Executive Director's Report: Week of March 10

Last week was a particularly interesting week for me, with a major focus on WRJ’s Israel relations. First I had lunch with Menachem Leibovitz, Vice Chairman of the Jewish National Fund in Israel (KKL), whose bona fides include being married to one of the first women rabbis in Israel, Rabbi Maya Leibovitz of Kehilat Mevasseret Zion. I had the opportunity to join Menachem along with leaders of ARZA to discuss the importance of the upcoming WZO elections (January-March 2015), about which we will all be hearing a great deal in the coming months. Menachem rose to prominence in that important organization in large measure due to the influence garnered by the Reform/Progressive Movement after previous WZO elections. All of us who care about expanding and strengthening Progressive Judaism in Israel have a role to play, and it’s rather simple: when the time comes we will be asked to go online, register, and vote. It’s not too early to begin planning ways to educate our sisterhoods and women’s groups, our congregations, our friends, and our family members about Progressive Judaism in Israel. We should be laying the foundation now, so by the time elections open in 2015 we will be ready. If each of our 65,000 women votes, Progressive Judaism in Israel and around the world will be the big winner! The next day I had lunch with Shira Pruce, Communications Director of Women of the Wall (WOW). Of course, we discussed the ongoing struggle for women’s rights in Israel, progressive religious life in Israel, and other social justice issues. And I got the latest scoop on WOW’s struggle to pray at the Kotel with all the rights that men have to worship according to their tradition. I was so proud when Shira told me that the new Women of the Wall siddur edited for the Rosh Hodesh service they hold monthly at the Western Wall, which WRJ funded, are the ‘threads that tie all of their efforts together.’ Before visitors join them for Rosh Hodesh at the Kotel, WOW members distribute the siddurim, so the participating women from all over the world have that common thread to link them together during their worship experience. In between these meetings, I’ve was on the phone and email all week with ARZA Travel; Resa Davids, the power behind WRJ-Israel; and Anna Kislansky, the WRJ-Israel staff liaison from the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism (IMPJ). Resa and Anna are helping to plan our upcoming visit in April, during which WRJ President Blair C. Marks, WRJ Immediate Past President Lynn Magid Lazar and I will visit WRJ-Israel affiliates in Tel Aviv, Caesarea, Rosh Pina (our newest affiliate!), and Haifa. We will also join WRJ-Israel members for their annual meeting, where we will connect with women from each of our 30-some affiliates in Israel. In addition, we’ll have opportunities to meet with WRJ grantees working on the IMPJ Bat Mitzvah initiative, observe Yom HaShoah with students at Leo Baeck, and so much more. I suspect we may also find time to support the Israeli economy. And all of that is in the four days before we join the URJ Board Mission for a week of high-level meetings with government officials and other Reform Movement leaders. A highlight of that mission will be the opportunity to worship once again with Women of the Wall on Rosh Hodesh Iyar. Stay tuned for blogs during our travels! With all that going on, it’s a challenge to focus on other tasks, like preparing WRJ’s budget for the next year, meetings with our auditors and investment brokers, planning for an upcoming WRJ webinar and board meeting… and settling in to our new WRJ offices on the 7^th floor of the URJ headquarters. What a week it was!