• Read Rabbi Eric Yoffie's Presidential Sermon
• Introduction
• Hineini: Embracing Our People, Embracing Our Future
• 10 Minutes of Torah
• Packing for College: Where Does Judaism Fit?
• Open Doors, Open Minds: Synagogues & Churches Studying Together

HINEINI: EMBRACING OUR PEOPLE, EMBRACING OUR FUTURE
(For more information, please visit the Hineini website.)

Our people are an extended family, and our family is under siege. We know that ultimately our extended Jewish family is only as strong as its shared religious heritage. Therefore, our primary task is to support synagogues and to promote religious life wherever Jews are found. We are therefore calling for a Movement-wide, grassroots movement to change the face of the Jewish world. The Union has adopted three projects, and we ask that each synagogue select one of the following:

Building Reform Synagogues in Israel

Help two young Reform congregations in Israel - one in Modiin and one in Mevasseret Zion - construct the structures they require. Subsisting on shoestring budgets with no government support, both have created thriving programs that appeal to young, native-born Israelis. Both are served by dynamic rabbis, heroes of modern Jewish life who have built their synagogues yesh me-ayin, literally out of nothing. But they can only do so much, and they cannot ask young families in an utterly devastated economy to provide the funds for desperately needed buildings.

Sponsoring Israeli Rabbinic Students

The thirty-five Israeli students now enrolled in HUC-JIR's rabbinical program in Jerusalem will lead a revolution in the Jewish state. While the presence of so many students is a blessing, it is also a challenge. We will therefore offer scholarships to students in their final two years of study, and we will support them for two years after ordination while they establish new Progressive synagogues.

Strengthening Progressive Judaism

In Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union there is a burgeoning Jewish consciousness but little infrastructure and few professional leaders. We propose to help those volunteers who want to create a congregation but do not know how by sending rabbis, cantors, and educators to teach Jewish and practical skills required for synagogue life.

These training sessions will provide basic leadership and synagogue skills; educational, ritual, and worship resources; and ongoing support to new and established leaders of Progressive communities that are emerging throughout the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Congregations are also asked to sponsor teenagers from Eastern Europe to attend a summer leadership session at URJ Kutz Camp, where they will gain the needed skills to build strong youth groups at home.

Becoming a Builder Congregation

Once a congregation's board chooses a project and accepts its commitment by way of a board resolution, it will ask members to donate at least $18 a year; funds are not to be paid from congregational budgets. In addition, the congregation is encouraged to commit to engaging in ongoing congregation-wide study about Reform Jewish communities around the world and to build a lasting relationship with the community it has chosen to support.

The Union will provide resources for each of these tasks, including necessary letters and forms, bulletin articles, lesson plans and study materials, as well as pen-pal and online chat programs, e-mail discussion groups, and online resources. Congregations will receive regular updates and communications to share with their members about their selected project.

For more information about Hineini, contact hineini@uahc.org, 212.650.4220 or visit the Hineini website.

10 MINUTES OF TORAH

Torah study is the motor that drives Jewish life. While some of us have committed ourselves to regular study, many others have not yet done so. But who among us is so busy that she cannot spend ten minutes a day in the study of a Jewish text? Such a commitment would enable us to meet our Jewish obligation to make Jewish study a fixed occurrence.

While 10 Minutes of Torah is available to every Reform Jew, it is intended especially for congregational board members and committee members whose effectiveness as leaders flows directly from their own knowledge of Torah.

Everyone who registers will receive study materials five mornings a week by e-mail beginning November 24th. Some will focus on traditional texts, others on contemporary issues. Each day of the week has a separate theme: Torah, Social Action, Israel Connections, Jewish Ethics, and the Jewish World.

Those who participate for two years will have completed approximately 100 hours of study and will be recognized at the 2005 Biennial in Houston.

To receive 10 Minutes of Torah, please go to www.urj.org/torah/ten or contact the Department of
Lifelong Jewish Learning at educate@uahc.org, 212.650.4110.

PACKING FOR COLLEGE: WHERE DOES JUDAISM FIT?

While virtually all of our religious school students celebrate a bar or bat mitzvah, more than a third of them disappear from synagogue life after the ceremony, and most of those who remain until confirmation are gone after tenth grade. The result is that too many of our sons and daughters get to college Jewishly lost: They are uncertain of their practice and beliefs and unable to defend their Jewish convictions. They must face the crisis that college represents without the Jewish armor that might have prepared them to meet that crisis.

Therefore, the Union has created Packing for College, a course for eleventh and twelfth graders and their parents consisting of nine sessions over a two-year period. The course covers practical matters, such as how to choose a college and, for graduating seniors, how to develop a personal Jewish action plan. It deals with questions about Judaism that teens are likely to be asked and suggests way to advocate for Israel. It also helps parents and their college-bound children create a new type of relationship based on shared personal and Jewish expectations.

Packing for College is an easy-to-implement curriculum that every congregation, regardless of its size, resources, staffing pattern, or geographic location, can implement. Learn more at www.urj.org/packingforcollege, or contact the URJ Youth Division at kesher@urj.org, 212.650.4070, for more information.

OPEN DOORS, OPEN MINDS:
SYNAGOGUES AND CHURCHES STUDYING TOGETHER

During the past two years most of us have been exposed to more anti-Semitic discourse than we have encountered in our entire lives. We find it today in right-wing nationalism and left-wing anti-globalism, in radical Islam and reactionary forms of Christianity. In the 1950s and 60s, Reform Judaism was at the forefront of interreligious dialogue in North America. But in recent decades, interfaith work has declined precipitously; in many communities, little survives beyond Thanksgiving services and model seders.

We can no longer afford relations that barely exist. The Union has joined with four Christian denominations in calling for dialogue and has prepared the Open Doors, Open Minds curriculum. Congregations are asked to join with a church in the community and commit to seven sessions at which adult learners will come together to learn about common aspects of our history and about critical distinctions; to engage in joint study of sacred texts; and to participate in a structured conversation concerning Israel and the Middle East conflict.

Open Doors, Open Minds makes extensive use of a new video series - Walking God's Path -produced by the Reform and Conservative Movements (through the National Council of Synagogues) and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. The videos may be purchased from the URJ Press at www.uahcpress.com, 888.489.8242.

* These files are in PDF file format, in order to download you must have Acrobat Reader.
To download Acrobat Reader for free, please click here.