The Open Jewish Community

If one sees a great gathering of Israel, he says:

“Blessed is He who discerns secrets!”

For the mind of each is different from the other,

Just as the face of each is different from the other.

Does Jewish tradition or culture have a place in your heart?

Do you want to be part of a community that features personal warmth, regular contact, and helping one another?

Do you think that secular and religious Jews, men and women, immigrants and native Israelis, old and young can find a common home within the same Jewish community, with mutual respect and friendship?

Do you live in a mixed city or town where secular and religious Jews live together as neighbors?

If the answer to the above questions is “yes” – then your place is with us.

WHO ARE WE?

One: We are a Community.

Two very positive qualities characterize traditional communities: The first is warm, personal relationships, and the second is regular contact. If one of these qualities is lacking the community weakens.

On the one hand, there are groups that meet regularly for all kinds of reasons, but lack the personal aspect: Families don’t open their homes to one another (the mitzvah of “welcoming guests”), individuals are not greeted with warmth and friendship. There are even synagogues which pay little or no attention to someone new that arrives, nor miss longtime members who are absent or leave.

On the other hand, there are groups in which the common backgrounds of their members lead to a great deal of personal warmth, but lack the regular personal contact that can only derive from people who live in the same geographical place and meet continually. The sages of Israel alluded to this human need when they mentioned the value of study, praising “early attendance at the study hall morning and evening.” Note that what is emphasized in this quotation is not Torah study itself, but the regular place of study, i.e. being present regularly among the community that studies.

Two: We are a Jewish Community.

The Jewish heritage (as Torah, tradition, or culture) is central to our community. This heritage is supported by two pillars: Study (“the study of Torah equals them all”) and action (“study is great for it leads to action”).

A vibrant Jewish community is characterized by both aspects at once: It is a community that studies (“early attendance at the study hall morning and evening”) and one that acts together in a variety of areas:

Acts of love and respect between generations (“honoring parents”);

Personal help and support (“acts of kindness”);

Closeness between families that open their homes to each other (“welcoming guests”);

Personal participation and help in times of trouble (“visiting the sick” and “attending the dead to the grave” to burial);

Personal participation and help in times of joy (“dowering the bride”);

Even for heartfelt personal prayer, its main place is in the synagogue amongst the community (“devotion in prayer”);

Pursuing peace on a personal level (“making peace between two people, or between a man and his wife”): The sages of Israel call peace “the vessel that holds all blessings.” A community without peace is a broken vessel.

Three: We are an Open Jewish Community.

How do you define yourself as a Jew: Secular? Traditional? Religious? Charedi? Nationalist-charedi? Reform? Conservative? Orthodox? Russian-Jewish? Israeli?

How do you define your Judaism: As Torah from heaven? As a national culture? As part of the universal human heritage?

We welcome people who give all of the above answers. That is because for us, to join a community isn’t an ideological decision, but rather a good, simple human and Jewish decision. Our goal is to create a framework in which everyone can learn about Judaism and bring it into their own lives according to their own inner truth, but at the very same time act productively along with others within a community that includes a variety of outlooks.

Besides our lack of ideology, we are also an open community when it comes to age and culture:

Age: Today’s Israel has myriads of frameworks for “young families,” retirees, teenagers, etc., and that is a very good thing. However, there must also be an additional framework in which the various generations meet one another regularly: That framework is the community and the synagogue.

Culture: An open community must take the needs of ethnic groups into account while remaining a single community at the same time. A basic example is that in today’s Israel, every Jewish community must include active members and leaders who are positive representatives of Russian-Jewish culture (but unfortunately, very few Orthodox synagogues in Israel do). The presence of such people should come into play not just in the homogonous activities geared towards the specific ethnic group, but especially when the entire community participates in heterogeneous activities.

The three elements represented in the title “Open Jewish Community” characterize a great many Jewish communities in the diaspora. There are many historical, social, and political reasons why such communities hardly exist in Israel – and this is not the place to discuss them – but we believe that it is nevertheless both possible and desirable to build communities like this in the cities and towns of Israel.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Question 1: How is “The Open Jewish Community” any different from the various “study communities” that have spread in Israel over the past few years, in which secular and religious Israelis study “the Jewish bookshelf” together?

Answer: A “study community” is a wonderful thing, but we believe that a real community involves much more than study groups (even if they sometimes include social activities as well). For instance:

I. Personal Kindness: Unlike a study group, a Jewish community is a based, first and foremost, on common acts of personal kindness by members of the community for each other, offering mutual help and support. In today’s Israel there is a very strong emphasis on formal charitable institutions (such as “Pitchon Lev” for the poor), and it is very important that these organizations exist in tough economic times. Communities should support these institutions.

Nevertheless, the Jewish tradition values personal acts of kindness even more than institutional charity. As the sages taught, “Acts if kindness are greater than charity in three ways: (1) Charity is given with money alone, but kindness can be performed through either physical action or money. (2) Charity is for the poor alone, but acts of kindness are for the poor or the rich. (3) Charity is for the living alone, but acts of kindness are for the living or the dead.” It is specifically the dimension of personal (not institutional) acts of kindness that is lacking today in Israel’s cities and towns, which may be caused in part by the lack of close-knit Israeli communities.

II. Whole Families: Unlike a study group, a Jewish community is not just a collection of individuals that study or do activities together, but of entire families that meet regularly, and open their homes to one another.

III. All areas of life: In order for the dialogue between different kinds of Jews to truly be meaningful, it needs to take place in the wider contexts that were and still are the “playing field” for living Jewish communities. This includes not just “study” or “dialogue” but the actual shared performance of mitzvot towards people and God (even including the synagogue experience to a certain degree, e.g. a weekly Kabbalat Shabbat), the study hall, charitable institutions, the burial society, joy and mourning, open homes, music, culture, sports, academia, etc. “The Open Jewish Community” can be like a local community center, or even operate within an Israeli community center (a Matnas).

Especially important are schools and formal education: The Open Jewish Community will support local schools that are committed to excellence in both general studies and Jewish studies, and are open to all.

Full, continual dialogue in wide areas such as these – despite different outlooks, but with a deep desire to work together in “the ways of peace” – can be deeply meaningful. Limited encounters between different kinds of Jews in narrower contexts can never reach that depth. In short: We warmly embrace the wonderful, open and successful idea of the recent “study communities,” and are trying to add to them by encompassing other wider areas of life and Judaism.

Question 2: How is “The Open Jewish Community” any different than the Garinim Torani’im?

Answer: The Garinim Torani’im are a recent movement on the Israeli landscape, which encourages Religious Zionist families to come and live in the religiously mixed neighborhoods of Israel (rather than choosing all-religious settlements). Their motto is: “To settle amongst the hearts.”

We welcome the Garinim Torani’im, and view their creation as a very positive development. But we differ from them in two ways:

(I) We are a community that is open socially: Each Garin Torani has its own unique character, but most of the garinim are primarily based upon an advanced yeshivah or a kollel. As a result, the community characteristics we mentioned earlier are indeed to be found within the Garinim Torani’im, but often this is only amongst the yeshivah or kollel families themselves. A man who comes into the beit ha-midrash will certainly be welcomed warmly, but there is nevertheless no active desire on the part of the garin to open up its inner circle to families from the local population. In fact, sometimes there is great reluctance to do so.

(II) We are a community that is open ideologically: As an advanced yeshivah or a kollel, the garin torani is not typically a community for people of different outlooks. On the contrary, the garinim often define themselves on strict ideological lines: “We’ve come here to declare our powerful truth in the clearest possible way, with no compromises!” But in the “Open Jewish Community” our goal is specifically to find ways (“compromises”) for people of different minds to feel at home in the same community.

Even thought we are not a garin torani, we are happy to cooperate with the local garin in a spirit of friendship and mutual respect for areas of common interest.

Question 3: How does “The Open Synagogue” differ from a “regular” Israeli synagogue (Orthodox)?

Answer (1): Personal warmth and attention: “Receive every person with a welcoming countenance.” And not just welcoming people, but helping and encouraging those who are unfamiliar with the synagogue environment, and an invitation home to each person or family that visits. Every new person gets a public welcome, and important events in the lives of community members are mentioned in public as well.

Answer (2): Active participation: We try to encourage each person, young and old, to take responsibility for parts of the synagogue framework (divrei Torah, teaching melodies…), and encourage such participation through personal guidance.

Answer (3): Flexibility: In the style and length of the prayers, in their melodies and speed, through giving explanations of the prayers, and in all elements of synagogue prayer for which the halakhah allows adapting them to the needs of the congregation. We make a special effort to keep a good balance between the fixed elements of elements of synagogue prayer and their personal meaning, trying to have “something new” each time but preserving the continuity of the framework at the same time. For instance: Using Shlomoh Carlebach tunes at times, but not too much and not all the time.

Answer (4): Women in the synagogue: See Question 5 (below).

Question 4: How does “The Open Synagogue” differ from a Reform or Conservative synagogue?

Answer: Activity in “The Open Synagogue” follows halakhah, according to pesak that is accepted by at least a significant portion of Israel’s Orthodox (and even hareidi) population. This is because it is our goal to be a community that is open to people with a variety of viewpoints, not just from Israel’s “secular” population, but also from its “religious” population. This goal requires a halakhic framework for activities, even though not all members of the community are committed to halakhah.

For our halakhic pesak, we will consult rabbinic groups that have successful experience with heterogeneous, multicultural communities – groups such as "Tzohar" and "Ohr Torah Stone" in Israel, or graduates of Yeshiva University in the diaspora.

Although we are not a Reform or Conservative synagogue, we are happy to cooperate with local liberal synagogues in a spirit of friendship and mutual respect, for any activities that don’t involve halakhic conflict.

Question 5: Is there a place for women in “The Open Synagogue”?

Answer: According to the standard interpretation of Maimonides and the Shulhan Arukh, women are exempt from the three fixed daily prayers (evening, morning, and afternoon). As a result of this exemption, a woman cannot carry out this obligation for others, i.e. to lead the fixed prayers as a shelihat tzibbur in the synagogue.

However, women who choose to attend some of the fixed obligatory prayers in the synagogue (despite their exemption) must be pleasantly and respectfully received in the synagogue, and made to feel fully part of the congregation's prayer. The women's section must be large and dignified, because the women who pray there are part of the congregation. For instance, it is possible to place the women's section alongside the men's section, rather than behind it, with the mehitzah in the middle. Women who participate in public prayer should be able to see without difficulty, and to take an active part in whatever aspects are halakhically allowed according the locally accepted pesak (for instance, giving divrei Torah). We view this not just as a matter of basic decency, but also as a basis for cooperation between “secular” and “religious” Israelis in the synagogue framework.

Activities in “The Open Jewish Community” besides the fixed synagogue prayers will normally be mixed. We view dealing with women's issues – active engagement through actual joint activity – as one of the most important areas for meaningful dialogue between different groups in Israel today.

Question 6: Does “The Open Synagogue” need to have a rabbi?

Answer: A synagogue like this can certainly function without a rabbi. Nevertheless, it is very possible that the right rabbi could contribute a great deal to the establishment and growth of the synagogue.

What is absolutely clear is that the rabbi of a community like this must be appropriate to the community – and the community to him – in his character, background, and lifestyle. The openness characteristic of the community must characterize the rabbi as well. If a rabbi is selected, he must be chosen directly by the members of the community and work based on a contract that is renewed every few years. The main thing is that there be full, direct accountability of the rabbi to his community and the community to its rabbi.

Question 7: Who will not be comfortable in “The Open Synagogue”?

Answer: “The Open Synagogue” is not appropriate for everyone. There are many “secular” Israelis who want nothing to do with any synagogue, including “The Open Synagogue” (though it still might be worth their while to give it a try). Study groups might fit their needs better. There are “religious” and chareidi Israelis for whom the differences between “The Open Synagogue” and ordinary Israeli synagogues will be too hard to digest (despite the halakhic framework), along with the fact that activists and lecturers in “The Open Synagogue” need not be halakhically observant Jews.

“The Open Synagogue” is highly appropriate for anyone who wants to strike up friendships with others despite all the differences, and is willing to accept others for who they are and learn from them: “Who is wise? He who learns from every person.” Today, everyone in Israel talks about dialogue and building bridges between different groups, but the most meaningful way to achieve this is in the framework of the community and the synagogue.

Question 8: Are you trying to make people into Hozrim bi-Teshuvah?

Answer: The Torah views Hazarah bi-teshuvah as a universal human concept, not just an idea for religious Jews (or Jews who become religious). It is important not only in the context of observance of the commandments by Jews, but in the life of every person created in the image of God. On Yom Kippur, we read the Book of Jonah in the synagogue because of what it relates about the people of Nineveh, who responded honestly to the call of their king: “Let each man turn from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands!”

It is important to read this declaration in context: The people of Nineveh’s repentance had nothing to do with tefillin, nor Sabbath observance – for they were not Jews. Yet it is specifically from them that the Jew learns how to repent on Yom Kippur.

In current Israeli dialogue, anyone who mentions hazarah bi-teshuva means exactly one thing: Someone who has started to act “religious” or hareidi (as if “repentance” has nothing to do with people already regarded as being in those two groups). And anyone who mentions hazarah bi-she'elah also means exactly one thing: someone who has stopped acting “religious” or hareidi (as if only “secular” Israelis ask complex questions, but not “religious” ones).

In “The Open Jewish Community” we flee from arrogant, quasi-political labels, including hazarah bi-teshuvah and hazarah bi-she'elah alike. Do we engage in hazarah bi-teshuvah as it is commonly understood today? Absolutely not. Are we engaged in hazarah bi-teshuvah at all? No. Do we believe that each person has an obligation to engage in hazarah bi-teshuvah on a personal level, according to his inner truth, as in the original meaning of the phrase? Definitely yes.

These are the things of which a person enjoys the fruits in this world,

While the principal remains for him in the hereafter, namely:

Honoring father and mother, acts of kindness,

Early attendance at the study hall morning and evening,

Welcoming guests, visiting the sick,

Marrying off a bride, attending the dead to the grave,

Devotion in prayer,

Making peace between two people, or between a man and his wife.

But the study of Torah excels them all.