Against a backdrop this past weekend of unpleasant weather and political unrest in Britain and Israel, celebrations at two Progressive synagogues in both countries have helped to lift the spirits of those who were present.
The first, conducted online via Zoom technology, was a ‘special’ Sabbath morning service hosted by Menorah Cheshire Reform Synagogue’s Paraguayan-born Rabbi Fabian Sborovsky.
This centred on the 40th wedding anniversary celebrations of Eve Davidson and Clive Gilbert and Rabbi Sborovsky highlighted the couple’s tireless efforts in the field of social justice.
Attendees, many mentioned by name, tuned in from areas stretching from Manchester to Glasgow, where Eve was born and on to Israel.
Today, in what was both a literal and figurative groundbreaking ceremony, a plaque was unveiled at a formal dedication marking the completion of a new garden at the Kehilat Hakerem Masorti Congregation in Karmiel, Galilee.
The project, much of it quietly coordinated and completed during the Coronavirus pandemic ‘lockdown’, has been dedicated to the memory of US-born émigrée, Shoshanna Yuval by her widow, Elisheva. The couple settled in Israel in 2014 but Shoshanna died only four years later.
Two shofarim – ram’s horns – were blown from a COVID-19 regulatory distance at the ceremony’s conclusion, each by UK-born Caroline Ben-Ari and Mike Cronin. Caroline’s shofar once belonged to Shoshanna, who was a keen musician.
© Natalie Wood (30 August 2020)
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