Alternative High Holiday events and services ‘rising in popularity’
Over the course of Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Succot, communities and organization associated with the Honey Foundation will be putting on different types of services for the holidays.
By JEREMY SHARONThe Lipsey Family (from left to right): Sarah Lipsey Brokman, Amy Lipsey, Bill Lipsey; Amy and Bill Lipsey are the co-founders of the Honey Foundation for Israel, Sarah is its president(photo credit: HERSCHEL GUTMAN)
The US-based Honey Foundation for Israel is promoting the alternative High Holy Day services it supports through its assistance to rabbis and spiritual leaders of various congregations and communities around Israel.Over the course of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot, communities and organization associated with the Honey Foundation will be putting on different types of services, some more traditional and some with a less conventional style.Among these services will be a Yom Kippur service put on by the Bina organization in the Tel Aviv Botanical Gardens for youth and young families, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services around the country, events for the slihot prayers of repentance, and tashlich on the beach in Tel Aviv, among others.One of the slihot events is being described as “Tahrir Style,” including a musical performance of the prayers along with poetry recitals, and will take place in parallel in the German Colony in Jerusalem and in Neve Tzedek in Tel Aviv next Sunday.The Beit Tefilla Yisraeli, another organization the foundation supports, will put up its community-sized sukkah at the Tel Aviv Port.The Honey Foundation supports a wide range of communities and groups, from liberal Orthodox through progressive communities to Humanist Jewish congregations, and those of no denomination at all.“We are looking to engage a new generation of young Jews who want to participate in Judaism and not watch some people do something else that isn’t relevant to them,” said Sarah Lipsey Brokman, vice-chair and CEO of the Honey Foundation for Israel. She said that “large numbers of people” are attending the events and services put on by groups it is funds.“People come as they are to have a participatory and meaningful experience, where they are in charge of making their own meaning,” she says. “These events run by rabbis and spiritual leaders who want to engage this next generation of Jews and want Judaism to have a relevant place in Israeli society.“There are lots of ways to express Judaism, and we support all of them – a free market of Jewish expressions. There has been a disconnect in Israel about whether non-religious Jews can have a meaningful religious experience. That fact isn’t true anymore, and we’re trying to show that there are many different choices available.”
