KOL ARZA:
The ARZA Canada Newsletter
Issue 5768 #1
November 2007 Kislev 5768
ARZA Canada Summer 2007 Israel Study Trip.
This was another exciting, eventful and educational trip for the 14 participants.
We started off with a bus trip from Jerusalem to Nitzana, a moshav on the Egyptian border. We met with Ethiopian immigrants learning Hebrew and computer skills, visited the Nitzana solar park (demonstrating amazing applications of solar power and recycling technology), picked ripe cherry tomatoes and grapes (delicious when right off the vine!) at nearby settlements and stood at the border looking down into Egypt.
We were hosted by a local Progressive congregation for Kabbalat Shabbat, attended lectures by Rabbis and other teachers on the subject of our responsibility to the Other, were guests of the New Israel Fund's Shatil Project which seeks to address the rights of Israeli Arabs by promoting mixed cities, were the guests of the Supreme Court where we were privileged to attend a hearing being conducted by the President of the Court, and were introduced to the Amir Gissin, the new Israeli Consul General to Toronto, prior to his taking up his posting. This plus seemingly endless lunches and dinners with at least one speaker at each.
Exhausting? Well, it would have been except for the generous amounts of free time interspersed between all the organized activities, leaving time for sightseeing, shopping or soaking up the Israeli sun by the hotel pool.
Consider joining our Eastern Europe and Israel trip in June 2008. For more information call the phone number below.
Strengthening the Israeli Reform Movement
The Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism (IMPJ), our Israeli Reform counterparts, strengthens and grows the Reform Movement in Israel. In honour of ISRAEL@60, an exciting IMPJ project is being sponsored by ARZA Canada with the support of the Canadian Council for Reform Judaism and the World Union for Progressive Judaism.
The IMPJhas identified a specific project which will have a major impact on the Reform Movement in Israel, reach new audiences and provide new opportunities for Jewish life in Israel. One of the best ways to strengthen Jewish education and to engage nominally secular families in the world of Reform Judaism is through the establishment of preschools. So far, the IMPJ has established 45 preschools throughout the country and the influence these Reform preschools have had on their participants, their families and their communities has been tremendous. Congregation YOZMA in Modi'in is an excellent example of a vibrant, thriving synagogue community that began as a preschool program.
The success of these preschools has been so critical to the growth of Reform Judaism in Israel that the IMPJ would like the funds to establish three new preschools in areas of the country where there is no Reform Movement presence. ARZA Canada has decided to fund this project, with the help of an anonymous donor who will match all contributions dollar-for-dollar. Donations will be sought from congregations and other groups.
To make your donation, please call the phone number below. For more information on the IMPJ Nursery School project, click here.
Do we have the email address of each member of your family who is also a member of ARZA?
If not, we would like to add it to our database. Please call the telephone number below.
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