Or Chadasch:
VIENNA CONGREGATION OFFERS TO HELP SLOVAKIANS ESTABLISH PROGRESSIVE COMMUNITY

Leaders of Congregation Or Chadasch in Vienna have met with liberal-minded members of the Bratislava Jewish community, 50 miles to the east in Slovakia, who expressed interest in establishing a Progressive congregation of their own. The meeting followed a visit to Bratislava by London-based Rabbi Andrew Goldstein, who plans to return to Slovakia during Purim. The two communities will begin holding joint community activities, including a Pesach Seder. In the meantime, members of the Vienna congregation will investigate ways to assist the Bratislavans in setting up a congregation.

Or Chadasch - Wien

Beth Schalom:
MUNICH'S HOMOLKA TO HEAD GERMAN GREENPEACE

Walter Homolka, associate rabbi of Munich's Congregation Beth Shalom and deputy chairman of the Union of Progressive Jews in German-speaking Europe, is to become executive director of Greenpeace in Germany starting March 1. Homolka, who has served Beth Shalom in a volunteer capacity, was chief of staff to the president and CEO of the Bertelsmann publishing concern. "Justice and the preservation of creation have always been priority issues in my life," says Rabbi Homolka, who views working with Greenpeace as "a privilege."

Greenpeace/Germany has a staff of 120 and an annual budget of DM 66.9 million raised from half a million local supporters. In assuming his new position, Homolka will be leaving Munich for the state of Lower Saxony, where he will serve as spiritual leader for a number of communities.

Beth Shalom - München

Germany:
MACHZOR WITH PLAUT COMMENTARY TO BE PUBLISHED

The Union of American Hebrew Congregations has authorized the translation of the Plaut Torah Commentary into German. The book will be published by Guetersloher Verlagshaus in fall, 1998.

Annette Boeckler, translator of the prayerbook of the Union of Progressive Jews in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, "Seder ha-Tefilot," will be project manager. Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut will himself participate in the process of reworking and adapting the commentary, which shall become the backbone of contemporary torah study in German-speaking Progressive congregations. Knesebeck is set to publish the new Hebrew-German Union Haggadah in spring, 1998. Edited and with a commentary by Rabbi Dr. Michael Shire, and translated by Annette Boeckler, it will include illuminations from medieval haggadot from the collection of the British Library.

Thus, by end of 1998, all three pillars of German congregational life - a mahzor with modern translation and commentary, the liturgy and the Pesach Haggadah - will be in place.

Dr. Walter Homolka zieht nach Hamburg
Dr. Walter Homolka (33) wurde zum Ersten Geschäftsführer von Greenpeace Deutschland bestellt. Er übernimmt seine Aufgabe am 1. März 1998.

Quelle: The Electronic Newsletter of the WORLD UNION FOR PROGRESSIVE JUDAISM