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Ruach Hiddush רבנים וחזנים למען חופש דת ושוויון Rabbis and Cantors for Religious Freedom and Equality in Israel

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Ruach Hiddush רבנים וחזנים למען חופש דת ושוויון Rabbis and Cantors for Religious Freedom and Equality in Israel of the Jewish people כלי קודש The 1/30/2018 Like 0 Share Tweet Share Click to view this email in a browser רוּ ַח ִחדּוּשׁ - Ruach Hiddush רבנים וחזנים למען חופש דת ושוויון Rabbis and Cantors for Religious Freedom and Equality in Israel Newsletter Archives Become a Member Act Now Contact Us 19 ִכּ ְס ֵלו Introduction December 7, 2017 - 5778 We hope you enjoy the new name of RRFEI: Why We Will Win: a Response to Shmuel . ַרוּח ִחדּוּשׁ - Ruach Hiddush We were founded 3 years Rosner ago as a group of rabbis who support the work of By Mark H. Levin Hiddush for a pluralistic Reform Judaism is not primarily a movement. Israel. The new name better reflects our Reform Judaism is an approach, a means of viewing founding purpose. Also, Jewish law, history and practice, consistent with the we now include cantors. intellectual demands of modernity. It's not just rabbis Shmuel Rosner published an article stating that the כלי קודש anymore, but the of the Jewish people. number of Reform Jews in Israel is less than one We hope you enjoy this percent. He defines Reform Judaism exclusively as edition. Or more honestly, members of an Israeli movement, and those who are I hope so, because I have willing to identify themselves as members. He is taken the perhaps wrong. egotistical step of including an article I You’ll find Rosner’s article here, at Rosner’s wrote in response to a Domain. much debated assertion by Shmuel Rosner that Reform and Conservative Judaism are, in fact, Reform and Conservative movements in Diaspora communities that some will Jews are less than 1% of consider a theology because they or their devotees the population of Israel, I http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/577764/cf79b2aa90/1468738988/325ceb4427/ 1/4 of the Jewish people כלי קודש The 1/30/2018 hope the thoughts are express a series of theological perspectives which helpful in your own reflect various thinkers and theological stances. thinking, and would love Followers of philosophers as diverse as Martin to hear from you at: [email protected]. The Buber, Emil Fackenheim, Mordecai Kaplan and link to Rosner's comments Abraham Joshua Heschel, among others, may all will be found in my find themselves in the same “movement.” article. READ MORE >>> Two other articles address the crises in Jewish life: notice that Yeshiva World took special note of Hiddush Survey: Most Israelis Prefer Hiddush's survey Railways Maintenance Work On Shabbos regarding the percentage of Israelis who support Yeshiva World News work on shabbat to maintain Israel's trains. Hiddush survey following the crisis over railway Increasingly Hiddush's repairs on Shabbat in Israel: surveys are being used by interested parties and Hiddush survey following the crisis over railway Israeli decision makers to repairs on Shabbat in Israel: understand the trends of 71% of Jewish Israelis favor allowing railway thought on important issues of Religion and maintenance work Shabbat. Only 23% oppose it. State. What is the role of A great majority of voters for the non-chareidi Jewish law in Israeli life, Government Coalition parties are in favor. Hiddush and what kind of Jewish State is Israel to be? In CEO Rabbi Uri Regev: Israel's 70th year, clearly “The public believes in the principle of ‘live and let these issues are as hotly live,’ and it wants to support freedom of religion and debated as ever. freedom from religion in Israel” Finally, Israel's Prime Minister seems to have Seventy-one percent of the adult Jewish public in decided that most of us Israel supports the position that a limited amount of and our congregants no Shabbos maintenance should be allowed for safety longer matter, nor are our issues to be respected. purposes on Israel’s railways in order to prevent Most often we hear that serious damage to the train service on weekdays. Israel has decided that we This position is shared by 90% of secular Jewish will all assimilate in a Israelis and the majority of the non-chareidi generation or two anyway, Government Coalition parties, including 65% of and Israel will do just fine Likud voters and 64% of Bayit Yehudi voters. with the support of the Orthodox and Christian READ MORE >>> evangelicals. This article http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/577764/cf79b2aa90/1468738988/325ceb4427/ 2/4 of the Jewish people כלי קודש The 1/30/2018 explores this wholly unanticipated and bizarre turn in Jewish history: that Divorcing the Diaspora: How Netanyahu the first State of the Jewish people in two Is Finally Writing Off U.S. Jews millennia, the State By Judy Maltz, Haaretz dedicated to ingathering of the exiles no matter The Israeli government's decision to suspend the how tenuously connected Western Wall compromise is part of the growing historically or how far evidence, observers say, that something fundamental removed, should suddenly has changed in the relationship. turn its back on the vast majority of North Until not long ago, Jewish Agency Chairman Natan American Jewry. We Sharansky was the go-to guy for anyone seeking would love to hear more assurance that Israel did, indeed, value its from you: how are you reacting, and what are you relationship with American Jews. telling your people? 7Every time it seemed the "Western Wall deal” – and we that promise to provide Reform and Conservative ,איחולים לחנוכה certainly look forward to Jews with an egalitarian place of their own for hearing your musings on prayer at the Jewish holy site – was off, Sharansky the directions of the Jewish people, could be counted on to argue otherwise. I know Prime Minister Benjamin well, he would tell the Mark skeptics, and no other Israeli leader understands, as Rabbi Mark H. Levin he does, the strategic importance of the American Ruach Hiddush Editor Jewish community for Israel. The former Soviet dissident is singing a different Contact us tune nowadays. That became profoundly evident Email: during a special Knesset session held last week on [email protected] the Western Wall controversy, attended by a Phone (US): 415-261- delegation of world Jewish leaders. 3404 Phone (Israel): 054-779- Noting that the Israeli government had shown no 1179 inclination whatsoever to mend the growing rift with American Jewry since the deal was officially suspended more than four months ago, Sharansky warned the participants: “It is inevitable that the crisis will continue.” Coming from the last of the true believers, his words reverberated loudly. READ MORE >>> http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/577764/cf79b2aa90/1468738988/325ceb4427/ 3/4 of the Jewish people כלי קודש The 1/30/2018 ַרוּ"ח ִ ּחדוּ"שׁ היא ארגון של רבנים וחזנים הפועל למימוש מלא של הבטחת מגילת הצעמאות לחופש דת ושוויון. מימוש הבטחה זו חיוני לחיזוק זהותה של מדינת ישראל כמדינה יהודית ודמוקרטית ולהמשך השותפות עם העם היוהדי לתפוצותיו. Ruach Hiddush is a network of Rabbis and Cantors working to fully realize the promise of Israel's Declaration of Independence, which guarantees religious freedom and equality. The fulfillment of this promise is vital for strengthening Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, and for maintaining the solidarity of world Jewry. מיזם ש ל ִחדּוּ"שׁ a project of Hiddush Click to view this email in a browser If you no longer wish to receive these emails, please reply to this message with "Unsubscribe" in the subject line or simply click on the following link: Unsubscribe Freedom of Religion for Israel 182 East 95th St., Suite 24G New York, New York 10128 US Read the VerticalResponse marketing policy. http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/577764/cf79b2aa90/1468738988/325ceb4427/ 4/4.
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