Dear Friends,

     So much of that which is central to the activities and spirit of our community focuses upon our endeavor to ensure the continuity of Jewish life and the vibrancy of our heritage for the next generation -- for our children.  From Preschool to CLAL, From USY to USY-High, from community-service for our teens to scholarships for Jewish summer-camp and Israel experiences, this amounts to an extraordinarily robust constellation of programming for our children and teens.  It is with these considerations in mind that for the past two years I have been working together with The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles to facilitate our participation in a remarkable program of potentially great consequence, for the benefit of our own community's present and future and for that of the city of Tel Aviv, the State of Israel, and, in the long run, the Jewish People as a whole.  It is with great excitement that I share with you in this column first news of CLAL's selection as only the second afternoon Religious School in the entire Los Angeles area for participation in The Jewish Federation's Tel Aviv/Los Angeles Partnership. With CLAL's selection comes an abundance of potential opportunity for social, intellectual, cultural, educational, and other exchanges that can eventually involve and engage members of our synagogue of many interests and all ages!

     Many of you may know that The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles sponsors a partnership between the cities of Los Angeles and Tel Aviv. Through this partnership, the Jewish community of Los Angeles and the citizens and government of the city of Tel Aviv enjoy cultural, academic, business, educational and many other exchanges (including those related to the arts and film-making), whereby each community benefits greatly and builds bonds with the other that strengthen each community individually and bring both together in an ever-deepening partnership.  Over the last several years, the educational arm of this partnership has extended to a number of Jewish Day Schools throughout the greater Los Angeles area (and the Los Angeles Hebrew High School, though a supplementary school, has participated as well). Through this educational partnership, children of varying grade levels and their teachers travel to Israel for student and staff exchange programs. Their Israeli counterparts travel to Los Angeles.  Tel Aviv's schools are enriched by new ideas and relationships, as are our own.  As well, as a result of these partnerships, bonds between school communities and between parents with children involved in the exchange have developed.  These relationships have added a great richness to the lives of many individuals and a meaningful identification between the two communities.

     Under Ami Berlin's direction, CLAL is achieving a level of excellence as a school-community that we should all be very proud of!  While our synagogue's participation in the Tel Aviv/Los Angeles Partnership is one that I will direct over-all, the core of the programmatic-partnership will involve CLAL and will be managed by Ami and her outstanding faculty.  USY-High's children and teachers will be partnered with Ironi Hey Public School in Tel Aviv. Our ninth and tenth graders and teachers throughout our religious school will enjoy intensive learning opportunities related to Israel and will build relationships with their counterparts in Tel Aviv by video-conferencing, traveling to Israel, and hosting their Israeli partners.  Participation in the trip to Israel will not be mandatory, though it will be encouraged and will afford our teenagers an extraordinary experience that they will remember for the rest of their lives.  These trips will also be heavily subsidized, costing parents only the price of an airline ticket or the miles/points they can use instead!

     I know that all of you will join with me in celebrating this incredible opportunity for our Ner Tamid community. We are very fortunate to enjoy a close relationship with The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and we are grateful for its partnership in creating this opportunity for our children and for our entire community.  In the coming weeks and months, we will all be learning more about this program. I so look forward to continuing to share with all of you these developments as we move ahead, deepening our community's connection to Israel; enriching our present while we secure our future!

 

B’Shalom – With Blessings of Peace and Wholeness,

Rabbi Isaac Jeret

Spiritual Leader