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| THE CHRONICLE
MEET HUC-J IR’S STUDENTS
lar stories of struggle. Many are not sure
about their future yet are slowly drifting
away from their past. They are confused
about their identity and especially the iden-
tity of their young children. They are open
and willing to do things they would never
consider doing in Israel – simple things, like
being Jewish.
Whenever an Israeli hears that I am
studying to become a rabbi – after their first
response, which is
ata meshuga
(
you’re crazy)
–
I see that they have great curiosity and re-
spect for my decision.
Here in the U.S. it feels safe for them to
approach Judaism. And once they learn
about liberal Judaism, many realize how they
actually share its core values. Imagine if in
every congregation we serve we each created
havurot
of 20, 30, 40 Israeli families. This
means that thousands of Israelis would be ex-
posed to liberal Judaism. These are people
who care about Israel and whether they just
visit Israel every year, or return to live there,
they can deliver our message, in Hebrew, to
their families and friends. Imagine the
change they can make in Israeli society.
Imagine the change they can make in our
congregations. Reform Judaism can be to Is-
raelis in America what Birthright Israel is for
American college students – an awakening
call to reclaim their Jewish spirituality.
The Israeli community in the U.S has
power, they know each other – they seek
each other out – and they can spread the
message that there is a different kind of Ju-
daism, one that cares not just about
territories and land but also about people
and life, not just about the politics of con-
version but about the possibility of inclusion.
One that is open and ethical in a way that
aims to make this world a better place.
All we need to do is to reach out. They
can be the tipping point for our message in
Israel. And working together with them, we
can set the discussion about the essence and
future of Judaism in Israel.
In West Palm Beach I discovered that
being Israeli is just one part of my identity,
liberal Judaism is the other. In Israel I was
told by the religious community to leave re-
ligion to them, so I grew up convinced there
was just one way of being Jewish. I think that
while in Florida I converted from being Is-
raeli to being Jewish. At HUC-JIR, I am
being confirmed. The third phone call is
yours to make.
Yoram Kapitulnik, N’10 (at left), leading a Lag Ba’Omer bonfire celebration with Israeli
families in New York.
J EW I S H G E O G R
H U C - J I R E
GETTING THE CALL
(
continued)
R
abbinical school seems to be all about
Jewish geography. I think my class spent
the entire year in Israel playing long
rounds of the game, eventually figuring out
how each and every one of us was associated
through various camps, NFTY, and on rare
occasions non-Jewish connections. When we
stop to think about it, it’s not really all that
amazing that rabbinical students are Jewishly
connected, since most of us grew up active in
various aspects of Jewish life. But as it turned
out, the Year-In-Israel Program (and the first
several weeks in Cincinnati each year, meeting
the other classes of students) was only the
warm up for some intense, country-wide Jew-
ish geography.
Round One: The Frozen North
I received my assignment for my first stu-
dent pulpit over the last
Shabbat
that
I was in Jerusalem. I would begin my experi-
ence as a student rabbi in Grand Forks, ND. I
had never been to Grand Forks, and I didn’t
know anyone in the state. My monthly visits
made me the closest thing to a rabbi in all of
North Dakota. I soon discovered that their
current student rabbi, a fifth-year Cincinnati
student, was a friend of mine from college Hil-
lel. And so I won round one of North Dakota
Jewish Geography. Sometime later, when my
older sister was talking to a friend of hers, she
mentioned my future student pulpit in Grand
Forks, and the friend, Catholic and having
never won – or probably played – a round of
Jewish Geography, exclaimed that not only did
she know someone in Grand Forks, but he was
Jewish and would be in my congregation. She
won round two. The couple she knew was ac-
tive in the congregation and promised my
Jessica Karpay, C ‘11
