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Email this pageSaltz Center holds annual URJ Jerusalem study kallah
The Anita Saltz International Education Center held its fourth annual Union for Reform Judaism adult study kallah April 29 through May 9 at Mercaz Shimshon-Beit Shmuel, the World Union’s education and culture center/guest house in Jerusalem. The participants, all “committed lay leaders and active learners, according to Saltz Center director Rabbi Rich Kirschen, came to Israel from throughout the United States.
“As in years past, participants delved into issues regarding the relationship between the State of Israel, the Jewish People and Reform Judaism,” says Kirschen. “The program also worked with participants while they examined the many of aspects of culture, history and spirituality that make up the Jewish State. The itinerary presented a multitude of sacred sites and sacred texts along with fascinating Israeli experiences off the beaten path, while seminar participants wrestled with the issues of religion, sovereignty, ethics, power and powerlessness and more.”
Making up the seminar staff were, in addition to Kirschen, Saltz Center educator Paul Liptz ; Ariel Fogleman, who heads the tour guides course at the University of Haifa; Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion rabbinic student Josh Weinberg; Barak Raz, of the Israel defense Force’s spokesman’s unit; Jeremy Benstein, of the Heschel Center; Rabbi Meir Azari, spiritual leader of Beit Daniel, the Tel Aviv affiliate of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism; the IMPJ’s Lior Zalmanson; and Ezra Gardner of Omnium Capital Management.
“Once again, the seminar challenged and motivated American Reform Jews to connect and consider their relationship to Israel,” concludes Kirschen, “creating a deeper and more meaningful connection to share with their communities when they return home.”
For more information on the annual URJ Jerusalem study kallah, contact Rabbi Joan Glazer Farber at JFarber@urj.org.
Scenes from this year’s URJ Jerusalem study kallah. Top to bottom: Site visit to Jerusalem’s Russian Compound; learning about Jaffa’s mixed Jewish-Arab Ajami neighborhood (portrayed in the recent Academy Award-nominated film of the same name); hiking at Banyas in the Golan Heights.
