On Shabbat Parshat Behar/Bechukotai, May 23-24, at the invitation of Rabbi Chaim Strauchler, morah d’asra of Congregation Rinat Yisrael, the congregation will be hosting Rabbi Moshe Bloom of Congregation Netzach Shlomo of Petach Tikvah. Similarly, Rabbi Zev Goldberg of Bais Medrash of Bergenfield will be hosting Rabbi Yossi Chazan of Beit Yatir. Four more communities in the U.S., including Cherry Hill, East Brunswick, Baltimore and Milwaukee, will be hosting Israeli rabbis from Gedera, Givat Mordechai, Petach Tikvah and Kfar HaOranim. These visits will mark the rebooting of the RCA/Barkai collaboration between American and Israeli rabbis.
After serving for 10 years in an American pulpit, Rabbi David Fine made aliyah with his family to Modiin. While figuring out his professional plan, he was approached by the local rabbi with an idea. Rabbi Shlomo Sobel, a 10th-generation Jerusalemite, had come back from his first encounter with Diaspora Jewry in Detroit, where he served as a shaliach through Torah MiTzion. It immediately became clear to him that rabbinic leadership in the Diaspora, and specifically America, differed greatly from the American model. Realizing that both models could gain immensely from learning from each other, Rabbi Sobel suggested the formation of an organization with the goal of bridging the cultural gap between the Israeli and American synagogue communities. Thus, The Barkai Center for Practical Rabbinics and Community Development was created 13 years ago. Rabbi Fine has served as dean since its inception.
To date, more than 103 Israeli rabbis from throughout the country have gone through a rigorous two-year program through which they are certified in grief counseling, team building, abuse recognition, sensitivity training, marital counseling, mediation and many more practical areas. Armed with these pastoral skills, they are better equipped to support, sustain and provide for their community’s spiritual and pastoral health. After completing the program, alumni return to the center in Modiin five to six times per year for professional development and seminars on relevant topics. In addition to these formal gatherings, Barkai staff continues to mentor and advise alumni through a network of shared experiences. Barkai offers a rabbaniot program as well to the wives of the Barkai rabbis. Rabbaniot come together eight times per year to learn skills such as active listening, counseling, coaching, communal work and mediation. They too create a network through which they share experiences in dealing with their communities alongside their husbands.
In 2020, Barkai created a Pulpit Rabbis Exchange Program together with the Rabbinical Council of America through which pulpit rabbis in the U.S., Canada, England and Israel are paired together as partners. Through personal visits to each other’s congregations, the rabbis witness firsthand the dynamics of the communities, their goals as well as their strengths and weaknesses.
In January of 2020, Rabbi Chaim Strauchler, then a rabbi in Canada, took part in the first Rabbis Exchange Program in which six North American rabbis visited six Israeli communities. Rabbi Strauchler was paired with the Israeli town of Hatzor HaGlilit as a guest of Rabbi Moshe Shilat. Over the course of Shabbat, Rabbi Strauchler addressed the adults in the community as well as 35 high school students at the local Bnei Akiva. He was quite surprised to learn that for many of the residents, he was the first North American Jew they had met. He was also intrigued to learn that the youth are convinced that North America is a hotbed of antisemitism (that was back in 2020) and that Jews should be encouraged to make aliyah out of love and not wait to make aliyah out of fear. During his visit, Rabbi Strauchler picked up on many subtle yet key elements that contrasted with the functioning of North American congregations. The plan was that the six Israeli rabbis would visit the six North American congregations for a similar visit in May 2020. However, the COVID outbreak in March 2020 delayed this mission until now.
Rabbi Fine together with Rabbi Strauchler and five other American rabbis are rebooting the RCA/Barkai Rabbis Exchange Program, which will take place on the Shabbat of May 23-24. Prior to the Shabbat, on May 19-20, the RCA will be hosting its Annual U.S. Convention, where the visiting and host rabbis join for sessions and workshops. During the week preceding the Shabbat, the Israeli rabbis will visit local communities and local schools to further expand their firsthand experiences.
For Rabbi Strauchler, coming off the past 18 months since Oct. 7, and on the day that Edan Alexander is being freed, we must join our American and Israeli communities closer together through creating a common tzibbur, communities that understand each other not just through what they are being fed by the media. Through outreach from West to East and East to West, through visiting outlying communities in Israel as well as the U.S., a common bond should be created through which the Dati-Leumi communities worldwide will share common practices and goals.
From the reports of the cohorts who have gone through the Barkai rabbinic training program, Rabbi Fine has seen many significant changes in the way Israeli rabbis are leading their communities, with much more hands-on approaches, and many more opportunities to strengthen ties and create better relationships. He is looking forward to the November exchange trip when American rabbis will be visiting Israeli communities the week of Parshat Lech-Lecha, aptly named, to witness the functioning of Israeli communities and bring back ideas and impressions to share with their local congregations.
The community is cordially invited to meet and greet the Israeli rabbis who will be visiting Congregations Rinat Yisroel and Bais Medrash of Bergenfield on Shabbat Behar/Bechukotai, May 23-24, and learn more about the RCA/Barkai Rabbinic Exchange Program.
For more information go to israelrabbis.org or email rabbifine@israelrabbis.org
