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