My name is Jeannette Orantes. I’m president of the Asociación Judía Reformista de Guatemala Adat Israel in Guatemala City. Miss Rebecca (Rivka) Orantes, my daughter, is my right hand. Both of us volunteer for our synagogue.
We have been an active community since 2005 and we continue to grow. In 2011, we met Rabbi Elyse Goldstein of Toronto, Canada, who has become our volunteer rabbi as well. Through her, we met Daneel Schaechter, an energetic young man who represents Kulanu and who visited us in 2012. Since then we have created a beautiful friendship between Adat Israel Guatemala, Rabbi Elyse, and Kulanu. With the assistance of Harriet Bograd, Kulanu has provided tremendous support to our young community. We are very grateful to them for their constant desire to help us, which in our country is very necessary.
Recently, we achieved our first big project’s completion, thanks to Jonathan Popper and his bar mitzvah project. We received funds which we used to make our children more comfortable in the community and at the same time learn Torah, a little Hebrew, halacha, and many other topics that we want them to learn so that they may continue our traditions: L’Dor V’Dor. The children’s room has many materials so that the teachers can plan for and develop different activities. Through crafts they will learn special topics from the weekly parashot. As this donation reached us just before Rosh Hashanah, we followed the tradition of dipping apples in honey so that our next year will be as sweet as the honey. The children also made cards to wish their families to be written in the Book of Life.
The second project is to buy more benches for our members, so everybody can be seated comfortably. They are made by artisans from Guatemala. We all will be very glad to have them.
The third project is to have a real Ner Tamid for the synagogue. This project was more complicated because in Guatemala we are just learning what a Ner Tamid is and what it’s for. My daughter and I went to the URJ (Union of Reform Judaism) North American Biennial in Boston, Massachusetts last year. While we were there, we saw many beautiful Judaica items. Both Rivka and I were particularly astonished by a glass artist who created unique pieces full of color and dedication. There was a magnificent Ner Tamid which we thought would be perfect for our room where the aron kodesh (ark) is in Guatemala. We were disappointed when we discovered the price was unthinkable. My daughter Rivka approached the artist, Claude Riedel ( clauderiedelart.com ), and told her story, and he lowered the price to fit our grant from Kulanu.
Many miracles happen around Adat Israel, and having Jonathan Popper as well as Kulanu as friends is one of the best. We are very grateful for this donation and we invite you to visit Guatemala in Central America to experience our community. Thank you, Jonathan! Mazel Tov on your becoming a bar mitzvah! Thank you from the bottom of our heart! Shalom and Lehitraot!
Jeannette
Read more: A Bar Mitzvah to Benefit Guatemala