilitating the people and land that were affected we are adjusting to provide any help necessary.

 

• Noar Telem will assist Keren B'Kavod in packaging supplies for rescue workers and for displaced families.
• Noar Telem will be heading north to organize activities for the displaced children from kibbutz Beit Oren and Ein Hod, who are now residing in Kibbutz Nachsholim. Keren B'Kavod is now focusing on identifying needs for the future, with our staff on-the ground visiting the area in order to determine how we can best help in rehabilitation.

 

 In a few hours, the IRAC weekly newsletter will be published early to share this information as well as other updates with our vast group of supporters.  If you have any information about relief efforts, please write to us immediately so that we may share this in the newsletter.

 

In a few hours we will send you an article by Rabbi Gaby Dagan about his experience and insights from this weekend.

 

Thank you for your support, especially in times of great need.

 

Yaron Shavit

Anat Hoffman

Gilad Kariv

World Zionist Congress - Ending with 2 Hatikvahs

World Zionist Congress - Ending with 2 Hatikvahs

So the World Zionist Congress is now over, and it seems that we managed to leave Jerusalem just as the city was being overrun and shut down (the journey to Tel Aviv still took an extra 40+ minutes). 

The last day of the WZC is primarily about the resolutions, and the votes which are held on all of them. The resolutions which have passed through the committee stage tend to advance relatively easily through the whole Congress. However, according to the antiquated WZC rules, a person can call for a Votum Separatum, which means that a rejected motion will still be voted on in the whole Congress, with the proposer generally speaking on its behalf at the beginning. 

For the group which I had been involved in, considering Zionist Education, there were 2 Votum Separatums on resolutions, which we had voted against. They were important items for us, and we had to make sure that they were defeated again, thankfully we were successful. 

During the voting it was clear that the pluralist, liberal parties had a majority of the votes on virtually all matters. And as members of the Orthodox right grew frustrated, towards the end of the session, a number of them invaded the stage to stall proceedings, and to sing Hatikvah. I do not think this was the Zionist dream Herzl had wanted us to pursue. And it provided a very disappointing picture: our way or no way. 

The disappointment of this spectacle, was tempered by two young Australian delegates, one from Habonim Dror, and one from Bnei Akiva. They took the stage and explained how they find ways to work together, even when they disagree; providing a wonderful model of pluralism. Hopefully it will be their voices leading our next generation. 

This was a disappointing recitation of the Hatikvah - a moment when the song was used to divide, rather than unite. But at the very end of the Congress, when we all stood together to sing Hatikvah, I felt a link back to the first Zionist Congress when this song was adopted as our anthem. It was a powerful moment. 

There were highs and lows during the course of the Congress. But despite all of that, there is something very inspiring about being a delegate at the same Congress, which Herzl founded in 1897. A lot has changed over the previous 113 years, much has been achieved and there is much left to do. We need to be worthy heirs to Herzl's vision; advancing the continued development of a pluralist, Jewish, democratic state.

World Zionist Congress – Catching up and the Voting

World Zionist Congress – Catching up and the Voting

So for the last two days with all of the meetings (and the lack of a reliable free wireless source in the hotel or the convention center) and various other things which have been going on, it has been impossible to get onto the internet to update the blog – I am sorry.

To bring you up to speed, I have been in and out of meetings for the last two days. Some of them specifically relating to our Arzenu group (and the Reform movement), and in others which have been as a part of our combined faction with Labour and Meretz. It's been exhausting, as our meetings have begun at 7:30, and we have been working through until the late hours. 

It has been eye-opening to see the way that Zionist politics works, and it has been especially interesting to see the ways in which different groups vote together on some issues, and in opposition on other matters. 

Last night we also had the opportunity to hear President Shimon Peres and the Mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat, as we celebrated 150 years since Herzl's birth. 

Right now, as I update the blog, we are voting in the resolution session, as the motions which were debated yesterday are being confirmed by a vote of all the delegates present at the World Zionist Congress. Right now a lot of the motions involve the rights of all streams of Judaism, and it is wonderful to watch as these motions, which we support, are being passed.

The World Zionist Congress – Being part of a world movement

Another reflection from Rabbi Danny Burkeman, Pro-Zion and Arzenu
representative at the World Zionist Congress

The World Zionist Congress – Being part of a world movement
In our joint faction meeting with Labour we heard today from
representatives of our groups from across the world.

In Britain we Reform Jews are a minority within a minority – it can be
difficult and sometimes demoralising. Being part of the Arzenu
delegation at the World Zionist Congress is a reminder that we are
part of an international movement, with members spread across the
world. We have allies and supporters around the globe, and we need to
find ways to work more closely together and to strengthen our bonds
and cooperation. It is always refreshing and inspiring to see Reform
Jews from across the globe.

We all face a range of different challenges and problems as a result
of our different national contexts. But there are some challenges and
problems which we all face together. Through cooperation and the
sharing of ideas we can face the future together, and continue to
advance the international message of Reform Judaism and Reform
Zionism.

The World Zionist Congress – Arzenu, Labour and Meretz

Another post taken from rabbidanny.blogspot.com

The World Zionist Congress – Arzenu, Labour and Meretz
This afternoon we had the first meeting of our new faction for the
Congress. Our Arzenu group have spent the last few years negotiating
with Labour to form a coalition, and more recently Meretz have joined
us. This means that we will together be the largest group at the
Congress, and it will further increase the influence we have.

This will be important for the work of the Zionist institutions,
however, it is equally, if not more important in relation to what it
means for our place in Israeli society. We in the Reform movement
remain a small percentage within Israeli society, but we are the
largest international stream of Judaism, and it is important that our
voice is heard within Israeli society. With Labour and Meretz we share
a broad vision of a Jewish democratic state, at peace with her
neighbours, and built on values of social justice and pluralism. It is
a partnership which is built on strong ideological foundations.

We in Arzenu have to use our voice, and strength, within the World
Zionist Congress to help our Israeli Reform movement. Through this
agreement we now have a formal partnership with two parties within the
Israeli Knesset, which can only help in the further establishment and
legitimisation of our movement here in Israel.