ACT rabbi represents Australia Jewry in Mexico
The ACT Jewish Community’s Rabbi Alon Meltzer has attended the biennial meeting of the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture in Mexico.
The Canberra-based rabbi represented the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.
Representatives: Rabbi Alon Meltzer is 3rd from left
The Foundation, created by Nahum Goldmann, the architect of the Claims Conference and the World Jewish Congress has at its core the mission of reestablishing and fostering Jewish culture and scholarship lost in the Holocaust.
The biennial meeting followed the foundation’s flagship program the Nahum Goldmann Fellowship, in Cuernavaca, Mexico, and was attended by leading figures of the Jewish world.
Marlene Bethlehem, Past President of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, and Jonathan Arkush, President of the British Board of Deputies, were elected as President of the Memorial Foundation, and Chairman of the executive committee, respectively.
Outgoing President, Professor Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, previous chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, stressed the importance of the mandate of the Memorial Foundation, notably its three pillars; the fostering of the Jewish academic world, the cultural renaissance of the Jewish people, and the development of emerging and established leaders. The Foundation offers several scholarships and academic grants, as well as runs the annual International Nahum Goldmann Fellowship.
This year’s Fellowship also included the inaugural Alumni Leadership Seminar, which saw 12 alumni, as well as 36 fellows, join together from across the religious and political spectrum of the Jewish world, for an intensive 8 day program.
Speaking to the Board, Rabbi Meltzer, who attended the alumni seminar and was a fellow at the 27th Fellowship in 2015, described the importance of fostering a new generation of leaders to work in tandem with the establishment of Jewish institutions, as well as the cultivation of innovative leaders and programs that enhance our wider community.
The Board stressed the importance of the widening the scope of the Memorial Foundation, by seeking new member organisations to compliment the missions of the Memorial Foundation, and the existing 23 member organisations.
