Introducing the Terumah Fund of the Canadian Foundation for Masorti Judaism
The “Terumah,” endowment's mission is to create a long-term resource to meet the challenges and needs of our Jewish community both at home and in Israel. Visit the page for details by clicking here!
Join us for the 2nd MERCAZ-Canada Retreat, Dec. 3 - 5
With special guests, Dr Yizhar Hess, Rabbi Mauricio Balter and Alan Budman
Dr Yizhar Hess, Vice Chairman, WZO
Dr Yizhar Hess was elected to the post of Vice Chairman of the World Zionist Organization at the 2020 World Zionist Congress.
Between 2007-2020 Yizhar served as the Executive Director of the Masorti Movement in Israel. Yizhar had represented the Masorti Movement in the negotiations with the Israeli government regarding egalitarian prayer at the Kotel, and he is one of the leading voices in Israel promoting Jewish pluralism.
Yizhar Hess is a 10th generation Jerusalemite. He lives today in Modi'in with his wife Yael, a former colonel in the IDF, and their two children Achiad and Mica.
Rabbi Mauricio Balter
Rabbi Mauricio Balter (הרב מאוריסיו בלטר) Executive Director of Masorti Olami and MERCAZ Olami, was born in Montevideo, Uruguay. Rabbi Balter served congregations in Salta and Buenos Aires Argentina for 12 years. He made aliyah in 1995 and was Rabbi of the Kiryat Bialik community for 15 years.
Rabbi Balter currently sits on the Executive of the World Zionist Organization and the Board of Directors of JNF-KKL where he heads the committee on sustainability and environmental protection.
Rabbi Balter has been married to his wife, Bilha for 40 years. They have two daughters, Maia (married to Herman) and Shani (married to Orion), and two Grandsons, Matan-Chaim and Ma’or.
Alan Budman
Alan Budman, FJMC International 1st VP was born and raised in the Philadelphia area. He is a retired attorney and taught at Penn State University for 28 years. He is married to Susan and they are the proud parents and the ecstatic grandparents.
He has served as a volunteer in a large number of organizations including as President of the Associated Alumni of Philadelphia's famous Central High School, a Big Brother volunteer with JFS. He was President of the Temple Sinai (Dresher) Men’s Club and the Middle Atlantic Region. He has served as Co-Chair of the Keruv Initiative of FJMC, Co-Chair of the Yellow Candle Program, Convention Program Chair, and VP for Programs, Regions, and Training. He is a fellow of the Foundation for Jewish Life.
Isaiah Tubbs Resort and Conference Centre
Isaiah Tubbs is a country comfortable resort located on the shores of western Lake Ontario.
The centre is approximately 3 hours from either Montreal or Toronto by car.
We have use of the entire facility, and you are invited to explore the nearby Sandbanks Provincial Park.
We will be providing kosher food and full compliance with all of Ontario's COVID-19 protocols.
You must be double vaccinated to attend and in possession of your province's (or state's) vaccine "passport" to attend.
- Dr. Yizhar Hess, Vice Chairman of the World Zionist Organization
- Rabbi Mauricio Balter, Executive Director of MERCAZ-Olami
- Alan Budman, 1st Vice President of the FJMC
MERCAZ-Canada and Canadian Foundation for Masorti Judaism work in cooperation to foster and strengthen Masorti/Conservative Judaism in Israel and create engagement opportunities Jews living in Israel and the Diaspora, based on the ideals of tradition and tolerance, study and spirituality, and social action and love of Israel.
MERCAZ represents Masorti Judaism within the World Zionist Organization and Congress, the Jewish Agency for Israel, and Jewish National Fund. We advocate for funding of pluralistic streams of Judaism in Israel crucial to our movement’s growth in Israel and around the world.
YOUR Voice in Israel
MERCAZ: the Movement to Reaffirm Conservative Zionism, is the Zionist voice of Conservative Judaism in Canada. A grassroots membership organization, we promote and support Israel education and programs, and represent the interests of Masorti/Conservative Judaism in the World Zionist Organization and Jewish Agency for Israel.
Together
MERCAZ-Canada and Canadian Foundation for Masorti Judaism work in cooperation to foster and strengthen Masorti/Conservative Judaism in Israel, based on the ideals of tradition and tolerance, study and spirituality, and social action and love of Israel. Encourage your youth to experience Israel through MERCAZ-Canada, USY and Ramah scholarships for Israel travel.
Masorti supports our movement
Canadian Foundation for Masorti Judaism supports our movement directly. CFMJ is committed to halakhah and history, combining Jewish law and tradition with an open approach to Jewish life. CFMJ supports the work of the Masorti Movement, raising funds to enable the Movement to further its educational and outreach activities in Israel.
POSTED ON NOVEMBER 4, 2021
To:
• Mr. Isaac Herzog, President
• MK Naftali Bennett, Prime Minister
• MK Yair Lapid, Alternate Prime Minister of Israel and Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Minister Matan Kahana, Minister of Religious Services
• Mr. Shalom Shlomo, Cabinet Secretary
Dear Sirs,
Subject: Call for the Prevention of Bloodshed and Immediate Implementation of the “Kotel Agreement”
We, the leadership and leaders of the Masorti movement in Israel and around the world, call on you – our elected officials – to act immediately to implement the outline of the Western Wall Agreement, in accordance with Government Resolution 1075 of 31.01.2016. This is all the more necessary in light of the real threats to the Women of the Wall, who are scheduled to pray tomorrow (Friday, Rosh Chodesh Kislev 5742) as every Rosh Chodesh, at the Western Wall.
The incidents of violence in recent months at the Kotel must be seen as a red flag before more serious incidents of violence and even bloodshed occur.
The violence directed against the Women of the Wall and egalitarian prayers in the Kotel plaza have reached new heights with every passing month. On Rosh Chodesh Tammuz, Siddurim were torn apart by crowds incited to violence and by calls that can only be described as anti-Semitism; On the 9th of Av, the prayers of the streams in the Ezrat Yisrael / Egalitarian section of the Kotel, were interrupted by shouts and incitement by girls and boys who were brought especially to halt the prayers of Jews on this day of fasting for the destruction of the Temples. All of this is in addition to the incitement and the calls of Knesset members from the ultra-Orthodox factions, rabbis and public figures, who have called for harming our members, who only seek to pray in keeping with our custom at the Western Wall, and harm toward MK Rabbi Gilad Kariv.
Please, it is in your power to prevent bloodshed and blasphemy in this place sacred to the entire Jewish people. Announce today the full and immediate implementation of the approved agreement – also accepted by the ultra-Orthodox Knesset members and the Head of Holy sites. Announce, unequivocally, that the Western Wall is not a place for quarrels and violence, that there is no place for harming the Women of the Wall who wish to pray as they have been doing for so many years each month
Honored officials, we appeal to you – this is not a political matter but a real Matter of Pikuach Nefesh. We call upon you to immediately announced the implementation of the Western Wall Agreement.
Sincerely,
• Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal, CEO, USCJ and the Rabbinical Assembly
• Rabbi Prof. Bradley Shavit Artson, Dean, Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies and Zacharias Frankel College
• Rabbi Mikie Goldstein, President, the Rabbinical Assembly of Israel
• Rabbi Jennifer Gorman, Executive Director, MERCAZ-Canada
• Rabbi Mauricio Balter, Executive Director Masorti & MERCAZ Olami
• Rabbi Prof. David Golinkin, President, The Schechter Institutes, Inc.
• Rabbi Ariel Stofenmacher, Rector, Latin American Rabbinical Seminary
• Rabbi Ellen Wolintz-Fields, Executive Director, Women’s League for Conservative Judaism
• Rakefet Ginsberg, CEO, Masorti Israel
• Dr. Shuly Rubin Schwartz, Chancellor, Jewish Theological Seminary
• Rabbi Avi Novis-deutsch, Dean, Schechter Rabbinical Seminary
• Rabbi Irina Gritsevskaya, Executive Director, Midreshet Schechter
• Sarrae G. Crane, Executive Director, MERCAZ USA
• Rabbi Ashira Konigsburg, Chief Operating Officer, the Rabbinical Assembly Chief Program Officer, USCJ
Canadian Foundation for Masorti Judaism - Make a donation
The Masorti Movement in Israel is a pluralistic, religious movement in Israel affiliated with Masorti/ Conservative Judaism around the world. The Canadian Foundation for Masorti Judaism supports the work of the Masorti Movement in Israel which promotes scholarship, Zionism and religious tolerance and pluralism within the context of modern Israeli society. The Foundation raises funds to support Masorti programmes in Israel through the Movement and in its synagogue centres. Your donation helps to ensure that our work may continue.
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