Burg, Tamir and Regev Talk to Delegates About Israel Crisis

• Address by Speaker of the Knesset Avram Burg
• Address by Professor Yuli Tamir

Israel was much on the mind of UAHC delegates Thursday as they heard from Speaker of the Knesset Avram Burg, Professor Yuli Tamir, director of the Rabin Center, and Rabbi Uri Regev.

Burg was scheduled to meet with delegates in person, but stayed in Israel because of the crisis and spoke to the delegates by videoconference. "My heart is with you," Burg said. "I'm a very good friend of yours. We may be on other sides of the ocean, but we're all on the Jewish planet."

Asked about the current crisis, Burg brought a laugh when he said that Israelis are "like an egg. The more you boil us, the harder we become."

Regev, who is well known to Reform Jews for his work with the Israeli Religious Action Center, made his first formal appearance as the newly appointed executive director of the World Union of Progressive Judaism.

He admitted that the events of the past year have given everyone a tremendous sense of confusion. Those in the peace camp realize that there will not be a "60's kind of peace," while the right wing now knows there is no military solution.

Tamir, who served in the cabinet of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and as chairperson of the Israeli Association of Civil Rights, also seemed disheartened. "I don't know if peace can be achieved right now," Tamir said.

And, at the close of the day, Rabbi David Ellenson, President of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, spoke, having just returned from Israel where he went to be with the students in Jerusalem.

"We are training a generation of rabbis, cantors, and educators who are steeled by adversity and will be the strongest our people have ever produced."

Also Thursday:

• The Eisendrath Award for Contributions to Reform Jewry was presented to composer Ben Steinberg. Students from HUC-JIR School of Sacred Music performed Steinberg's music.
• Teachers from Whitwell Middle School in Tennessee received the JCS Alfred E. and Genevieve Weil Medallion Award for inspiring the "paperclip" project.
• Rabbi Alexander Schindler was remembered in a moving tribute, capped by a musical tribute from Peter Yarrow.