Last Shabbat I spent the last of my three Friday evenings at Or Hadash. I had arranged to meet a long-time friend of Rabbi Arnold's - Rabbi Bob Samuels. He founded Or Hadash and is the retired headmaster of the Leo Baeck Institute. He is still quite active in other projects, including the Israeli Reform Movement Rabbi's Association. What a treasure!
We left after Kiddush. He drove us to his home in Ein Hod - south of Haifa. I met his wife Annette and his brother-in-law as well. We had a wonderful Shabbat dinner and I learned much more about his work bringing Reform/Progressive/Pluralistic Judaism to Haifa and to Israel. They made aliyah in 1962 - quite a life's work!
Here's the website for Ein Hod. It's an artist's village. They built a house there in the middle to late 80's. His wife is a violinist and through a juried interview, they were eligible to join the village. http://ein-hod.israel.net/ It's obviously a place at which many of us would enjoy spending more time - various artist galleries, etc.
Here's the website for Or Hadash
http://www.or-hadash.org.il/index.html
And the link for Leo Baeck Institute http://www.leobaeck.org.il/ You can see that it is quite extensive in the populations it serves - as is Or Hadash.
Again - everyone in Israel has a story and Bob and Annette's was very interesting and informative.
Rabbi Heath
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