Jewish teachings to prevent withdrawals
In aftermath of disengagement from Gaza, parts of West Bank, leaders of religious public decide to adopt new strategy to bring secular Israelis closer to Judaism; in recent J’lem convention, religious taught how to ‘approach secular public; organizer: Israeli society is going through moral, cultural crisis; eviction from settlements only one symptom. We are at war over Israel’s values, in danger of becoming post-Zionist, post-religious society
In the wake of the recent disengagement from Gaza and parts of the West Bank, and following the great crisis the national-religious public in Israel has experienced as a result, the leaders of this public in Israeli society have now decided on adopting a new strategy to enable them to "connect to the people," and bring the secular society closer to Judaism.
In a convention held in Jerusalem last Saturday, entitled "Spreading Judaism in Practice," young religious people were taught how to approach the secular public and convey to it the principles of the Jewish religion.
The Director of the organization which organized this convention, Avihai Boaron, explained that the course was conceived as a result of a "development in the awareness toward the importance of public activity in bringing people back to Judaism."
"Our public understands that the Israeli society is going through a moral and cultural crisis, which the eviction from the settlements was only one symptom of. We are at war over the values of the Israeli people, and must stop before we become a post-Zionist and a post-religious society," he added.
The course, he explained, will train emissaries to operate across Israel, open schools and give Torah lessons.
The goal – a political change
Rabbi Yigal Kamintzky, who was the rabbi of Gush Katif, spoke at the convention of his experience in the previous year and a half.
"During the last year and a half we, the public who believes in the sacredness of Israel, visited more than 350,000 families. In these meetings we discovered an extraordinary thing: It turns out more and more people are asking themselves: "What are we doing here? What are we living for?" The security and social crisis the people have gone through encouraged many to search for the truth."
Kamintzky claimed that in face-to-face meetings, people have learned to change their attitudes toward the religious public they previously demonized. He now looks forward to the next election, and said he believes that a political turnaround I very possible.
"Until the coming elections, we must go through the entire Israeli population… our ability to create a spiritual, ideological and political revolution is imminent, but we have to put this at the top of our priorities.
Learning from the masters
An organization which had immense success in operating among the secular public is Chabad. In order to learn from this success, the convention's organizers invited Chabad's emissary in Thailand, Rabbi Nehemiah Wilhelm, to talk about his activity there.
Rabbi Wilhelm described to the participants the history of the Chabad branch in Thailand, which have grown from a small and unfamiliar branch, to a huge house which hosts thousands of Israeli travelers every Friday night.
"A few years ago, when I just arrived in Thailand, we merely had enough people for Minyan (tem Jewish men required in order to hold a prayer). Now we have an average of 1,000 people at each Friday night ceremony. People enter the Chabad house every day to eat kosher food, put on phylacteries and just feel at home," he said.
When asked of the secret to the branch's popularity is, Wilhelm replied, "you love, you do favors, and you bring people closer to God without putting any conditions… first you must not patronize over people. If there is something in common to all Israelis, is that they hate to feel someone thinks he is better than them," he explained.
"You must also refrain from suggesting that you are trying to make them become religious. We discovered that people are happy putting on phylacteries and observing, but they do not like to be called religious."
