Egalitarian Yom Kippur services organized by WZO in North America

“After ten years in Toronto, this is the first time we went to the synagogue and participated in the services on Yom Kippur. Only afterwards did we realize how much we had missed it.”

So wrote one of the more than two hundred Israelis who participated in the concluding Neilah service held on Yom Kippur that was initiated by the Department for Organization and Connection with Israelis Abroad by the World Zionist Organization at Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto. The egalitarian Neilah ceremony conducted in Hebrew was accompanied by singing, carrying the Torah scroll throughout the congregation, and the sounding of the shofar.

Just a few hundred kilometers to the south, families of “Shevet Hatapuach,” part of Tzofim Tzabar, were hosted in Manhattan at Temple Israel of the City of New York.

Gusti Yehoshua Braverman, head of the department, who is behind the project of connecting Israelis to Jewish communities, notes with satisfaction the breakthrough in connecting Israelis and especially Israeli women during these days of division, discord and controversy. According to Braverman, “Like those who believe that Israeliness is not a matter of geography, we believe that there is more than one way to celebrate Judaism.”