MERCAZ Olami News and Updates
Masorti Olami and MERCAZ Olami delegation to the 36th Zionist Congress
Our delegation to the 36th Zionist Congress included more than 140 people, included 74 delegates plus alternates and observers from 18 different countries– Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Israel, Mexico, Russia, Spain, Sweden, UK, Ukraine, Uruguay & USA. The delegation included 20 young delegates from around the world, including those involved with NOAM, MAROM and other Masorti youth organizations.
MERCAZ Canada Newsletter - April 2010
In the Spring edition of the MERCAZ Canada newsletter, you can find a range of stories about Herzl, his 150th birthday, the 36th World Zionist Congress and other relevant issues to Canadian Masorti/Conservative zionists. Read the whole newsletter below, or download it in pdf version at the bottom of the page.
New Educational Programs for Yom HaAtzmaut:MERCAZ USA's Spring 2010 newsletter
Click the image to read the MERCAZ USA Spring 2010 newsletter.
Praying With Our Feet - an article by Rabbi Andrew Sacks in CJ: Voices of Conservative/Masorti Judaism magazine
(Pictured: Rabbi Andrew Sacks)
In 1965 Professor Abraham Joshua Heschel, the great Jewish thinker, went to Selma, Alabama, to march with Martin Luther King Jr. in the struggle for civil rights. Someone marching alongside him questioned why such an eminent scholar would come to Selma instead of remaining in his ivory tower in New York. Heschel’s reply was profound: “When I march in Selma, my feet are praying.”
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.
