Marom Prague Seminar
Reported by Michael Grant, Marom UK

Over the weekend of 22-25 September I was in Prague for a Marom Olami seminar on "Redemption and Renewal towards the High Holidays", with emphasis on music and Israeli culture. The seminar kicked off on Thursday evening. The participants included Assael Romanelli (the Masorti shaliach) and myself from UK, three people from Germany, two from Hungary and the rest were Prague residents and members of Marom CZ.

For accommodation for the seminar, we were put up in an apartment undergoing renovation in K?i?ikova Street After icebreaking activities on Thursday, the seminar got going with a viewing of the Israeli film "Ushpizin". We held an interesting discussion about the relationship between Orthodox and secular Jews in Israel and how badly it's portrayed in movies and culture. We also talked about the theme of miracles and forgiveness toward the high holidays.

Friday began with a musical Shacharit (morning service). Afterwards we had a session on the disengagement from Gaza, including role-playing arguments. The session started with general update about the disengagement and then moved on to role playing exercise to try and understand the complexity and sensitivity of this topic. Lunch was at an Arabic restaurant called Dahab. In the afternoon, Sabina Stredova from Masorti CZ took us on a short walking tour of old Prague.

Kabbalat Shabbat was held with the Masorti community in the Jewish Community Centre led by Rabbi Ron Hoffberg. The incoming president of Masorti Olami, Mr. Alan Silberman, was visiting Prague and joined us. After the service, we headed downstairs for a meal in the refectory. Several other meals were going on there as well, including a Sheva Brachot (festive meal during the week after a wedding), with the country's Chief Rabbi in attendance. The food was fairly basic but there was lots of spirited singing after the meal.

On Shabbat morning we davened in the cellar at Bejt Simcha, the Reform congregation, followed by a nice kiddush with everyone. Later that day, we had a Seudat Shlishit (third festive meal), and shiur on the melodies of the High Holidays, given by Oren at the rabbi's place. Oren did a session about the different sounds of high holidays - we talked about the shofar and he taught us some nigunim (melodies) and the connection of those sounds to the theme of the high holiday. After Havdalah, we all went out together for the evening.

On Sunday, after Shacharit, we went off to the Jewish Liberal Union for a session by Milon and Janna on the High Holiday melodies of the Modzitzer Chassidim and of Shlomo Carlebach. Milton and Janna are Marom Prague members, and it was their first time leading a session. It was lovely.

The final seminar activity was Tashlich. Traditionally on the second day of Rosh Hashana one casts one's sins symbolically into flowing water. In our case, because it wasn't a yom tov, we were able to write our sins down on pieces of paper, which we then folded into paper boats, and trundled down to the Vltava River to set them adrift with our own original prayer. Relieving yourself of your sins was never such fun before (and probably shouldn't be….) but it was a great activity and we had a lot of fun.

In summary, it was a most enjoyable and edifying seminar and weekend away, with a chance to make new friends and meet old ones from the May Berlin Seminar.  Kol Hakavod to Petra Mohylova and Zlatka Palkovicova, coordinators of Marom CZ, who worked really hard in organizing the seminar and making it such a success. Everyone had a great time.

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Report from the UK Student Fieldworker 5765
By Shira Schwartz

Shira Schwartz, a graduate of Columbia University and List College at JTS, recently returned to the U.S. after serving as the UK Student Fieldworker. Below are excerpts from her comprehensive year end report. We thank Shira for the impact she made in the Masorti UK community and wish her success in her future endeavors. Dave Goldman, also a List Graduate, is the new student fieldworker for 5766.

It was only once I returned to America that I felt ready to finish my end of the year report, a summation of my tenure working for the UK Masorti Movement in the capacity of Student Fieldworker.  I left England after fourteen months of living in London with very mixed feelings.  On the one hand, I was exhausted after an extremely intense year of traveling, working with students, collaborating on projects with NOAM, constantly defending and promoting the Masorti Movement to individuals and organizations, and generally keeping busy working with the various communities and Marom.  On the other hand, I knew that I would never again find a community as special as Masorti UK, one that valued me not only as a professional, but as an individual; a community that cared about providing me with the tools to grow and self reflect, a community that is so dedicated to intellectual honesty and academic study; a community in which I had found mentors, friends, and extreme support.  It was my sincere privilege to have been a part of this special community, and I will always feel a strong affinity to the Movement. 

As the Student Fieldworker, I was challenged intellectually, given enormous responsibility and the independence to initiative interesting projects.  The majority of my work involved traveling to various university campuses across the United Kingdom, serving as a representative for the Masorti Movement.  Every campus visit was different, depending on the clientele there and the nature of the program I participated in.  Over the year, I made approximately 40 trips out to campuses in England, Scotland and Wales, including Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Oxford, Cambridge, Lancaster, Warwick, Edinburgh, York, Nottingham, Sussex/Brighton, Cardiff, Bristol, and various locations in London. 

The majority of the visits I made took place on weeknights, and invariably included food, a key to attracting busy university students.  Most often I would teach on an interesting and relevant Jewish topic, such as “Superstitions, Spirit and Scary Things in Judaism,” “Hatikvah – Evolution Through the Ages,” “Hellenizing on Hanukah,” and “Doing it the Jewish Way.”  Other times, I would teach specifically about Masorti, most often looking at the process of Halacha (Jewish Law).  Every session I taught contained the Masorti message: that of working within the system of Jewish tradition and law to understand and accept modernity.  I also made a number of visits over Shabbat, where I would participate in or help start a Masorti service, join students for Shabbat dinner and lunch, and often led sessions on Shabbat afternoon.  In addition, I planned programs that involved Jewish film festivals, interfaith dialogue and simply meeting in the pub for a drink.  Students truly appreciate having someone who they can associate with their life in London come out to their university to visit and help with a number of things, ranging from contacts at the Jewish Societies (j-socs), to helping with accommodation.  Further, knowing they have someone who will support them in expressing their Jewish beliefs, which might not be the traditional ones of Jewish students on campus, was reassuring for many.

I found that the majority of Jewish students on campus did not really know what Masorti represents, but rather had assumed that it was the same as Reform or Liberal.  I made many new contacts with students who were extremely intrigued by Masorti, and who I made an effort to keep in touch with over the year.  In general, I feel that the position of Student Fieldworker is extremely important to the success of the Masorti movement in the UK.  University students are the immediate future of Judaism.  Due to the traditional nature and dominance of the United Synagogue (Orthodox) in Anglo Jewry, many Jews will not have the opportunity to engage with Masorti until they reach university and are surrounded with a plethora of options to explore.  Masorti should continue their work in this field in order to ensure that we are one of the options pursued. In addition to attracting students, it is important for the movement to have a representative who can work with other Jewish professionals, and to show Anglo Jewry that we are serious about our mission and will work extremely hard to ensure that we are supporting our students who are active on campus.

My job as a fieldworker would have been almost impossible without the help of the students we have on campus.  While there is much apathy and disinterest among university students, the Masorti movement is rich in its resources of young adults.  I got to know a number of students over the year that would do anything for Masorti, whether it was run a program, fight to have a Masorti rabbi as a speaker, or host Masorti dinners at their houses.   In particular, there are extremely strong student communities at Leeds, Brighton/Sussex, Cambridge, Oxford, Birmingham and Manchester.  Many of the students grew up in NOAM, the Masorti Youth Movement, where they seriously learned about Masorti Judaism and developed a deep connection to the Movement, even if their families did not belong to Masorti synagogues.  In addition, there are many students who were not involved in NOAM who served as resources and allies for me.  All these students helped me tremendously in my work, recruiting their friends to programs, finding connections within the university and j-socs, and helping with logistics.  Over the fourteen months I was in the UK, I met over 400 students.  This tremendous number is important in that I was able to serve as a knowledgeable, friendly and sincere representative of Masorti, leaving them with a positive image of the movement.  Even if these students do not become involved with Masorti now, they will still have a positive association with the movement, and might even join one day in the future.  However, even if they do not, the fact that they have a favorable opinion of the movement is a step in the right direction, seeing as there is so much negative press about progressive movements in the UK. 

Masorti students at Oxford

A huge part of my work included becoming involved with NOAM, perhaps inevitable as I lived with two of the movement workers. I helped initiate and plan a number of projects.  Jo Elias and I organized a seminar over the Easter Bank Holiday, titled “Zionism and Masorti: A New Perspective.”  With dozens of sixth form and university aged participants, we explored a number of topics relating to Israel and Zionism, including a run through of the disengagement plans, background on Zionist leaders, post-Zionism, Zionism and the Bible, and a number of other topics.  In addition to serving as an educational experience, it also provided an opportunity to help NOAM and Marom become more closely aligned. 

I truly believe that working with students of university age is one of the key areas that the Masorti movement needs to target. It has been a truly great year, and I have been changed by it.  Not only is my accent a bit different, as everyone I speak to feels necessary to point out, my views on Judaism, life and community have all changed.  I have had the privilege and pleasure to work with truly amazing and talented people, and to learn from them how to be a professional.  I hope that Masorti UK flourishes and thrives in the coming years, and hope to stay a part of the community, even if I am away for most of the time.

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