Far Away from Home 

Where: Toronto, Canada

What: An event to strengthen Israeli-Jewish identity

My Takeaway: Israeli expats are really their own separate community, with their specific needs and way of relating to Yiddishkeit

ASsoon as I entered the innovatively designed building in Thornhill, Ontario, just outside Toronto, I felt enveloped by a comforting sense of familiarity. The reason for the instant connection became clear during a conversation with Rabbi Yisrael Landau, a Chabad emissary in Toronto and spiritual head of the Chabad Israeli community, who in 2012 built a niche center for Israeli expats.

“Our facility isn’t constructed with typical Canadian brick but with Jerusalem Stone, to help create an Israeli ambiance,” explained Rabbi Landau, son of Bnei Brak’s venerated chief rabbi, Rav Moshe Yehuda Leib Landau a”h, and one of over two dozen shluchim under the Chabad of Toronto umbrella. That must have been it. As I glanced around, the distinctive beige chiseled stone accents on the aron kodesh and throughout the building unmistakably evoked Eretz Yisrael.

Chabad houses globally serve diverse communities, but this one stands out by tailoring its outreach specifically to the Israeli expat Hebrew-speaking community, who, according to Rabbi Landau, often feel disconnected from the wider Jewish population. Rabbi Shimon Binstock, director of the Chabad Diaspora Networks at Merkos 302, the central office for Jewish education, outreach, and social support for the more than 4,000 centers in Chabad’s global network, related that the typical North American Chabad house is either designed for college campus or communal outreach, models that don’t fully resonate with Israelis who have different needs.

Many Israelis, for example, initially don’t see the need for synagogue involvement or Jewish education in the Diaspora, especially coming from a country where they’ve always assumed “Jewish” and “Israeli” are interchangeable. Additionally, as basic religious services in Israel are administered by the state, they can’t understand why they have to shell out large sums for tuition and shul membership fees. Of course, it soon becomes evident that buying their children Bissli and Bamba is not enough to maintain an Israeli identity in Canada.