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Meanwhile, the Board of Directors is planning a September meeting , as agreed to in our
last encounter in El Salvador (Feb. 2000). One of the main items on the agenda is going to
be our upcoming Fourth Encounter on Feb. 2001. There is much to discuss, as we are a
vibrant conglomerate of small communities, each with its own particular concerns and
aspirations, but all united in our desire to maintain and enhance Jewish life in Central
America and the Caribbean.COSTA
RICA: From our friends there
we have learned that they are extremely busy as they prepare for the official inauguration
of their new B’nei Israel Synagogue and Jennifer Sossin Hebrew
School. This is an extraordinary accomplishment, since they have procured the necessary
funds by means of an intensive campaign, in which members and friends participated,
“buying” bricks, or donating of their time and effort. Their hard work has paid
off, and now B’nei Israel can look forward to the realization of a several years old
dream. We at UJLC wish them much success, lots of personal fulfillment, and many more
achievements they can rejoice in.
PANAMA: The Isaac Rabin School is a new pluralist and
progressive Jewish school, striving for academic excellence and an integral education of
the highest level. It is the brainchild of the homonymous foundation, created to stimulate
the teaching of Jewish cultural values in Panama, and to promote civic values in the
Panamanian society. It is an answer to the needs of the more progressive sectors of
Panamanian Jewish society, who want to instill in their children tolerance and full
respect for differences in backgrounds and roots. This school is a remarkable achievement,
which we at UJLC salute. If you would like to get more information about this project. You
can contact them at http://www.cirabin.org,
or at cirabin@sinfo.net
CURACAO: Next year congregation Mikve Israel -Emanuel will
be celebrating a very special event: the 350th. Anniversary of the foundation of the
Jewish Community of Curacao. This historic landmark will have great repercussion in the
Jewish world, and it will be covered by CNN and news agencies from around the world. The
commemoration week will be from April 22 to 29, 2001, and it will include the dedication
of the Beth Haim cemetery as an historical site, a special commemoration service, lectures
by Prof. Leonard Fein and famed author Chaim Potok, an international musical event, and
much more.
We hope that all UJLC member communities will be sending delegations to this celebration,
which is ours too, for it marks the beginning of Judaism in the New World. We advise you
to make hotel and airline reservations well in advance, since there is great demand and
limited capacity Mikve Israel -EmanueI was established by Sephardic Jews who fled the
Inquisition, and found religious freedom in Curacao. Its present members continue to
follow western sephardic rites. For more information, please contact our member, Rene
Maduro, President of Mikve-Israel Emanuel at effinop@cura.net,
CURACAO: Another very important milestone for the Mikve
Israel-Emanuel congregation: on May 7, they passed the equality in ritual proposition by
an almost absolute majority, and, on June 24th, , they held their first egalitarian
service. We congratulate the community on their resolution, and wish them great
fulfillment with the full participation of women in ritual.
HONDURAS: Phil Gelman, President of the Jewish Community in
Tegucigalpa, represented it at a worldwide vigil in memory of those who died of AIDS, and
in solidarity of those who are HIV
positive. Although this is the third year that the vigil has been observed, this is the
first in which the organizing committee decided to make it an interfaith event. The widely
respected Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Monsignor Oscar A. Rodriguez, was very pleased to
learn that there was a Jewish community in the city, and expressed a desire to share
activities with its members. Monsignor Rodriguez asked Phil to make sure he approached him
so that he could lend his full support to combat racism and causeless hatred. We are
enclosing excerpts of Phil’s message:
I think the essence of our task is in Psalm 118:
5.In distress I called on
the Lord; the Lord answered me
And brought me freedom
19. Open for me the gates of justice
that I may enter them
And praise the Lord.
20.This is the gateway to the Lord –
the just will enter through it…
And the most outstanding element:
22.The stone that the builders rejected
has become the chief cornerstone.
…If we take these three elements: freedom, justice and turning the despised into
valued, I think that the clear message is: with the freedom we have, it is necessary that
we choose justice in all our actions. This entails to include the isolated ones, those on
the fringe of the community, within the framework of a just society, which lives in
accordance with the divine precepts.
…It is related in the Talmud that when Yehoshua ben Levi met the prophet Elijah he
asked where could he find the Messiah. The reply was: He is at the gates of the city,
amongst the lepers, changing their bandages, one by one.
Perhaps we may not think this is an
adequate task for the Messiah, but in the eyes of God this is the first task: to include
the dispossessed to thus perfect the world.
ARUBA: After two months of hard work, the Beth Israel
Synagogue renovation project is almost completed. The dedication will take place at the
end of October, once the Tree of Life mural that was commissioned to a Venezuelan artist
is installed. The renovation was made possible thanks to a generous donation in memory of
one of the founding members of the community. Shortly, the community will initiate a
campaign to collect funds for additional improvements, in the second phase of this
project.
Martha E. Lichtenstein
August 2000 |
