Weekly Update 13/03/08

Dear Members,

A smaller e-mail this week with just two articles. To make up for it
I'll update you or remind you of a few items that we've been up to this
week.
Tuesday night was our final Pro-Zion executive meeting before our AGM
(March 30th). To start our meeting we were pleased to host Menachem
Leibovic the Deputy Chairman of KKL/JNF and someone who has been very
much involved in the progressive movement in Israel over the last 30
years. He filled us in on the great progress that the movement has made
in the last year and how much Pro-Zion's influence and places in the
World Zionist Organisation has started to yield real results in the
funding and legal issues faced by progressive Judaism in Israel. We hope
Menachem will have time to write us a more detailed update for next
week's e-mail.

On Wednesday night I had a fascinating night at the panel discussion on
Israel's next 60 years hosted at Alyth Synagogue. Amongst the panel of
journalists and polticians were ZF Chair Andrew Balcombe and my Pro-Zion
Co-Chair Charlie Gluckman. Even if I wasn't a neutral observer I have to
say a big well done to Charlie who delivered an impressive, impassioned
and thought provoking piece to start off the discussion.

The next panel to have in your diary should be at the Pro-Zion AGM where
we are hosting a fantastic panel of professional educators discussing
"How do we bring Israel to our communities". Please see the link below
for the full details
http://www.prozion.org.uk/images/agm2008poster.gif
If you are interested in taking on a position in Pro-Zion or helping out
in any way send us a reply to the e-mail and we will get in touch with you.

So to the two articles for the week:
1. An update from IRAC: The Israel Religious Action Center have started
an anti-corruption campaign aimed at various institutions in Israel. As
we know corruption isn't just a problem in Israel but this interesting
update gives some examples of what is going on in Israel and how IRAC is
trying to improve it.

2. An Israel Article on the JFS admissions issue: As most of our British
readers will have no doubt seen in the Jewish Chronicle a family are
taking Jewish School, JFS to court as they refused their child a place
at the school as the child's mother had not converted to Judaism in an
Orthodox ceremony. It will certainly be interesting to see how the
results of this case affect progressive Jews in the UK..

Wishing you a Shabbat Shalom
Daniel and all at Pro-Zion