Memizrach Shemesh – Our tradition of social responsibility

Jewish Social Leadership Training in Jerusalem

From New York City to Jerusalem to Budapest, participants in the Jewish Social Leadership Training Program gathered in the office of Jerusalem’s Memizrach Shemesh January 4-10 in the first of a series of meetings designed to engage participants from vastly different Jewish communities in Jewish values and traditional texts as sources for solutions to contemporary social issues. Though the exchange has run for several years now, this is the first time it has included Jewish communities from three different countries.

Come As You Are: Audible Authenticity:

Moshe Shriki knows firsthand how challenging it can be to navigate Israel’s education system. Having received his primary education in the disadvantaged Pat neighborhood of Jerusalem, he was originally described as a “gifted” student. However, Shriki had issues keeping up when he began high school in the Katamon neighborhood. He was quickly labeled a trouble-maker and his grades plummeted. According to Shriki, “I saw that there were gaps between all of us students who came from Pat and those who came from other neighborhoods.”