Atrocity brings Jews together
"This is the first time in my 30-year career that I have seen such an incredible, heightened spiritual awareness in the community."
Synagogues around the country are reporting a rise in attendance since the terror attacks in Israel.
Rabbis and synagogue leaders who have spoken to The AJN all say they have seen an upsurge of communal identification and personal religious practice.
Rabbi Levi Wolff said attendances at the Central Synagogue are now “through the roof”, especially on Friday nights.
“This is the first time in my 30-year career that I have seen such an incredible, heightened spiritual awareness in the community,” he said.
Rabbi Wolff said he was approached by a 53-year-old man who told him he had been to synagogue four times in his life – for his bar mitzvah, a Yom Kippur service when he was 18, and twice in the last month.
“People are craving connection, to Israel, to their people, their community, and of course their soul connection to their faith. The souls of the Jewish people have awoken.”
Emanuel Synagogue’s Rabbi Jacqueline Ninio said attendances “have definitely increased”.
“That first week, it was standing room only in the synagogue,” she said.
“Even the people who are regulars who pray the words all the time, they’ve taken on a new poignancy and a new meaning.”
She noted that in the last two months many in the community have expressed a desire to help in some way.
“I think one of the ways that we can feel we’re doing something is to connect with the spiritual and to be there in prayer,” she said.
“There’s a beautiful passage in our prayer book that says ‘Prayer is not going to water a parched field or mend a broken bridge or rebuild a ruined city, but prayer can water an arid soul, mend a broken heart and rebuild a weakened will.’
“And I think people are feeling a real sense of healing and comfort and strength and hope coming from being at services and being with community and connecting with the prayers.”
The shule’s live-streamed Friday night services have also increased in audience, she added.
Rabbi Ninio also said she has had discussions with members of the community wanting to put up mezuzot.
“We’ve heard stories of people feeling unsafe to have them on their door so they’ve debated whether to take it off, but others are really feeling that they want to connect in that way and to have that sign and that symbol.”
Sydney’s “Rabbi on Demand”, Rabbi Yossi Friedman, who has been organising outdoor prayer services, said many people are in desperate need of connection.
“We had an outdoor pre-shabbat gathering at Centennial Park that saw hundreds come along and two weeks later on the sand of Bondi Beach we had an outdoor service, but with a twist. We formed a human Magen David and filmed it from above.”
He said the numbers at these gatherings has been tremendous, with people finding them uplifting and spiritually nourishing, which is very much needed in these times.
In Melbourne, Rabbi Shlomo Nathanson, senior rabbi at Melbourne Hebrew Congregation, said most weeks have seen a doubling of his usual number of congregants.
“But I would comment as well on noticing the engagement while in the synagogue to have had a qualitative increase as well. The community are so engaged and feel so passionate about it all at every age level,” he said.
He said a young girl comes each week with her parents and sells (before Shabbat) handmade blue and white bracelets, raising more than $6000 for Israel charities.
Rabbi Daniel Rabin of Caulfield Shule believes it is not hard to see why this is happening.
“When we’re traumatised, we want to find ways to connect with each other. I think one of the reasons we have seen this is because we were attacked indiscriminately – they attacked our essence.”
But will this elevated interest in Judaism last after the shock of what happened on October 7 fades?
Rabbi Rabin believes some people are seriously looking at taking on more religious observance in the long-term future.
“I’ve had a lot of conversations with people who wanted to see what more they can do, whether it’s giving tzedakah, whether it’s for men putting on tefillin, people wanting to attend to shiurim and learn Torah, or wanting to find ways to engage with their children more about Judaism,” he said.
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