Limmud FSU San Francisco: Chesler’s reform challenge
Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky issued a sharp warning about the role of Israel’s Reform and Conservative Jews.
Jenni Frazer is a freelance journalist
The founder of Limmud FSU, Chaim Chesler, issued a sharp challenge this week to Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky about the role of Israel’s Reform and Conservative Jews.
Sharansky was speaking at one of the last of more than 80 sessions of a Limmud conference for Jews from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) in San Francisco.
At a panel examining the “untold story of Soviet Jewry”, Sharansky, arguably the world’s most famous refusenik, paid tribute to the diaspora Jewish activists who had demonstrated and visited and agitated for Soviet Jews, making it clear “we were all one family and the Jewish world cared about us”, contrary to what the KGB repeatedly told refusniks.
READ MORE – Limmud FSU San Francisco:
- George Shultz honoured for work helping Soviet Jewry
- Israel urged to help fund festival of learning
- Israeli minister honours Leonard Cohen
When asked about the many different groups that worked for Soviet Jewry, Sharansky said: “If the students and housewives wouldn’t have started pushing, the establishment wouldn’t have done anything… We can learn a lot from the Soviet Jewry struggle, how the diaspora strengthened each other and strengthened Israel.”
Chesler, himself a former director of the Israel Public Council for Soviet Jewry, pointed out that in America the bulk of the campaigners are of Reform and Conservative backgrounds.
“They did their job,” he told the Jewish Agency chairman, “and now they are treated as second-class citizens in Israel. How can you live with it?”
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
