This Friday Special Guest Speaker from Los Angeles,
Matthew Fragner, of the Jewish National Fund

As we complete celebrating a week of Pesach, we think about leaving enslavement behind. Only when we have the depth of experience brought about by eating the special Pesach foods, only when we experience personally our escape from the brutality of Pharaoh, only then can redemption happen. Redemption happens when we remember where we came from and where we are going.

Historically, leaving Mitzrayim was not only about leaving a bad place, but moving toward a good place, eventually the Promised Land. Shortly after the conclusion of Pesach, we observe the tragic memorial of the Holocaust, Yom Hashoah, Sunday, April 11, (at Mosaic Law Congregation at 7:00 p.m.–8:30 p.m.) which is followed a little over a week later by Yom Ha'atma'ut, Israel Independence Day, Monday, April 19.

In our congregation this week, we'll make the passage from the end of Passover to the story of redemption in our time as we are honored this coming Friday by a representative from the Jewish National Fund who will talk about Israel today and how we continue to affirm its redemptive nature even with all the current and age-old issues.

One of the sweetest religious-school memories linking us to Israel has to do with collecting quarters to buy a tree in Israel. We did this every year as a show of support for that special land called Israel so very far away. It was JNF, the Jewish National Fund, founded in 1901, that helped turn those collected quarters neatly pushed on cardboard into the 240 million trees thriving in Israel today. Over the past 107 years, JNF has evolved into a global environmental leader by building over 200 reservoirs and dams, developing over 250,000 acres of land, creating more than 1,000 parks, providing the infrastructure for over 1,000 communities, bringing life to the Negev Desert, and educating students around the world about Israel and the environment.

From a specially trained cadre of highly involved JNF volunteers, we will be welcoming Mathew Fragner from Los Angeles, who is flying up especially to be our 2nd Friday speaker. Mr. Fragner has wide experience as an attorney and a businessperson. He is the founding partner of the law firm of Fragner Seifert Pace & Winograd, LLP, general counsel of The CIM Group, and an officer and director of Extengine, Inc., a technology integrator in the field of diesel emission reduction and biofuels.

Please join us this coming Friday in welcoming Mr. Mathew Fragner as we walk together out of Mitzrayim toward the promised and viable land of Israel.

Shalom,

Rabbis Nancy and David