Religious Zionists Share Hanukkah Light with Secular Israelis

Religious Zionists Share Hanukkah Light with Secular Israelis

By Debbie Berman and Baruch Gordon

In the wake of the Disengagement, the religious Zionist population is taking a more active role in outreach activities directed at engaging the secular Israeli public in an open religious dialogue.

During the holiday of Hanukkah, hundreds of religious volunteers were welcomed into Israeli homes to light candles together and enhance the celebration of the festival of lights.

Under the auspices of the OU Israel Center, Israel Outreach Project Manager Meir Schwartz says the religious Zionist world began developing outreach programs four years ago. "But," says Schwartz, "the destruction of the Jewish communities of Gush Katif and northern Samaria this past summer served as a wake up call for many in the religious Zionist public. People realized after the Disengagement that if we want to connect to the Israeli public, we need to do more than face the challenge of settling the Land. We need to reach their hearts through increasing our outreach efforts.”

Schwartz runs training programs to prepare religious Israeli students and adults to engage in dialogue with secular Israelis. “We are in the middle of our fourth 10-week course right now with close to 100 attendees. Participants always arrive thinking that only when they master the entire Torah can they do outreach work. They think that to engage in outreach, they must be able to answer any and every question about Judaism on the fly. What they see is that there is much room for work on all levels and that they can and must be an integral part of it. They simply get ignited. It's a new kind of activism,” Schwartz said.

“We have special programs for all the holidays. During Hanukkah we sent hundreds of people out to knock on doors, armed with menorahs and candles. Many people were happy to open their homes and let our volunteers in. What was surprising to us was that we really did not need to send the menorahs because people already had their own,” Schwartz said.

“You see, secular Israelis are already celebrating Hanukkah without us. What we added was a religious perspective to a seemingly secularized holiday. We found that people in the State of Israel are happy to keep commandments that are not forced upon them. Hanukkah is a holiday of light, transcending the rational, and appealing to the spiritual. With the increased popularity of the Kabbalah trend, there is a greater familiarity with the concepts of external vs. internal light or black vs. white light,” explained Schwartz.

Meir related a fresh story: "One of our people who went house to house on Wednesday engaged a grandfather with his two grandchildren. The man said that they were at a public Hanukkah candle lighting that night and didn't need to do it again. Our activist, Baruch, explained that in addition to the public lighting, each person must light the menorah in his home or where he is staying. The grandfather hesitated, so Baruch kneeled down and asked the kids if they want to light their very own menorah. Their eyes lit up and a few minutes later, the menorahs were lit as well, including one for the grandfather. Baruch chanted the blessings with them, word by word. Then, he danced around the menorahs singing with his three new friends and spun around the room with the kids like a dreidel."

Schwartz says that his organization has recently launched several programs including face to face meetings and the creation of open Jewish homes throughout the country. He invites people who want to work and help to contact him [050-794-8613, msch@walla.com]. The programs are coordinated with the support and guidance of rabbinic leaders like Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu and Rabbi Uri Sharki.

Schwartz explained, “A ‘Beyit Yehudi’ [Jewish Home] is a vibrant spiritual center where we offer people to come and encounter Judaism in ways they never have before. There are lectures, musical events, evenings of singing, one-on-one study, festive meals, and much more. It's a chance to experience firsthand a taste of Judaism without having to walk into a synagogue. The ‘Beyit Yehudi’ is an open house that invites people.” There are currently Beyit Yehudi homes operating in Ramat Hasharon near Tel Aviv, Tiberias, Ariel, Moshav Lachish and Kibbutz Naan.

Talking about the hareidi-religious outreach organizations, Schwartz said that they have many successful programs. "They were the first to deal with outreach work in Israel. Every hareidi-religious group has their outreach branches, including Belz, Chabad, Breslov, Arachim etc. I speak with their directors and learn from their experience,” explained Schwartz.

“Two problems that the hareidi-religious organizations must deal with is that the black hat and clothes traditionally worn by them are often perceived as threatening to the secular Israeli. Also, the hareidi-religious communities tend to associate only amongst themselves. This creates a situation in which it is more difficult to connect," Schwartz noted.

“We found that on a practical level a person wearing a knitted kipah has a greater chance of being received by the secular population for two reasons: we serve together with them in the army, and we are involved with them on a day to day level,” Schwartz stated.

Schwartz concluded, “The story of Hanukkah is really about a cultural war against Greek assimilation. Although secular Israelis associate themselves primarily with secular culture, most of them are lighting the Hanukkah menorah and reciting the traditional blessings. There seems to be some kind of contradiction. The truth is that deep inside of the secular Israeli is a Jewish soul guiding him to continue lighting Hanukkah candles.”