After a summer of being forced to
take shelter underground and within security rooms the change of season has
heralded a change of fortune for
Our Friday evening services take
place in a lovely above-ground Matnas (Community Center) but all other
activities, including Saturday Morning Bnei Mitzvah services, had to take place
in the damp, musty shelter or various rented rooms around Nahariya. Most
problematic of all was the community office, a room in the shelter about 20
ftsq, which served both as administrative office and Rabbi's Study.
Following generous donations from
the URJ, ARZA and their members, given through the IMPJ, Emet veShalom was able
to realize the ambition to lease a building which provides a large open area
for communal activities and celebrations as well as smaller rooms for classes and
community offices.
The smaller classes will enable us
to run more than one activity at a time and the separate office for the Rabbi gives
him more privacy to conduct his pastoral duties.
The administrative office provides
a central information hub instead of having chunks information divided between
the hard drives and filing cabinets of the various board members and volunteers.
There is also a small kitchen area
which will be extremely useful for entertaining guests as well as preparing
food and snacks for communal celebrations.
And the large central room allows
us to hold communal gatherings 'at home' without having change location according to availability.
As soon as we were informed of the
available funding our Community Coordinator Marcus Lion immediately set out to inspect
many prospective buildings and once suitable accommodation was located Chairman
Ilan Crohn and Treasurer
Naturally the building was not
designed specifically for our purposes so it is necessary to make some alterations.
To this end Ramon Levy and
After collating the information
and further discussion contractors were consulted and work started. December was the month of
refurbishment and we were soon able to start putting our new community centre
to good use.
Having moved into our new accommodation we can forge
ahead with our general activity schedule and community support programs. The
first advantage is that our new building is on the ground floor and therefore
much more accessible to all members of our community. As a result we are able
to initiate programs for the more elderly members of our community, which was
just not feasible in the shelter.
It also means that our general activity
schedule will be accessible to everyone.
With the atmosphere and air
quality much improved we will be able to expand Tai Chi and Yoga classes that
are popular with our older members as well as cooking programs and possibly a
recipe exchange between members of different origins.
We also hope to expand our adult
education programs. For the last three years we have been primarily concerned
with assisting the absorption of new immigrants into our congregation and the
surrounding community. We provide courses on the
Following the war we are also
providing support groups, run with the assistance of trained professionals, to
help people deal with and understand their experiences.
We have lectures to assist people in
coping with the post-war anxiety, explaining various procedures, how to react
in certain situations and general advice on how to be prepared for life on the
border. Unfortunately we have to face the fact that this will probably not be
the last of hostilities in this area. Lectures have included visits from the
IDF's Home Front Division, as well as from first aid and stress management
professionals.
At first most of these activities were
centered round the Spanish speaking community as the Argentineans are our most
recent immigrants and less accustomed to life in
As present our community is a
great mix of nations but we also hope to attract a larger proportion of native
Israelis. We feel that with a central location for our activities we will provide
an address for all members of our local community who are seeking information about
Reform Judaism.
In addition to the activity
program we intend to create an information corner with the new building where
congregation members and visitors alike can read about Reform Judaism at
We hope to provide an internet
connection so that people can access information about our and other
congregations as well as helping people to maintain contact with friends and
relatives abroad.
Of course these are plans for the
future and at present we have to deal with the reality of funding. Due to the
donations through URJ, ARZA and IMPJ we have been able to undertake the lease
and refurbishment of our new building however we must face the reality of
operating expenses. These can only be partially covered by members' dues and
income from activities. In order to keep our new community centre up and
running we are dependent on the generosity of the IMPJ in
