WCJCS Session at NAASE Israel Conference, February 26, 2005

WCJCS held a reception and a program session as part of the North American Association of Synagogue Executives (NAASE) program in Israel; Over 70 professionals attended

As part of the WCJCS effort to connect and collaborate with professional organizations around the world, WCJCS Israel made contact with NAASE leadership in relation to the organization’s Conference in Israel, February 21-28, 2005, which included 134 participants.

It was agreed that the WCJCS would host a session during the NAASE Conference, an event that occurs in Israel every five years. WCJCS Associate President Howard Weisband and Associate Executive Vice President Dorit Rom attended the NAASE Installation Banquet on February 24th, and WCJCS hosted an Oneg Shabbat reception on Shabbat afternoon, February 26th, 2005 at the Jerusalem Sheraton Plaza Hotel.

The very successful and well attended Shabbat session began with an introduction by NAASE President Glenn Easton, who explained the importance of the WCJCS to national organizations like NAASE, connecting them to Jewish professionals in different fields not only in North America, but around the world.

WCJCS Associate President, Howard Weisband, welcomed the NAASE constituents and the attending WCJCS Board members to this special session. Mr. Weisband presented the WCJCS and its work around the world, and invited the NAASE constituents to become involved in the organization and in the planning of the upcoming WCJCS Conference, to take place in Jerusalem, June 27-29, 2006.

WCJCS Office Director and Conference Coordinator, Maayan Schneider, presented the 2006 conference and its major proposed topics: Human Services, Jewish Education, and Community Building. Ms. Schneider referred the attendees to the hand-out list of Clusters and Professional Tracks, and noted that as synagogue administrators, they can contribute from their knowledge and experience to all three of these areas; we welcome their input.

WCJCS Board Member Solomon Green, a veteran communal professional and former Dean of the Yeshiva University Wurzweiler School of Social Work, provided a brief D’var Torah relating the week’s Parashat Ki-Tisa to the Jewish communal profession.

Howard Weisband concluded the session quoting two contemporary Jewish thinkers, Prof. David Hartman (WCJCS’s 2003 Quadrennial Keynote Speaker) and the late Prof. Daniel Elazar. Each spoke in his own way of the importance of living as Jews, spiritually and communally, within the global Jewish community and as part of the world at large. Creating connections between NAASE as a national professional organization and WCJCS, a global one, will help our professional community achieve these mutual goals.
To visit the NAASE site, please click here.

We hope this session will open the door to continuing contact between NAASE and WCJCS, and we welcome ideas and contributions from NAASE members, for we all share in the goal of strengthening Klal Yisrael.