Dear Bay Area Masorti Chevreh.
For those who didn't know in advance, Rabbi Elon Sunshine, spiritual leader of Congregation Bnai Shalom in Walnut Creek (
http://www.bshalom.org/) is participating in an amazing unity mission for Bay Area rabbis, organized by the Consul General of Israel in San Francisco. Bay Area Masorti is a network of Masorti (Conservative) communities in the Bay Area, and Rabbi Sunshine has graciously offered to blog his reflections on this trip through bamasorti.
If you know of anyone who would like to receive these emails, and others from Bay Area Masorti, please have them send a blank email to
bamasorti-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. There are Israel trips happening through Masorti shuls in our area (I'm leading one this July), and we are hopeful that this email listserve and the network being built by members of our communities and our rabbis will be a source of strength for our local Jewish community, as well as an online network for awareness-raising and activism for the sake of the Israel of our dreams.
May Rabbi Sunshine bring our passion with him, and return with even more.
Kol Tuv,
Rabbi Creditor
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Rabbi Menachem Creditor
Congregation Netivot Shalom || Bay Area Masorti || ShefaNetwork.org On Sun, Jan 23, 2011 at 1:02 PM, Rabbi Elon Sunshine
<rabbi@bshalom.org> wrote:
At this moment I am sitting in the International Terminal at LAX awaiting our El Al flight to Israel. We went through security (which was very smooth and easy) and it was just a thrill to explain the purpose of our trip to the El Al agents. This anticipated journey, which has seemed surreal is finally becoming a reality. Twelve of us are traveling together -- Consul General to Israel for the Pacific Northwest Akiva Tor and eleven rabbis. In Israel, we will meet up with another 16 rabbis and Dan Pine, editor of the j. weekly. Over the course of the coming week, we will have the opportunity to hear from government officials, explore questions of religious pluralism in Israel, and to study Torah as an eclectic group of rabbis, each with unique perspective and experience, able to bring new perspective to one another as we explore the wisdom that has shaped the Jewish people for thousands of years.
Off now to El Al. More when we arrive in Jerusalem.
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