Discussions with two more movers and shakers

I had the opportunity two days ago to speak with two more people who are doing the excellent and important work of helping Israelis find their Jewish identities. I know that it sounds odd to put it that way, seeing that Israel is called "the Jewish State," but people who are familiar with Israel know that religion is a very complicated subject here, even (and perhaps especially) within the context of Jewish religion. A strong Jewish identity is by no means a given for an Israeli. What is Jewish about Israel, many have asked. Around Jerusalem, the tremendous numbers of haredim (Hasidim and other ultra-Orthodox Jews) certainly reinforces the idea of Jerusalem being the most Jewish city in the world, but it is still true that the majority of Jewish Israelis are not Orthodox. The American-imported movements (Masorti-Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, and Renewal) have only made gradual  inroads here since they have been active in Israel for the last 30 or so years. While there are impressive institutions here (the Fuchsberg Center, where I studied this summer at the Conservative Yeshiva, and the Hebrew Union College, to name just a couple), with thriving programs, most of the students seem to be non-Israeli Jews. What Israel requires, and has now gone quite a distance in starting, is a home-grown response to the need for a satisfying Judaism that is apart from the suffocating grasp of the rabbanut (the ultra-Orthodox religious authorities who have political power within the Knesset and have a virtual stranglehold on religious affairs). Non-haredi Israelis need a process for raising and educating new Israeli Jewish leaders, and the last 30 years has brought progress in addressing that need.

Rabbi Ezra Ende is a leader who has emerged because of that process. He is the associate rabbi at the remarkable Kehillat Kol Haneshamah congregation in the Baka neighborhood in Jerusalem and he teaches in two Tali schools in the city. His davening at Kol Haneshama is beautiful, as was his d'var Torah (a teaching from the Torah) the Shabbat that I had the opportunity to hear that. (I could, and hope to, do a post on my experiences davening (praying) in this beautiful congregation and in its senior rabbi, Levi Weiman-Kelman.)  His father, a son of a Conservative rabbi, immigrated from the United States, and his mother came to Israel from Iraq. Rabbi Ende, therefore, grew up with both cultures, although it was only his father's side that was religious. When the family settled in Israel, they tried to fit into the Orthodox community, but for political reasons, it was not a good fit. Ende's father was one of the early activists in founding the Tali schools. Rabbi Ende attended one of those schools and also became active in Noam, a Conservative youth movement in Israel, with which he entered the IDF and where he also met his wife. But finding a community that was both satisfying and had a similar level of Shabbat and kashrut observance was not easy.

A very young-looking 40-year-old, Rabbi Ende (known to friends as Ezi) has smicha (rabbinical ordination) from HUC in Jerusalem, and a master's degree in Jewish education from the Jewish Theological Seminary's Machon Shechter. He says that he was drawn to HUC; it was  process more than a conscious choice. After ordination, he served a congregation in Pittsburgh for four years. Having been educated in Hod HaSharon in the second Tali school to be founded, Rabbi Ende found this to be a formative experience for him and returned years later to teach in two Tali schools. One area that he disagrees with the schools, however, is that they teach Judaism is pluralism, but he sees halachah (Jewish law) as particular to Judaism and one of the elements that make it stand out in identity creation. His older son, who is now 13-1/2,  attends a Keshet school, where both secular and religious students attend, having some separate classes to meet their own religious needs while being part of the same community. Being part of this system was instrumental in his older son choosing to follow a more dati (Orthodox) practice and be on the dati path in the school, and he identifies with the Sephardic community as well. This has led the entire family to become more halachically observant.

Tali is a system of public schools associated with the Ministry of Education that about 25 years ago, at the urging of American olim (immigrants) wanting to have a Solomon Schechter-type education for their children, began to provide a greater amount of Jewish education than is generally seen in Israeli public schools. Tali is an acronym for Tigbul Limudei Yahadut, that is, "additional Jewish studies." Each school is different from the others, each with its own character and practices. Many have morning prayer, most are egalitarian (equal religious participation of girls and boys, with girls wearing kippot (skullcaps) as well. All of them provide many more hours of religious experiential opportunity than does the average secular public school, where Tanach (the Jewish Bible) is taught as literature.

Perhaps more important than the growth of the Tali schools to the struggle to find an Israeli identity is the myriad, but still somewhat disjoint range of activities, secular yeshivot (study hall/schools), kehillot (congregations), and other cultural and religious institutions that have been sprouting for the last 20 or more years. Loosely called Hithadshut Yehudit (Jewish Renewal), it involves a very loose affiliation of many small congregations and grew out of the kibbutz movement. Many of its leaders grew up in kibbutzim, where they learned a lot about Socialism and Zionism, but not much about their essential culture, religion, and spiritual heritage, that is, about Judaism.

Another activist in this field is Yonina Fallenberg, whose sister Rachel I met at a dinner party at the home of friends in Talpiyot, the Jakars, with whom I have been staying for my last week and a half here. She has an incredible overall knowledge of this field, personally knowing many of its leaders, and was able to tell me about far more people and their activities than I'll ever be able to interview. This project could easily consume several years of work and never be complete, because of the great movement and growth this phenomenon exhibits.

Yonina described how this phenomenon had several roots, one of the main ones being in the kibbutz and moshav movement, largely among young people whose Socialist and Zionist education had not provided them with enough Jewish content in their cultural identity. The first step was to begin to study the classical "Jewish bookshelf": the Tanach (Hebrew Bible), certainly, but also Mishna and Gemara (Talmud), and Midrash. Seeing that knowledge and intellectual input did not meet all of their needs, these seekers began to add in prayer. For many years, Israelis had gone off to ashrams to study with gurus, seeking spiritual enlightenment. But these very gurus would often ask them why they had come to them to study when their own Judaism provided so much deep spiritual substance! This lesson had finally started to take root in many Israelis.

Another early spark was the interest in piyuttim (liturgical poetry composed in the Middle Ages), and how these beautiful works were studied and then reintroduced into modern Israeli music, often by Mizrachi (Eastern) Jewish musicians. It is not uncommon today to find in modern Israeli popular music various references drawn from the Jewish classics. They have become a greater part of the national idiom.

Like many other people who gravitated toward this work, Yonina was moved by the 1995 Yitzchak Rabin assassination to move towards involvement in building bridges between Israeli dati'im ("religious") and chiloni'im ("secular") - it has been said that the chasm between these groups was one of the underlying reasons behind the assassination.

Although personally modern Orthodox, Yonina has found tremendous personal satisfaction and insight in studying with learners from all walks of Israeli life who come to the new schools/kehillot (congregations), and other groups with which she is involved. A cofounder of Zayit ("somewhere between a yeshiva and an academic institution," she says) that was founded in Emek Chefer, which is between Netanya and Hadera, Yonina represents many Israelis who are dati (traditionally religious) or who grew up dati and who now, for various reasons, find themselves on a different path. Her current activities include teaching in a women's program called Nigun Nashim (the Melody of Women) as part of Oranim, which was one of the first programs in Israeli Jewish Renewal. The learners in her programs have all brought personal, pertinent, and important insights to the texts she has taught - and that is the true beauty of having so many different voices, because everyone's life experience has given them a bit of Torah to share.

Today I had a fascinating interview with Rabbi Ruth Gan-Kagen, rabbi of Nava Tehila, which I will describe in my next post.