jueves, 4 de febrero de 2010

Más ecos de la convención...

Nuevamente la Jewish Telegraphic Agency levantó en su sitio aquello que aconteció durante la 12va Convención de la UJCL en Panamá. Compartimos aquí algunas reflexiones reflejadas en la sección The Wandering Jew de esta prestigiosa página web.

Guest Post: Final Thoughts from Panama

Rabbi Joshua Kullock with some final observation about the UJCL convention, held last week in Panama.

"The UJCL convention is now over, but the images and sensations of these last days keep ringing in our heads. For the first time in history, the host congregation in Panama received seven different rabbis from abroad. On Friday night, all those rabbis sang together, and on Saturday morning they taught Torah from several different perspectives.

For the first time ever, the event was transmitted through Twitter and broadcast live for all those who didn't make it to Panama. This is a huge leap towards meeting the challenge of reaching all those Jews on the continent who don't have the means to participate in this kind of event. Maybe in the U.S. it's not so unusual to broadcast or Tweet an event, but down here, this was a real novelty.

At the convention, we were able to present the first book on the weekly Torah portion written in Spanish, in this region, and by the five rabbis working here. For those who don't know much about Central America, let me tell you that this is a very unusual endeavor. We used to live on translated stuff abroad, and for the first time in many, many years, we managed to write a native commentary on the Torah. We presented this book also in English for the English-speaking congregations.

Personally, organizing this event had a special flavor, since I had the honor of working with Rabbi Gustavo Kraselnik, the Panamanian community's rabbi and the man in charge of the local organizing committee, who 17 years ago prepared me for my bar mitzvah. Almost two decades later, we work together in strengthening Jewish life here, and even though it is a bit personal, I think I cannot go without mentioning this.

The numbers speak for themselves: 177 attendees from 15 countries, each bring his or her own color, voice, and insights. For us, it is a noteworthy figure that we will try to improve at our next convention, which will be held in Guadalajara, Mexico, in January 2012. If you want to be involved in forging this region's future, you are more than welcome to join us.

Finally, I want to thank Ben for enabling us to share what is happening in Central America. As I wrote in my first post, it is not easy to sustain Jewish life at the margins. But if we are clever enough to build bridges, to open ourselves to real encounters, we'll be able not only to maintain but also to continue strengthening a vivid and transcendent Judaism in each and every place we step a foot in."

lunes, 1 de febrero de 2010

Ecos de la Convención

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency, la agencia de noticias judías más importante del mundo (www.jta.org), dentro de su sección The Wandering Jew (el judío errante o viajero) dio seguimiento a nuestra Convención.

Aquí enviamos la última entrada publicada en dicho blog.

Guest Post: Yes, We Can!

Abundant optimism from Panama. Joshua Kullock (second from left in the picture, and findable on Twitter: @kullock) reports from the first full plenary day on Thursday. He's promised us some more color in his next post, but in the meantime, here's the rundown.

Yes, we can. And we did.

The 12th UJCL Convention started this morning [Jan. 29] with a series of plenary sessions and workshops aimed to address some tough questions and to offer some challenging ideas for developing healthy and vibrant Jewish institutions in Central America and abroad.

During the opening session, Dr. Fabian Triskier, associate director of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in Latin American and the Caribbean, delved into the social action programs that his institution developed in order to deal with the economic crisis in Argentina during 2001. He also gave a theoretical framework to understand why tzedakah (charity) must be a central pillar in our organizations. Social justice, said Triskier, is not only an act of profound love but also of commitment to the law, and to the desire to amend what has being broken. Moreover, he affirmed that consequently "not every donation can be considered as tzedakah" -- that is, not every act of charity helps to mend the social order.

At the same session, Rabbi Joel Oseran, vice president of the World Union for Progressive Judaism and the man in charge of the organization's international development, based his presentation on six pillars for successful community building, and stated, "Synagogues have to be purpose driven, not program driven."

Finally, the plenary ended with Rony Steinitz, head of the Jewish Agency for Israel in Latin America, who spoke on the role Israel has in our own institutions.

The day continued with a plenary on women and leadership and exposed the main challenges that we have down here giving women more opportunities for equal participation, especially in ritual issues.

But the most important event of the day was the last plenary session, where Raul Gottlieb, vice president of the World Union of Progressive Judaism in Latin America; Alan Silberman, president of Masorti Olami; and myself shared some thoughts about the importance of umbrella organizations setting a great example of what we can achieve working together in this particular region.

"Yes, we can" was the message that we said aloud. And, "Yes, we must," because pluralism and joint work are the only ways for the significant continuity of Judaism in our faraway lands.

Living at the margins of the Jewish map, at this gathering we are trying to show the world that there are places and specific projects where we can all work together, putting aside all the rest. From the UJCL region up to the rest of the world, we keep telling everybody that it is possible to build bridges between umbrella organizations for the sake of a vivid Judaism. And if this was the only achievement of this convention (which it's not!), we would have to say Dayenu.