MERCAZ Olami News and Updates
It’s easier to light a fire than to extinguish one - Masorti Rabbi Barry Schlesinger reports from Rosh Chodesh services at the Kotel
Kotel- Western Wall
Monday, Feb. 15, 2010
As the old expression says that it’s easier to light a fire than to extinguish one.
I was in the eye of the storm at the Kotel this morning. From my side of the mechitza (dividing wall between the men and women at the Western Wall), I witnessed firsthand how easy it is to foment anger and create a riot, and how difficult it is to stop one.
Since it is the first day of the Hebrew month of Adar, the Woman of the Wall and their supporters congregated at the entrance to the Women’s Section, far from the actual Wall. The women prayed and sung quietly and modestly.
Police guarded the women.
Rosh Chodesh Adar at the Kotel - why it made Judy Dvorak Gray cry
Mishanichnas Adar marbim b’simcha
by Judy Dvorak Gray
Hodesh Adar 5770 (Feb. 15, 2010)
I never cried before at the Kotel.
I know that the Kotel represents a long continuous link to our history and is the symbol of Jerusalem and Israel for Jews around the world. I would sometimes accompany family, friends or youth I worked with from abroad and would witness the effect on them when they first viewed the impressive, large stones sprinkled with henbane and caper plants growing between the cracks. I admit I was jealous watching their emotional reaction as they immediately connected to the site and carefully folded a personal note to place between the cracks.
MERCAZ Olami representative on the KKL-JNF Board of Directors, Dr. Orr Karassin, reports from the COP15 Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen
Click here to read Dr. Karassin's reports and other articles from the press.
New Olim to Kibbutz Hanaton
366 olim chadashim from North America arrived at 8am on a chartered El Al flight to Ben Gurion Airport. Among the arrivals were Shira and Boaz Gura and their three children, Ayala, Eitan and Avichai, who will be settling in Kibbutz Hannaton. They are part of the special "Go North" project of Nefesh B'nefesh, encouraging aliyah to the Galilee. Boaz is a returning Israeli --his family lives in Kiryat Ata.
A review of MERCAZ's work at the recent WZO, JAFI and KKL meetings in Jerusalem
We have just completed 10 busy days at meetings of the Zionist General Council (ZGC) of the World Zionist Organization (WZO), Keren Kayemet L’Yisrael (KKL), the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) Assembly and its Board of Governors. As members of MERCAZ Olami and Masorti Olami we gathered from Israel, North and South America and Europe. We spent time with one another reviewing what is happening in each country and planning for the future.
"View From Jerusalem" by Dr. David Breakstone
An Update on MERCAZ and Masorti Olami within the World Zionist Organization and Jewish Agency
MERCAZ-Canada Board Conference Call
From Left to Right
Rabbi Vernon Kurtz, President MERCAZ Olami
Tzvi Graetz, Executive Director MERCAZ Olami
Marion Mayman, President MERCAZ Canada
Norman Kurtz, Presdient Zionist Federation of Canada
