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OTS Newsletter - Winter 2006-7Yachad: Making Judaism Relevant and Real
Across Israel, unaffiliated and disenfranchised Israelis are establishing fresh, new relationships with Judaism, thanks to appealing, informal activities organized by educators and rabbis .....trained in the Yachad Program, jointly run by the Joseph and Gwendolyn Straus Rabbinical Seminary and the Adolph and Ethel Beren Educators Institute. With the aim of exposing all segments of society to the vitality and relevance of their heritage, Yachad’s “Jewish Renewal Facilitators” are encouraging people to build a personal connection with Judaism through innovative programming that is open, non-coercive and relevant to their daily lives.
Shattering Stereotypes Working out of community centers throughout the country, Yachad facilitators are responding to natural curiosity about Jewish knowledge and tradition by shattering widely-held stereotypes and introducing new approaches to age-old traditions. For example, says Ariel Kreitman, a Brazilian-born facilitator now working in Herzlia Pituach, “many people who have gone through the secular Israeli school system have been exposed to the bible only as a dry academic subject, a document whose value is solely historical. I decided to try teaching a class that would focus on the relevance of the Torah to issues we all face today.” To attract students, Kreitman approached a group that already met in the community center. “I noticed that every morning, the fitness room was full of women,” he recalls. “So I offered a bible class right after the daily exercise class.” Today, Kreitman has a regular group of 20 students who come to study Torah in their sweatsuits after they finish working out. “A healthy soul in a healthy body,” quips participant Shosh Danino. In the socially-disadvantaged city of Lod, facilitator Ariel Leibowitz focuses on the relevance of Jewish values through “Film Midrash” evenings, where he uses current movie releases as triggers for discussions about Jewish identity and meaning. More than 50 participants recently explored the Torah concept of kindness to strangers after viewing James’ Journey to Jerusalem, an award-winning Israeli drama that tells the story of a young African pilgrim to Israel who, through a series of mishaps, is mistaken for a foreign worker.
A Meaningful and Personal Judaism
“There is a tremendous thirst for Jewish knowledge among secular and unaffiliated Israelis,” says Aryeh Engelman, who is based in the Petach Tikvah community center. “Yachad teaches us to present it on their terms – without judgment or coercion, in a way that is meaningful to them.” As Aryeh and other community facilitators have learned, the results can be very poignant. “I was teaching a course on Jewish ethics to a group of women from a secular kibbutz,” he relates. “One woman, who was very active in the anti-religious Shinui party, attended a session in which I focused on the Shabbat as a vehicle for family cohesiveness. It turned out that this woman had recently gone through a traumatic divorce and felt that her family was very vulnerable and in danger of disintegrating. She became convinced that her family could benefit from keeping Shabbat together, and she asked me to meet with her children and introduce the concept to them.” Each year, tens of thousands of Israelis are touched by the Yachad approach of Jewish values and unity as they come together at “Yom Kippur for Everyone” services in community centers and locations across the country. Run jointly by OTS, Israel’s Education Ministry and several other organizations, the program enables secular and unaffiliated Israelis to participate in Yom Kippur services where doors are open to all, rituals are explained and questions are welcomed. This past year, more than 70,000 Israelis participated in Yom Kippur services at 300 locations across the country. As a result of their positive Yom Kippur experiences, numerous participants seek further contact with Judaism for themselves and their families, and Yachad facilitators across the country are responding with programming that “speaks to them.” In Binyamina, a town north of Haifa with a very small religious population, Netanel Shalem now conducts a monthly Kabbalat Shabbat for people who participated in Yom Kippur and now want to continue their newly-discovered connection to spirituality and prayer. At the same time, he is helping them build a stronger community through the creation of a “time bank.” This system, he explains, is based on a network of donors who offer their time and abilities to others in the community and receive time and services from others in return – for instance, tutoring in exchange for babysitting, or sewing in lieu of home repairs. “In a time bank, there is a unique element of Jewish values in helping one another,” Netanel says. “At the same time, everyone is equal. This program is an excellent lesson in unity for all participants.”
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