Maintaining a synagogue and its components - kitchen, mikvah and Hebrew school -- along with upholding personal observance in a community with minimal religious infrastructure can be extremely challenging, Grunstein admits, but says that his studies at the Straus Seminary’s Amiel - Rabbi Emanuel Rackman Practical Rabbinics Program prepared him thoroughly with “a vivid and coherent picture” of Jewish life in small Diaspora communities.

Rabbi Boaz Pash, who has led the 1000-member Jewish community of Lisbon, Portugal, for the past two years, agrees. “People who live in Israel, or in a large Diaspora Jewish community, can be completely unaware of the situation in the rest of the Jewish world,” says Pash, who recently re-opened Lisbon's 100-year-old synagogue after renovations, established a Jewish library and community center and is about to launch a Jewish Sunday school. “Our studies in Straus’s Amiel Program gave us a clear picture of what's happening in these communities, and prepared us for dealing with the kind of problems that we wouldn’t often encounter in Israel, such as intermarriage, or the lack of Jewish infrastructure.” Pash notes that the two oldest of his five children, ages 17 and 14, remain in dormitory schools in Israel because there is no Jewish education in Lisbon. Still, the rabbi insists, he and his wife, Sara, intend to stay in the community “as long as we are needed here.”

The Straus Seminary maintains an ongoing, supportive connection with its graduates while they are in the field via correspondence, personal visits and an annual convention in Israel for current and past emissaries. Last year, a regional conference took place in Germany for the Straus graduates serving in Europe, and recently the seminary sponsored a gathering of its North American alumni in Teaneck, New Jersey. “The camaraderie of meeting one another and confronting together common challenges is a great source of inspiration and strength,” attests Rabbi Chaim Brovender, Rosh Yeshiva of the Straus Rabbinical Seminary. Rabbi Eliahu Birnbaum, Director of the seminary’s Amiel Program adds, “The seminars offer the graduates an opportunity to compare strategy and method with their peers, keep abreast of new developments in the profession, and recharge their batteries.” In addition, Straus faculty maintains contact with its graduates through a weekly e-mail newsletter and an interactive website, where experiences and ideas can be shared.

	Rabbi Natan Levy (right) receives his Joseph Straus Rabbinical  Seminary Semicha certificate from Rabbi Shuki Reich, head of the David Falk Kollel. Levy will be taking up a position in Bristol, England.

For Rabbi Avichai Appel and his wife, Bilha, the newsletter helps alleviate the feeling of isolation that is one of the most difficult challenges of their work in Dortmund, Germany. The first Orthodox rabbi ever to serve the community of some 4,000 Jews, Appel met his wife while they were both on shlichut in Belarus, in the former Soviet Union and stresses that she, like the wives of other Straus rabbis, is a full partner in all communal activities. Appel was first placed in Berlin by the Straus Seminary; while there, he organized youth activities in 50 communities across Germany with the cooperation and assistance of the Association of German Congregations (Z.W.S.C.). Since moving to Dortmund in December, 2004, the Appels have begun a Sunday school program which now encompasses 45 children, run a bi-weekly beit midrash program for university students, and are emphasizing family activities such as shared Shabbat meals and family weekend events.

With several families deciding to keep kosher, Appel has helped open a small kosher store in the community that sells basic foods. He has already performed three Jewish weddings, initiated a course for 12 bar and bat mitzvah aged youth and has organized a group of 25 teenagers for a trip to Israel this summer. Friday night synagogue services, where the average age was once 75, now include 50 to 70 youth each week.

The community includes both German and Russian Jews, notes Appel, most of them completely secular. “My aim is to help each and every one of them explore his or her heritage,” he says, “and to make Judaism a meaningful and relevant part of their lives.”

 

"Every students's work is a true reflection of her soul," says Ofra Kirshenbaum, who coordinates the art track at the Shavei Rachel Girl's High School, under the auspices of the Ann Belsky Moranis School of Arts. A poignant example is the final project by Atara Blaustein, which eloquently expresses the pain of losing her mother, Sarah z"l, murdered by Palestinian terrorists en route from Eftrat to Jerusalem in May 2001.

 

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