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A temporary synagogue previously used as a day care center at Kibbutz Yad Hannah north of Tel Aviv, Israel. (AP)
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| By Associated Press November 14, 2005 |
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A new synagogue ought to be nothing unusual in the Jewish state, but for the kibbutzniks of Yad Hannah, once staunchly communist and atheist, it marks a big change of mind.
Like many kibbutzim, this one is losing people. Now 30 Jewish families have moved in, some of them religious, and to make sure they stay, Yad Hannah is bending principle to build them a house of prayer.
It's a marriage of convenience. The kibbutz needs new blood, and the newcomers, evicted when Israel withdrew from 25 settlements in the Gaza Strip and West Bank this summer, need homes. It also shows how Israelis are adjusting to the physical dislocation and political rupture caused by the withdrawal.
Steeped in socialist and secular values, kibbutzim were once the vanguard of Jewish state-building. But 1980s inflation, the exodus of young people and crushing debt to the government have driven them into steady decline, and Yad Hannah in northern Israel is no exception.
So when the new families arrived from their now defunct West Bank settlement of Homesh, hoping to rebuild their lives together in one place, the 90 kibbutzniks saw a way to boost their population and climb out of their economic hole.
Kibbutzim were founded on principles of shared labor and income, communal child-rearing and collective ownership of homes and farmland. Yad Hannah, founded in the 1950s by Russian and European immigrants, was even further left than most, having split from the mainstream kibbutz movement and allied with the tiny Israeli Communist Party.
Since the economic meltdown, many kibbutzim have privatized themselves and received debt relief, and the government said Yad Hannah could do the same if it took in the settlers. Many of the kibbutzniks are past retirement age, and privatization would enable them to own their homes.
Yad Hannah and the newcomers are far apart politically. The kibbutz overwhelmingly supported the summer withdrawal, whereas Homesh settlers lit fires, raised barricades and threw eggs, tomatoes and cans of food at the soldiers charged with evacuating them.
But now that it's over, the kibbutzniks and uprooted settlers have to find ways to live together. So when the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur approached, the kibbutz converted an old day-care center into a temporary synagogue for the religious minority among the newcomers. Eventually a permanent synagogue will be built.
Pnina Feiler, 82, denies her kibbutz has traded its beliefs for a government handout. She says she has nothing against religious people, as long as she isn't forced to attend prayer services, and that if the newcomers are given a synagogue, "It's only fair."
The kibbutzniks say their communal era is over. Their social club and library are in disrepair, while the gray, tired-looking mess hall where everyone dined together served its last meal and locked its doors long ago.
"We're not much of a kibbutz anymore," said Michael Hide. "We just sort of exist with each other."
It was easy to pave a new two-lane road linking the settlers' new quarters to the old kibbutz, but building a community will take longer.
The Simchi family of five left a four-bedroom house in Homesh for a three-bedroom prefab in Yad Hannah, 10 miles (16 kilometers) west.
"It doesn't feel like home yet," said 18-year-old Moran Simchi. "There are a lot of older people in the kibbutz and it's hard to make a connection with them."
The kibbutz has hosted get-togethers to make the newcomers feel welcome, but both sides agree that few friendships had been forged.
"There is a space between us. They have been communist, and we are of course very different," said Juliette Simchi, Moran's mother. "We hope that in the future we will be a big family, like it was in Homesh."
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