Special Report

Jewish Renaissance and Renewal in Israel

A report of the Dorot and Nathan Cummings Foundations - Page 4 of 4

NEW AGE COMES TO ISRAEL

In the 1990s, thousands of Israelis who traveled outside of the country brought back with them alternative lifestyles and spiritual practices generally referred to as "new age." Educators and political leaders initially dismissed these developments as hostile to mainstream Israeli culture. Now, however, there is growing recognition that many new age practices are compatible with Jewish life, and can contribute to new expressions of Jewish identity. The last five years have seen distinctive publications, large open-air festivals and new institutions all integrating more traditional Judaism with new age themes. The media has also become interested in this phenomenon. While pleased with these developments, many who are active in Jewish revitalization are frustrated at the commercial aspects of this trend, and stress the need to create serious alternatives.

The "Shantipi Festival" is an example of one such new age trend. Shantipi, now in its fourth year, takes place at Shavuot. It was designed by its organizers to create a new reality: a reality of respect and friendship, based on one global culture, with harmonious coexistence of customs, art, and sounds from the world over. The Festival included performances and workshops, healing services, health food, alternative medicine displays, meditation opportunities and other bold, experimental events.

The widely-read daily newspaper Ma’ariv helped to spread the word about Shantipi. Organizers of the festival placed an advertising supplement in the paper’s popular Friday edition, and a week after the Festival took place Ma’ariv ran a story about Shantipi in its weekly magazine. In that story, the reporter described the colorful variety of activities that were offered to the public, mostly introducing alternative life style features. He wrote:

After dinner I passed by large tents with signs such as ‘love shrine’ or ‘healing through universal love’ where people were sitting in circles with closed eyes. In the near-by synagogue somebody was looking for happiness in the holy ark. Generally, it seems that Judaism lives nicely side by side with eastern religions and nocturnal pagan nature ceremonies. The synagogue offered, aside from services, workshops on Jewish mysticism and a traditional Tikkun (nightly study session) led by Rabbi Mordechai Gafni.

The article also displayed three photographs in which young men and women were dancing with Torah scrolls, kissing the Torah, in a very informal new age style.

A similar event took place during Rosh Hashana. The "Bereshit" festival attracted over 15,000 Israelis who gathered at the Meggido forest for three days. Ronny Tabachnick, the Festival organizer, said to Ha’aretz: "We live in a western normal and modern place, and many feel that it is not right. Society pushes us to be in a certain place and this creates a gap between individual and society. In the Festival this gap dissipates. People need a sense of the tribe. The Festival is a kind of a modern version of the ancient tribe."

The "legitimation" of new age concerns has taken time. When the "New Age movement" became popular in the 1990s, it was as a counter-culture to mainstream Israeli collective culture. It was viewed, at first, by educators and political leaders as a threat to mainstream Zionism. In the 1980s, it was considered a network of dangerous cults, capturing confused Israelis. By the end of the 1990s, however, new age was becoming more legitimate, as Israeli society in general grew to encompass new and different alternative lifestyles. One reason for this trend was the journey and return of masses of young Israelis, particularly to the Far East. These journeys opened up venues for spiritual alternatives that had been absent in the intense reality of Israeli life.

New age appealed mostly to young and educated secular Israelis. Activities took place largely in the Tel Aviv area or in the Galil region, which was becoming the locale for several alternative lifestyle communities. One sign of the changing times was the appearance of a monthly magazine called Haim Acherim (Hebrew for "Alternative Life") dedicated to "alternative medicine, mysticism, spirituality and alternative thinking." Haim Acherim is an elegant journal with a circulation of 10,000 readers. A quick look at the magazine reveals the economic scope of this trend. The publication is full of advertisements offering the public a large variety of therapies, healing experiences, diets, workshops and products.

Recently, there is an increasing willingness among new age Israelis to include Jewish components in their practices. Moving away from overt hostility toward Judaism, they are creating space for Jewish expression within the new age culture. One of the sources of Jewish activity comes from young religious Israelis who have been affected by Eastern religions and are looking for some integration of traditional Judaism and new age culture. Ohad Ezrahi (no relation to the author) is one of the leaders of this group. He himself went through a long journey that included Zen Buddhism, years within ultra-Orthodox Hasidism and studying Jewish mysticism. He is creating a new institution: Hamakom ("the Place," better known as "Yeshivashram"–Yeshiva and Ashram combined). Ezrahi’s teaching attracts a wide range of religious and secular Isrealis, and includes educators, therapists, artists and healers of all sorts.

Other groups operating in Israel with a new age flavor are all somewhat linked to the Jewish Renewal movement in the United States. The significance of these groups is not in their numbers, but rather in their growing connection to a much broader network of Israelis who are seeking new spiritual answers. All those who were interviewed for this paper highlighted their frustration with the commercial and superficial nature of this phenomenon, as they are trying to create their serious alternatives.

PART II:

NEW CHALLENGES AND POSSIBILITIES FOR THE JEWISH RENAISSANCE

The phenomena described in Part I are growing in scope and substance, but Jewish revitalization is not yet a feature of mainstream public discourse in Israel. This sense of marginality is a great source of frustration for the individuals and groups devoted to the Jewish renaissance, and it has many sources and explanations. Happily, there are signs that the time may be ripe to change this situation, and to move Jewish revitalization further into the mainstream of Israeli life.

There are two primary explanations for the marginality of the renaissance movement. Most obvious is Israel’s historical focus on basic existential issues such as national security, absorption of immigrants and economic development. Jewish revitalization shows that this is changing. Matters of the spirit, once viewed as a luxury, are now important to a growing number of Israelis.

Another explanation looks to the historical deadlock between Israel’s secular majority and Orthodox minority. There has been a delicate balance between these segments of society, and, for decades, Israelis have been unwilling to shake the tense relationships between them and upset the status quo. Recently, however, there has been a shift in the decades-old balance between religious and secular Jews, and the emergence of a "post-Status Quo" Judaism. This new balance effectively breaks the monopoly of the Orthodox Rabbinate in defining the content of Jewish life, even while its political monopoly on issues of personal status, legal recognition and government funding remains.

For these and other reasons, the appeal of Jewish revitalization has been limited to small groups of Israelis, mostly elite groups of the educated and financially-capable. These elite groups are primarily of Ashkenazi descent. As a largely elite phenomenon, the Jewish renaissance has had more influence than the number of actual participants suggests. Renaissance leaders now understand that they must work to broaden their appeal to different social and ethnic groups, and beyond Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

In interviews with active players in the field, it became clear that the overarching challenge is how to bring the renaissance trend closer to the center stage of Israeli life. The sense is that the time is right and that Israelis are ready to accept new alternatives, as Israel is moving toward a pluralistic multicultural stage in its development.

THE "SUPERMARKET": POST STATUS QUO JUDAISM

The status quo that existed between Orthodox and secular Israelis, unquestioned for decades, was challenged in the 1990s. The term "Status Quo" has come to symbolize the delicate balance between religious and secular Jews. Over the years, fear of upsetting the balance has often been cited as a reason for failing to change the complicated and unresolved issue of Jewish life in Israel. Now, however, there has emerged a "Post Status Quo" Judaism, where non-Orthodox Jews for the first time see themselves as having a role in defining Israeli Jewish life. What exists now can be compared to a kind of supermarket, where Jewish consumers may shop for varieties of Jewish expression. Many shelves of the market, however, are empty, and producers are needed to generate a new and diverse line of Jewish products that will be "Israeli" in content and design of packaging.

What are the origins of the status quo? Secular Israelis tend to associate the term with the growing coercive power of the Orthodox political parties. But the status quo is both a political principle and a state of mind, and its effects have evolved over time. In the State’s early days, writes leading Hebrew University Professor Avi Ravitzky, each side maintained the status quo in the hope that the other side would disappear. With time, the status quo came to mean a buffer to prevent the "other side" from getting stronger. It served as a stabilizing mechanism in a very fragmented society. In many political agreements there was a reference to the "status quo" as a commitment each side made in order to avoid future conflict.

The status quo did not encourage pluralism. It kept control of Judaism in the hands of the Orthodox establishment. Orthodox communities were expected to maintain traditional Judaism and "leave the secular majority alone." The status quo gave the Orthodox minority license to determine Jewish authenticity–including control over important issues of personal status–so long as it left political, cultural and secular matters to the secular majority, which accepted the terms of this arrangement .

There was considerable erosion to this arrangement in the 1990s, when it became clear that secular Israelis no longer viewed the status quo as the sole organizing principle for Jewish individual or communal life. (The political system still operates on the premise of the status quo, enforcing Orthodox legal hegemony over matters of personal status, but this dimension is outside the scope of this paper.) While Israelis are prepared, at least psychologically, for new alternatives, the direction they will choose is not yet clear .

What will the breakdown of the status quo mean? We don’t know now. On the one hand, Israelis may continue to move away from any religious identity whatsoever, or they may turn towards greater involvement in new forms of Jewish life.

Israelis choosing the first course will define themselves simply as "Israelis". The term "Israeli" holds several possible meanings. It does not negate the Jewish origin of Israeli identity, but it does not attribute meaning to Jewish values or lifestyles in the construct of Israeli culture and identity. "Israeli identity" can denote many qualities : western, humanistic, regional, European, cosmopolitan, new age, eastern. Becoming "Israeli" does not require any deliberate act, it simply happens as a result of living in a free and open society that is tolerant of many new forms of identity. In Israeli rhetoric, this type of Israeli identity is occasionally labeled as "Hebrew Speaking Goyim". Many secular Israelis are moving, by default, into this new condition.

For Israelis who choose the second course, there are increasing opportunities to take greater responsibility for their Jewish lives and not "leave it to the Orthodox." Orly Kennet, an official in the Ministry of Education’s Values Education Administration, sees a new movement of secular Israelis who are building the infrastructure for a fresh and vibrant Israeli Judaism. She calls this trend a "positive social cultural activity, which does not seek confrontation with the Orthodox and holds no political agenda." It focuses on infusion of meaningful and relevant Jewish content into lifecycle events and the yearly calendar. This quiet revolution in the making, she believes, will produce a diverse and vibrant Jewish secular culture.

Kennet sees great change happening in many spheres: in the education system, in the community, in intimate learning opportunities, in large-scale events and festivals, in art and culture and leadership development. Kennet also describes significant developments in the formal educational system. She cites thousands of school principals, schoolteachers and early childhood educators who have been trained to teach an open pluralistic Judaic approach. Their training comes from programs like the Shalom Hartman Institute, the Schechter Institute (Conservative), The College for Pluralistic Judaism (secular), Elul, Beit Yatziv (a government-sponsored training center in Be’er Sheva), and others. The alumni of these programs are forging a quiet revolution in large portions of the Israeli formal educational system.

Kennet’s observations are indications that a "Post Status Quo" reality is evolving. In this post-status quo society, Jewish identity is less-often taken for granted, and official State institutions play a diminished role in regulating Jewish affairs. This leaves the content of Jewish life to be determined by communities and individuals. Judaism is subject to a free marketplace of ideas and lifestyles, and reflects general diversity in Israeli society.

Post status quo Judaism can be illustrated by using the metaphor of a supermarket. In this supermarket of ideas and lifestyles, Israelis face a display of new products that are available to sustain and design their spirituality and culture. Israelis can pick and choose and design personal forms of Jewish life that suit their needs (and, at the same rate, they can purchase non-Jewish products as well). For example a new Haggadah, published, by the Midrasha, a secular Jewish educational center in the northern part of Israel, offered average Israeli families an attractive, user-friendly pluralistic, egalitarian approach to the Seder. The Haggadah was published by a commercial publishing house and was sold out soon after it appeared.

Post status quo Judaism in Israel is a free market economy, with great opportunities and no guarantees. Its consumers are Israelis who are searching for meaning and are prepared to invest resources in their pursuit. However, the supermarket is not yet stocked with products that serve the specific needs of large groups of Israeli consumers. The years to come will most likely generate a new and diverse line of Jewish products that will be "Israeli", in content and in the design of the packaging.

THE SEARCH FOR COMMUNITY

In the late 1990s, Israelis began to feel a new need for community. This report has already described many contributing factors, like economic prosperity, large groups of new immigrants and the Rabin assassination. These all diminished a sense of collective purpose, and exposed individuals and families to a new, unfamiliar kind of solitude. The kibbutz movement experienced this phenomenon quite dramatically, as a new generation moved away from cooperative living. To counter this isolation, some groups — particularly at the grassroots level — have begun to use Jewish culture and activities to create community. These activities show that the conscious creation of new communities around Jewish themes is contributing to a "new type of Israeli Judaism." This new Israeli type is distinguished from the American model, where a religious congregation provides the framework for Jewish communal life. However, such aspects of community-building skills as voluntarism, a sense of social responsibility and knowledge of independent fundraising are relatively new to Israeli culture, and will need nurturing to help these experiments succeed.

A good example of new community-building is the town of Modi’in, a "bedroom community" between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Modi’in was planned in the 1980s, and its first residents arrived in the mid 1990s. Its population is expected to reach 250,000, a sizable community in Israeli terms. Modi’in is similar to what Levittown was in the New York area in the post-World War II era: a place for middle class Jewish Israelis who wish to improve their quality of life. This means bigger homes, better municipal services, a more environmentally-sound lifestyle and personal security.

In this town that grew overnight, the need for community is felt strongly. Most people are away from their extended families, unfamiliar with their neighbors and in need of support and intimacy. In response, Modi’in has become fertile ground for communal initiatives and experiments. Yozma, a Reform congregation established in 1997 in Modi’in, has gained substantial recognition in the new town. Its activities are not limited to the synagogue, as they would be in America. Rather, it has expanded its activities beyond the synagogue, to places where Israelis naturally come together: pre-schools, supplementary education and social action.

Modi’in is just one example. In other new communities (or new areas adjacent to veteran communities like Western Rishon Letzion or Ashdod) a similar dynamic of community development is taking place all over Israel. Especially in development towns, activities like adult education and teacher enrichment are creating a new communal Jewish culture. Golan Mishali, deputy mayor of Migdal Ha’aemek, a development town in the Lower Galilee, described the effort being made in his town to create a new communal structure. Amidst a strong ultra Orthodox Shas community, the nearby Midrasha of Oranim is offering residents of Migdal Ha’aemek a wide range of activities. These activities can be called a new type of Israeli Judaism, which Mishali describes as "something between secular and Reform." Mishali admits that most of these activities are episodic in nature with little routine and commitment, but the pattern is emerging. In a few years there will be local leaders who will take it to the next logical step: establishing active centers for the members of the community.

It is important to note that these community-building efforts are nascent; Israelis have little experience in this area. Coming from a national collective experience, with little emphasis on local initiative, Israelis lack the leadership skills required to build and to sustain local communal life. The notions of voluntarism, social responsibility and independent fund-raising, have not been part of Israeli culture. Still, these early efforts are already expanding the American model, where the religious congregation provides communal framework, and adapting it to the realities of Israeli life.

NEW FOCUS ON SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Israeli society is struggling with a wide range of social issues. These include the decline in social and medical services, abuses of the environment, the poor treatment of minority groups, the place of foreign laborers and the gap between rich and poor. Historically, the response of concerned Israelis to these problems has not drawn explicitly on Jewish perspectives; the call for social change has been based on universal humanistic sources. Now, this is showing signs of change. In the Jewish Books movement, leaders are including texts that teach the value of social action which are of interest to a younger broader constituency. They are drawing on the resources of secular groups who promote social justice, and are planting the seeds for a lay-driven social action movement to address social problems in a way that is directly informed by Jewish perspective. In addition, new communities, like Kibbutz Tamuz, are making their focus the fusion of Jewish values and social responsibility .

The Back to Jewish Books movement began as text study without reference to contemporary social realities. It also tended to be intellectual, and oriented toward adults who sought the confidence to say "Judaism belongs to me." Moti Zeira, a leading figure in the Jewish secular sector, believes that many Israelis are still at this stage, and that this is a significant, if small, step forward for Jewish pluralism in Israel. He notes, however, that Jewish life has never been just about text study.

Gradually, Israelis concerned with social change are beginning to find that Jewish text and tradition provide an effective framework for addressing social problems. Moti Bar-or has created a new study center called Kolot, which focuses on leadership development for the purpose of social responsibility. He trains young lay leaders in a method, which is similar to the work done in the USA by the Wexner Heritage Foundation. One of the outcomes of Kolot’s leadership groups was the establishment of a soup kitchen in Tel Aviv, operated by volunteers. The soup kitchen consciously highlights the Jewish-values underpinnings of its operation. (A number of Israeli celebrities have engaged in this and similar activities, adding allure and recognition for Bar-or’s work.) The Israeli Reform movement’s Young Leadership Forum launches similar initiatives periodically. One recent campaign helped disadvantaged students by collecting and distributing a "back to school" kit.

This strategy needs to enlist two communities that generally do not interact with one another: organizations focusing on social justice in civil society, and Jewish groups. A recent conference brought these groups together to great success. Held in Tel Aviv in September 2000, "From the Jewish Library to Social Responsibility" brought representatives from the world of social action together with leaders from the network of Jewish renaissance and renewal associated with Panim, enabling them to share vision and practice. This could plant the seeds for a lay-driven social action movement that will work toward solving social problems in Israel with Jewish culture as its main resource.

In a related development, experimental communities have been established in recent years to focus year-round on issues of social justice and reform. Kibbutz Tamuz, Bet Israel (in Gilo) and Migvan (in the development town of Shderot) are playing important social roles in their respective towns, and attracting new people to further their important work.

THE RE-CREATION OF RITUAL AND SPIRITUALITY

Several observers interviewed for this report noted that, in their search for meaning, Israelis desire greater symbolic, or "ritualized spiritual expression." What this means is not so clear. It could include prayer in public places, rituals in the home, retreats, life cycle events, public gatherings and many other possibilities. This trend is especially noteworthy, given the historical animosity secular Israelis have shown toward religious ceremonies, religious rituals, and religion in general. Trends, such as the increase in non-Orthodox weddings, support this turn of events. In the future, new varieties of religious expression must emerge on at least two, interdependent, levels. Institutions, like the kibbutz and liberal Jewish movements, will be the source of effective new rituals and forms of spiritual expression. Grass roots groups will use their innovations, adapt them, and identify promising areas for future attention.

Much has been said about the negative attitudes Israelis hold toward the Jewish religion. Classic Zionist ideology included virulent anti-ceremony and anti-ritual attitudes, particularly in relation to the Jewish tradition. While some of the Jewish holidays have been revised and recast in the pioneer mold, many other rituals and ceremonies have been discarded or avoided. (The one dramatic exception is the elaborate development of ceremonies related to loss and bereavement, due to war and terrorism.) As a young society with a history of ongoing dramatic events, where daily demands for security and economic development take precedent, Israelis have rejected the trappings of ceremonial traditions, in the religious, civic and public spheres.

There are signs, however, that Israelis would like to recapture some ritual and ceremonial traditions, in a manner resonant with their daily lives. Guy Tzfoni, a senior fellow at the Midrasha and a graduate of the Mandel Institute for Educational Leadership, asks these important questions: who will constitute the spiritual authority? Will there be a "secular" rabbi? Where will the rituals take place? Will they be regularized or only for special occasions? Tzfoni suggests a two-tiered approach toward developing answers to these questions. Institutions need incentives to create a new language of ritual and spirituality, and grass roots groups need encouragement to affect their application and to determine the agenda for future projects. This will happen more in small communities, which have some kind of communal structure, rather in the large cities, Tzfoni argues, because of their high degree of intimacy and effective communication networks.

The new trend of alternative wedding ceremonies is an illustration of renewed interest in religious ritual. Initially, only small numbers of couples each year turned to Conservative and Reform rabbis to perform their weddings as a result of legal difficulties with the Orthodox establishment. They had to leave Israel to have a civil wedding procedure in Cyprus, Europe or the Americas. In recent years, the number of wedding ceremonies conducted outside the established system by Reform and Conservative rabbis as well as secular educational leaders has exploded. Hundreds of young couples (and thousands more who attend their weddings) are choosing alternatives without being forced to do so. This phenomenon, although trendy, is an example of a new reality in which couples are involved in choosing and designing their lifecycle ceremonies. This development has tremendous implications for Israeli society. It has even been called a "quiet revolution" and may eventually bring the collapse of the official Orthodox dominance in Israel in matters of personal status.

NEW ARENAS FOR JEWISH EXPRESSION

For some time, Jewish topics were not explored in popular culture. Artists and writers felt the general social discomfort with religion, and stayed away from Jewish themes. Israeli public television and radio carried only token symbols, like segments on the weekly Torah portion. When journalists did write about Jewish topics, they did so with a tabloid-style interest in controversy. Now, however, there are signs that popular culture is an active, fertile ground for exploring Jewish identity. This is sure to expand the diversity and the outreach of the Jewish renaissance.

Jewish culture in Israel is also the general culture. Therefore, Jewish ideas and lifestyles can be expressed in many modes of communication. Unlike in the Diaspora where the Jewish community uses its own media (Jewish newspapers, Jewish TV hours, newsletters, and internal electronic networks), in the Jewish State there are national and local venues to convey and to create Jewish culture.

Historically, Israeli public radio and television stations have been committed to Jewish programming around holidays and in certain programs. Israel’s radio stations open their morning broadcasting with the Shma prayer and have special references to the weekly Torah portion. Most Israelies regard these references as merely symbolic, and do not grant them much significance.

Yair Sheleg is critical of the Israeli media, comparing it to a ship that travels near the North Pole and can only spot the tips of the icebergs. So, for example, the newspapers in Israel might have a story on "religious Israelis using drugs" or, "secular Israelis involved in cult activities", but they will not go deeper into basic issues that reflect real religious search for meaning.

In spite of these criticisms, Sheleg has seen signs of positive changes in the media’s treatment of religious subjects. He identifies a group of young journalists who are interested in culture and spirituality. His own newspaper, Ha’aretz, is showing a real desire to delve into the depth of social and cultural issues. Still, the general tone of the Israeli media is vulgar and tabloid in orientation.

Sheleg and his colleagues suggest that a conscious strategy to change and to complement the mass media will further the goals of Jewish pluralism. One strategy encourages public broadcasting in Israel to serve its original purpose, and to reconsider the content of its Jewish programming. Outside funding could support programs to infuse Israel’s public broadcasting with new ideas and talent. One example of this type of programming is the popular weekly TV show created by Mordechai Gafni, a dynamic, young modern Orthodox rabbi. Each week, Gafni engages Israeli celebrities in discussion of Jewish values and texts as they apply to their lives.

Another strategy focuses on the print media, writing articles and creating journals to explore issues of Jewish identity. A bi-monthly journal, Eretz Acheret (Hebrew for "An Alternative Land") was initiated recently. It offers readers a wide and diverse range of topics, and provides a forum for writers wrestling with issues of Jewish identity and creativity. In the future, Eretz Acheret might become a platform for debate and dialogue about Jewish pluralism in Israel. Similarly, a new magazine, Mitzraf: Thoughts about Israeli-Jewish Creativity, has been established as a forum for mostly Orthodox educators and artists to explore issues of Jewish creativity.

In addition, there is room for a variety of alternative media communications: local newspapers and TV channels, literary journals, internet, mass events that receive publicity, art, theater productions and book publications. Outside funding is necessary to spark and to sustain these efforts, and to bring them to a broad and also an influential audience .

PART III:

NEXT STEPS

ROLE OF DIASPORA JEWS

The topic of this report is Jewish pluralism in Israel. While its venue is Israel, the act of renewing Judaism encompasses Israel and Diaspora both. The Jewish renaissance is a joint project between Israeli and Diaspora Jews; both have an important role to play in nurturing and expanding Jewish pluralism. The Diaspora experience is an important model for Jews in Israel who are seeking to change the status quo. They find inspiration in the Diaspora’s diversity and creativity, and look to its many vital groups for expertise and advice. As Jewish alternatives flourish and develop in Israel, these new Israeli expressions of Judaism will renew and replenish the Diaspora, although Diaspora Jewry in turn must recognize that the Judaism emerging in Israel will not be identical to its own.

Many of the Israelis active in Jewish renaissance work in Israel view their work as a common enterprise with their partners in the Diaspora, particularly in the United States. There are several reasons for this. First, many of the early leaders of the renaissance movement were olim, mostly from the United States, Canada, Great Britain and South Africa, who came to Israel with the experience of Jewish diversity and an existing desire to alter the status quo. Second, many of the initiatives mentioned in this work were made possible by Diaspora philanthropic funds. It is impossible to overestimate the importance of these funds, which sustain organizations who receive only sporadic government support, and whose leaders are not yet sophisticated at raising their own funds.

Third and most significant, Israelis find meaning in partnership as a way to provide transforming personal experiences. Tens of thousands of Israelis have gone through significant Jewish growth experience while being out of Israel: traveling, studying, serving on Schlihut, and visiting friends and relatives. For many Israelis, these visits exposed them to Jewish communal and religious institutions that expanded their sense of Jewish possibility. The intensity of commitment, creativity, tolerance and esthetics proved that there are other ways of being Jewish. Israelis came back to Israel with some inspiration or skills they later applied in Israel.

There are two other examples of partnerships that further the Jewish renaissance in Israel. The first is formal dialogue programs, and the second is international conferences. Formal dialogues enable Diaspora and Israeli leaders to meet, learn together and share issues of Jewish concern in their respective communities. One noteworthy initiative is the Bavli — Yerushalmi study group of New York and Jerusalem intellectuals who have been studying together and meeting each other for three years. They have created a community that crosses geographical boundaries, and now includes a havurah of Jews from Poland. Other dialogue initiatives are taking place in many contexts and places. A new group has begun which links Wexner Fellows in San Francisco with Kolot Fellows in Tel Aviv.

International conferences draw on Diaspora Jews all over the world, and assure renaissance groups a global perspective. Jewish leaders who are interested in rejuvenating Judaism meet and exchange views with others who are working toward these ends in other parts of the world. This took place at the annual Limmud Conference in England, with participants from Israel, America and Europe. A similar global perspective is provided by renaissance activities in the Former Soviet Union.

The partnership between Israeli and Diaspora Jews supercedes the usual asymmetry between funders and recipients. It is dynamic, interactive, and personally important to many participants. It is a distinctive feature of the Jewish renaissance, and assures that the movement will have a global perspective .

TOOLS FOR ACTION

There are many ways to help move the renaissance forward. The movement needs to grow in a variety of ways. The following list offers conceptual frameworks for developing funding strategies. Foundations already active in this field can serve as a resource for federations, other foundations and donors who wish to join this effort. We suggest that projects falling into the following categories would be well worthy of consideration.

Encouraging Jewish themes in popular culture, media and the arts, and supporting artists and cultural institutions;

Creating opportunities for Jews to spend leisure time, family time and social time on Jewish activities and learning;

Promoting leadership development for rabbis, educators, community organizers, spiritual leaders and lay leaders for both religious and secular communities;

Building, expanding, and sustaining synagogues, schools, pre-schools and study centers;

Supporting efforts to develop the movement at the grass roots level, including festivals, concerts, fairs;

Designing outreach to particular communities, including Jews from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia;

Promoting networks and advocacy initiatives for religious pluralism and renaissance;

Funding public relations campaigns;

Supporting dialogues, exchanges and internet connections between Israelis and with the Diaspora.

For more information on specific projects, contact Rachel Cowan at the

Nathan Cummings Foundation or Phyllis Goldman at the New Israel Fund.

CONCLUSION

The Arab-Israeli conflict and the pursuit of spiritual diversity in Israel are intertwined. In interviews, knowledgeable observers from many walks of life, including academia and journalism, underscored this message time and again. In the words of Dov Berkowitz: "the conflict shapes and defines the spiritual quest." People are searching, Berkowitz suggests, for a meaningful position between the humanistic embrace of the peace process and the isolation and chauvinism of the current violence. Aliza Shenhar, another keen observer of these matters, predicts that tensions with the Arab-Israeli minority will "force Jewish Israelis to look inward." She notes that times of crisis "are often a generator for creativity and the emergence of alternatives and new outlets."

Jewish alternatives and new Jewish outlets are continuing to make inroads into Israeli society. Perhaps the current uncertainty will accelerate this process, as observers like Shenhar suggest, or temporarily stay its growth. Whichever outcome, it is clear that the Israeli Jewish renaissance is here to stay and that it is an authentic Israeli phenomenon. Influenced by Jewish life in the Diaspora, particularly in the United States, it will also enrich Diaspora Jewish life by creating new and meaningful expressions of Judaism, and binding Israeli and Diaspora Judaism closer together.

APPENDIX

The following people were interviewed for this paper:

Rabbi Roberto Arbiv, Midreshet Iyun, Tel Aviv

Rabbi David Ariel-Yoel, Israeli Movement for Progressive Judaism

Rabbi Dov Berkowitz, Mila Institute

Ruth Calderon, Alma College

Dr. Yair Caspi

Dalia Cohen, a participant in Midrasha Programs, Tivon

Aryeh Dayan, Haaretz

Danny Danielly, Avichai Foundation

Ohad Ezrahi, Hamakom

Professor Yaron Ezrahi, Hebrew University

Avraham Infeld, Melitz

Ronen Jacobson, Midreshet Drachim

Rabbi Naamah Kelman, Hebrew Union College

Golan Mishali, Deputy Mayor, Migdal Ha’emek

Dr. Ruth Ostrin, Israel Cooperative Program, New Israel Fund

Professor Alice Shalvi, Schechter Institute

Stuart Schofman, The Jerusalem Report

Yair Sheleg, Ha’aretz

Professor Aliza Shenhar, Jezrael Valley College

Rabbi Kinneret Shiryon, Yozma Reform Congregation, Modi’in

Guy Tzfoni, The Midrasha at Oranim

Dr. Alexander Yakobson, Hebrew University

Meir Yoffe, Panim

Dr. Moti Zeira, The Midrasha at Oranim

Suggestions for Further Learning

2000, David Hartman, Israelis and the Jewish Tradition: An Ancient People

Debating Its Future

1999, Dan Urian and Efraim Karsh (eds.), In Search of Identity: Jewish

Aspects in Israeli Culture, Frank Cass, London, Portland OR

1983, Charles Liebman and Eliezer Don-Yehiya, Civil Religion in Israel,

University of California Press, Berkeley

1988, Mark Rosenstein, "The New Jew: The Ideal of the Zionist Educational

System in Palestine up to the Establishment of the State of Israel (in

Hebrew), Studies in Jewish Education, Vol. 3

Spring 2000, Ephraim Tabory, "The Influence of Liberal Judaism on Israeli

Religious Life", in Israel Studies, Vol. 5 Number 1, Ben Gurion University

2000, Yair Sheleg, The New Religious Jews: Recent Development among

Observant Jews in Israel (in Hebrew), Keter, Jerusalem

2000, Maoz Azaryahu, "The Golden Arches of McDonalds: on the

Americanization of Israel", in Israel Studies, Vol. 5, Number 1, Ben Gurion

University

1997, Rochelle Furstenberg, Post-Zionism: The Challenge to Israel, The

American Jewish Committee and the Argov Center of the Study of Israel and

the Jewish People, Bar Ilan University

2000, Directory of Jewish Renaissane in Israel, Panim

Panim website: www.Panim.org.il

The Nathan Cummings Foundation

1926 Broadway, Suite 600

New York, NY 10023-6915

www.ncf.org

erhaps the current uncertainty will accelerate this process, as observers like Shenhar suggest, or temporarily stay its growth. Whichever outcome, it is clear that the Israeli Jewish renaissance is here to stay and that it is an authentic Israeli phenomenon. Influenced by Jewish life in the Diaspora, particularly in the United States, it will also enrich Diaspora Jewish life by creating new and meaningful expressions of Judaism, and binding Israeli and Diaspora Judaism closer together.