Throughout our year in Israel we went to many different shuls and I wanted to give you guys an idea of each of them. When we were abroad we also went to shul, well really Ima went to shul and we slept or read, except for Budapest, Spain and Gibraltar where we all went. (Ima also went in Turkey and Italy and additional shuls in Jerusalem). I will only be talking about the shuls I went to, so if you want to hear about the shuls that only Ima made it to or a more in-depth description then ask Ima.
In Israel, I went to two different shuls in Tel Aviv, the shul on Kibbutz Ketura, a shul in Ra’nana, a shul in Zichron Yaakov, and many in Jerusalem. One of the shuls in Tel Aviv we went to is a conservative chavura (where one of Beth Shalom’s shinshinits for this coming year davens) and the other one meets only in the summer at the Tel Aviv Port. Jerusalem is a city with shuls everywhere. There are so many shuls in Jerusalem of all types. Depending on what neighbourhood you are staying in, you will probably go to different shuls. I went to Zion, Klausner, Sod Siach, Mayanot, Degel Yehuda, Mizmor L’David, Nava Tehila, and VeAni Tefilah also known as Roz.
My favorite Shuls are Nava Tehila and Sod Siach. Nava Tehila normally meets once a month and is a very long service that people really get into. Usually only one line is sung from every psalm and the line differs every time they meet. It is a very spiritual feeling, which I don’t love, but the tunes are really great. I only went to Sod Siach twice, one shabbat and for Purim, but I really enjoyed both times. The people there are mostly very young, there is good davening and Torah reading and it is a quicker service than others.
If you ask Ima, the shul that is her favorite is Zion. She will go into lots of detail describing how wonderful the Rabbi is, how spiritual it is, and how much she loves it. Something unique about Zion is that it’s called an Eretz Yisraeli shul. The rabbi, who is a woman, brings piyutim (ancient liturgical poems) into their special siddur. It’s not that I don’t like Zion, but it’s not the shul for me. Zion does lots of outreach with Palestinians and others and that is really cool.
The culture in Israel is different from the US in many ways, including how in Israel your Shul is not your whole Jewish life. Many people go to multiple shuls, so if you ever live in Israel, don’t feel weird if you bounce around from shul to shul. Even if you are just visiting, you can try as many shuls as you want.
An interesting fact about shuls in Israel is that most don’t have enough money to buy a building so many shuls rent out the gym of schools or community centres. It is definitely different to daven under a basketball hoop. People also dress more casually at shul. During this pandemic, many shuls in Israel met in parks or outside of the buildings they usually meet in.
-Alexandra