THANK YOU LETTER FROM MARTHA LICHTENSTEIN

    Dear Friends:

    Sometimes we think we are giving but, in reality, we are receiving. When we started organizing the 7th UJCL Encounter, with its parallel 3rd Youth Encounter, I thought I would thus be helping our beloved organization to grow, without noticing that I was the one being enriched.

    We have received so many expressions of your affection, so many congratulatory and encouraging e-mails, that I feel surrounded by true friends. We may not see each other daily, but you are in my thoughts and in my heart.

    Thanks a million for your support, your friendship, and your determination to celebrate our Judaism together, with joy and pride.

    We have learned much together, enjoyed the presence of many rabbis, as excited as we were with the events and, if all this would not make us exclaim “Dayenu!”, we have made development and Distance Learning plans that we hope will become a reality.

    With your presence you have extended the horizons of our small community; we have been united and strengthened, and are now ready to face new challenges with optimism.

    To the young participants of our 3rd Youth Encounter: we are grateful for your joy of living, and for the maturity that was evident when you expressed your impressions of the Encounter. We trust that, by the 4th Encounter, you will have already designated your representatives to the UJCL Board. They will be the spokespersons for your concerns and valuable initiatives.

    For all of this, to each and everyone of you, our heartfelt thanks.

    See you soon in El Salvador,

                        Martha E. Lichtenstein
                        Aruba

REPORT ON THE 7TH ENCOUNTER OF LIBERAL JEWISH COMMUNITIES IN THE CARIBBEAN AND LATIN AMERICA

ARUBA, MAY 6 – 9, 2004

By Rabbi Joel Oseran - WUPJ

    In 1998, a number of liberal congregations in Central America and the Caribbean joined together to form the Union of Jewish Communities in the Caribbean and Latin America (UJCL). Its members identify themselves as liberal Jews, though there is considerable variety regarding the communities' levels of observance and practice. Today the UJCL numbers 11 communities: Aruba, Bahamas, Costa Rica, Cuba, Curaçao, El Salvador, Honduras, Jamaica, Panama, Puerto Rico, and St. Thomas.

    Seven years ago, the UJCL held its first Encounter (regional conference) in Costa Rica; since then, there has been an annual Encounter that takes place in a different UJCL community. This year's Encounter was held May 6-9 on the Caribbean island of Aruba, home of Beth Israel Synagogue, founded in 1962.

    UJCL Encounters have several goals: to provide an opportunity for congregational members to come together, renew existing friendships, and establish new ones; to provide Jewish enrichment experiences on topics of interest to UJCL members, including the study of Jewish traditions and issues of contemporary Jewish life, lectures by invited scholars, discussions on Israel, and more; and to assist congregations in networking and establishing ongoing contacts to help overcome their geographical isolation.

    In 2001, the UJCL added a critical new element to the annual conference by creating a Youth Encounter to run concurrently. The Youth Encounter brings together teenagers and young adults (up to their mid-20s) from UJCL member congregations, for sessions focusing on such matters as Jewish identity and educational issues relevant to people their age. The main point is to demonstrate to them the importance of Jewish continuity and the vital need to "hold onto" our youth for the future. The Aruba Encounter was the third in which regional youth took part as full participants.

    The World Union has been playing a growing role in the development of the UJCL and its Encounters. An important link is Marvin Sossin, a veteran leader of the liberal congregation in Costa Rica, a founding father of the UJCL, and a long-standing member of the WUPJ Governing Body. Marvin's commitment to Progressive Judaism has been an inspiration not only to the members of his own congregation, but to the region as a whole.

    The Aruba Encounter reaffirmed the importance of liberal Judaism to the region, and the importance of the role the World Union is playing in maintaining Jewish life for thousands of people in that part of the world. This year, we once again were pleased to provide funding to underwrite some of the costs of the Youth Encounter. I was invited to deliver the keynote address to the youth on ways to ensure successful communication between parents and children.

    During the weekend of the Encounter I had the opportunity to meet with the UJCL Board: Martha Lichtenstein (Aruba), President; Jack Davidson (El Salvador), First Vice President; Hilda ten Brink (Costa Rica), Second Vice President; Julieta Maduro (Panama), Secretary; Cheryle Tacher (Puerto Rico), Treasurer; and Marvin Sossin (Costa Rica), Honorary President.

    I used the opportunity to update the Board on major issues now confronting the World Union: the new structure in North America; efforts in Israel, the former Soviet Union, Argentina, eastern Europe and other regions; and the upcoming WUPJ Governing Body Mission to India and Australia. I also encouraged the Board members to attend the June 2005 International Convention in Moscow. The Board thanked me and the World Union for our continued involvement in the region and our financial support of the Youth Encounter.

    Another important gathering was my meeting with rabbis serving UJCL-affiliated congregations, as well as the rabbi of a community in Colombia. They were Marcelo Bater (Aruba), Gustavo Kraselnik (Panama), Fabian Werbin (Colombia), Daniel Zang (El Salvador), and Gerald Zelermyr (Curaçao). Interestingly, all of these rabbis are either graduates of the Rabbinical Seminary in Buenos Aires or the Jewish Theological Seminary, both of which are affiliated with the Conservative Movement. Nevertheless, they are successfully serving congregations that identify with the World Union.

    During my meeting with the rabbis, I stressed the importance of cooperation between Progressive and Conservative institutions and how the region challenges all of us to adopt new approaches for the sake of grass-roots efforts. (This was the same theme we focused on in Sao Paulo during the conference of liberal Jewish communities in South America.) The rabbis attending the Encounter in Aruba were quite supportive of the idea of cooperation and understood that the critical needs of congregations in the region must take precedence over more narrow institutional differences. The bottom line remains - all congregations in the region, whether calling themselves Reform, Progressive , Liberal or Conservative, have far more in common with one another than not. Our major challenges are to combat assimilation and apathy, on the one hand, and the efforts of more radical Orthodox groupings to undermine our legitimacy as liberal Jews, on the other.

    For me, one of the highlights of the Encounter was the opportunity to meet the representative of the Surinam Jewish community, Mr. Jacques van Niel. Surinam is the newest member country of the World Union. It was formally accepted into our WUPJ Family of Congregations at the recent European Region Conference in The Hague, and is in the process of becoming affiliated with the UJCL. Together with its facilitating rabbi, Reuven Bar Ephraim of The Hague, the Surinam community sent Mr. Van Niel to Aruba to become better acquainted with the region and take part in its first Encounter. Mr. Van Niel brought warm greetings from the Board of his community, and shared with me pictures and other background information regarding the congregation and its history. A fascinating story indeed!

    The Aruba Encounter was a wonderful gathering, and an exceptional opportunity for me to network with many outstanding Jewish leaders from the region. Together with Marvin Sossin and the UJCL Board, we are discussing ways to further develop this region of the World Union, and to help strengthen the support for, and structure of, the congregations involved. This is truly the exciting role the World Union plays in furthering its mandate as the international arm of Progressive Jewry. Our goal is always to be central to the survival of the Jewish People wherever we live, and here, in a remote corner of the Caribbean, we are making a real difference.