I feel the need to share the following Jewish experience with you. This past Yom Kippur synagogue services took place at eighty (80!) left-wing formerly anti-religious kibbutzim in Israel.
This is a shocker in every sense of the word. Most of us who are already familiar with the contribution of the kibbutzim to the secularization of Israeli society and the way in which the movement attempted to uproot religion from our national life — ever since the first kibbutz was founded a century ago — can appreciate that prayer services in such a large number of kibbutzim is an indication that a great revolution has occurred.
Of course this turnaround didn’t suddenly appear out of nowhere. An organization known as Ayelet HaShachar stands behind it. Its mover and shaker is Rabbi Shlomo Ra’anan. Some years ago this organization tasked itself with infiltrating Judaism into the most leftist kibbutzim. This was an incredibly bold undertaking. Jewish chutzpah at its best. Everybody knew that an impenetrable wall protected the kibbutzim hermetically sealed against the faintest trace of Jewish tradition. Yet these yungeleit came along and dared to breach that wall with considerable success. Just recently our indefatigable reporter Aharon Granevitch-Granot wrote about his visit to one such kibbutz in northern Israel [A Kippah for Rosh HaNikra/Jewish Geography #324] where he reported the activities of Rabbi David Ben Saadon who was trained by Ayelet HaShachar whose members know how to reconnect kibbutzniks to our ancient traditions. It is hard to believe but a wind of Jewish renewal is rippling over the fields of the kibbutzim.
And now they’re holding Yom Kippur services.
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