ARZA

ARZA is the "man in the street", if you will, in Israel for the Reform movement. There we are known as wearing many hats. We foster the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism (Reform) in Israel (An arm of the Reform movement). We are the sponsors and originators of the Israel Religious Action Committee, now a most formidable legal organization fighting for religious pluralism in Israel. They have won many a legal campaign in Israel's Supreme Court against the efforts of the ultra Orthodox ruling parties in the Knesset s to make Israel a totally Orthodox country.

ARZA also funds community outreach, Kindergartens, Day Schools, and youth programs. ARZA also supports public schools with a pluralistic agenda. The Leo Beck high school in Haifa is a prime example of the success of such schools in Israel. These schools are proud of the very long lists of student names waiting for an opening to be able to attend.

In Israel the synagogue that the majority of the Jewish People DON'T attend is Orthodox. Israelis are learning through our efforts that there is another alternative: a Progressive Synagogue. There are over 120 Progressive Community centers serving religious needs, some with Rabbis, most not, as yet. But we see an overwhelming desire for an alternative.

We have something else to offer instead of the pervading blaming why bad things happen, i.e. a school bus being struck by a train because the school's mizzahs were no longer kosher. Or being told by the former Chief Rabbi of the Sephards in Israel, Rabbi Ovidah Yoseph, that" the Jews who were slaughtered during the Holocaust were punished because they had sinned in earlier incarnations."

The Israelis are waking up to the hope of religious pluralism.. By Joining ARZA you become a fighter in that campaign ;a fighter to prevent Israel from becoming a Torah State, one in which all of us would feel like outcasts.