Introduction

Dear Fellow Reconnectnik:

Here it is – the second issue of Israel Broadcast!

Col. Miri Eisen, who has retired from the Tzahal and now is spokesperson for the prime minister's office, was the keynote speaker at our second Kesher L'Yisrael conference. Miri, who is a member of one of our Masorti congregations, is a unique person with a unique message. Everyone who heard her speak was awed. Here, she writes about last summer's war with Lebanon.

Rabbi Jim Lebeau, one-time past USY international president and now director of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism's Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center in Jerusalem, writes to us about activities offered at Fuchsberg. Moshe Cohen, the president of Masorti Israel, brings us a message from our fellow Conservative Jews in Israel. We round out the issue with profiles of two more Conservative Jews who have opted to join us here in Israel as new olim.

We want to hear from you. What would you like to see in future issues of Israel Broadcast? And if you are contemplating a visit to Israel, then please let me know. My wife, Nina, and I would love to invite you to our home for some good talk and refreshment. We also would love to welcome you to the Fuchsberg Center, where a dynamic program awaits you.

Talking Tachlis About The War

The fall is just starting to show its face in Israel; the nights are cooler and the air is clearer. The contrast to the very hot July and August that we lived through this summer is clear. This summer Israel was at war. It was the first war we all saw as it happened. Because of the new world of communications we live in, everything — pictures, sounds, cell phone photos, blogs, rumors –- everything was all around us, 24/7.

I assisted in the war effort by working with the media. I saw the war in an alternative universe; I had an entirely different experience from my colleagues, friends and family who participated in the war's Israeli version. I saw the international edition, which focused on entirely different things that what we saw and heard in Israel.

There is no question that overseas you saw a different war. The issues and the context were defined by the world's agenda. Here in Israel we saw the Israeli war: The personal stories of Israel's citizens, our soldiers and their families. We saw the public criticism, Israeli style — loud, immediate, uncensored, and at times irresponsible.

We are all thinking what this war meant for each and every one of us, what it means about the state of Israel, stability in the Middle East, and the threat of similar wars in the future. We do not yet have clear answers but I would like to share these thoughts: Israel is as strong as always. Do not be mislead by the public debate; it is an integral part of Israeli society to be overcritical. (Every Israeli knows that he or she would have handled things differently and better). We know that the threats that will face us in the future are similar to those we know already — terror hiding within and behind innocent civilians. And last but not least, all Israelis are all in this together. We hosted each other, we helped out in big ways and in smaller ones. That strength will continue to be the backbone of Israeli culture and life.

Shana tova — A happy and peaceful year.

Activities Abound At Fuchsberg

The United Synagogue Fuchsberg Jerusalem Center is proud to announce that activities for the fall season have started, and that participation in our yearly programming is growing again.

This year's Nativ group has nearly 90 participants. That's a new record. Nativ is the pre-college leadership program. For the first half of the year, Nativ-ers study either at Hebrew University or at our Conservative Yeshiva. For the second year, they do community service for Israel either at a kibbutz or at a development town, working with new immigrants.

Adults continue to enroll at the Conservative Yeshiva. It is inspiring to see their dedication, as they give a year of their lives to learn how to study Jewish texts. Our collegians also have arrived at various Israeli universities and the Center's campus programs have welcomed them and confirmed our readiness to serve them. Oded, the Center's continuing education program, has concluded special studies in preparation for the High Holy Day season. After Sukkot, when its semester begins, it will offer nearly 15 classes.

Since the beginning of 2006, the Center's Gemilut Hesed Project has placed volunteers who have come to Israel to help. It also has given out toys, clothing, school supplies, dental supplies, and more to needy people in Jerusalem. When the war began, we collected many necessities and sent them to soldiers, kids, and families in shelters. We also offered housing to northern families; many stayed at our guesthouse.

Crisis in Israel: Conservative Movement Responds and Rebuilds

Moshe Cohen is chair of the Masorti movement in Israel. He wrote this letter in July, while the war with Lebanon was raging.

A few days before the war against the Hezbullah started, I made a short business trip to Turkey. On Wednesday, July 12, when I was still there, all hell seemed to break loose.

Israeli soldiers were ambushed and kidnapped, a tank that was sent to help hit a landmine and several of the soldiers in the tank were killed, and since then the skies in the North have been filled with noise and smoke. I returned to a country that had changed overnight.

What has happened to the congregations in the north? Kfar Veredim, a town right next to Maalot, is close to the constant fire. The congregations in Karmiel, Zafed, Ramat Yshai, Kiryat Bialik, and Haifa also have been affected by Hezbullah's rockets. The very difficult reality we are living with was beyond our wildest dreams.

It's ironic that just before the war there had been a few articles in the Israeli press about the "Israeliness" of the Masorti movement here in Israel. Even at the very start of the war, we knew that one of the kidnapped soldiers and two of the soldiers who died were from families who either were members of the movement or were connected to us in some other way.

So how did we respond?

A day or two after the outbreak of the hostilities, the movement opened up an emergency center in our Jerusalem office. It's in constant contact with the representatives of our kehillot in the communities under fire, in order to assist with any needs that can be fulfilled. The center approached Congregations in safer areas to find families that could host people who wanted to leave their homes but had no relatives or friends who could assist them. The center also found children from the north and added them to the rosters of the Ramah-Noam summer camps in safe areas. This was made possible with funds that came through David Breakstone of the WZO. Our congregations also have given financial assistance to needy congregations, and many families opened their homes. We're collected activity kits for children in the shelters. Last Shabbat, a bar mitzvah was held in a shelter. These very unfortunate circumstances have created a strong bond among the movement's congregations, with the movement's central institutions in Jerusalem, and with the Conservative movement around the world. This bond will continue when better times return.

The Jewish community in North America was and continues to be a constant partner in our activities in Israel. Many American immigrants were among the pioneers who created many Conservative congregations here in Israel. The continued financial assistance that we receive for establishing new congregations and supporting our existing communities is testament to the dedication of the people of the Conservative movement in North America toward us.

Last week, a solidarity delegation of rabbis from the Conservative movement in North America came to Israel for three days. This is even more proof of how strong the bond between North American congregations and us really is. We truly appreciated this act on their part; we also appreciate their financial contributions. When they visited communities, they also experienced the air raid sirens and heard missiles falling. I am truly relieved that nothing happened to them while they were here, but I am convinced that this visit also helped them to deepen their understanding of this difficult time. They are excellent emissaries of the Conservative movement while they are here ,and of the whole state when they return home.

I hope that the war will not last too long. Every day there are more casualties that will leave scars on many families and on all of us. When the battle subsides the rehabilitation will begin. I believe that each of our congregations' inner strength will be felt, and on the local level each will help in repairing institutions in both concrete and spiritual ways. Our movement's national office will look for ways to help our Israeli society in any way we can.

What do we ask of our brothers and sisters around the world?

First, we need your spiritual and moral support during this tense time, and second we want to ask you to maintain an intense awareness of the need to continue to financially support the Conservative movement in Israel. We are still a young but growing movement and have had many crises along the way, but God willing we seem to be emerging from our crises and have been able to intensify our ties within the movement and with the movement in North America. With your help the movement here will continue to thrive, helping us to strengthen our position in creating a living pluralistic Jewish institutions in Israel dedicated to the Jewish principals of tolerance, charity and attachment to Israel.

We all pray for the security of our soldiers on the front, wish well being and quick recovery for the injured, and send our most sincere condolences to those who have lost their loved ones, who gave their lives to defend eretz v'am Israel.

An American Follows Her Dreams

Elana Silver made aliya with Nefesh B'Nefesh on July 13,2005. Her husband, Keith Marburg, and their daughter, Sarah, accompanied her.

Elana was a student at the Solomon Schechter-affiliated Reuben Gittleman in Rockland County, New York. She belonged first to the JCC in Hillcrest, New York, and later to the Nanuet Hebrew Center in Rockland County.

Before she made aliya, she had been in Israel twice. On one of those trips she did volunteer work with Sar-El; the other trip, as a tourist, was to "find herself," she said. She first met Keith in Jerusalem on one of those trips.

Elana, who earned a masters degree in public administration from Baruch College, married Keith in September 2002. Sarah was born a year later; by the time their daughter was two years old, Elana and Keith decided not to wait any longer to move to Israel. The longer they waited, they reasoned, the harder the transition to Israeli life would be. They worked with a shlicha, and with Nefesh.

Elana began to study in an ulpan as soon as she arrived in Israel, but then was offered a job almost immediately. She plans to return to the ulpan eventually. Her Hebrew-language skills, she says, were fair before she made aliyah and are good now.

Elana, who writes grants, works for Shatil, a nonprofit project of the New Israel Fund. Keith works for IDT—for the AOL Project. Sarah is in daycare.

Elana and Keith chose to live in Jerusalem because they met there, because they feel a deep connection to the city, and because they are city people.

They felt more settled into their new lives as Israelis once the belongs they shipped overseas to their new home finally arrived – about three months after they did.

They basically feel at home in the city, although they are not yet fully settled in. When they made aliyah they had two close friends in Jerusalem, but now they have many more. They have not yet made connections with United Synagogue or the Masorti movement, but they plan to do so as soon as they have some free time.

These are Elana's dreams, expectations, hopes and prayers:

A Canadian Hopes To Be Israeli Ambassador

Shira Yael Kogut made Aliya officially on July 1, 2003 (Canada Day).

Born in Montreal, she had visited Israel 6 times before making the trip leading up to Aliya: those earlier visits included coming for her Bat Mitzvah, on birthright-israel, and working at SAR-EL (Volunteers for Israel).

In Montreal, she studied at a Jewish Day School, was a member of USY and president of her chapter and a member of the regional council of the Eastern Canadian Region of USY through Shaare Zion synagogue. She worked as Kadimah advisor at Shaare Zedek synagogue in Montreal.

After her first visit, she told her mother "I'm coming back here and you can't stop me!!") and her parents have been supportive throughout her planning. When Benjamin Netanyahu faced riots at Concordia University (in Montreal), she felt that the police force there "just didn't care and I no longer wanted to live in a country where the police force did not belong to me, where I was not the majority and therefore not a major concern to those in government."

She met her husband-to-be, Maayan Raiffen, when she was on Sar-El and he was a soldier.

She did not come on the special Nefesh B'Nefesh flight but, none the less, she came with NBN and worked with Shlicha, Anat Uzzan.

She worked on an MA in Middle Eastern Studies at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheba and lived there when she came Aliya. She has completed her MA and last year moved to Haifa. She is working at Oranim Academic College of Education in Tivon at the Department for Jewish Peoplehood that is a part of the Shdemot Center for Community Leadership. Her MA thesis was about minority languages. It featured a comparison of the status of Arabic in Israel and the status of English in the province of Quebec in terms of education, law and daily life.

She and Maayan were married on July 4, 2005. Living in Beersheba was not a good experience because of the neighborhood she lived in but she admits to having developed a "thicker skin" and ultimately moved to a safer neighborhood in Haifa.

Following his years in the Army, Maayan is now studying, during the day, at Oranim Academic College majoring in Informal Educational Systems. He works as a security guard in a café at night.

Shira's Hebrew language background was strong based on her day school education but she wants to continue to work on improving the use of grammar.

They have just purchased a house in Yokneam and will move there in October 2006. A close friend of Shira's is the Rabbi of the Masorti congregation in Zichron ("he is wonderful" she reports) and they expect to become involved with that group.

As for dreams, expectations, hopes and prayers:

Project Reconnect is an initiative of the United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism that seeks to identify and attract alumni of USY, Nativ, Koach, the Conservative Yeshiva, Atid, and related programs to reconnect with other alumni and with United Synagogue.

http://www.projectreconnect.org/ - reconnect@projectreconnect.org