Welcome, New Union for Reform Judaism Congregations: Okanagan Jewish Community Association of Kelowna, British Columbia and Temple Beth Tikvah of Bend, Oregon.

Israel’s Step Towards Religious Equality: In May 2009, Israel’s High Court ordered the Israeli government to cease discrimination against the Reform and Conservative Movements by funding their conversion programs and to issue them three years of retroactive payments. The court’s decision in the case—argued by the Israel Religious Action Center—is a breakthrough for Israeli Reform Judaism in its fight for equal status and bodes well for pending High Court religious equality cases, such as requiring Israel to also pay the salaries of Reform rabbis.

First African American Female Rabbi: Upon her June 2009 HUC-JIR ordination, Alysa Stanton became the world’s first African American female rabbi. Now the spiritual leader of Congregation Bayt Shalom in Greenville, North Carolina, Rabbi Stanton is also the first African American rabbi to lead a majority white temple, representing, she says, “the new face of Judaism, a new era of inclusiveness.”

Sudan Protest Arrest: Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, was among those arrested on April 27 for civil disobedience outside the Sudanese Embassy in Washington, DC.

The group—which included five members of the United States Congress—protested the Sudanese government’s expulsion of 13 international aid agencies in Darfur, which, they said, would leave 1.1 million civilians without food aid, 1.5 million without health care, and more than 1 million without potable water. The police arrested the protestors when they refused to leave the scene.

Later, Rabbi Saperstein enlisted eighty-five rabbis from five countries in a three-day water-only fast to call attention to the Darfur crisis.

Reform Leaders Support Two-State Solution: On June 13 the Union for Reform Judaism Board of Trustees adopted a resolution to “applaud and support President Obama and his Administration for their unyielding commitment to Israel’s security and strong leadership to help achieve Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Arab peace, with two states, Israel and Palestine, living side-by-side in peace and security”; “demand that Hamas renounce terrorism”; “support the calls by the United States government…for the government of Israel to freeze all settlement construction and immediately dismantle illegal outposts”; and “encourage the Obama administration…working with its close ally and neighbor, Canada…to act as a catalyst, not imposing a solution, but rather engaging vigorously to ensure the best chances for a real and lasting peace.” Also this past June, the Central Conference of American Rabbis issued a statement articulating that Israel can live side-by-side with a Palestinian State only if the latter recognizes the permanent Jewish character of the State of Israel.

Redford Recruits Rabbi: Former HUC-JIR dean Rabbi Lee Bycel has become the first-ever executive director of The Redford Center, the San Francisco-based public advocacy sector of Robert Redford’s Sundance film brand. Bycel will lead a collaboration of community leaders and artists in developing action-based solutions to society’s pressing civic, social, and environmental ills.

Rabbinical Student Co-Launches Journal of Inter-Religious Dialogue: Joshua M. Z. Stanton, a Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion rabbinical student, and Stephanie Hughes, a Union Theological Seminary graduate student, have co-founded and are co-editing The Journal of Inter-Religious Dialogue (www.irdialogue.org) in an effort to create “an inter-religious community of scholars in which people of different traditions learn from one another and work together for the common good.”

First Son of a Woman Rabbi Ordained: Daniel Meyer, who became a rabbi at HUC-JIR in Jeru­salem last November, is the first son of a woman rabbi ever to be ordained. His mother, Rabbi Margaret Meyer (HUC-JIR, class of 1986), currently teaches in Cincinnati. His father, Dr. Michael Meyer, is Ochs Professor of Jewish History at HUC-JIR, Cincinnati. The new Rabbi Meyer serves as one of the spiritual leaders of Kehilat Ra’anan in Ra’anana, Israel.

Pencil Project: Beth-El Congregation in Fort Worth is seeking packets of new, unused yellow pencils to support Harwood Junior High School’s goal of collecting 6,000,000 pencils to build a memorial in the shape of the yellow Star of David. The number commemorates the six million Jewish lives lost in the Holocaust; the pencils symbolize the writings of Anne Frank and the “erasing” of so many Jewish people. Send donations to Beth-El Congregation, 4900 Briar­haven Road, Fort Worth, Texas 76109.