[PRAGUE] WUPJ Senior Vice President Sonja Guentner Receives Inaugural Isaac Mayer Wise Award

The Progressive Jewish Community of Prague, Ec chajimawarded its very first Isaac Mayer Sage Award at Sonja GuentnerSenior Vice President of WUPJ and Co-Chair of the European Union for Progressive Judaism.

The prize, presented in Prague on October 22, honors contributions to the development of the progressive Jewish community of Ec chajim and the revival of Reform Judaism in the Czech Republic.

“I have often emphasized that Progressive Judaism is Europe’s true contribution to the millennia of Jewish history,” Guentner said as he accepted the award from Rabbi David Maxa, Ec Chajim’s founder and spiritual leader. .

“Many people…in our global Jewish family have devoted their hearts and literally a part of their lives to the revival of Progressive Judaism in Europe, to promoting once again the idea that religion and the enlightened ideals of diversity and equality can go hand in hand.

“I am deeply grateful to the Ec chajim board and community for your kind and generous acknowledgment of my own small contribution. We are all blessed by the inspiration you are to all of us by showing us how what we had almost lost can be brought back to life, can prosper and flourish and be a hope for the future.

From left to right: Fabio Benjamin Fantini, member of the WUPJ executive committee; Rabbi Sergio Bergman; Carole Sterling; Rabbi David Maxa; Israeli Ambassador Anna Azari; Sonja Guentner; Liz and Jim Breslauer; and Andrew Keene.

The award – named after Czech-born Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, z”l, considered one of the most influential founders of Reform Judaism – was presented in the Brožík Assembly Hall of the Old Town Hall of Prague Attended by WUPJ President Rabbi Sergio Bergman, WUPJ President Carole Sterling, WUPJ Management Committee Member Andrew Keene, Israeli Ambassador Anna Azari and Professor Radka Wildová, Czech Deputy Minister of Education, Youth and Sports.

Photos: courtesy of Sheila Pallay and Judita Maxa Begmannova