Netzer presented with sifrei Torah
Netzer has received two Torah scrolls through a program organised by the World Union for Progressive Judaism.
NETZER, the Zionist youth organisation of Australia’s Progressive Jewish community, has received two Torah scrolls through a program organised by the World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ) to help it conduct its Shabbat services in Melbourne and Sydney.
The sifrei Torah were presented to Netzer under a WUPJ Torah Exchange program in which established Reform/Progressive synagogues, mainly in the US, with multiple scrolls, donate some to parts of the WUPJ community where there is a shortage.
The scrolls were formally presented to Netzer Australia at a Shabbat service during the WUPJ conference in Jerusalem last month, led by WUPJ president Rabbi Sergio Bergman and Rabbi Stacey Blank, its director of education and leadership development.
Temple Beth-El – a Reform synagogue in South Bend, Indiana, at which Australian-born Rabbi Karen Companez is rabbi – organised the two scrolls for Australia. The sister of Australian-born Rabbi Danny Schiff, she and her brother were key founders of Netzer in the 1970s.
The scroll for Netzer Melbourne was brought to Australia by Rabbi Allison Conyer, chair of the Assembly of Rabbis and Cantors of Australia, New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific region, while Netzer Sydney’s scroll was brought back by Avishai Conyer, federal mazkir of Netzer.
Avishai told The AJN, “Netzer is deeply excited and grateful to have received two sifrei Torah for our community. The WUPJ Torah Exchange offers such a meaningful opportunity to foster connections between Jewish communities globally and empower their growth. We extend our heartfelt appreciation to Rabbi Companez and the Temple Beth-El community for their extraordinary generosity.”
Outgoing Progressive Judaism Victoria (PJV) president Philip Bliss told his AGM on Sunday that the donation of the scrolls and Rabbi Companez’s role was “a completion of a circle” of Australian involvement in the WUPJ.
The meeting heard that a new Netzer shlichah will soon take up her duties in Melbourne.
At the AGM, Bliss, completing two four-year terms, handed the reins to new president Maureen Barten, formerly PJV’s vice-president. US-born Barten, a long-time former president of Etz Chayim Synagogue, said her 12 years of communal involvement continues the legacy of her grandparents who fled Russia for Brooklyn early last century. “It’s a feeling of purpose … a continuum … If our children are to have choices in Judaism, it will depend on our engagement.”
She pledged to continue PJV’s role as “a voice to government and to non-government organisations, and to the Jewish community”, including close ties to the Jewish Community Council of Victoria and Zionism Victoria.
comments