Rabbi Warren Goldstein
The Shabbat Project
Summary
Rabbi Warren Goldstein talks to us about the Shabbat Project in order to help us understand how a small local project, started in South Africa, could go on to spread across the globe. He goes on to to look at it as a case study in order to see the lessons that can be learned from it.
Rabbi Warren Goldstein
Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein is the current Chief Rabbi of South Africa and a global Jewish leader. Often referred to as a “spiritual entrepreneur” he has launched and led a number of innovative social projects with global reach and impact. The youngest person to ever be elected to the position, Chief Rabbi Goldstein is a strong advocate for creative, proactive leadership and effective partnership to find unique solutions to the challenges of our time. He is an executive member of South Africa’s National Religious Leaders Council, through which he is involved with strengthening inter-faith relations in the country between Jews, Christian, Muslims, Hindus, and other faiths, as well as engaging with the government on national policy matters. He has a PhD in human rights and constitutional law and is the author of numerous books and is a regular columnist for the Jerusalem Post.
Carly Maisel
Carly Maisel is the global CEO of Kirsh Philanthropies.
The last few years it has been on this Parashat, Parashat Vayera, which actually, this week’s Parashat is that. And you know, in this week’s Parashat we read about the tent of Abraham and Sarah, that it was a tent that was open on all four sides. So it was about the real sense of, you know, of hospitality and being open and inclusive like the Shabbat Project is. But it’s also about the relief from the heat. And Shabbat is like this tent, which is a relief from heat, from the heat of the world in which we live.
Yeah, look, these are difficult questions, you know, if a person is dealing with a situation like that. I think also it’s about creating the concept of community. You know, if a person is not blessed to be near family, then the next thing is to start working on community and you know, communities of people can be created. We need each other. People, you know, can’t be, you know, it’s something that we draw strength from.
Okay, good. So, you know, because it’s a grassroots movement, it’s very hard to count the exact numbers, but I can tell you this, that our, firstly, our numbers of events this year are higher than ever before at around 1200 events globally. There’ve been newspaper reports over the years that have estimated around a million Jews participating in one way or another. And it’s remarkable, you know, there are literally hundreds of events taking place across the length and breadth of Israel.