I
World
Israel Ties
Adat Shalom Synagogue building
people-to-people connections.
D
Karmiel, Israel
wring the week of Thanksgiving,
my husband, Milt, and I and
friends Ruby and Richard
Kushner were feasting on the beauty of the
Galilee in a development town, Karmiel.
This town of 50,000, half of whom
are from the former Soviet Union, lies
in a valley between
the upper and lower
Galilee hills. It is not
on most tourist maps
although Warren
Buffett is familiar
with this region with
his new investment
- ,
in ISCAR in Tefen,
Renee Wohl
a town just north of
Special to
Karmiel. There are no
the Jewish
major tourist attrac-
News
tions except in late July
when Karmiel becomes
a kind of Woodstock, attracting over
250,000 for a dance festival.
During the rest of the year, people in
Karmiel are just trying to live peacefully.
On July 13, when Ehud Goldwasser and
Eldad Regev, two Israeli soldiers were kid-
napped on the Lebanese border, people's
lives changed in Karmiel.
This war was unlike Israel's other
wars. Katyusha rockets were falling on
Israel's northern cities, including Karmiel.
During the summer of 2006, 70 percent of
Karmiel's residents went south to escape
the Katyushas. My cousins, the Yagens
who live in Karmiel, left with their three
daughters to Ranana.
Although this guerilla war was distinct-
ly different from 1967, it took me back to
that time when my family was tethered
to news sources about Israel. Israel was
in extreme danger and my mother, a
Holocaust survivor, spoke these words that
I will never forget: "Without Israel, we are
all orphans?'
Karmiel, only 16 miles from the border,
had never experienced this kind of vio-
lence before. We in America were watching
from a distance, like tourists, proceeding
with our normal suburban lives. It felt
wrong.
High Holiday Message
On Yom Kippur at Adat Shalom
Synagogue, Rabbi Danny Nevins made
a bold request. He asked all of us to join
another synagogue.
He said a small Masorti (traditional)
A Spiritual Binding
Rabbinic visits help strengthen spiritual
connection between Conservative
congregations.
Don Cohen
Special to the Jewish News
I
Rabbi Landau: "Israelis sometimes take
their Jewish identities for granted so
when they meet Jews who have to think
about being Jewish, it's good for them
as Jews."
22
January 4 2007
wish my congregants could have
come with me, because I'm so
energized," said Rabbi Tsvi Landau
while wrapping up his visit to Adat
Shalom Synagogue in early December.
Landau, the rabbi of Kehillat
HaKerem, a 75-family synagogue in
Karmiel, Israel, came to celebrate
Shabbat with members of the
Farmington Hills synagogue, speak
about experiences during the Israel-
Hezbollah war this summer and dis-
Renee and Milton Wohl outside the Wohl Torah Center in the Old City of Jerusalem.
The center is not named for this Wohl family.
synagogue in Karmiel could use our help.
If our 1,000-member family could reach
out to this 75-member family with only
$36 each, we could raise $36,000 for out-
reach workers and other programs.
He challenged us to make a difference
this year as Federation's partnership initia-
tives have done in the past. Perhaps we
could move beyond tourist status, I thought.
So during Thanksgiving, the Kushners
and Wohls departed for Israel. Our mis-
sion was to connect with family in Israel
— family in Karmiel we had never visited
and family in Jerusalem. We also had a
very special person to connect with: our
new grandson of four months, Sam. My
son, Josh, a Jewish Theological Seminary
rabbinical student, was studying in
Jerusalem with his wife, Julie.
We traveled up to Karmiel from
Jerusalem (a 2 1/2-hour drive on Highway
6). Karmiel Rabbi Tzvi Landau gave us the
grand tour of the area.
The 75-family congregation includes
many former Americans, British, Scottish,
Argentines, Mexicans and some Russian
cuss the budding partnership between
the two Conservative (Masorti) con-
gregations.
The goal of the partnership is to
connect American and Israeli Jews
through their synagogues and the
Conservative movement. Kehillat
HaKerem was established in 1979 and
is one of nearly 50 Masorti congrega-
tions in Israel.
"We have to foster that connection
and make it real," Rabbi Landau says.
"It's about getting real people to know
real people. I've been overwhelmed
by the amount of people who have
told me they will visit us in Karmiel on
their next trip to Israel."
But for those who can't visit soon,
technology offers ways to build rela-
tionships and stay connected. Rabbi
Landau sees computers facilitating vir-
tual learning, a virtual book club and
connecting b'nai mitzvah and other
youth. "With technology and the will,
we can make it happen," he says.
Jews. The synagogue building adjacent to
a nursery school has one large space along
with a small kitchen, courtyard and bomb
shelter. The one space serves as a place for
prayer and meeting.
As Rabbi Landau took us around the
beautifully planned town, which is close
to Safed and Meron, we were struck by
the gardens and lovely sculptures at each
roundabout. Some of the sculptures now
had the signature of Katyushas.
Launched in 1964 as an experimental
development town, Karmiel has become a
model for Israeli cities. As my cousin Inbal
noted, "This is the oldest Scandinavian
town in Israel?' That's what it feels like
— clean, green and fresh. On a clear day,
you can see the Kinneret.
The town has grown so much since
its inception that it is now home to
two McDonald's restaurants and many
Russian-language bookstores.
Synagogue Backdrop
The Masorti congregation, Kehillat
Hakerem, was started 27 years ago. We met
Rabbi Shere is flanked by Renee and
Milt Wohl's son, Josh, as well as Eve
Posen, daughter of Steve and Cindy
Posen of Adat Shalom. Both are study-
ing in a Conservative rabbinical school
in Israel this year.
Karmiel is just 20 miles from the
Lebanese border and 20 miles east
of the Mediterranean Sea. During the
summer war, most of Karmiel's 50,000
residents, half from the former Soviet
Union, headed to the south of Israel or
to bomb shelters to escape Hezbollah