Eight of us went to Gadera (photo below).
We arrived around 4pm when most places of businesses were already closed. We were given a short tour of some of the neighborhoods including original buildings from the founding of the kibbutz in 1884. We hopped in our new friends' cars so they could drive us to the Beit Sefer (school) which apparently doubles as the Beit Kneset (synagogue) so that we could meet with some members of the Kehillah (community). I'm not really sure it's a congregation; if it is, it is certainly not like the ones most of us know from back home. They have a rabbi (who also was one of our guides showing us the kibbutz) but I'm not sure how it operates in terms of budget and programming. Anyway, we met to hear some first hand experiences of community members, and how they got involved in the Reform community on the kibbutz, and why they decided to move there in the first place. In general, they seemed to just Jews who strongly identify as Jews (and Israelis) but not living strictly according to halacha (Jewish law). Most of the families we saw there are young and have young kids. Most of the kids we saw there, once we moved into the space reserved for tefillah/prayer, were under the age of 10. And they were so, so SO cute!
Services were in the round, very much something I've grown to like, and the rabbi, Myra, played the flute, while another musician played the guitar. Most of the melodies were familiar to me as we went through the Kabbalat Shabbat service (which made me question how "reform" it was since I don't know many reform melodies!). What was most interesting about the service was that...there was no Ma'ariv service! I really don't have a big problem with it because I really enjoy the singing during Kabbalat Shabbat much more, but, in reality, Ma'ariv is the required part of the service and includes the Amidah, the standing, personal silent prayer. I don't even know if we did a Mourner's Kaddish which is also supposed to be a required part of the service. So we just sat there and followed along, not causing any trouble. The eight of us were also invited up to place pins in a map, in a break of the service, indicating where we all come from. Myra had mentioned that most of the kids living here don't understand that there are Jews in other places of the world. For them, it seems natural that if you are Jewish, you live in Israel. If you are a Jew, you are Israeli. It's a natural connection. So this was a great educational opportunity for us to show them that we come from a different part of the world, but we still celebrate Shabbat, and we still keep Passover, and we still know Hebrew. Well, some of us. Kind of.
After services ended, Myra called out our names in pairs and told us to which family we have been assigned for dinner. Steven and I were the last ones called, and it turns out that the family to which we have been assigned is the one that we sat next to during services! Who knew? The mom and dad introduce themselves to us; we head out to their car and meet their 3 kids who somehow all squeezed into the front seat. They told us that, instead of inviting us over to their house for Shabbat, which would have been nice, they were invited to another home with 40 guests coming, so they hoped we weren't afraid of big crowds! Lucky for all of us, it was absolutely perfect. We hit the jackpot! Coolest family, dad cycles, so Steven and him immediately start talking about that, and the mom, Carmen, is an English teacher, so both of us can communicate with her easily.
They introduced us to the hosts and the other families there, explaining to us how they knew each other, and explaining to them how we were invited for the evening. The children for the most part, sat together and after eating (for a bout 5 minutes) started running around and playing games. We had some conversation mixed in Hebrew and in English, with the families/parents, getting to know them a little bit. It turns out, Carmen and Uri are really the only ones in this particular community (he cycles with the dads in the families, and they get together as this large group once every few weeks, not every Shabbat) who identify as reform. The others are more traditional, but not all of them are orthodox. The families between themselves have discussions and disagreements about Shabbat observance and other elements of Judaism. We were just lucky enough to see it all.
It was definitely a valuable opportunity to meet the families, celebrate Shabbat in a different way than normal. I hope we can keep in touch with our new "family" who were so gracious and welcoming to us!
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