My shul in Tel Aviv is a microcosm of Israeli life. Every type of Jew attends and is welcomed.
But for most of the year, I’m one of only two Cohanim. And there’s hardly ever a Levi.
Having been raised in a secular home, neither he nor his late father knew they were Levi’im until his uncle died and left him the family records. Among them was his grandfather’s ketubah. His grandfather, born in Warsaw, was Yehoshua Zeev ben Zusman, HaLevi. Mike flew to Warsaw, visited the Jewish cemetery and after hours of exploration found the Szulzynger family graves. There was his great-grandfather, Zusman be Yehoshua Zeev Halevi.
The names and dates of his great-grandparents matched the details on his grandfather’s British naturalization papers. The inscription on his great-grandfather’s gravestone spoke of a pious, charitable and learned Jew respected throughout his community.
What had happened to sever the chain? Mike knew he was the only surviving member of the family in the male line. Thus commenced his introduction to Yiddishkeit.
As Mike would describe it, his journey back to Jewish life had many ups and downs, and twists and turns.
But notably, more than 25 years ago, former chief rabbi of Britain, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks started an organization, Jewish Continuity, whose aim was to transform the Jewish community by intensifying education at all levels and ages. He asked Mike to take a leading role in this enterprise. This project was formed without the involvement of the majority of the rabbis of the United Synagogue, the dominant Orthodox body in the United Kingdom.
Dr. Michael Sinclair specialized as a psychiatrist after graduating in medicine at London University. In 1971, he gave up the day-to-day practice of medicine and entered the health-care industry.
For nearly 50 years, he has founded and built companies in the United States, Europe and Australia, that have, against the odds, become market leaders in their chosen fields.
I asked him how he had achieved this surprising result.
He replied: “Whatever success I have had has resulted from working with people who are better than me; seeking constructive criticism; being certain that we can deliver; listening to the customer, always having a mentor; and never being afraid of crazy ideas.
He continued, “I brought these views to the establishment and operation of Jewish Continuity.”
“We started with a small group of highly talented individuals. The Chief Rabbi had posed our community the question: ‘Will we have Jewish grandchildren?’ ” Our task was: “The intensification of Jewish life.”
“But early on, we asked ourselves, how will me measure success?” explained Sinclair. “We identified a number of criteria of success. They included: the majority of Jewish children in full time Jewish schools, over 70 percent of Jewish teenagers going on Israel trips, an increase in travel to Israel, an increase in synagogue affiliation, an increase in the consumption of Kosher foodstuffs, an increase in the sales of Jewish books, an increase in the number of kosher restaurants, an increase in support of Jewish charities and a reversal of the demographic trend—more Jewish marriages and more Jewish children.”
Sinclair added, “We advertised our messages widely directly to the community, both in the Jewish and national media.”
“The strapline was: Today, we’ll lose 10 more Jews.”
This number reflected the daily decline in the U.K. Jewish population since 1950, he said.
The advert ended with a call to arms:
This is the moment of truth. Do we simply stand by and watch the gradual disintegration of the community? Or do we join battle to do more than just survive, but to thrive? We do have a future. Believe that. Let’s fight for it.
“The rabbis were angry,” said Sinclair. “They felt that they had been excluded.”
“Reform was angry. They saw that our message was going to reach their members directly, and undermine much Reform theology and lifestyles.”
Sinclair blames the conversion and divorce policies of the liberal, Reform and Masorti communities as having been both a causative factor and having exacerbated the communal tragedy in the Jewish world today—that a growing number of people, through no fault of their own, consider themselves to be Jewish, but are not.
“The view that we can pick and choose the ‘brand’ of Judaism that appeals to us, without having being made aware of any negative consequences lies at the root of the issue,” said Sinclair.
Avrohom Shmuel Lewin is a Tel Aviv-based writer and the former press secretary of Israel’s first Science Minister Yuval Neeman.
Dear JewishWebSight,
I have ideas about the assimilation of Jews and the community dissolving and I have told many Jewish “leaders” and organizations, but no one listens to me.
1. Synagogues and Jewish organizations should STOP singling out specific “groups” and making it seem “normal.”
EXAMPLE: It is OFFPUTTING to say the least to go to a shul’s website or to go in person to an organization and see in BIG LETTERS all over the place: We welcome lgbtq….my first question is WHY do they welcome them and WHY don’t they JUST say: We welcome all Jews. It goes without saying that there are Jews such as myself are TIRED of this, tired of being told that even if someone has male genitals I MUST, I AM COMMANDED to accept when they say they are women. But even more than that: IT IS WEIRD for a Jewish shul or center to single out lgbtq to INVITE WITH OPEN ARMS without open arms to ALL JEWS.
2. We Jews (the ones with BRAINS and SURVIVAL INSTINCT are tired of shuls and Jewish centers HELPING ALL PEOPLE EXCEPT JEWS. We are tired of Jews crying publicly about the poor poor blacks, the poor poor illegals, the poor poor muslims WHO ALL HATE JEWS.
3. We Jews wonder (we Jews who have no family and don’t have cars) why Christian churches have OUTREACH to apartment buildings, have VANS to take their parishioners to services and learning.
4. We Jews are tired of Jewish “festivals” that promote NOT JUDAISM but social justice and are snotty and unwelcoming.
5. We Jews wonder why to learn Hebrew or take Torah Study classes, there are no classes for those on fixed incomes. I have noticed that shuls cater to intersectionality OR the middle or upper middle class or the rich. We Jews who are ALONE, OLD but not DEAD type of old and want to be ALIVE, we Jews who have fixed incomes are left out and literally LOOKED DOWN UPON.
This is what I think.
Nanette Rayman