World
NEWS ANALYSIS
Detroiters Robert
Secular
Israelis Find
Sprituality
Detroit Jewish community's influence
sparked a grassroots religious awakening
in Central Galilee and throughout Israel.
Robert Heinrich
Special to the Jewish News
Nazareth .11lit
n a Friday night in the Jezreel
41 Valley in Israel, families gather to
welcome Shabbat. It is a tradition
as old as the Jewish people, but here, in
the valley where Yehudah HaNassi com-
piled the Mishnah and where the Jewish
pioneers established the first kibbutizim
and moshavim, there is something new
happening.
While the prayers and melodies are
familiar, there is no rabbi or set liturgy.
The services, filled with song and dancing,
draw on Jewish tradition while reflect-
ing the unique nature of the participants.
These are the Belt Keilahs or community
houses, a grassroots movement created
by secular Israelis who are rediscovering
Hertzberg, Michael
Horowitz and Rob Colburn,
part of the P2K Michigan
Steering Committee, with
(Ret.) Gen. Jack Jacoby,
new chair of the Israeli
Steering Committee of
P2K, at Kibbutz Yifat
in the Central Galilee's
Jezreel Valley
Jewish traditions and spirituality outside
of the existing religious structure.
The community houses are important
because of their implications for Israeli
society and the greater Jewish world and
because of the unique role the Jewish
communities of Detroit, Ann Arbor and
Grand Rapids played in their creation.
The first community house, Nigun
Haley (Melody of the Heart), was founded
in the Jezreel Valley in 2001. The Jezreel
Valley, along with the municipalities of
Nazareth In and Migdal HaEmek, are
partnered with the Jewish federations
of Detroit, Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids
through the Jewish Agency for Israel's
(JAFI) Partnership 2000 (P2K) program.
It was through the outreach programs of
Partnership 2000 that many of the found-
ers of Nigun Haley and the current leaders
of the community house movement first
came to the Detroit community. Here in
our synagogues, these secular Israelis
discovered something unexpected: their
Jewish identity.
As secular Israelis, they had effectively
linked their Judaism to Zionism and asso-
ciated the Jewish spiritual tradition with
Orthodox religious observance. Looking at
their children, they realized that as Israel
matured as a state, their children viewed
themselves as Israelis and only secondari-
ly as Jews. Like many American Jews who
discover their Jewish identity in Israel, the
Detroit Jewish community helped rekindle
the Jewish spark in these Israelis.
Partnership 2000 has discussed the creation of a Jewish identity seminar/retreat in which members of the Jewish communities of Detroit and the Central Galilee can
work together to address their community's needs. If you are interested in learning more about the community houses or Partnership 2000, or if you would like to
attend a community house service when you are in Israel or participate in the seminar/retreat, please contact Lori Davidson Mertz at Federation (mertz@jfmd.org ).
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