2022 Kulanu Impact Stories – Italy
Dear Friends,
As 2022 comes to a close, we are reflecting on Kulanu’s support for global Jewish communities over the past year, and showing how your donations transform Jewish lives. Today, we want to share developments from Italy’s Sinagoga Ner Tamid del Sud (The Eternal Light of South Italy) community.
This community is particularly dear to us because Kulanu’s Vice President, Rabbi Barbara Aiello, serves as rabbi. Jews from across the Mediterranean and beyond are served by this trailblazing synagogue. Crypto-Jews, converts, and ex-pats – both in Italy and across the world – call this synagogue home.
A true pioneer, Rabbi Barbara is Italy’s first woman rabbi. The community receives no government funding because they are not orthodox, and COVID-19 restrictions curtailed their primary source of income (destination lifecycle events.) Despite this – and with Kulanu’s assistance – they continue to thrive and offer meaningful modes of Jewish connection to their diverse congregants.
Rabbi Barbara says:
“We are so grateful to be a Kulanu community. We’ve received a lot of help in the form of donated books that Kulanu collects in the US and ships to us in Italy. Shipping costs are so expensive these days, beyond our community’s budget. Having access to modern, egalitarian, pluralistic books is essential for educating our children appropriately, and for holding services where everyone is literally on the same page.”
“For my students who have no physical access to a Judaica store, established family tradition, nobody from whom to receive ritual items, Judaica passed along from Kulanu with its own heritage and history is so meaningful. My students get to become custodians of pieces of Jewish history as they enter the Jewish people. It might not seem like a big thing for someone who grew up Jewish, but to us it is really significant.”
Your donations help Kulanu’s partner communities to flourish – just like Sinagoga Ner Tamid del Sud. Our partner communities truly enrich the Jewish world.
Please donate online now to secure Kulanu’s future! Your contributions alone allow us to continue our mission of supporting isolated, emerging, and returning Jewish communities around the globe.
With warm regards from “all of us” at Kulanu.
PS – If you have already given, thank you! We appreciate your generosity.