Israelis Get Alternative for Yom Kippur

Rina Bar-Or, who lives in a town near Tel Aviv, had never attended a Yom Kippur service until her grandchildren began asking questions about Jewish holidays. Then she discovered the Yom Kippur for All program, which offers an alternative service.

“The services are held in a community center. No one has to pay for a seat,” Bar-Or says. “Men and women sit together, and the rabbi explains the words and ideas for the prayers.”

Last year, Bar-Or was just one of 120,000 people who participated in Yom Kippur for All services held across Israel. When the program began in 2003, 70,000 participants in 180 locations attended the services designed to engage secular Israelis and Russian immigrants in Jewish traditions.

The Israel Association of Community Centers, as a result of support from UJA-Federation’s Commission on Jewish Identity and Renewal, now coordinates the program in 220 locations, including schools and community centers, and has grown to include young Ethiopians and emerging spiritual communities.

Bar-Or explains that in Israel, she used to feel she didn’t have to pray to experience the holiday, because everything was closed and no one goes to work. “I was never in a synagogue before, and then I heard about a service open to everyone,” she says. “Yom Kippur is something special, a day for thinking, and I wanted to go.”

Services are led by Conservative, modern Orthodox, or Reform rabbis, or local volunteers who are trained in prayers. Advertisements on radio and in newspapers inform people about the location of services, and a national toll-free number allows people to call in to find a service in a nearby town.

“We all enjoy each other’s company, even if we don’t know each other,” says Bar-Or. “There’s something in the air that’s very nice, and we leave smiling.”