Emissaries for Israel

Guest speaker, Israeli Consul General, Giora Becher

The Consul General of Israel, Giora Becher, was the guest speaker at the 2004 graduation ceremony of the Philadelphia Mini-School. Instead of reporting on the current situation in Israel, he spoke of the importance of on-going Adult Jewish Learning. He congratulated the students on their achievement and conferred upon them the status of emissaries for the State of Israel. He said that now, after their studies with the Mini-School, they understand that the latest news story didn't begin with whatever just occurred, but with all of the history that came before. Context is what is needed to understand the headlines, and he charged the graduates with being informed spokesmen for the State of Israel.

Interestingly, both the Consul General and Debby Malissa, director of the Philadelphia Mini-School focused on the relationship between Melton and Israel. Debby, in her address to the graduates, spoke about the need to support Israel and the wonderful experience graduates could gain from the Israel Seminars while referring to all the lessons pertaining to Israel in the Mini-School curriculum.

Norma Reichlin, Irv Matusow and Richard Moore spoke on behalf of their fellow students, each representing one of the three graduating classes with a total of 45 graduates. As customary, two members of the faculty also spoke, Rabbi Margot Stein gave the invocation, and Dr. Emilie Passow gave the benediction. To conclude this wonderful evening, Rabbi Shawn Zevit led all present in the singing of the national anthems of the U.S and Israel.

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