Page 25 - HaMizrachi Rosh HaShana - Yom Kippur 5783 USA

of parlor meetings, and the demand
is growing. Simultaneously, Yehuda
is involved in founding the Jewish
Academy, the first school specifically
geared for children of Israelis living
in Florida. It is a pilot that will hope-
fully be replicated in communities
across the US. “The two most signif-
icant developmental questions that
any teenager asks are, ‘Who am I?’
and ‘What do I associate with?,’” says
Neta. “These questions are at the core
of the seminars: identity and belong-
ing. I don’t want parents to sit their
children down on the couch and say
to them, ‘Let’s talk about identity.’ It
is something that has to be integrated Sivan Rahav-Meir addressing outgoing shlichim at a Mizrachi Shlichut Center event. (PHOTO: DAVID STEIN)
into a family’s day-to-day life. Just as a
Jewish mother might educate a child “We prefer to work with parents of into Shabbat. Here, you have to make
about the importance of going to col- young children, but they often say: it feel like Shabbat. Sending a ‘Shab-
lege and becoming a doctor, Jewish ‘We’ll worry about that in a few years.’ bat Shalom’ message on the family
identity is something that has to be They don’t understand that you need WhatsApp group, having a Shabbat
inculcated gradually. Even simple sen- to start early. Otherwise they will meal – if you don’t take active steps
tences like, ‘you are a Jewish child’, ‘we come back to us once their kids are like these it will just feel like any
are proud to be Jewish’, and answering in college asking if there is anything other day. In Israel, children learn so
simple questions about how Judaism they can do.” much just from being in school. But
expresses itself in our life are very in America, most Israelis do not pay
significant. In the seminars we start I asked Neta and Yehuda to give me for their kids to go to Jewish schools,
these conversations with questions like, a crash course of their seminar. Neta so everything they learn has to come
‘what was your first Jewish memory?’” begins with the Tanach: “Every Jew from the home.”
has to know the story of the Tanach
“In the seminars, we uncover a lot of in order to show their children that As our conversation came to a close,
pain,” says Yehuda. “The parents will every Jewish individual and family is I had to ask Neta and Yehuda about
often say, ‘We are Israeli’, and the chil- a continuation of that story – that we their unique and surprising partner-
dren will say, ‘that’s lovely, but we are are part of something larger. There ship. “We get questions like this all the
not’. This is one of the hardest things are values and history embedded in time,” they laugh. “How do secular and
for participants, to separate and distin- every Jewish festival that must be Charedi people work together? Ulti-
guish between being Israeli and being taught, and key moments like a Bar mately, we see that the people we work
Jewish. It is so hard for people, and or Bat Mitzvah should not be allowed with like the partnership.”
often they hold on very deeply to the to simply fade away, but become some-
idea that their children are Israeli even thing longer lasting.” Neta concludes with a line that stuck
though they aren’t. It forces people to Yehuda says a lot of it comes down to with me long after our meeting. “In
realize that when they leave Israel, communication. “It is not enough to Israel, we are part of two groups that
their children will not be Israeli, but say, ‘I am a Jew’; you also have to say ‘as generally don’t talk to each other. Yet
they will be Jewish. And that identity Jews we do x and y’. ‘As Jews we help somehow, here, as Israeli-Americans,
has to be developed.” other Jews, we do mitzvot’, and so on. we discovered just how much we have
in common.”
“We also try to assure the parents that There has to be something tangible;
we are not taking away their Israeli it cannot remain an abstract identity.
identity,” says Neta. “They will always If we do this, Judaism will inform the
be Israeli, but they have to think culture of our homes and our children
about their children. We ask them, will grow up with it.”
‘If intermarriage is a disaster in your “A lot of it goes beyond direct com- Sivan Rahav-Meir is a media personality
and lecturer. She lives in Jerusalem with her
eyes, how can you prevent it?’ By the munication,” says Neta. “Do you have husband, Yedidya, and their five children,
way, there are no absolute assurances a Tanach in the house, and how do and serves as World Mizrachi’s Scholar-in-
with this. Even Rabbi Kronfeld here you treat it? Do you have a chanukiah? Residence. She is a primetime anchor on
doesn’t know, with certainty, which There are things that don’t take much Channel 2 News, has a column in Israel’s
life choices his children will make. But effort in Israel but require conscious largest newspaper, Yediot Acharonot, and
as parents, we want to be able to say, effort in America. On Friday after- has a weekly radio show on Galei Tzahal
‘We did all that we could.’” noons in Israel, the country enters (Army Radio).

| 25