Ohr Torah Stone | Features | Newsletter Fall 2003

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OTS Newsletter - Fall 2006

Promoting Jewish Values & Unity in Israel

With a warm, informal and non-coercive approach, “Jewish Renewal Facilitators” trained in OTS’s unique Yachad Program expose unaffiliated and disenfranchised Israelis to the vibrancy of their heritage and encourage them to reclaim their Jewish legacy. The result: Israelis from all segments of society are now enriching the ongoing Jewish dialogue with their own unique contributions.

As the Jewish Renewal Facilitator in the Ariel Community Center, Noam Kriegman is encouraging residents to build a community based on shared Jewish values. His flagship “Lev-el-Lev” (“Heart to Heart”) project collects used furniture, appliances, computers and clothing, and delivers them to local needy families, who purchase them at a nominal fee. “What I love most about the project is that we’ve managed to touch all segments of society,” Noam relates. “People of all ages, socio-economic backgrounds and religious streams are living the concepts of charity and chessed which are basic to Judaism.” Noam has studied Jewish textual sources of tzedakah with some of his core volunteers, and the program’s deliveries are handled by teens participating in the community center’s Youth-at-Risk programs. “The project has made Jewish values relevant for everyone involved,” Noam says.

As coordinator of Jewish culture at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Rabbi Eitan Melchior engages students from all Jewish backgrounds with a broad spectrum of appealing, informal programming. Activities range from parties on Chanukah and Purim to more intimate gatherings in different dormitories that are highlighted by musical performances or speakers on issues such as psychology and religion. Rabbi Melchior also organizes Shabbat programming and communal meals, outings to locations of religious significance such as the Western Wall, study groups and workshops on topics such as Hassidism or the synagogue. “For many students, this is their first contact with authentic, traditional Judaism,” the young rabbi reports. “And there is tremendous interest in establishing an ongoing connection with their roots.”

“My emphasis is on building Jewish identity and community awareness,” states Ephraim Wolff, Jewish Renewal Facilitator in the East Talpiot neighborhood of Jerusalem. “As part of this effort, I visited local secular kindergartens once a week, to talk about the weekly portion and the Jewish holidays. When the Education Ministry’s supervisor got wind of this, she barred my visits, claiming that they constituted ’religious coercion.’ I was surprised and touched when I started receiving phone calls from the children’s parents and their teachers, who all ultimately signed a petition demanding that I be allowed to return.” Continues Ephraim, “It seems the kids questioned my absence, and how can you explain to children that they’re not allowed to learn about their national history or their heritage? Probably the most gratifying thing is that this episode got the adults thinking about how Judaism informs their lives.”

After leading a congregation in Albany, N.Y. for three years under the auspices of the Joseph Straus Rabbinical Seminary’s Amiel Program, Rabbi Ran Reshef is back in Israel and working as a Yachad Jewish Renewal Facilitator with an entirely different community: Ethiopian families who have immigrated to Israel within the past three years. “Their future as committed Jews depends upon the relationship that we build with them now,” stresses Reshef, who organizes family programs relating to Jewish holidays and study groups for adults and youth activities in his role as Jewish Renewal Facilitator in Jerusalem’s Neveh Yaakov community center. “For example,” he relates, “Chanukah and Purim were never celebrated in Ethiopia, since Jews there kept only the traditions which appeared in scripture up to the time of their exile, during the destruction of the First Temple. In introducing them to these holidays, I am also including them in the collective heritage of the Jewish people, enabling them to acculturate to Israeli society and lead a full Jewish life here.”

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