At Congregation Beit Yaakov, there’s been a tradition for almost three decades in which Israeli members of the community come together for a weekday event of support and connection as part of the Israeli Kiruv Program.
The program started in the late 1990s with the tragic killing of Aryeh Avrahami, an Israeli member of the congregation. The congregation then formed an Israeli class where Avrahami’s family could say Kaddish once a week, and it was only intended to last a month.
“We put together an Israeli group. They know that one day a week there is a learning of Torah; after that [there is a] gathering together for dinner,” said Mordechai Shaul, the founder of the program. “It started to be more and more like home for all the Israelis. All kinds of people came by, and they heard from other people that [the event] is a good place to stop by.”
Shaul said that people continued bringing their friends and family to come to these events and the program ended up continuing for a year.
He added that many people told him they would no longer be coming once the year mark had passed, but at the end of the year another tragedy struck, the death of Shia Freezner, another Israeli congregant.
After that point, Shaul said that the program has continued strong, but has since morphed into less of a memorial and instead a meeting place for Israelis and Israeli culture.
Rabbi Emanuel Goldfeiz, the congregation’s head rabbi, said that when the idea for an Israeli program was first brought up, he was supportive, but only figured a handful of people would show up.
“I was expecting maybe five, six people, and over 100 people came. I asked where did all these Israelis come from? They said, there are many of them all around, but they never had a place to come together. So, we decided that time to make a class [once a week],” Goldfeiz said.
Goldfeiz said they got someone who speaks Hebrew for the participants, someone who gives them a religious class, and during the program they offer Israeli food. He said for some of the people in attendance the program is the only connection they have to Judaism.
Shaul added that a man named Yono Alon took on the role of program leader initially, which he carried on for 15 years before he moved out of the area.
The program has since been run by Nir Ben Or, who has continued to connect local Israelis.
“The idea is to basically bring Israelis who are in town and may be not so [religiously] observant, and try to get them closer to Judaism,” said Ben Or. “We have a shiur from 8 to 9 p.m., then from 9 to 10 [p.m.] we have dinner together. And I think this is like the biggest part, we sit together, we have dinner, we talk together, we swap numbers.”
Goldfeiz and Ben Or both said that the program helps connect these local Israelis to the shul, and some have ended up joining the synagogue over the years.
Goldfeiz said that, one time, four Israeli boys came to the synagogue after spending two years in the Israel Defense Forces, intending to go to India and study Buddhism.
The boys were working on saving up some money for a few months before their travels, and Goldfeiz invited them to spend time at the synagogue learning about Judaism before they went. “They stayed for four years, and now each one of them got married. One of them opened a yeshiva in Israel. And he has many boys in his yeshiva, teaching them how to bring themselves close to God,” Goldfeiz said. “They all moved to Israel, and they built a beautiful Jewish home. They never went to India after they learned about Judaism.”
Ben Or said there’s a mix of people who attend the weekly events, ranging from a dedicated group of regulars to people visiting from Israel who come for a few weeks while they’re in town.
Goldfeiz said that the unique program they’ve created for Israelis at the synagogue shows the desire for Jewish community that exists in Baltimore. Ben Or said they’re hoping to attract more people and bring in more Israelis to a community at a time when he says not all are comfortable in the larger American society.
The group publishes videos of all the Israeli Kiruv events on Facebook and YouTube and looks to reach a wider audience to welcome them to the Baltimore Israeli community.
“We always say Baltimore is the best community in the United States to be. That’s just the way it is. I mean, there’s no other community that I know, and I’ve been in many of them. This is the best community in the world,” Ben Or said.
