In light of the decision by Adat Shalom and Kehilat Har-El (Har-El Congregation) of Jerusalem to establish and cultivate special relationships, sharing some background about our congregation's relationship with Adat Shalom's members is probably in order.
We, the members of Kehilat Har-El are first and foremost a liberal Jewish congregation, which celebrates our people's deep religious tradition while actively participate in its evolvement and renewal.
Kehilat Har-El came into being on a cold rainy Friday evening in the city of Jerusalem in 1958. A minyan of men and women gathered in a private dwelling to welcome the Shabbat. In time, they formed the Hugim L'hithadshut Hahayim Hadatiyim b'Israel (the Circles for the Reconstruction of Religious Life in Israel), later to become Kehilat Har-El, the founding congregation of the Movement for Progressive Judaism in Israel. The Movement is, of course, affiliated with the World Union for Progressive Judaism, as is the Reform, Liberal and Reconstructionist movements worldwide.
During its first several years, the kehilah (congregation) as we affectionately refer to it, celebrated liberal Judaism in private dwellings and hired halls until it finally moved to its permanent home on 16 Sh'muel Hanagid Street in Jerusalem on 15 April 1962 which remains its home to this day. Incidentally, among the guests-of-honor at the dedication of the building was ha-Rav Mordecai Kaplan. The location is at the edge of the Rehavia residential neighborhood and the Jerusalem city-center, near the Betzalel Art Academy and the former K'neset building. The structure is an old typical Jerusalem residential duplex that was converted for use as a public building, and surrounded by a lovely yard.
The congregation's characteristics have reflected its membership, its spiritual leaders, and the Israeli experience. Initially many of Har-El's members were from academia and the professions, and primarily of German, Dutch, British and North American origin. Today the congregation includes Israeli born members ' Sephardim and Ashkenazim alike ' as well as olim (Jewish immigrants-ascenders to Israel) from around the world, including Latin America and Russia. The three most influential spiritual leaders of the kehilah have been, in this chronological order, of German decent, of North African decent (formerly a prominent Liberal rabbi in France), and an Israeli born person trained as a Reform rabbi in the United States.
Today's rabbi, Ruben Sternschein, a warm, energetic and knowledgeable leader, is originally from Argentina. He is a graduate of the Israeli branch of the Hebrew Union College, the school training liberal rabbis here in Jerusalem, and has previously served most successfully as a congregational rabbi in Barcelona, in Spain's first progressive synagogue.
With Ruben's (pronounced in Hebrew Reuven) guidance and the contribution of
some of the more active members of the congregation, the kehilah has been
experiencing, since his joining Har-El in the year 2000, a sense of renewal.
Despite the sad and difficult time ' the 'matzav' (the situation) ' through
which we have been living here in Jerusalem during the past 19 months, we
have seen a significant increase in the activities of the congregation, but
on that in our next column.
Nadav Katz