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Sun, Sand, Sefers

Marc Israel is learning the tools of his trade in the Bahamas.

JULIE EDGAR

News Editor

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12/5
1997

10

111 arc Israel came by his
teaching job honestly.
The rabbinical stu-
dent won the third spot
in a lottery for student congregation
posts and ended up in the Bahamas.
A classmate who got first dibs chose a
post in Canada and still regrets it.
Israel, a Groves High School grad,
is in his fifth and final year of studies
at the Hebrew Union College Jewish
Institute of Religion in New York.
He'll be ordained on May 17, his
28th birthday.
Since Rosh Hashanah last year,
Israel's made monthly trips to Nassau
to lead services and teach at the
Bahamas Jewish Congregation in
Nassau. His wife, Abbey Frank, has
accompanied him oh, five times.

Australia, the United States, Israel,
Canada and the Bahamas. The
Reform congregation was just accept-
ed into the Union of American
Hebrew Congregations.
"My experience has been unique in
several ways: this is a brand new con-
gregation and I'm the first student
rabbi they've had," Israel says. A few
months before he came on board,
Jews on the island had participated

active in Jewish causes most of his
life, serving as president of what was
formerly called Michigan State
Temple Youth (MSTY). He notes
that his parents, Carol and Jerry,
always were active at Temple Beth El.
In between trips to the Bahamas,
Israel is finishing his thesis on tacha-
nun, a prayer that is part of the daily
liturgy. After his ordination, he plans
to look for an organizational post

Marc Israel heads
to the Bahamas
for Aserat Yimai
Scuba ... er
Teshuvah.

"I really want to go scuba diving
but I haven't gotten around to it. The
water is beautiful," Israel reports.
Rabbinical students are required to
lead a congregation in their fourth .
and fifth years. Israel usually stays in
Nassau for a weekend, conducting
Shabbat services on Friday and
Saturday and running classes for
adult members of the congregation in
subjects ranging from the Jewish hol-
idays to "echo kashrut," a modern
elaboration on traditional kosher laws
that considers vegetarianism, for
example, as a legitimate biblical dic-
tum. Israel also teaches Hebrew.
There are an estimated 100 Jews in
the Bahamas, he says. When he
began his post in the fall last year, the
Hoffer family had just founded the
island's first congregation, which
comprises Jews from England,

Marc Israel is doing his tour of duty on a tropical isle.

in a seder conducted by members of
a Brooklyn yeshiva who were staying
at a luxury hotel and asked its Jewish
owner if anybody would be interest-
ed. Afterward, the seder' participants
decided to formally congregate.
"There was no,organized Jewish
community whatsoever and hadn't
been for 10 years," he says.
Israel, who graduated from the
University of Michigan with a degree
in political science, decided to go on
to rabbinical school when he realized
that a career in law would not pro-
vide him with the spiritual fulfill-
ment he craved. Israel had been

rather than seek a pulpit. He current-
ly commutes to New York from his
Washington, D.C., home for classes
and serves as part-time program
director for the Hillel at the
University of Maryland.
Although he sticks to swimming
when he heads south, Israel takes a
bit of guff for his situation. For the •
past two years, he has spent the 10
days between Rosh Hashanah and
Yom Kippur — known as "Aseret
Yimai Teshuvah" — in Nassau. His
brother-in-law jokes that Israel heads
to the Bahamas for "Aseret Yimai
Scuba." ❑