Activism and altruism

Rabbi Daniel Bar-Nahum says that while his congregants at Temple Emanu-El recognize that there are many ways to practice their faith, they might not realize that fellow Reform Jews living in Israel don’t enjoy the same luxuries they do in East Meadow.

After all, the Israeli government does not fund Progressive synagogues in the same way it financially supports Orthodox groups, Bar-Nahum explained, and liberal rabbis are not authorized to officiate at life cycle events like weddings because they are not recognized as clergy.

Bar-Nahum said that, as a local religious leader, it is his responsibility to remind community members of these inequalities in the world’s only Jewish-majority state — and why they are important. “An Israel living up to highest ideals is the kind of Israel I want to be connected with, and the kind of country I think my congregants want to be connected with,” he said. “There are things we wish were done better and more fairly there, but when we don’t live there, it is difficult for us to comment … That’s why it is important to go to Israel and hear from people on the ground.”

Bar-Nahum and another Jewish leader, Rabbi Judy Cohen-Rosenberg of the Community Reform Temple of Westbury, will be doing just that when they attend the 127th Central Conference of American Rabbis annual convention next week. The pair will travel to Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and other cities Feb. 23-28 with hundreds of rabbis to learn about their faith and to take part in fundraising and social campaigns promoting equality.

Representatives of the CCAR, a Reform rabbinic leadership organization, said the group aims to strengthen the Jewish community by providing religious, spiritual, ethical and intellectual wisdom to the 2,100 rabbis who serve more than 1.5 million Reform Jews throughout North America and Israel and around the world. Every seven years, its annual conference is held abroad to show solidarity with Reform Jews in Israel.