Israeli minister will hit Jerusalem bars to raise youth awareness of Jewish diaspora
Nachman Shai said many younger Israelis do not know what it means to be a Jew outside Israel
Michael Daventry is Jewish News’s foreign and broadcast editor
Israelis are marking a week celebrating the Jewish diaspora with a series of events at the presidency, in lecture halls and in bars and clubs around the country.
The country’s diaspora minister Nachman Shai was set to mingle with drinkers at a Jerusalem bar as part of the initiative, which he said was to help remind younger generations that most Jews live outside Israel.
He told Jewish News: “I wish that every day of the year we remember and associate ourselves with Jews living out of the country, but since it doesn’t happen, we decided that at least for a week we would focus on the Jewish diaspora relationship and see how we can improve it.
“For young Israelis in their 20s, the diaspora is something they do not really know. What does it mean to be a Jew out of the country?
“The majority of them were born in Israel.”
Former Jewish Agency chief Natan Sharansky will accompany Shai on the bar visit.
“We will spend a few hours with young people who will come to the bar, and should they have an interest in the Israeli-diaspora relationship, he will probably tell them his personal story,” Shai said.
“Not that many remember who Sharansky is and how he came to Israel after nine years in Siberia.”
Other events included a gala celebration in Jerusalem, a series of educational lectures for schoolchildren and IDF soldiers, and a reception hosted by President Isaac Herzog.
The ongoing war in Ukraine had “suddenly illuminated the importance of the diaspora” among Israelis, the minister added.
“A series of conversations with Jewish leaders out of Ukraine — Chabad rabbis, other leaders — actually represented to Israelis that there is Jewish life out of Israel and Jews live in those countries and do not necessarily dream about coming to Israel — [although] many do, but under certain pressure, they’re coming as refugees.”
In the interview Shai also repeated his frustration at the Israeli government’s failure to revive a project for an egalitarian prayer area in the Western Wall plaza.
The plans, first floated by Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett when he was diaspora minister, were frozen by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government following objections from strictly-Orthodox groups.
But Bennett has kept the project on hold, saying they could not be delivered by Israel’s diverse left-right coalition.
In recent years many progressive Jews, especially women, have been physically attacked while trying to pray — on the pretext of breaking rules set by the Orthodox authorities that operate the holy site.
Shai said: “I am frustrated because I had high hopes when we took over the government we would be able to finally apply the Kotel outline — which, by the way, were designated by Benjamin Netanyahu and endorsed by his government.
“I know it’s not only my frustration but the leaders of the Reform and Conservative movement who came to Israel and expressed their disappoint about it.”
But the minister said that he believed the reforms would eventually happen and that it was a question of when, not if: “it will happen. There’s no way to stop the train here. The train will go on and finally it will be done, but it takes time.”
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