Turning Israelis From Voyeurs To Congregants

Orli Santo for The Jewish Week

Programs to lure Israeli-Americans to synagogue are popping up, but it’s a slow road to shul membership.

Is it really happening? Are Israeli-Americans, the longtime refuseniks of Jewish-American institutional life, finally coming to shul?

The answer today is yes, at least in the physical sense.

For several years now, some synagogues around New York have been independently hiring Israeli directors to develop the kind of Hebrew-centric, culturally relevant programming that would lure Israeli-Americans. Their efforts have been hugely amplified by the work of the juggernaut Israeli-American organization IAC (Israeli American Council), which for the past two years has been conducting its own programs in partnership with synagogues, with the specific aim of getting Israelis to physically walk into the building. It’s safe to say that today most Israeli-American cultural life, from kids’ activities in Hebrew to holiday parties, takes place inside synagogues. So you can lead an Israeli to shul, it seems — but can you make him drink?

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Maybe We Should Give Up On Tolerance…

By Rabbi Alana Suskin for MyJewishLearning.com    

A few years ago, an acquaintance of mine — another rabbi, who is a friend of my current havruta [Jewish study partner] — was sitting with us at lunch, and astonishedly mused, “How is it possible that you two have been havrutas for over a decade?”

He shook his head at us, since he considers me the leftist of lefties, and considers my havruta, as he often says, “to the right of Attila the Hun!”

I just laughed at him.

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The Crazy Ritual We Did to Our Newborn Son

Rabbi Ilana Garber for Kveller

It was the morning of my eldest son’s bris, on the eighth day of his life. As he is my first child, it was also my eighth day of motherhood. I was sore, exhausted, and overwhelmed. Family and friends were coming in from all over and I was expected to put on a dress, come to synagogue, and smile as my child endured a strange and ancient custom, one that I supported but still made me cringe.

I am sure that the experience was more painful for me than for him. But when I look back on his early days, that Jewish ceremony is not the strangest thing that happened to my newborn son.

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Rukhl Schaechter Leads ‘Forverts’ Into the Digital Age

By Rose Kaplan for Table

As the new editor of the 119-year-old Yiddish newspaper, Rukhl Schaechter looks to connect with a broader readership

In 1998, Rukhl Schaechter was working as a Yiddish teacher at a Jewish day school in Riverdale, in the Bronx, when she got a call from Boris Sandler, the new editor of The Yiddish Daily Forward, or Forverts. Mordechai Strigler, the editor of Forverts since 1987, had died suddenly from a brain injury after a fall and the paper wanted to hire Schaechter as a new reporter. “Boris said he was looking for frishe koykhes—fresh, young blood” said Schaecter, who comes from a family of Yiddishists.

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Divers find huge trove of statues, coins in 1,600-year-old shipwreck

By Stuart Winer for The Times of Israel

In ‘biggest find in 30 years,’ archaeologists rescue rare bronze figures of gods, animals, that sank off Caesarea along with ship carrying metal for recycling

Two recreational divers discovered a 1,600 year-old shipwreck on the seabed off the coast of Israel, leading to a salvage operation which uncovered one of the largest caches of marine artifacts ever found, antiquities officials revealed Monday.

The hoard was discovered off the coast of Caesarea, a major Roman-era seaport, sometime last month, the Israel Antiques Authority said in a statement, calling the find the most extensive underwater discovery in 30 years.

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In India, with the Lost Tribe of Ephraim

by Rabbi Keith Flaks for aish.com

We transcended barriers through the power of music and prayer.

 

This Passover my wife and I went to Southern India to visit the "lost tribe of Ephraim."

This clan of about 150 claims to be descendants of the lost tribes of Israel. They practice Jewish traditions, celebrate most of the holidays, and have started to observe many mitzvot, often in their unique style.

For example, in their tradition, on Erev Pesach they actually slaughter a goat and put the blood on their doorposts! They were shocked to discover that the Jewish world doesn't do that. In general they were thrilled to learn more about how "mainstream Judaism" is being practiced in the rest of the world. Many dream of a day when they could move to the holy land of Israel.

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With All of Your Heart

By Rabbi Sharon G. Forman for ReformJudaism.org

The mezuzot (plural of mezuzah) snuggle next to one another in a ceramic bowl like a litter of newborn puppies seeking each other’s warmth. Peeking out from painted purple butterflies, the golden crown of a Hebrew letter shin reflects a ray of thin February light bouncing off its companion’s metal covering. Shards of the blue glass my husband stepped on at our wedding sparkle in a test tube inside the twisting copper of another family artifact – a mezuzah designed especially for wedding couples. An elephant trunk on my sons’ Noah’s ark mezuzah has broken in half, releasing the intact parchment scroll bearing 22 perfectly copied lines from the Book of Deuteronomy.

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