UPJ congs' online services and programs
Providing ways to celebrate Shabbat during the time of COVID-19 is a unique response offered by the Progressive Movement, and something of which we can all be proud. To view a listing of virtual Shabbat and daily minyan services, online courses, and a diverse range of interesting and innovative programs: CLICK HERE.

Tu b'Shvat Zoom Seder with Kedem
A seder celebrating the New Year for the Trees, featuring mystical interpretations by Rachel Ward, will be hosted by Kedem on Tuesday 26 January, 1.30pm to schmooze, 2.00-3.15pm. The seder will be about the symbols of Tu b'Shvat (fruit, nuts and wine/grape juice) - no bitter herbs or matzah! RSVP to Ruth and find out how you can prepare your own Tu b'Shvat table: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

 
Hobart congregation presents "Jerusalem, Down Under"
Join the Hobart Hebrew Congregation for a fascinating presentation  "New Jerusalem, Down Under: The Search for a Jewish Homeland in Australia" on Sunday 31 January at 2.00-3.15pm AEDT, via Zoom. Dr Adam Rovner, Director of the Centre for Judaic Studies and Associate Professor of English and Jewish Literature at the University of Denver, Colorado, will detail the cultural context and legacy of proposals to create mass settlements of Jewish refugees in Australia before, during and after the Nazi era. CLICK HERE to learn more and complete the necessary registration form.

FROM THE UPJ CO-PRESIDENTS

			David Knoll AM					Brian Samuel OAM

The money dilemma.

Throughout the western world, synagogues are sustained financially by a combination of membership fees or dues, and donations.  

Often large congregations have foundations which build up capital that goes well beyond a rainy day fund.  As new challenges arise, the wise, yet hardened leaders of the foundation, rather than the newer, recently elected congregational leaders, make the decision about when and how any of that fund can be expended.  Having tried one strategy with less than stellar success, the purse strings are drawn ever tighter, and gradually, as decline sets in, the rainy day fund is used to “save the furniture”. In other congregations the wise leaders of foundation use it to invest in growth, knowing that not every initiative will succeed.

The alternative is that which Rae Ringel, a fantastic leadership expert and coach, loves to remind people of the quote: “If you always do what you always did, you always get what you always got.”

Some small congregations invest in their building on the back of one or a few major donors, but those families cannot be relied on to keep the congregation going long-term.  Other small congregations use some of their building to generate income that is reinvested in growth, and often as not, begin to reap success. Still others without physical building harness the amazing and inspirational power of their volunteers.

Investing in outreach through Relational Judaism where there is no financial return in the short to medium term is risky.  Not investing is even more risky. 

Yet well managed innovation and outreach can be done on an initial small financial outlay. Once there are small wins on a pilot project, donors can be convinced to invest in expansion. 

Running a pilot project in parallel to the existing structures, led by the empowered neshama of a congregation (including some next-gen leaders) is more likely to succeed that bolting it on to existing programs.

As Rabbi Mike Uram explains:

In the business world, there seems to be one essential strategy for achieving this goal: continue to run your existing programs while simultaneously creating a separate, autonomous organization charged with building a new and independent set of offerings built on disruptive innovations.  Free of the rules, the limits, and the boundaries of the existing organization, this new division can try totally new things, take bigger risks, and develop a plan to reach new markets. Essentially, it can act like a startup even though it’s not.[1]

The biggest investments required are time and passion for adapting the idea, and then building a sustainable and caring Jewish community.  If the president and rabbis support initiative and innovation, success becomes a realistic possibility.

[1]          Next Generation Judaism . Turner Publishing Company. Kindle Edition

                                                         Warm regards, David

Drash on Parashat Bo
Rabbi Jonathan Keren-Black
Leo Baeck Centre for Progressive Judaism
East Kew, Victoria

The plagues in this portion are especially problematic because "God hardens Pharaoh’s heart" (so the suffering brought on the innocent Egyptians seems like collective punishment against Pharaoh, extended by God’s actions). By the middle of the portion, the plagues are nearly over (we can wish!). But the final plague is of course the worst of all, the only one that kills people rather than significantly inconveniencing them.  By the end of the portion, the Israelites are finally free, and if the numbers are to be believed (Ex.12:37), and we pick a low average of four children per family, then about six million Israelites start their journey from Ramses towards Sukkot, aside from the mixed multitude who went out with them! 

But before the final plague, the Israelites are told to prepare themselves for their departure, including preparing a lamb, and using its blood to mark their doorposts so the angel of death should "pass over" their houses, and eating as much as they can, dressed with their sandals on and their staffs in their hands, ready to leave. They are also told that this should be observed for all time.  Finally the terrible last plague arrives, and does its job – Pharaoh now summons Moses and Aaron and demands that they leave, with all the people and their flocks and herds. And the portion concludes with a repeat of the instructions to observe the annual seven-day festival of the Exodus (13:6-10).  

Congregants are often puzzled by the fact that we read about the Exodus from Egypt several months before Pesakh.  

CLICK HERE to read the full drash by Rabbi Keren-Black on the UPJ website.