For the first time on our trip, Shabbat services were at an outside synagogue that was walking distance from the hotel. That meant that services could be optional and people could arrive when they wanted to. I'm too tactful to say publicly who arrived on time, who arrived in the middle of the service, who arrived ten minutes before the end, and who arrived ten minutes before the end and still believed she deserved Bat Mitzvah credit.
Suffice to say that we prayed at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Jerusalem campus. The land was alloted to the Reform movement in 1964, when the eastern edge of the property faced onto No-Man's Land and a view of the old city risked encountering a Jordanian sniper's bullet. In 1967, of course, the entire situation changed, and now HUC-JIR has some of the best real estate in Jerusalem. The campus was expanded in the mid-1980's and again in the late 1990's, so that it is now a thriving center of Reform Judaism in Israel.
All this is a long way of saying that many Reform groups stop at HUC-JIR for services. On Saturday, there were at least 5 American rabbis in attendance, who were welcomed by Rabbi Naamah Kelman. The service itself was very familiar to us. Though all the prayers were in Hebrew, we used Gates of Prayer, and all the commentaries and the sermon were in English.
The singing, led by Cantor Tamar Havilio, was beautiful, and meant a lot to me. The cantor, once known as Heather Feffer, was my classmate in the year in Israel program almost 15 years ago. She said I haven't changed a bit. The gray hairs of congregational life mean that isn't entirely true, but the sentiment is sweet nonetheless.
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