After our people were banished from their homeland into exile, having lost their Holy Temple and their sacred land, rabbinical scholars arose to develop the seeds of what are now our houses of worship.

As a possible reward for being away from our ancestral home, some of the brightest and most brilliant spiritual and theological scholars of our faith, perhaps divinely inspired, created the most cherished treasures of our liturgical literature – the Talmud, the Guemmarah, the Mishnah, the Midrash and our prayer books, while living in the Diaspora.

When Jewish life was literally wiped out by Torquemada and his inquisitors in Spain and Portugal in the late XV century, the remnants of our people were influential in the exploration and the development of the New World. Those who were lucky enough to survive relocated, ironically, to then friendly Moslem nations in North Africa.

In the late XIX and early XX centuries, while entire Jewish communities were exterminated throughout Eastern Europe by “pogroms” - organized massacres of Jews in Russia - spreading like wild fire everywhere, the “Sheeirit Hapleitah” – the remaining survivors of our people, were compelled to spearhead a courageous movement – Zionism - to resettle our dormant and abandoned ancestral home, then British-controlled Palestine, thus laying the foundation for the future Independent State of Israel.

“Vechoshech Al Pnei Tehom” – ‘And darkness permeated everywhere…’

Great tragedies assailed our people through the centuries and the “Shechina” – God’s holy presence seemed to permeate enabling great accomplishments and achievements, by and for our people.

After the most horrible catastrophe to devastate our people – The “Shoah”, - the systematic genocide of the Jewish people by the Nazis - the “Lochamei Haguetaot” – the partisan fighters of the doomed ghettos sparked the fiery return to our ancestral home enabling us to create our own independent State of Israel.

“VeRuach Elohim Merachefet al Pnei Hamayim” – ‘And God’s spirit hovered throughout the waters…’

With the upheaval and the eruption of Israel’s independence, once again we were immersed in a state of confusion, chaos and void. The priorities of self-defense and building the “Alt-Neue Land” – the Old-New Ancestral Home of the Jewish people – pushed the important and crucial issues of equality, tolerance, mutual respect, religious freedom and civil rights to the back burner, where they remained dormant and yet latent.

As time went by, those issues started to pressurize, now boiling to the point of eruption as we enter the 21^{st century.}

“ Vayehi Or” - ‘And then, there was light…’

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the moribund Jewish communities in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union are now being reborn. Like corpses being resuscitated, hundreds of congregations are sprouting everywhere with a fierce determination to grow, thrive and succeed. Hundreds of thousands of Jews, who were deprived of their universally inalienable right to worship freely, are now hungry for learning and practicing the Judaism that had been denied them for generations.

Now, in the F.S.U., close to 100 Reform/Progressive congregations are being created signaling a new era in the life of the Jewish communities across the land. People, young and old alike, travel long distances for countless hours to attend standing room only services, attesting to the fact that the need and desire of belonging to a Jewish community was always there. Now, with the dismantling of the Soviet Union, the possibility and promise of Jewish renewal is a dream transformed into reality.

In Israel, over 40 Reform/Progressive congregations have germinated, taken root, blossomed and now thrive in the Israeli landscape. A secular population that used to be indifferent, and apathetic languishing in passive morosity, is now eager and anxious to learn more about its cultural and spiritual background. Crowds jam and elbow themselves into our houses of worship during Shabbat and High Holiday services. Jews from a cross-section of the Israeli society endure long-waiting lists for marriages, b'nei and b'not mitzvah celebrations in progressive synagogues in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv Haifa and other major cities.

There are not enough classrooms to accommodate the demands of young families wishing to register their children in our Reform congregational schools nor are there enough Rabbis, Cantors or Educators available to staff the ever-growing number of synagogues that continue to mushroom throughout Israel. Our movement lacks the necessary educational equipment, libraries, Torah scrolls and prayer books to enhance and carry out the awesome task of building up the Reform/Progressive movement throughout Israel.

These are the crucial and burning issues of our times. These are the dreams of realities yet unborn. This is the kind of rebirth, of a renaissance - of strengthening and growth for our involvement throughout the four corners of the world, especially in Eastern Europe, the F.S.U. and Israel.

The atmosphere is replete and impregnated with excitement, electricity and possibilities. We must harness such energy and convert it into productive action.

If we apply all of our efforts and energies, we may be able to witness in our lifetime the groundbreaking ceremony of the 100th Progressive synagogue in Israel…

It is not yet the time for us to declare:

“Vesyiamnu et Hamelachah” – ‘And we completed our tasks…’

“Verayinu ki Tov” – ‘And we saw that all was well…’

“Veshabatnu” – ‘And now we could rest’.

This is the time for us, Reform Jews, to become partners in the development of a “Genesis 2001” – a New Beginning – but this time to restart the right way, to rekindle and to re-stoke the fires that remained dormant for the past 52 years.

Now is the time for us to demand and to urge our Israeli leaders and parliamentarians, to seriously engage in the drafting of the long-awaited and long overdue constitution that will enable and assure total freedom of expression and guarantee civil rights to all of the segments of Israel’s population.

This is the moment for us to encourage the Israeli government to abolish the obsolete and narrow-minded conversion, marriage and adoption laws; this is the time to dismantle Israel’s medieval Ministry of Religions and its Municipal Religious Councils that ruthlessly control and choke the religious freedoms of the majority of Israelis, favoring only a select minority of the population.

2001 is the appropriate time for Israel to release itself from the shackles of the “tunnel-visioned” theocratic-minded group of zealots that refuse to allow Israel to join the community of truly free democratic nations.

Civil marriages, constitutionally guaranteed religious freedoms, liberal allowances for conversions and life-cycle events officiated by members of the clergy representing all of the religious streams in the land; complete implementation of all of the guarantees and assurances envisioned by Israel’s Declaration of Independence are the necessary steps of action that will enable us to complete the task of creating a truly just, fair and tolerant society.

How can we become active participants, co-workers and partners in this “Avodah Kedoshah” – this holy task? The World Union for Progressive Judaism (the organization representing the Reform and Reconstructionist movement all over the world), has launched an ambitious agenda and campaign to invigorate Progressive Judaism throughout the world – The “World Reform Appeal” – a combined effort by our Reform/Progressive congregations in the USA and Canada, whose goals are to raise sufficient funds, to enable our movement to help build synagogues, schools; train and ordain Rabbis, Cantors, Educators; to provide educational equipment, books, Torah Scrolls and prayer books to emerging congregations in Eastern Europe, the F.S.U. and Israel. We should all make generous contributions to these fund-raising efforts when called upon to do so.

It is also the responsibility of every Reform Jew to consider becoming a member and to encourage friends and family to join ARZA/World Union, N.A. Our membership in this organization will enable us to become facilitators, co-creators and enablers of Tikkun Olam – the perfecting of a better world – working together towards the realization and implementation of our daring and ambitious agenda.

One important beneficiary of our combined efforts is I.R.A.C. – The Israel Religious Action Center, an extremely important organization, sponsored by ARZA/World Union, N.A. I.R.A.C. is a leader in the forefront of advocacy before the courts of the land in the struggle for a pluralistic society in Israel.

Then, after executing all of the above mentioned steps of action, we will surely be able to affirm:

“Verayinu Ki Tov”–‘And we saw that the result of our work was good…’

And perhaps, then, we will be able to proclaim:

“Veshabatnu”- ‘…and we finally rested!’