power, in print, broadcast, and social media, is a country awash with ORDINATION “ and in hospital rooms and family moments. . What difference can one They provide leadership, solace, support, OF THE hundred more make? A great difference. and vision. They are part of a remarkable We find graduates of HUC-JIR’s Israeli movement of Jewish renewal currently Rabbinical Program at some of the most 100TH unfolding - alongside all the challenges and significant settings within Israeli society. conflicts - in contemporary Israel. From the GRADUATE OF They serve as leaders in informal and border with Lebanon to the shores of the Red formal education; as school principals THE ISRAELI Sea, in makeshift structures and impressive and directors of early childhood education edifices, this first one hundred is preparing RABBINICAL systems. They run large institutions, and the groundwork for the hundreds to follow bring congregations to life around Israel. PROGRAM in their illustrious footsteps. They have Their voices are heard in the corridors of established congregations and institutions,

ISRAELI RABBINICAL PROGRAM: In the Footsteps of “My classmates grew up secular, 11 Generations Orthodox, or religious Reform, are of different ages and from different places of Rabbis in Israel, but found their center in Reform ideology. I value the connection LEORA with the North American students EZRAHI-VERED ’17 worshipping and studying with us. It is very meaningful to form friendships with colleagues who will be leaders throughout Israel and around the world, so that our communities will one day EDUCATION: ■ Granddaughter of Rabbi , become friends too.” B.A. and M.A. from Tel Aviv University Executive Director of the Conservative Movement’s , who PIONEER: LEGACY: helped professionalize the American ■ Student rabbi at Beit Tefilah Israeli in ■ Daughter of first woman to be ordained rabbinate and paved the way for the Tel Aviv, the first liberal community to a rabbi in Israel, Rabbi ordination of women. organize Kabbalat Shabbat and build a ’92, Dean of the Taube Family Campus, communal sukkah at the port of Tel Aviv, ■ Close to her family’s large haredi HUC-JIR/. drawing over 50,000 Israelis. contingent. ■ Great-granddaughter of Rabbi Felix ■ Rabbinical intern at Tzur Hadassah. Levy ’37, President of the Central LEADER: ■ Rabbi of Nigun Halev in Kibbutz Gvat Conference of American Rabbis who ■ National Director of Noar Telem in Emek Israel. helped overturn the anti-Zionist (Israeli Reform youth organization). sentiments codified in the Pittsburgh ■ Headed Reform mechinah in Jaffa. Platform of 1885 with the passage of the “Being a congregational Columbus Platform of 1937. ■ Officer in Israel Defense Forces. rabbi in Israel is an amazing ■ Community service in youth village for platform to effect significant kids from Ethiopia and Russia. impact on our larger society.” /2 The Ordination Class of the 100th Graduate of the Israeli Rabbinical written articles and books, infused Program: (from left) Rabbis Yair Tobias ’17, Leora Ezrahi-Vered ’17, Rinat Safania-Shwartz ’17, and David Laor ’17 communities with meaning, and organized social campaigns. Seventy years after the creation of the State, these men and women are taking an active role in the creation of a new language of non-Orthodox Jewish commitment and creativity.”

Rabbi Michael Marmur, Ph.D., Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Provost

ACTIVIST: ■ Elected Councilwoman for her FIGHTING FOR ISRAEL’S FUTURE community of 8,000 residents. Rabbi Noa Sattath ’14, Director of ■ Created pluralistic public the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC) kindergarten, supported by Modern housed in the Rabbi Amy and Gary Perlin Orthodox residents, and helped Offices at our Taube Family Campus in them when they wanted to create their mikvah. “What we all do now Jerusalem, exemplifies the impact of will affect how our community will the 100 Israeli Reform rabbis ordained be when it grows to 20,000 residents in our Israeli Rabbinical Program. in a few years. We are partnering She is guiding IRAC’s mission to: with secular, Orthodox, Reform, and Modern Orthodox to build a / Fight religious extremism and gender pluralistic community.” segregation in the public domain VISION: Combat racism and advance a shared “Being a congregational rabbi is an / amazing platform to effect significant society between Jews and Arabs in Israel impact on individuals, a community, / Secure equal status for all streams of Judaism in Israel and the larger society. I want to change people’s opinions, have a / Battle anti-democratic legislation in Israel say on everything in Israeli society from the economy and the Israel- / Contest policies and discriminatory benefits that discourage the Arab relationship to recreating participation of the ultra-Orthodox community in the Israeli workforce Jewish traditions, widen pluralistic “My work at IRAC allows me to dedicate my life to bringing the values of our Movement circles, and dispel the ignorant notion into the political reality of Israel. As I work to build partnerships with Arab activists, Or- that there is only secular identity or thodox feminists, Ethiopian and Mizrachi Jews, and the LGBT community, I demonstrate Orthodoxy here. My family provided our profound commitment to fulfilling our mission. I believe that making our Movement me with a model of pluralism in and our values heard in the Israeli Supreme Court, in the Knesset, and in the streets, is action – that’s my vision for the world.” always a victory.”

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