|
Rabbi Pinchas Lipner has extended his hand and opened
his doors to the Jewish community of Panama on several
occasions. His efforts helped to strengthen the
Panamanian Jewish community to become one of the most
vital in Latin America. As far back as 1967, Rabbi
Lipner brought a handful of Panamanian students to study
at the Yeshiva High School of Greater Washington in
Washington D.C., where he was then principal. Isaac
Esses, President of Shevet Ahim, Panama’s largest
congregation, praised the rabbi for his work and
expressed hope “that these boys [would] form a religious
nucleus in our congregation.” As chairman of the Migdal
David Scholarship Fund, Inc. of Brooklyn, New York,
which also counted Irving M. Bunim and Joseph Kassin
among its board members, Joseph Mansour wrote to Rabbi
Lipner to express “sincere appreciation for the efforts
[Rabbi Lipner had] begun in the hopes of perpetuation of
the Jewish community in Panama.” Because of Rabbi
Lipner’s “unselfish and genuine effort…to save an entire
community,” the Scholarship Fund made a generous
donation to the Yeshiva of Greater Washington “with the
thanks and gratitude of the entire Sefardic community in
New York.”
In 1987, Rabbi Lipner traveled to Panama once again to
bring another generation of students to the Lisa Kampner
Hebrew Academy in San Francisco, where they, like their
earlier counterparts in Washington D.C., gained an
excellent academic education, but more importantly, a
strong sense of their Jewish identity.
The Lisa Kampner Hebrew Academy is the only K-12
institution in the San Francisco Bay Area – which is
home to 400,000 Jews – where a child can receive an
Orthodox education. Rabbi Lipner is leading the battle
against terrifying assimilation, which threatens the
very survival of the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish
community, but needs help to continue the revolution.
Please support Rabbi Lipner in his struggle to save the
San Francisco Jewish community as he has helped Panama’s
Orthodox Sephardic community to survive and prosper.
In the Summer of 1967, Rabbi
Pinchas Lipner made his first trip to Panama to gather
students for the Yeshiva High School of Greater
Washington; to his right is Joseph Esses and to his left
is Jack Chammah
Letter to Rabbi Pinchas Lipner from Isaac Esses,
President of Shevet Ahim in Panama. Here is the
transcript:
|
Sociedad Israelita de Beneficencia
“Shevet Ahim”
Panama, 18th December 1967
Rabbi Pinchas Lipner,
Director
Yeshiva High School of Greater Washington,
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Dear Rabbi,
It gives me great pleasure to hear that my son
Joseph, as well as his Panamanian comrades, are
doing well in your school; we have great hope that
these boys will form a religious nucleus in our
congregation in the new generation, and I cannot
but emphasize your help in this respect.
May I extend my thanks, as well as my cordial
regards.
Yours faithfully,
Isaac Esses
President
|
Letter to Rabbi Pinchas Lipner from Joseph Mansour,
Chairman of Migdal Scholarship Fund, Inc., Brooklyn,
N.Y. Here is the transcript:
|
Migdal David Scholarship Fund, Inc.
Brooklyn, N.Y.
Board of Trustees:
Irving M. Bunim
David Hanon
Joseph Kassin
Joseph M. Mansour
Joseph Tawil
December 16, 1967
Rabbi Pinchas Lipner, Principal
Yeshiva High School of Greater Washington
1529 – 16th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036
Dear Rabbi Lipner,
On behalf of the Migdal David Scholarship Fund, I
would like to express our sincere appreciation for
the efforts you have begun in the hopes of
perpetuation [of] a Jewish community in Panama. I
am sure that it is both our hopes’ that these
students that are now under your guidance, will
eventually become fine Jewish leaders in their own
community.
This nucleus of 6 boys and girls is the beginning
of a far-reaching project which will reach into
the future, attaining fantastic heights. Your
project has a very hopeful beginning and can be
seen as an unselfish and genuine effort on your
part to save an entire community.
In appreciation of your generous and untiring
efforts, enclosed please find a check in the
amount of $750.
Please accept it with my thanks and the thanks and
gratitude of the entire Sefardic community of New
York. We wish you every success in this tremendous
educational project that you have undertaken.
Sincerely yours,
Joseph Mansour
Chairman
Migdal David Scholarship Fund, Inc. |
Dormitory students from the Hebrew Academy Class of
1990: top row from left to right is Rony Betesh
(Panama), Jose Ritz (Mexico), Eli Angel (Panama); bottom
row from left to right is Salomon Hanono (Panama),
Rebecca Angel (Panama), Martin Gill (Palo Alto, CA).
Become A Friend of Our Project
If you would like to receive periodic
updates about our book project, including release date, news and
special offers, please enter your name and email address
below. You will always have the option to stop receiving
correspondence from us and we will never share your
information with a third party.
|
