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JOSHUA SCHUSTER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Paris

G

ermany has one
Conservative rabbi, a deter-
mined woman named Bea
Wyler. She covers three
cities 150 miles apart, serving nearly
500 congregants. She works full time
but receives a part-time salary; she has
no secretary, no
teaching staff and no
car.
For five years,
she's asked for sup-
port from the New
York-based World
Council of
Conservative-Masorti
Synagogues, whose
member organiza-
tions and congregations promote the
movement's growth.
But no aid has come.
"In Germany, we get the feeling
that we are very left out," she said.
Now the Conservative movement
wants that to change.
Over the weekend, its World
Council met in Paris — the first time
it has ever held a conference in conti-
nental Europe — to discuss ways to
help rabbis like Wyler.
Acknowledging that it has largely
ignored the opportunity to expand the
Conservative movement in Europe,
the council vowed to make itself a
major presence in the burgeoning
communities scattered across the con-
tinent.
"Conservative Judaism didn't ini-
tially see itself as a global movement,"
said Rabbi Alan Silverstein, the World
Council's president. "Today it does."
Approximately 200 Conservative
Jews from such countries as France,
Germany, Sweden, Hungary, the
Czech Republic, England, Ukraine
and Russia convened to voice prob-
lems and brainstorm for solutions.
Many said that it was the first
opportunity they have had to address
the Conservative leadership about the
issues facing their communities.

in Prague: "There is enormous oppor-
tunity to build community in Europe.
We need someone to make a commit-
ment.
But the current problems facing the
Conservative movement are many and
large:
• The Czech Republic has no rabbi
who is willing to stay longer than a
few weeks.
• In Russia and Ukraine, there are
sizeable Jewish com-
munities where not a
single Jewish activity
takes place.
• In England, the
Conservative move-
ment might have
more of a chance to
grow if it did more
marketing instead of
being constantly
, drowned out by the aggressive publici-
ty efforts of the Reform and Chabad
movements, said a rabbi from
London.
• Sweden has a problem of consis-
tency:. On some days, a dozen people
show up for Jewish activities organized
by the Conservative movement; on
others, no one attends.
• In Hungary, there is a liberal
stream of Judaism called Neolog —
yet the synagogues do not have the
money to offer Shabbat dinner to
young people who seem interested in
their heritage, said Vilmos Frank, 25,
of Budapest.
Despite the Many difficulties that
were discussed at the conference, sev-
eral people spoke of achievements and
tremendous promise for their commu-
nities.
Gyori took out a newspaper ad
announcing High Holidays services
last year, the first time such a thing
has been done in Prague since the
Holocaust. He expected 100 people to
show up., Some 700 arrived.
In France, the Conservative corn-
munity opened its first synagogue last
year.
Rabbi RivonKrygier — a young, -
energetic, native French-speaker who
was trained in Jerusalem and is the
only Conservative rabbi in France —
presides over the congregation of
approximately 400 active families.
"There is a great need for more
Conservative Judaism here, but it suf-
fers from not enough awareness," said

Conservative
Judaism
begins to think
globally.

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Although many spoke of feeling
ignored, the consensus seemed best
expressed by a statement from Peter
Gyori, program director of Bejt Praha

