CER Teams Up With Orthodox Union To Spread Torah In Central Europe

Berlin - 1-Dec-05

The Orthodox Union, the umbrella organisation for hundreds of Orthodox kehillot across the USA and Canada, is bringing its expertise in kiruv work to Europe.

Following an appeal from Rabbi J. Spinner, a Canadian-born rabbi who has devoted the last six years to rebuilding Jewish life and Torah observance in Germany, the OU has announced that it will provide the skills, experience, techniques and materials developed over 50 years of outreach by its National Conference of Synagogue Youth to create an NCSY-type program in Berlin and other areas in Central Europe in conjunction with an educational initiative already in existence in the German capital.

The announcement follows a highly successful trip to Germany at the end of  November by a senior OU delegation comprising OU National Executive Director Rabbi Moshe D. Krupka; Rabbi S. Burg, National Director of NCSY,  OU President Stephen J. Savitsky and OU Senior Vice President Stanley Weinstein.

The initiative for the programme came from a meeting earlier this year between Rabbi Aba Dunner, Secretary General of the Conference of European Rabbis, and Mr Moshe Bane, OU Senior Vice President. Rabbi Dunner suggested ways that the OU could assist in providing assistance to vital kiruv initiatives in Germany and other parts of Central Europe.

Rabbi Dunner had told the OU of the urgency and challenge to engage with new Jewish communities arriving in Central Europe from the former Soviet Union.

“There are now around 250,000 Jews in Germany and Hungary,” Rabbi Dunner explained, adding that the Jews in Germany for the most part had come from the Former Soviet Union and were granted benefits and incentives to move to Germany.

“While it is unfortunately accurate to say that many of these people have had little or no connection to Jewish life, they possess a real thirst to understand Jewish tradition and Jewish heritage,” Rabbi Dunner said. 

Hence the importance of Rabbi Spinner's programme in Berlin.

"Rabbi Spinner is a young, dynamic individual who grew up in Canada, was educated at Columbia University, received semichah in Yerushalayim, and has lived for the last six years in Berlin.  Through a grant from the Lauder Foundation, he established the Bais Medrash of Berlin with the goal of serving as the hub for outreach of Torah education in Central Europe," OU President Mr Savitsky said.

He pointed out that the Bais Medrash  has approximately 50 students, all from Germany and Hungary, and has just started a semichah program. This will enable some of the bochrim to return to their kehilos as rabbonim and teachers, a vital tool in strengthening an authentic, local life of Torah observance in Central Europe.

The Bais Medrash has also already established outreach centers in several German cities and in Budapest.

"While we were there, several young men from Budapest came to spend a Shabbos in the Bais Medrash.  If you closed your eyes for a moment, these young men looked just like the teenagers who come to our NCSY Shabbatonim," Mr. Savitsky said. 

A Relationship Is Born

As a result of the trip, the OU is in the process of establishing a relationship with the Bais Medrash which will be called the Ronald Lauder Bais Medrash of Berlin/OU/NCSY Outreach Program for Central Europe.

According to Mr. Savitsky, "We will be providing them with access to all of the wealth of materials that we have developed over the years at NCSY.  They will reprint many of our manuals, birconim and other materials in Russian, German, and Hungarian.  They will also send some of their leaders to the United States to be trained in outreach by our NCSY professionals. Additionally we will probably send a small group once or twice a year to help them develop a successful outreach program there," Mr. Savitsky said. 

In a report to OU Officers and Members of the Board of Directors explaining what he termed "a most exciting breakthrough at the OU," Mr. Savitsky wrote, "I am excited about the opportunity to take our expertise at the OU/NCSY and make it available to a population that is in dire need of our sophistication and our skills.  It is an opportunity and a responsibility that we have at the OU because we are no longer just a North American organization but really an international organization. There are other places in the world besides North America and Israel that need our expertise and we should feel a responsibility to help wherever possible."

And the CER's Rabbi Dunner hopes that this will be the first of many partnerships between the OU and the CER in Europe.

“This is such a natural relationship,” Rabbi Dunner said. “The OU represents Orthodox kehillos in North America and our rabbanim are the leaders of Orthodox kehillot here in Europe. Sharing skills and experiences like this can have immense benefit for clal yisroel.”       ENDS