Panel will discuss trip to Israel Dec. 7
A trip to Israel will be the focus of a presentation by Or Emet, the Minnesota Congregation for Humanistic Judaism.
A panel of four Or Emet members, Faith and Steve Oremland and Janet Mayer and Paul Petzschke, will present a discussion 7:30-9 p.m. Friday, Dec. 7. They will examine how their recent visit to Israel with a humanistic rabbi as guide affected their thinking on Israel’s culture, religion and politics. The goal of the program is to generate dialogue and reflection on one’s relationship to the state of Israel.
The program will be at the Minneapolis Sabes Jewish Community Center, 4330 Cedar Lake Road S., St. Louis Park. A short humanistic Jewish Sabbath service will precede the free program. An Oneg Shabbat reception will follow.
Four questions will be asked of the panel, followed by questions and comments from the audience.
Each of the panelists comes from a different upbringing and different experiences that have shaped their feelings about Israel: Faith Oremland comes from an Orthodox Jewish family while Steve Oremland comes from a childhood with little celebration of Jewish holidays or ritual.
Mayer’s parents fled Hitler’s Austria and eventually settled in a New Jersey suburb within a Reform Jewish community. Petzschke’s Jewish mother died when he was an infant, and his adoptive non-Jewish parents were political refugees from Germany.
Info: oremet.org.
