Friday, March 29th 2024   |

Push for Cub Scout pack fizzles at Beth Israel

Efforts to organize a new Cub Scout pack at Congregation Beth Israel failed to achieve critical mass yesterday when Rabbi Uri Topolosky met with Southeast Louisiana Council’s Pelican District Executive Yoni Sunshine. Sunshine, an Israeli-born paid Scouting professional, organized a “roundup” of youth at the new synagogue, but parents and potential Scouts were absent. This would have been the first Boy Scouts of America (BSA) unit wholly chartered to a Jewish institution in the Greater New Orleans area. Topolosky said he was disappointed, but understood that the timing may not have been right or that the recent controversial reaffirmation of the National Council of the BSA’s policy disallowing gay Scout leaders may have contributed to less interest within the Jewish community. There is no indication that another such effort by Scouting officials to organize a pack there would be warranted.

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