Shifting Right
Paul Flexner, who recently staffed a task force on improving congregational
schools for the Jewish Education Service of North America (JESNA), praised
Rabbi Yoffie for making this issue a priority. However, he said that improving
schools will require a local as well as a national commitment.
Rabbi Yoffie's speech "raises the level of importance and significance of this
agenda item on the local agendas," Flexner said. "By his making it the main
thrust of the movement, he's giving a push to the local institutions to say we bet-
ter do something."
Seeking Donors
Congregational schools have not yet attracted the kind of mega-philanthropic
support that other Jewish renaissance efforts, such as day schools, campus Hillels
and synagogue transformation efforts, have garnered in recent years.
But Rabbi Yoffie's push for congregational schools comes amid several national
efforts to strengthen Hebrew school education.
JESNA is sponsoring a 50-person "think tank" this week to look at "critical
success factors in congregational education," develop "new strategies for advanc-
ing congregational education and creating a more dynamic system," Flexner said.
The Conservative movement is also revamping its Hebrew school curriculum.
And the Experiment in Congregational Education, a synagogue transformation
initiative operated out of the Reform movement's Hebrew Union College-Jewish
Institute of Religion, is launching a pilot project early next year in San Francisco
and Kansas City aimed at improving congregational schools.
The experimental initiative is also working to help synagogues replicate the
success of several innovative congregational schools.
Among the models are family programs that meet on Shabbat; Kesher, an
after-school day care program in Cambridge, Mass. that incorporates Jewish
learning and camp-like activities; and several programs in which students can
choose from a choice of schedules.
Robert Weinberg, executive director of the initiative called Rabbi Yoffie's new
focus on congregational schools "terrific. The notion of putting more attention
into congregational education is vital," he said.
❑
workshops and classes.
together — in front of
5,000 people," Cantor
Dubov remembers.
Feeling That Solidarity
Members of the syna-
For Susan Kirschner, execu-
gogue Sisterhood and
tive director of Temple
Brotherhood attended
Emanu-El, this year's bien-
meetings geared toward
nial convention was her
their organizations. Tom
first. She also participated
Jablonski, Beth El's execu-
in the NATA conference.
tive director, attended the
There she discovered the
pre-convention National
association was celebrating
Cantor Dubov
Association of Temple
the 60th anniversary of its
Administrator (NATA)
founding in Detroit.
conference.
For Kirschner, a highlight
Cantor Dubov says the addition this of the week was holding a candle at
year of weekday evening prayer servic-
Boston's Copley Square at the Jewish
es at the convention shows "the
Community Relations Council and
Reform movement is becoming, in its
Combined Jewish Philanthropies soli-
own way, more observant and more
darity rally, held in support of Israel
conscious of its roots."
and in memory of those lost in terror-
Although Cantor Dubov attended
ist attacks in Jerusalem and Haifa the
daily sessions during the week of the
week before.
"It was an opportunity for all of us
convention, he plans to order tapes
to gather together to make a state-
from some of the 200 convention
Reform movement convention points to a
harder line with the Palestinians.
JULIE WIENER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Boston
IN
yrna Cohen has gone from being a supporter of the Oslo
peace process to someone who doesn't see "how you can nego-
tiate with people who don't value life." Cohen, a member of
Temple Emanu-El in San Jose, Calif, was one of almost 6,000
Reform Jews gathered at the Union of American Hebrew Congregations'
biennial in Boston last week.
"I'm more right wing than I was," Cohen said, adding a few minutes later,
"I feel more right and righteous."
Meeting in Boston in the days following two deadly terrorist attacks in
Israel plus a smaller suicide bombing just down the street from their move-
ment's seminary in Jerusalem, many Reform Jews were wary of the
Palestinians and uncertain about the prospects for peace.
Politics aside, most expressed concern for Israelis and sadness that the situa-
don seems so bleak right now.
"It's very painful," said Jerry Mann of Temple Beth El in Fresno, Calif.
Reform Jews tend to be among the most left wing of American Jews when
it comes to Israel. But now, after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United
States and more than a year of Palestinian uprising — including some of the
most deadly terrorist attacks Israel has ever experienced — Reform Jews, like
other Jews, are taking a harder line than they once did.
That shift has been evident in the rhetoric of Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the
UAHC's president. Rabbi Yoffie has long been an advocate for peace and has
been vocal in calling for a freeze on ISraeli settlements, even earlier this year,
when other U.S. Jewish leaders were hesitant to publicly criticize the Israeli
government.
SHIFTING RIGHT on page 26
ment of how much we care," she says.
Kirschner was excited by the
announcement that Temple Emanu-El
was the recipient of the
Communicate! award for a new pro-
gram instituted this year by Bruce
Gordon, the synagogue's president.
The program provides a free 10-year
Emanu-El membership for all reli-
gious high school graduates.
Dennis Frank, vice president of
Temple Beth El and national UAHC
board member, has been attending
UAHC biennial conventions with his
wife, Peggy, for more than 25 years.
They arrived at this year's event with
memories of another biennial in
Boston, when a 1981 snowstorm con-
fined convention goers to their hotels.
But this time, there was a new issue
to contend with. "Every time each
person entered the convention center,
he was required to pass through secu-
rity devices just like those at the air-
ports, (where) professional security
personnel used wands to detect any
objects that may cause the devices to
sound an alarm," says Dennis Frank.
He attended workshops on subjects
including temple dues policies, how to
attract young adults to the synagogue,
raising funds for youth programs, and
making the synagogue an inclusive
caring community for all.
The most memorable event of the
convention for Peggy Frank was the
Shabbat religious service.
"The convention center was trans-
formed from a meeting facility into a
giant sanctuary, complete with the
eternal light and the ark for the
Torahs," she says.
"The feeling I got as I prayed with
nearly 6,000 other Reform Jews is
indescribable. You cannot imagine
reciting the Shema (daily prayer of
Jewish identification), singing the
songs and chanting the Torah bless-
ings in such an atmosphere." 111
12/14
2001
25