On Being Honored by Masorti Olami Gerald C. Skolnik

I am delighted to be one of the honorees at this year’s dinner in New York on behalf of Masorti Olami. In advance of that evening, I wanted to share a personal thought with you germane to the critical work of Masorti Olami.

It is, I think, human nature to see one’s own surroundings and set of circumstances as “the way things are” in the world. We all function within what the ancient might have referred to as our own “dalet amot,” our own four cubits of space, that define our existence, and largely dictate the how and why of our lives.

If the two years of my presidency of the taught me an enduring lesson, then surely it is in the spirit of sixteenth-century English poet John Donne’s famous phrase: “No man is an island entirely of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main… And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”

Here in America, but most particularly in New York, we tend to have an extraordinarily narrow view of the Jewish world in general, and of our Conservative/Masorti movement in particular. With so many of all ideological stripes all around us, we too often default into believing that we are what there is as our brand of goes. But this is so untrue…

I was privileged, during my presidency, to spend significant time with the Masorti communities in London and , and was thrilled to see and learn of the vitality of those communities, manifest in so many ways. Wonderful rabbinic leadership, energetic lay communities, seemingly limitless opportunities for growth… these experiences brought me face to face with the utter provincialism of my world view, and of my appreciation of our movement as it finds expression around the world.

But I only saw the tip of the iceberg; there are thriving communities in Chile and Brazil, in Germany, France and Spain, in the former Soviet Union, in still other European countries, and of course in Israel. Masorti Olami has communities in more than 41 countries around the world. Never has the European Jewish community needed greater support and encouragement than now, when anti-Semitism has once again reared its ugly head in the wake of Israel’s recent war in Gaza. And, of course, the struggle for religious pluralism in Israel goes on with the courageous and steadfast work of our brothers and sisters in the Masorti movement there…

As I said, I am honored to be a part of this great effort on behalf of Masorti Olami. The work is great and the day is short, but we already have so much to be proud of. We must learn to see our Jewish world through a broader lens, and to appreciate that we here in North America are not an island unto ourselves. We share the same destiny, regardless of where on the globe we find ourselves. Now is the time to embrace that reality, and support it!