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 […]
A Resource for Educators & Youth Group Directors This guide was designed to help young people in 4th-12th grade make the connection between Tu B’Shvat, the World Zionist Organization, and the World Zionist Congress election – which will next take place in 2025. The guide includes both an overview of these connections, and activities to […]
On Sunday, November 7, MERCAZ USA held their annual General Council meeting via Zoom. Prior to discharging our outgoing board members and installing our incoming officers and board members, we presented an important, eye opening, and thought provoking panel discussion, Today’s Zionist: Committed Yet Conflicted with: Yizhar Hess, Vice Chair, World Zionist Organization Rebecca Russo, […]
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 […]
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 […]
In the midst of the emerging pandemic and in the wake of the World Zionist Congress election campaign, MERCAZ USA launched an online book club featuring contemporary Israeli literature that provides insight into and understanding of the lives and concerns of our Israeli counterparts: MERCAZ READS ISRAEL, a partnership between MERCAZ USA, MERCAZ Canada, MERCAZ […]
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 […]