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Nathan Jeffay

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Nathan Jeffay,

Nathan Jeffay

Analysis

Why 'secular' kibbutzim are building own shuls

June 23, 2011 13:13
1 min read

It is a common sight in Israel's religious neighbourhoods. But when a scribe wrote the final letters of a new Torah scroll on Kibbutz Kalia last week, it was something many of its members never dreamed they would see.

Kalia, located on the shore of the Dead Sea, is a secular kibbutz, which for the first three decades of its existence was like most others - it showed little interest in religion. In the past seven years, however, its dining room has come under rabbinic supervision, it has established a synagogue which opens for all Shabbat and Holy Day services, and this synagogue now has its own Torah.

Some other secular kibbutzim have set up synagogues in the last decade, but they tend differ from the one on Kalia in one of two respects. Often the synagogues are non-denominational, used for whatever form of prayer of spiritual expression kibbutzniks favour. Where they are Orthodox, they were usually established to meet demand of outsiders - either visitors in guesthouses or residents in new housing developments which kibbutzim have opened to non-members.

On Kalia, however, the synagogue is Orthodox and the impetus to establish it came from kibbutz member Amos Yinon. A typically secular member until 15 years ago, he then started becoming religious, and subsequently became fully Orthodox.