Friday, February 27, 2009

Shabbat Bliss in Ra'anana

Tonight we divided up among numerous Israeli Movement for Progressive Judaism (IMPJ) synagogues across the country for Shabbat services and dinner. I didn't have a particular connection to any synagogue and wanted to go somewhere suburban like my own synagogue. So I ended up in R'anana, an affluent north Tel Aviv suburb. The beautiful synagogue is led by Rabbi Tamar Kolberg.
Services were lively and bright. Naturally, all in Hebrew, the songs and prayers and melodies were almost all very familiar and it was delightful to join in such an energized community. I did note we started 20 minutes late and most of the people didn't arrive until 20 minutes after that, but it was a great place to pray. The synagogue is fast growing - they do 150 b'nai mitzvah a year, for example. That brings in thousands of Israelis as guests to experience and learn more about Reform Judaism.
After services, we went in groups of 2 and 3 to members' homes for dinner. I went to Ruth and Francis Wood. They are a British couple who made Aliyah in the 1980s. All 3o of their children were home for Sabbath dinner. The eldest (24) was there with her fiance (who is from Ukraine) and is currently in University. The second (22) has continued her army service and is an officer on intelligence work. The youngest (18) has been in the army for just two months and he was on a rare opportunity to come home.
With all 5 family members native to English (the kids could equally slip in their perfect Hebrew), we had a chance to explore all sorts of issues one never gets to ask about directly from Army service to politics (US and Israel) to being the children of immigrants to much more. The close quarters and intimacy were tremendous and the family was generous with their thoughts and sharing.
I did get an answer to a small question I have always wondered. The 3 children have British accents in their English - although they say their British family doesn't think so at all. I asked when they spoke English to their Israeli friends, did they speak with that accent. They told me that they intentionally put on an Israeli accent to talk in English because their Israeli friends have trouble understanding the British-accented English. While the BBC and specific teaching programs once dominated the accents of English speakers in Israelis, the dominance of American television and movies means most every Israeli learning English has more of an English accent - but one's parents also make a tremendous difference.
We gave up the grandeur of a big Friday service and dinner. We'll get that tomorrow with services and lunch together. Instead we continued this trip's excellent process of getting us to meet and learn from Israelis in small groups and we are the better for it.

Shabbat Shalom!
Mark

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