SHORT TAKES: NEWS FROM WORLD UNION FOR

GERMAN CHANCELLOR MEETS WITH WORLD UNION’S REFORM JEWISH LEADERS

Newly elected German chancellor Angela Merkel recently received leaders of the World Union and the country's Progressive movement in her Berlin office, where she expressed hope that Jewish life, with its various traditions and streams, would continue to flourish in Germany.  Present at the April 4 meeting were the World Union's chairman, Steven M. Bauman, and its President, Rabbi Uri Regev; Rabbi Walter Homolka, Executive Director of Abraham Geiger College, Germany's first post-war Progressive rabbinic training institute; and Katarina Seidler, vice president of Germany's Union for Progressive Judaism (UPJ). Yet the significance of the meeting lay just as much in the presence of Stephan J. Kramer, Secretary-General of the Council of Jews in Germany, also known as the Zentralrat. Just a short time ago, the Zentralrat had refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of Progressive Judaism.  As it is the body entrusted with disbursing government funding for the country's Jewish institutions, this refusal severely hampered the re-emergence of Reform Judaism in the land of its birth. Yet all this changed following persistent and strategic international efforts by the World Union and by Progressive leaders inside Germany, which recently paved the way for recognition and reconciliation. “Perhaps nothing better represents this than the dramatic shift of attitudes toward Abraham Geiger College," says the World Union's Regev.  "On September 13 and 14, 2006, the seminary will ordain the first rabbis on German soil since 1942. The Zentralrat has now turned around to proudly partner in sponsoring this program [and] participate in its funding, welcoming the ordainees to serve in Zentralrat communities.” http://wupjnews.org  - Issue #208

PESACH PROJECT IN FSU REACHES RECORD NUMBERS

For the third consecutive year, many Reform American Jews were among the rabbinic, cantorial and education students who traveled in April from Jerusalem to the former Soviet Union (FSU) to lead Passover seders there. A wide variety of holiday-related activities were also conducted in the growing Reform communities operated by the World Union for Progressive Judaism. Six months of preparation were undertaken by the entire World Union staff in Israel and the FSU, the dedicated staff from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and the 53 students and spouses who went. The most successful Pesach Project to date included nearly 7,500 people in 43 Progressive communities Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Latvia, who participated in seders, services and celebrations during this Jewish festival of freedom. The occasion brought young and old closer to their Jewish roots, strengthened their Jewish identity and gave new meaning to the concept of international Jewish unity. A full and fascinating report from the World Union’s FSU Director, Alex Kagan, as well as a blog by one of the participants can be read online at the World Union’s website: www.wupj.org

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