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Rabbi Gorin Hits the Southern Trail With African Tales.........posted Jan 20, 2008

Rabbi Howard Gorin will be taking to some unfamiliar roadways shortly when he visits with Jewish groups across the Deep South.

The Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life is sponsoring a week-long road trip and lecture series by the rabbi in February that will take him to more than a half dozen towns in five Southern states.

Over a 10-day period, the rabbi will share stories with widely scattered Jewish congregations across the South about his overseas work providing spiritual leadership and support materials for emerging Jewish communities in sub-Saharan Africa during this decade.

His road trip, which is part of a two-month sabbatical, will take place Feb. 3-9, and the tour stops sponsored by the Institute of Southern Jewish Life will include Baton Rouge, La.; Jackson, Greenville and Tupelo, Miss.; and Birmingham, Ala.

The rabbi is extending his Southern sojourn by adding two more speaking stops on his own volition ? in Nashville, Tenn., and Little Rock, Ark.

Rabbi Gorin's African adventures are well known to most Tikvat Israel congregants. He led a Bet Din trip to Uganda in 2002 and has visited Nigeria twice, in 2004 and 2006, providing both educational materials (and dozens of personal computers) contributed by Tikvat Israel families and spiritual guidance to the emerging Nigerian Jewish community.

His unusual overseas missions were featured as the cover story of the United Synagogue Review magazine in spring 2006. Rabbi Gorin also publishes a Torah newsletter, Shalom Africa, which is received by readers in seven African countries.

Rabbi Gorin, a native of Chicago, has been rabbi at TI since 1980.

A complete itinerary of his Southern swing follows:

• Sunday, Feb. 3, Baton Rouge, La., 11 a.m. at Beth Shalom Synagogue, Baton Rouge, sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater Baton Rouge.
• Tuesday, Feb. 5, Jackson, Miss., 7 p.m. at Beth Israel Congregation
• Wednesday, Feb. 6, Greenville, Miss., 7 p.m. at Hebrew Union Temple
• Thursday, Feb. 7, Tupelo, Miss., 7 p.m. at Temple B'Nai Israel
• Friday, Feb. 8, Birmingham, Ala., Temple Emanu-El
• Saturday, Feb. 9, Birmingham, Ala., Temple Beth El
• Sunday, Feb. 10, Nashville, Tenn., West End Synagogue (two presentations)
• Tuesday, Feb. 12, Little Rock, Ark., site to be announced.

The Institute of the Southern Jewish Life, which is based in Jackson, Miss., helps smaller and/or underserved communities gain access to high-quality programs by pooling resources for film festivals and cultural programs, sharing guest speakers and traveling artists and coordinating programs among multiple communities.

"The Rabbi Gorin road trip is a great example of this," says Beth Kander, the institute's director of programming. "He will visit medium-sized communities such as Birmingham, but while he's in this neck of the woods, small communities like Tupelo, Mississippi, and Greenville, Mississippi, will also be able to welcome and learn with him."

The Institute of the Southern Jewish Life is a private, not-for-profit corporation that was founded in 1986. The organization's website address is www.isjl.org

Rabbi Gorin will take a break in his sabbatical to be in shul on Feb. 16 for a baby naming (grandchild of Harvey and Naomi Kaplan). Then in late February or early March, the rabbi is hoping to make his fourth trip to Africa. He will return for Tikvat Israel's annual Visiting Scholar's Shabbat in late March.

His speaking tour will resume on the West Coast this spring. In May, after attending the ordination ceremonies at the American Jewish University (formerly the University of Judaism) in Los Angeles, the rabbi will speak to Jewish groups in Vancouver and Seattle, Wash., and possibly Portland, Ore.