Watch the Cantor’s Assembly program, which was co-sponsored by MERCAZ USA, and presented live on Facebook and YouTube on Sunday, March 6, 2022, below. To make a donation to any of the organizations highlighted in this program, go to cantors.org/ruachukraine and scroll to the bottom of the page. Ukraine is under siege. The current conflict has […]
On October 21, 2021, MERCAZ Reads Israel held our fourth book club meeting to discuss Rabbi Haviva Ner-David’s novel, Hope Valley, with the author. Hope Valley is the story of two women who come together to form the unlikeliest of friendships. Tikvah, a Jewish-Israeli second-generation Holocaust survivor, is a frustrated artist with multiple sclerosis and […]
A proposal to revive the so-called Western Wall compromise, which guarantees a formal role for Reform and Conservative Judaism in the oversight of a permanent pluralistic prayer pavilion at the Western Wall, has been placed on the cabinet agenda and is widely backed in the governing coalition, Nachman Shai, the minister for Diaspora affairs, said […]
The week of July 11, Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal, CEO of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (USCJ) and the Rabbinical Assembly (RA), led a movement delegation that met in-person with Israel’s new President, Isaac “Bougie” Herzog, several members of his cabinet, foreign ministers, and representatives from the new majority coalition in the Knesset and other […]
On June 22. the American Zionist Movement (AZM) elected a new slate of officers, one that reflects the American Zionist community in this country, spanning the religious and political spectrum. We are hopeful that this new leadership can heal some of the rifts that have been created over the last few years: President, Deborah Isaac, […]
On March 1, 2021, after more than 15 years of struggle, the Masorti Movement of Israel was vindicated by the Israeli Supreme Court, which now recognizes its conversions to Judaism for the purposes of the Law of Return and Aliyah to Israel. Rakefet Ginsburg, the CEO of Masorti Movement, responded to this fantastic news by […]
Rabbi Dan Ornstein, Congregation Ohav Shalom, Albany NY I like to compare our relationship with Israel to a romance which struggles to blossom into mature love. I remember well my first serious summertime Zionist romance. I was fed a steady diet of puppy love for Israel from the time that I was very young. Growing […]
If you are reading this, you likely already know the critical role MERCAZ USA plays in connecting Jews in the United States to our siblings in Israel and representing Masorti (Conservative) Judaism in Israel and worldwide through the World Zionist Congress. You probably also know that most of your synagogue members have never heard of […]
Eric Leiderman, Board Member, MERCAZ USA The mission of Masorti On Campus is to provide for the needs of traditional-egalitarian Jewish campus communities … Founded in 2013, Masorti On Campus (MoC) is an organization dedicated to supporting Jewish student life on North American college campuses. Its mission is to anticipate and provide for the needs of […]
Sarrae Crane, Executive Director, MERCAZ USA The last year-and-a-half has been a blur with one day running into the next as I work from home and seem to be living on Zoom meetings. Last week, I went into the office and was instantly reminded by the materials and boxes I found that the pandemic began […]