ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal

7000 Lincoln Drive #B-2, Philadelphia, PA 19119-3046

Tel. (215) 247-9700 - Fax (215) 247-9703 - www.aleph.org - alephajr@aol.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Debra Kolodny, Executive Director, ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal

DATE: January 31, 2007

Phone: 301-565-0719

Email: DebraRuth@mac.com

Web site: www.aleph.org

Dear Editor:

Enclosed is the January 2007 ALEPH News Service. We hope you run one or more of the following articles, and look forward to hearing from you if you do. This release contains:

1. Registration for ALEPH Passover Israel Journey open 'til February 24

2. ALEPH Ordains Two Rabbis, Two Rabbinic Pastors and a Cantor

3. Association of Rabbis for Jewish Renewal Holds Ninth Annual Conference

About ALEPH: ALEPH acts as the headquarters of the Jewish Renewal movement by organizing and nurturing communities, developing spiritual leadership, ordaining rabbis, cantors and rabbinic pastors, creating liturgical and scholarly resources, holding retreats and festivals and working for social and environmental justice.

ALEPH has attracted and energized thousands of seekers returning to Judaism and just as many who are deeply engaged but looking to elevate their current practice. ALEPH has 40 affiliated communities and its projects include two biennial gatherings: the Kallah and Ruach Ha'Aretz. It also houses as the Sacred Foods Project, C-DEEP: The Center for Devotional, Energy, and Ecstatic Practice, the Rodef Shalom School for Peace, the Bet Midrash (producing siddurim, publications, videos and CDs from our founder Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and other Jewish Renewal teachers) and Kesher (supporting twenty and early thirty year old leaders). In addition to its projects, ALEPH also produces one-day Jewish Renewal festivals in communities around the US and Canada called Caravans. It is home to OHALAH: The Association of Rabbis for Jewish Renewal and a Rabbinic Studies Program, educating future rabbis, cantors and rabbinic pastors.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or would like additional information. ALEPH looks forward to working with you,

Debra Kolodny /s/

Registration for ALEPH Passover Israel Journey is open until February 24

It is not too late to join ALEPH in our first Jewish Renewal Passover in Israel trip, from Sunday, March 25 through Thursday, April 5. Registrations will be accepted until February 24th. You won't want to miss out on this extraordinary opportunity!

Join Rabbi Marcia Prager and Hazan Jack Kessler for this masterfully guided adventure in Eretz Yisrael. Follow Nachshon Da-vid Mahanymi, an Israeli-American peace activist and teacher to places off the beaten path. Take a spiritual peace pilgrimage and study and celebrate with some of the foremost peacemakers in the world and the finest Jewish Renewal teachers in Israel. Experience the seder like you've never experienced it before.

An excited participant says, "Seven years ago I went on a trip to Israel with Marcia Prager and Jack Kessler. It was amazing. It filled my head and heart with experiences I still treasure. We had such fun and every moment was precious. I thought to myself that it was a once in a lifetime opportunity, but here we are blessed with another chance. Forget about the time or the money and go. You owe it to yourself! You'll return with the sweetest memories. Reb Marcia and Jack have so much to give. This will be an opportunity to truly grow spiritually."

This is not a typical frantic-paced tourist experience rushing through sights seen and cities visited. The group will travel gently with time for prayer, celebration, meditation, learning and sharing. Those exploring Israel for the first time or for the fifth will experience the country deeply and meaningfully. Together we will grow an enduring spiritual connection to the land and to the inner meaning of Passover as a time for liberation into new possibilities.

We will meet with Israeli and Palestinian grassroots peace builders, artists, musicians and teachers, as we cultivate hope, and nourish relationships through joyful prayer, dialogue and reflection. We will visit the landscapes where our ancestors lived, studied, dreamt and wrestled. We will experience the heat of the Judean desert, the depth of the Dead Sea and the refreshing waters of Ein-Gedi oasis. We will go up to the spiritual heights of Tzfat in the heart of the Galilee Mountains, enjoy the cool breeze of the Sea of Galilee (Kinneret) and the hot springs of Hamat Gader. Our Aliyah la'regel (pilgrimage) will culminate in 6 extraordinary days in Jerusalem including the Passover Seder.

Please note: You will not be able to visit Israel during this holy time with this kind of programming with any other organization. To top it off, the trip is priced at cost. Such a deal! Sign up now and make memories for a life-time.

For details on the itinerary, fees and registration, visit: www.aleph.org/retreats.html

ALEPH Ordains Two Rabbis, Two Rabbinic Pastors and a Cantor

In a moving ceremony that drew on the varied life lessons of the five new spiritual leaders, ALEPH ordained two Rabbis, a Cantor and two Rabbinic Pastors at the January OHALAH Conference. The five graduates taught Torah and thanked their teachers, spiritual directors, families and friends who guided and supported them on this journey. Members of the ALEPH Ordination Program Academic VAAD and other mentors stood behind the ordinees, along with the program's Dean Rabbi Marcia Prager, ALEPH's founder, Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, and ALEPH's Director of Spiritual Resources, Rabbi Daniel Siegel to recite an ancient formula made modern, passing ordination from one generation to the next.

The ordinees include: Rabbi Karyn Berger, whose studies took her around the world and back as she completed a master's degree in Jewish studies and began a PhD program in medieval Hebrew and Arabic literature. After a trip to Germany in 2006, Karyn felt the call to focus her life's work in Europe as a bridge builder from past to present and across geographic and religious lines.   

Rabbi T'mimah Audrey Ickovitz is a yeshiva graduate and successful electronics engineer. She discovered her calling as a rabbi when she pursued Jewish learning while recovering from a serious bike accident. Introduced to Reb Zalman and Jewish Renewal by her brother, Rabbi Ivan Ickovitz, T'mimah is inspired to lead others toward an egalitarian, universal and Torah based Judaism.

Cantor Jalda Rebling, raised in the Netherlands and later in East Berlin, is an accomplished actor, singer and storyteller. Jalda found her way to Renewal and Reb Zalman via Rabbis Shawn Zevit and Marcia Prager and Cantor Jack Kessler.  Jalda's mother's cry "Vergeet het Nooit/Never Forget!" has become her own. Her call is not just to remember, but to re-member, "to work with God to give the breath of life back to Judaism in Europe."

Rabbinic Pastor David Daniel Klipper was an investment banker whose path changed after reading about a Jewish chaplain working with people at Ground Zero in New York after 9/11.  He pursued training in Clinical Pastoral Education at a local hospital over the next four years and has served as an oncology chaplain at Norwalk Hospital. He now works as a hospice chaplain.

Rabbinic Pastor Aggie Goldenholz holds a Master's degree in Jewish Studies and is a Reiki Master/Teacher and Therapeutic Touch practitioner. Aggie is an author, a Hebrew and Jewish studies teacher and a workshop, Rosh Hodesh and ritual leader. Currently working as a hospital chaplain, Aggie specializes in working with people in spiritual crisis and trauma.

For more information about the ALEPH Ordination programs, please visit our website at www.aleph.org/ordination.html

Association of Rabbis for Jewish Renewal Holds Ninth Annual Conference

More than 150 rabbis, cantors, rabbinic pastors, students in those disciplines and guests attended Ohalah's ninth conference for Rabbis for Jewish Renewal in Boulder in January. As always, the conference opened with a powerful and poignant ordination ceremony. This year two rabbis, two rabbinic pastors and one cantor joined the ranks of over 100 Jewish Renewal clergy in helping lead this creative, joyful, egalitarian and progressive trans-denominational movement.

Attendees at the conference explored the theme of Ruach KaKodesh through text presentations, personal reflections, music, dance and story telling. Textual exploration began with Israeli Rabbi Ruth Gan Kagan leading discussions based on Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Kings, Isaiah, Samuel and more. Participants also studied Kabbalistic and Hassidic sources with Rabbis Elliot Ginsburg, Moshe Aharon Krassen and Rabbi Julie Hilton Danan and explored halacha with Rabbi Sami Barth. Personal and institutional teachings were offered by one of the founders of the Jewish Renewal Movement, Rabbi Zalman Schacter-Shalomi and by Rabbi Marcia Prager, the Dean of the ALEPH Rabbinic Program.

A new feature of Ohalah 9 was Limudim L'shem Tikkun Olam.  Many participants taught throughout the conference into the wee hours of the morning. Those who attended the late night study sessions were invited to give tzedakah, and $2000 was collected for Darfur relief.

At Ohalah's annual meeting discussions ranged from enhanced membership information and services to the passage of a resolution opposing the escalation of the Iraq War. In an historic first for this rabbinic association, its membership agreed to take a public stand on this very important issue, and called for a timetable to end the U.S. military presence in Iraq.

The conference was not all about study and work, however. Conference goers enjoyed a storytelling performance by Howard Schwartz from the University of Missouri in St. Louis and a star studded musical evening featuring 15 performers from Hassidic to Kabbalistic Kirtan, Jewgrass to Yiddish, post denominational Jewish to Jewish reggae, all sprinkled with humor, poetry and modern dance.
 
Ohalah President, Rabbi David Shneyer expressed deep appreciation to the Program Committee headed up by Bob Freedman and to Judy Dawson, Conference Coordinator.
 
Ohalah's next conference will be held from January 6-9, 2008 in Boulder once again. Visit the Ohalah web site: www.ohalah.org for information about the conference as the dates draw closer, as well as information about the ongoing programming of this trans-denominational rabbinic association.