Ohr Torah Stone | Features | Newsletter Winter 2006-7

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OTS Newsletter - Summer 2007

Yachad: Bridging the Gaps

Yachad facilitators at work: (l to r)
Ephraim Leibovich, Noam Kriegman
Netanel Shalem, Ariel Kreitman,
Program Director Rabbi Gedalia Peterseil
and Ran Reshef.

Dynamic Yachad Program facilitators in community centers across Israel are encouraging unaffiliated Israelis to reclaim their Jewish heritage through innovative, engaging and non-coercive programming. By exposing the richness and relevance of Judaism, they are promoting national unity and making a lasting impact on Israeli society.

An unusual surprise awaited Ephraim Wolf when he returned to work at the Jewish Community Center in East Talpiot, Jerusalem, after Pesach vacation. Wolf, a Jewish renewal facilitator for Yachad, who organizes communal activities aimed at bringing Israelis closer to their heritage, found an invitation to watch the videotape of a seder that had been held in a local home. “The woman who invited me had attended my pre-Pesach program in how to run a seder,” Wolf explains. “Her family was secular and this was the first time they had ever made a seder. She was so excited with the result that she wanted to share it with me!”

Across Israel, Yachad facilitators are enabling Israelis of all backgrounds to connect with their heritage, learn about Judaism and share Jewish experiences through innovative and appealing programming that is open, non-coercive and relevant.

Before Shavuot, Yachad facilitators organized a wide range of programming relating to the holiday. In addition to traditional Shavuot night learning, Yigal Yannai, Yachad facilitator in Arad, invited an unusual speaker to the community. Dalia Har Sinai, who runs an organic dairy farm she built with her late husband, Yair, told of the faith she needed to keep the farm going after Yair was killed in a terror attack. Afterwards, to enjoy the tradition of eating dairy products on Shavuot, the audience of 100 people had a chance to taste and obtain milk and cheese for the festival.

A Change in Attitude

On both an individual and community level, Yachad’s unique approach is shattering stereotypes and making Judaism more meaningful – often with poignant results.

“This past winter, after nearly a year of attending a weekly class on Judaism that I teach for women, one participant asked me if we could organize a Tu B’Shevat seder for her moshav,” relates Yitzchak Wertheim, who runs Jewish programming for kibbutzim and moshavim in the Gezer region. “Until then, her husband had often loudly expressed disdain for religion. But the next morning, she called to tell me how surprised her husband had been that he had enjoyed himself! Since then, his attitude has changed completely. Not only does he regularly attend my classes, but he has now initiated a weekly Jewish studies class on their moshav. Their home has taken on a completely different atmosphere, imbued with Jewish history and heritage.”

Helping a Community Find a Spiritual Home

Although the Jerusalem neighborhood of Kiryat Menachem is home to many Ethiopian immigrants, it had no synagogue for them to attend. “Every Shabbat, as I was walking to shul, I was disturbed to see many Ethiopian adults, dressed in white robes and wearing kippot, just sitting outside on benches,” says Roni Lasser, the regional Yachad coordinator. “There were children playing around them, and it was clear that they all had nowhere to go. They didn’t feel comfortable in any of the local synagogues, but they didn’t have one of their own.”

Lasser discovered that although the local Ethiopian community had appointed a committee for building a synagogue, no progress had been made in two years. After meeting with the committee, he approached the director of the community center to ask if its gymnasium could serve as a shul for the immigrants for Rosh Hashana services. “At first he hesitated – why should he provide a place for one ethnic group and not another – but he relented when I convinced him how this would help attract Ethiopian neighbors to other activities at the center,” Lasser relates. The plan was able to proceed.

“On Rosh Hashana, we couldn’t believe our eyes!” he continues. “Men, women and children, many in traditional dress, filled the gym to capacity. After the tefilah, they sat together, ate the symbolic holiday foods, and sang.”

That experience led to Yom Kippur services, then Sukkot and then Chanukah. By Tu B’Shevat, the committee had decided to begin holding weekly services, and found a synagogue that permitted its use to the immigrants at 6:30 every Shabbat morning.

“Within seven months, there was a new congregation of immigrants who hadn’t previously found their place in any other framework,” Lasser concludes. “That’s what Yachad is all about – relating to all Jews in Israel on their own terms.”

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