A Win With Our Twin



Coming on the heels of our visits the days before to Masada, the Dead Sea and Yad Vashem, our visit on Wednesday to visit Kehillat Netzach, our sister congregation in Ashkelon, was expected to be light and low key.  We had no idea what a warm and meaningful experience we were about to have. 

We were greeted by several of their Temple leaders, along with their Argentinian born Rabbi Gustavo Suraski.  I thought we would be meeting many Israeli born congregants, but it turns out that Kehillat Netzach is largely composed of North and South Americans; including Marty Davis, who was the Camp Director at Young Judaea’s Tel Yehudah sleepaway camp when I was a camper! 

Rabbi Suraski called up my daughter Leah for a sweet ceremony in honor of her bat mitzvah and presented her with a lovely framed certificate from our “twinned” synagogue in Israel, as well as a limited edition set of commemorative stamps issued in 2010 to mark the 150^th year since the birth of Theodore Herzl (we later visited his grave on Friday).  Our whole congregation was moved by the presentation (especially me, it was mamash sababa -- though there was no siddur from the Men's Club....). 

They then brought us to visit one of their five kindergarten classes made up of 35 children.  They must have known that, for some of us, this was the extent of our Hebrew communication skills.  We had a blast singing and dancing with the adorable, well-behaved four and five-year olds whom we partnered with.  The teacher was amazing, and had all the children and adults quickly learning the hand movements that went with the music.  This could just as easily have been our own Beth HaGan....

Or so we thought until we left the kindergarten class to tour the bomb shelter that the children run to in case of a terrorist attack.  Ashkelon is not far from the Gaza Strip.  Kehillat Netzach has five bomb shelters and, as a result, it was the only shul in Ashkelon to stay open during the last war.  This despite the fact that of the 200 synagogues in Asheklon, the conservative Kehillat Netzach is the only one that is not orthodox.  

We delivered the 50 sets of toothbrushes and toothpastes for the Israeli soldiers in the Ashkelon community, which were generously donated by our vice president Rob Panzer.  (Thanks Rob, they were very much appreciated.)  In turn, they presented each family with a book of art work from the children and some Ashkelon souvenirs.  We all agreed that this was time well spent and we look forward to visits from our sister congregation to Great Neck.

--Rochelle Klempner