December 19, 2018

Attendees: Gershon Albert, Daniel Alter, David Asher, Shalom Baum, Binyamin Blau, Noah Cheses, Michael Davies, Mark Dratch, Adam Dubin, Aaron Glatt, Yisrael Isaacs, Doniel Kramer, Binyamin Krohn, Ira Kronenberg, Yechiel Morris, Jonathan Muskat, Elazar Muskin, Adir Posy, Yechiel Shaffer, Chaim Strauchler, Reuven Tradburks, Yaakov Trump, Brahm Weinberg, Elie Weinstock, Michael Whitman, Ari Zahtz, Michael Zylberman

At a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Rabbinical Council of America, held by conference call, on Wed., Dec. 19, 2018, President Elazar Muskin in the chair, and Reuven Tradburks acting on behalf of the secretary, the following items were decided: The minutes of Executive Committee meeting of Nov. 28, 2018 were approved. Elazar Muskin, President, reported on:

• The new website of the RCA with the new format is hoped to be launched in January.

• A series of conference calls with major Jewish leaders continues including recent ones with Jerry Silverman of National Federation and with Chaim Dovid Zwiebel of Agudath Israel, and the upcoming one with Alan Fagin of the OU. 7-10 Executive Committee members are invited to join along with a few officers. The purpose of these is to engage these leaders with our leadership.
• We urge our members to support our initiatives in advocating for the boycott of Airbnb over its BDS attitude to Yehuda and Shomron, and for the availability of kosher bread through Bimbo.  The process of choosing a new editor of Tradition is nearing a conclusion.  The RCA Convention will take place May 20-22, 2019 and will be chaired by Noah Cheses and Yaakov Trump. The Convention theme will be the “The Healthy Rabbi.” Executive Committee members are expected to attend. Corporate sponsors of the Convention are being pursued.
• A joint Kallah teacher training program of the RCA, OU and Nishmat concluded with 17 participants who completed the program and the second offering of this program will begin shortly.
• Dues are a crucial element of our budget and all are urged to be current.
• The new RCA Siddur has been adopted by a number of shuls and we urge members to become familiar with this siddur and to adopt it in their shuls. When shuls need to replace the old RCA Artscroll Siddur those siddurim are no longer available for purchase.
• Motion to approve new RCA members Michael Bram and Avichai Bensoussan passed unanimously. A motion to approve 2019 Budget passed unanimously.
• Michoel Zylberman reported on the release of a handbook for Sponsoring Rabbis of candidates for conversion of the GPS to help them in their important service.
• A special presentation to the Executive Committee was made by Michael Masters, National Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Secure Community Network. [https://www.securecommunitynetwork.org/]
• Secure Community Network (SCN), under the leadership of The Jewish Federations of North America and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, has been at the forefront of an innovative, collaborative and cooperative national homeland security initiative educating the Jewish community to potential threats, leveraging government and private sector resources to better protect and secure our community, and ensuring that the security concerns of our community continues to remain a top focus of the intelligence, homeland security and law enforcement agencies charged with safeguarding our country and communities from the risk of terror attacks that has become a persistent threat over the past decade. Through information sharing, security awareness, training, security advice & counsel, SCN strives to empower individuals and organizations and establish a culture of security consciousness, preparedness and resiliency throughout our communities.
• The meeting was adjourned.