Connecting

We Jews feel attracted by a strong magnetic force to Eretz Israel – the land of Israel. But in truth, it’s not the land as much as the people who remind us of our connection to the birthplace of our people.

We have a sister congregation – Or Hadash – in Haifa, which welcomed us with open arms as we joined them for Shabbat services. We were greeted with a banner above the doors. The service was almost totally in Hebrew, with no transliteration. But there were familiar melodies. Toby would be happy to know that we all sang the Sh’ma together in a loud voice, followed by a quiet Baruch shem… We were each given a goody bag containing a hat, a tee shirt, and other miscellaneous things. But best of all we were taken to members’ homes for Shabbat dinner after the service.

Our host family – Mario, Judith, and Orim Burman – live in a spacious apartment with a huge outdoor terrace. Mario and Judith are both PhD professors. Omri is a 15-year-old linguistic genius, speaking 6 languages fluently. But his real passion is Brazilian capoeira, a martial art. You would never have known that English was not their native language.

Judith had cooked an absolute feast for us – from homemade tomato soup to Hungarian blintzes to baked salmon to the best cheesecake I have ever eaten, all accompanied by delicious Israeli wine. After we had totally stuffed ourselves, we reluctantly succumbed to sleepiness and returned to our hotel. But not before we snapped group pictures, including the most delightful Israeli dog, which reminded me of Dylan and Jake. It was hard to tear ourselves away from such good company.

During the course of the evening, we came to realize that although we had all come to our Jewish experience through different paths, we shared a core of similar values and hopes for our collective people. What better way to connect to our living religion!