It happened in the winter of 1974, and I still remember the phone call from my friend Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald like it was yesterday.
I worked with him the previous summer at the West Coast Torah Leadership Seminar hosted by Yeshiva University in New York City. He said musicians were needed for a new informal Jewish education program being planned overseas. Effie said she couldn't believe it was happening in “Australia”. I laughed and said, “Yes!” He first heard about a Jewish assistance program later called Counterpoint.
To fully understand how this “new” program developed, we must go back 20 years to the founding of Torah Leadership Seminars (TLS) in the early 1950s. The seminar, run by the Youth Bureau of Yeshiva University's (YU) Community Services Department under the direction of Abraham Stern, was attended by Jewish teenagers who attended public schools. Twice a year, during winter break and during the final week of summer break, these students took part in his week-long studyathons in the northeastern United States, the west coast of the United States, and central Canada.
The program featured music, drama and media, as well as learning sessions with lots of discussion. The participants received the necessary Jewish education, and the staff, nearly all men and women, came from the university's undergraduate programs, allowing them to develop unique leadership skills. In 1972, YU launched the Yeshiva Seminar, which aimed to do for Jewish day school students what the Torah Leadership Seminar had done for co-religionists attending public schools.
A little more than a year later, in the summer of 1973 (winter in Australia), Rabbi Norman Lamb (then professor of philosophy), who would eventually become president of YU, traveled to Australia to lecture in Melbourne and Sydney. His appearances at various Jewish institutions in both cities were very successful. One of the venues he spoke at was Mount Scopus Memorial University in Melbourne. With a student population of 2,500, it was one of the largest Jewish full-time schools in the world at the time.
During Down Under, Rabbi Lamb and his wife Mindy hosted Hans and Gini Bachrach. Hans was a generous benefactor and activist in the Jewish community, funding Lam's entire speaking tour. When the Lamb family returned home, Mindy turned to her husband and said that what she really needed in Australia was a Torah leadership seminar. After hearing about this revolutionary educational program, Bachrach agreed to sponsor the entire project, including bringing in a staff of unofficial Jewish education experts from the United States.
Funding was no problem, so Mr Stern flew to Melbourne a few months later to arrange logistics. When he returned to New York, he asked Hillel Davis, future UC vice president for university life, to lead a team of 15 people.
Together, they selected some of the best Torah figures Torah Leadership Seminars have produced over the past decade. Many of them were rabbis and religious leaders throughout the English-speaking world. Rabbi Joseph Telushkin is a writer of both fiction and nonfiction, and his biography of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, would rank at the top of the New York Times bestseller list. .
Rabbi Saul Berman became the pulpit rabbi of the world-famous Lincoln Square Synagogue in New York and eventually founded Eda, an organization dedicated to the revitalization of Modern Orthodox ideology and religious life. Did. Also on the team was Rabbi Ephraim Buchwald. He was originally the director of education at Lincoln Square Synagogue, the founder of Novice Services, and the founder of the National Jewish Outreach Program (National Sabbath).
One of the team's six female advisors, Susan (Metzger) Weiss (who eventually moved to Jerusalem) is the founder and executive director of the Women's Justice Center in Israel, and is the founder and executive director of the Women's Justice Center in Israel. Working to find solutions to problems. divorce.
Our Counterpoint team flew to Australia at the end of June 1974. We first stopped in Los Angeles where he spent a day at Disneyland and conducted Shabbat programs at various local synagogues. From there we flew to Hawaii for a few days of rest and relaxation.
Some of our rabbinical staff have been studying the religion for years, and when we were greeted at the Honolulu airport by local women in grass skirts who presented each of us with a flower lei. However, some people were not prepared for what to do. They said “Aloha” and we said “Shalom”.
After arriving in Australia, we headed to Mount Scopus Memorial University in Melbourne to meet the students. Our attire surprised the students. To them, rabbis stood in pulpits in suits and ties, looking down on their congregations. They had never seen a long-haired, jeans-wearing rabbi sitting on the floor addressing a circle of students.
It was this informal atmosphere that really intrigued the staff during the 14-hour train journey from Melbourne to Sydney, where the nine-day seminar was scheduled to take place. A five-day event was held to train local staff for future Counterpoint events, as well as a weekend Shabbat program at various Orthodox synagogues in Melbourne. Perth's Jewish community heard what was happening on Australia's east coast and flew four members of the team west for a weekend program.
The message that sobriety and piety could now be combined spread across the country and left its mark on local Jewish communities for years to come.
As our trip drew to a close, Melbourne's Jewish community, in partnership with Mount Scopus, organized a gala event at the local town hall. He joined more than 1,000 parents and students in singing and dancing as they bid farewell to a summer and winter that we will all remember forever.
After seven grueling weeks, the team was finally on its way home. First, we needed to stop for some well-deserved rest and relaxation, and this time it was in New Zealand. Then, before returning to New York, he made one more stop in Seattle, where he staffed YU's final team members for his West Coast Torah Leadership seminar.
What seemed like the end of the story was actually just the beginning.
Yeshiva University sent Counterpoint teams to Australia for the next 31 years. In 1975, together with four members of the previous year's Australian team, they brought this now world-famous Jewish aid program to South Africa, where it ran as a counterpoint until 1982.
Rabbi Selwyn Franklin, who was a member of both the Australian and South African teams, soon accepted a pulpit in Durban, South Africa, and later in Sydney, Australia. When asked years later what he saw as Counterpoint's impact on the local Jewish community, he replied: “In both countries, the overwhelming majority of synagogue members belonged to Orthodox congregations. Therefore, the majority of those involved could be defined as 'non-observant Orthodox Jews.' ”
As a result, the task of community leaders, including the rabbis, was to introduce the faithful to real, Torah-based Judaism. With the active support of Jewish schools in Australia and South Africa, Counterpoint brings Jewish teenagers to a week-long intensive seminar that helps thousands of young Jews become more committed. I adopted a Jewish spiritual lifestyle. In this respect, Counterpoint to date has had a major impact on the continuity of Australian and South African Jewry.
Johnny Klug played a key role in the Counterpoint teams that toured Australia in 1976, 1977 and 1979. Speaking about his trip:
“The experience of being part of Counterpoint, whose creativity, innovation, and imagination push the boundaries of Jewish non-formal education curriculum and programs, was the most exhilarating and exhilarating event I have ever been a part of. It was at the same time the most exhausting and taxing time. I had the special privilege and privilege of returning to Melbourne for the 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003 programs. It was a valuable opportunity for me to follow up with others and see the fruits of my labor and the fruits of my labor. It was a valuable opportunity for me to follow up with others and see the fruits of my labor and the fruits of my labor. to assess and witness the immeasurable impact.”
This year marks 50 years since the first team arrived in Australia. To commemorate this event, a reunion called Counterpoint 50 will be held in Israel on July 4, 2024.
Thousands of students and hundreds of staff from Australia, South Africa and the United States who have participated in all programs over the years will be invited.
So why did we choose Jerusalem as the location for this event? Not only is Israel the center of the Jewish world, but it is also where many of Counterpoint's alumni and staff have settled for many years. is.
Eleven of the 15 members of the original team that went to Australia 50 years ago made aliyah. The purpose of the evening is for participants to relive their formative experiences at Counterpoint and to reconnect people who have not seen each other in years. In Australia we say “evening bee cracker of an evening”, which means “it's going to be great”. See you again, buddy!
The author was the musician for both the first Counterpoint in Australia in 1974 and the first Counterpoint in South Africa in 1975. In 1980 he returned to his Australian counterpart again, this time accompanied by his new wife. They currently live in Israel with their children and grandchildren.