Reception with Irene Fertik
Tuesday September 21st
6:30 p.m.- 8:30 p.m.

Free event. Wine and cheese served.
Sixth and I Historic Synagogue
600 I Street NW. Washington,DC 20001

RSVP to Sarah: slawson@nif.org or 202.513.7870

Exhibit on view at 6th & I Gallery
September 1-26, 2010

Presented by the New Israel Fund and Sixth and I Historic Synagogue

Avishai Mekonen

Monday through Friday, 10 am–4 pm
10th floor, Gladfelter Hall
1115 Polett Walk, Temple University, Philadelphia

Reception Tuesday, September 21, 4–5:30 pm

Center for the Humanities at Temple Gallery

http://www.avishaimekonen.com/

I’d like to let you know about an exciting travel opportunity to Uganda!  Whether you desire to deepen your understanding of Jewish life in Africa, want to spend time with one of the communities Kulanu supports, or are just in need of a vacation, this is a fantastic trip you can’t pass up!

“Jewish Life in Uganda Mitzvah Tour & Wildlife Safari” will take place January 9-24, 2011. Join this fabulous small group eco-tour, now in its eighth year. Meet the Jewish Community of Uganda! Treat your family to a real African safari featuring wild elephants, hippos and crocs. Spend shabbat in an African village synagogue. Visit Kulanu-supported sustainable development projects including two Abayudaya schools that feed and educate 700 students each day. Share your skills and do mitzvah work!

This is an amazing Jewish experience for individuals or for the whole family!  Laura Wetzler, Kulanu’s Uganda Coordinator, will be leading the trip. Barbara Vinick, a Kulanu Board Member, will be on the tour.  My husband, Ken Klein, and I will also be with you for much of your visit!

To learn more about the trip, please click here.  For more information, you can also contact Laura Wetzler, the trip coordinator, at laura@laurawetlzer.com

I hope to see you there!

Sincerely,

Harriet Bograd, President

Kulanu, Inc.

For more information:

www.kulanu.org/abayudaya

Kulanu Abayudaya slideshow at www.kulanu.phanfare.com

P.S. Here’s another travel opportunity!  The International Society for the Study of African Jewry (ISSAJ) is hosting a conference in London entitled “Jews and Judaism in Black Africa and its Diaspora” from October 30-31, 2010.  You can find more information here.

Although the flight from the US to Israel and most other expenses are covered by the Birthright organization, this group needs our help to get a flight to Miami so they can go on this amazing journey. We have already raised $5215, and need $7285 more to cover round-trip flights from Suriname to Miami for all 16 of the eligible youth. You can read more about this opportunity at www.kulanu.org/blog, and see the full proposal including biographies of each trip candidate by clicking here.

If you have already contributed, thank you so much! If not, just send a check to Kulanu (NYC office address is below) or donate online at www.kulanu.org/donate — make sure to put “Suriname” in your check memo or online comments. Another way to support this resilient group is by spreading the word to your networks about this appeal. Email your friends and colleagues, or “tweet” the line below or post it to your Facebook page!

Help Kulanu send 16 from Suriname to Israel. If they get to Miami, all expenses will be paid by Birthright. tinyurl.com/surinameisraeltrip

You can learn more about the Suriname Jewish community at www.kulanu.org/suriname.

Yet, there are many people in the world who are thirsty to receive Torah and Jewish teaching, but lack the rabbis, teachers, and access needed to gain a Jewish education. They have not been known or helped by the wider Jewish community. The Jews of Suriname are one such group.

Suriname, the smallest country in South America, is home to the oldest surviving Jewish community in the Americas. Until recently, the Jewish community was disintegrating. Now, with help from Kulanu volunteers, the Jews of Suriname are working to reconnect with the Jewish past, and with the wider Jewish world.

Photo by Ryan Lee A Fong

In order to support this renaissance, the Jews of Suriname hope to send a group of its young people on Birthright Israel. There, Suriname’s young Jewish leaders will have the opportunity to see Israel, connect with Jews from all over the world, and learn Torah. Then, they are committed to returning to Suriname and bringing back what they have learned in order to strengthen and revitalize their community.

The good news is, Birthright has already agreed to include 16 Suriname participants and conduct a trip for them in their native language of Dutch, all expenses paid. The only requirement is that the community must arrange transportation for the participants to and from Miami, paying for airfare, visa fees, and other related expenses for the participants and one leader. For that, we need your help.

The Good People Fund has awarded a $2,000 matching grant. Now, we need your support to raise an additional $10,500. Your support will make a profound impact on the life of the Suriname Jewish community and its sixteen young Jewish leaders.

We hope we can count on you to help raise the balance.

Please donate online at www.kulanu.org/donate, or mail your check, payable to Kulanu in U.S. dollars, to Kulanu, 165 West End Ave, 3R, New York, NY 10023, USA. Write “Suriname” in the comments field online or the memo field on your check.

Please also pass this on to your friends via email, Facebook, or twitter. Here is sample “tweet”:
Help Kulanu send 16 from Suriname to Israel. If they get to Miami, all expenses will be paid by Birthright. tinyurl.com/surinameisraeltrip

For more photos and bios of some of the participants and a more detailed proposal, click here. www.kulanu.org/suriname/kulanu_suriname_birthright_proposal.pdf.

JJ Keki, by Lorne Mallin 2009JJ Keki returns for another fall tour from October 8 to November 9, 2010. As a leader of the Abayudaya Jewish community of Uganda, founder of an interfaith coffee coop, and a Grammy-nominated musician, Keki’s engagements have been in high demand. Kulanu is delighted to have him back in North America to present updates on his unique community and the joint Kulanu-Abayudaya sustainable development and education projects.
Click here for more about the Kulanu-Abayudaya 2010 speaking tour!

(Thanks to Lorne Mallin for this photo of JJ Keki.)

Shi Lei’s 2010 Kaifeng speaking tour has also received rave reviews, and Shi Lei has agreed to return next year for three weeks only, from February 15th through March 7th, 2011, to share the history of the fascinating Jewish community of Kaifeng. A professional tour guide in China, Shi Lei has also studied Hebrew and Jewish studies for three years in Israel, and he is an experienced lecturer. Shi Lei will discuss what Jewish traditions were lost in Kaifeng and what was preserved through the centuries, and what some young Chinese Jews are doing to re-connect to their roots now.
Click here for more about the Kulanu-Kaifeng 2011 speaking tour!
(Thanks to the Sino-Judaic Institute for this photo of Shi Lei.)

While each tour will be different, here are the basic expectations of event hosts for either speaker:

* An honorarium of $1,200 plus a travel expense contribution of $250, for a total of $1,450 per event. You are welcome to seek co-sponsors to share your event. (Save $200 by booking a date and paying a $250 deposit by June 30th, 2010!)
* A primary contact to be responsible for the event and for the speaker(s) while he is in your city.
* Accommodations, meals, and local transportation for the speaker (home hospitality is preferred).
* Event set-up requirements (eg, computer and projector) are detailed in the online Event Planning Kits, which will be released soon.

If you are interested in hosting JJ Keki, Shi Lei, or both, please fill out and submit the respective contact forms below.
To invite JJ Keki of the Abayudaya to your community, click here.
To invite Shi Lei of Kaifeng, China to your community, click here.

Thank you for your interest in connecting North American audiences with diverse Jews from across the globe, and for helping Kulanu support isolated and emerging Jewish communities worldwide!

For more information:

* about Kulanu, visit www.kulanu.org
* about the Abayudaya of Uganda, go to www.kulanu.org/abayudaya
* about the Jews of China, check out www.kulanu.org/china

Synopsis from RuthFilms.com – http://www.ruthfilms.com/the-fire-within.html

A moving documentary that is a reflection of the survival of spirit, belief, and heritage. This is the story of the unique Jewish community of Iquitos, Peru. In the late 19th century, among the adventurers who came to the Amazonian rainforest following the great rubber boom, were Jewish men from Morocco. Some of these men settled in the isolated town of Iquitos. There, they married indigenous women, raised families, and maintained names such as Cohen, Pinto, and Khan. Their original Jewish traditions became mixed with indigenous Amazonian life creating an authentic and practically unknown Jewish tradition.

Following the “discovery” of the Iquitos Jewish community, interested and well-meaning rabbis and scholars have become part of their “return” to a more normative Jewish tradition. While in the distant capital of Lima, the Jewish community is reluctant to recognize the Iquitos Jews as their own, a group of Iquitos Jews has undergone a process of conversion, and many have immigrated to Israel. Others have remained in Iquitos in hopes of helping the community flourish and grow.

By Laura Wetzler

Last chance to hop on: Jewish Life in Uganda Mitzvah Tour and Wildlife Safari. Jan. 10-23 featuring the fabulous Abayudaya Music and Dance Festival Jan. 17. Eco-tourism development project now in our 7th year.  Contact for info: laura <at> laurawetzler <dot> com, Kulanu Coordinator for Uganda.

My husband, Ken, and I will be on the tour, along with Laura Wetzler and our new newsletter editor, Judy Manelis. We’d love to have you join us!

“Next Year in Bombay” is a documentary (52 min, HD) by Jonas Pariente and Mathias Mangin.

Sharon and Sharona Galsulkar are the last educators of their Indian Jewish community, the ‘Bene Israel’, which has been residing in the Bombay region for 2000 years and is now disappearing. Genuinely Zionists and concerned by their daughters’ future, they are also committed to their community’s needs. Whose education will they sacrifice?

Screening at:

HUNTER COLLEGE
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19th, 2009, 5:30pm
Film and Media Screening Room, Hunter North 502
(enter on East 69th between Lex and Park and take elevator to 5th floor).

This is a free screening part of a MFA Thesis exhibition with the work of two other artists showing.