I’ve mentioned this a few times in recent months, but beyond hostages (always my primary concern), war and politics, one of the questions that has lodged itself in my mind is that of what I would call “Jewish religiosity with moderation at its heart.” By that I don’t mean this movement or that movement, or this way of Jewish life or that way of Jewish life, this mode of practice or that mode of practice. Rather, the question that I've been thinking about quite a bit is “What would it take for the fundamental pulse of traditional Judaism in Israel to be one of acceptance, of embrace, of tolerance, of love?”

That that description does not characterize Israel’s religious establishment is, I think, a proposition that scarcely needs defending. That it also does not characterize wide swathes of “religious” Israelis (it’s true of “non-religious” Israelis as well, of course) is also sadly not really up for debate.

What would it take to transform the pulse of Jewish religious life from what it is to something very different? Is it possible? Buried inside those questions are issues that are relevant not only to Judaism and not only to Israel, and there is a vast, vast literature on religion, moderation, tolerance, the tendency for religious passion to produce extremism, and much more. That’s far beyond the pale of our focus here.

So what we’re doing periodically on Israel from the Inside is to speak with people who do represent a Judaism of tolerance, of embrace, of love. We’re trying to hear from them how they got to where they are, who influenced them religiously, how it feels for them to be part of the wider religious picture in Israel, what they think we might do to create more people like them.

We’re going to do two episodes on the subject this week, today and tomorrow.

Our conversation today is with Rabbi Na’ama Levitz Applbaum, who is one of the lay leaders of a community called Hakhel. We’ve mentioned Hakhel here before, because the community is home to Jon and Rachel Goldberg-Polin and their children, including Hersh, z’l, as well as to Ephi and Oshrat Shoham and their children, including their son Yuval, z’l. Ephi has appeared on our podcast on several occasions, and we’ve shared a deeply moving Yom Kippur presentation written by Oshrat, as well.

Hakhel also happened to be the “synagogue” I go to on Shabbatot and holidays (in no small measure because my grandchildren are among the little who run around the gym where we meet, but for many more substantive reasons as well), and precisely because it does represent the very ideals to which I pointed above, I asked Naama if she would tell us about Hakhel, its origins, its commitments and about the unique path that took her from a very different form of Orthodoxy to this one.

Rabbi Na’ama Levitz Applbaum is the Director of the Experiential Education Initiatives at Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. She has over two decades of experience fostering inclusive and intentional communities, designing meaningful educational experiences for teens, students, and young professionals, and building bridges between Israel and North America.

Prior to joining Hartman, she served as Director of Ramah Israel Seminar and Director of Education for Camp Ramah in California. Na’ama has been on the faculty of the Hadar Institute, Hillel International, the Schechter Institute, and the Dorot Foundation. She is a lay leader of Minyan Hakhel, a ba’alat tefilla (prayer leader), co-host of a radio show on Israel’s Galei Tzahal, and creator of a new podcast, sisters@war.

Na’ama received her rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Daniel Landes in Jerusalem, has studied at The Schechter Institute and Hebrew University, and is a fellow in M2’s Mabat, Senior Educator Cohort.

The link at the top of this posting will take you to the full recording of our conversation; below you will find a transcript for those who prefer to read, prepared for our paid subscribers.

We're doing a series of conversations with a variety of Israelis who are thinking outside the box when it comes to what Judaism in the Jewish state should look like. Some of that has to do with peace initiatives. Some of it has to do with forms of Judaism that are outside the orthodox mainstream. And today we're going to hear from someone who is within what might call the broader orthodox world, but who is a leader of a community that is very, very different from the mainstream of orthodoxy in Israel. And it felt to me very It's very important to hear from her and to hear about her community to get a sense of some of the kinds of things that are sprouting up in Israel that, to me, at least represent a source of hope and optimism for what this country can become. Our guest today is Rabba Na’ama Levitz Applbaum. She is the Director of Experiential Education Initiative at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. She's also a faculty person there. She's got a tremendous amount of experience in fostering inclusive and intentional communities, which I think is going to come up very strongly when we talk about Haqqel, which is the community we're going to speak about today. We're putting her whole bio up, of course, on the notes today. But prior to joining Hartman, she served as Director of Ramah Israel, which is the camp, and Director of Education for Camp Ramah in California before that. She's been on the faculty of Haddar Hillel International, the Schechter Institute, Dorot Foundation. She received her rabbinic ordination from rabbi Daniel Landis, who, coincidentally, was the rabbi of my shul when I lived in Los Angeles. She studied at the Schechter Institute, Hebrew University. She's done a tremendous amount. You'll see all of the details when we post these notes. So rabbi Rabba Na’ama Levitz Applbaum, joins us today. Na’ama, thank you so much for being here.Thank you for having me.Let's talk about you before we talk about Israel and Judaism. All right. Give everybody a sense. People are going to hear right away that you have a very mellifluous American accent, but you're not American. So just give us a quick summary of how you got to where you are in life now.All right. Thank you for noticing that because I always say I may sound American, but I'm not. And so sometimes I do make those Israeli mistakes without the accent, which is usually more forgiving for those who do have it. I'm actually born in Jerusalem, seventh generation Yerushalmit, I take a lot of pride in that. I grew up in, I would say, just like run-of-the-mill, normal, Orthodox family. I'm the eldest of seven. My father is a rabbi and educator. My mother is a psychologist educator. We did move around a lot. As a child, we moved around a lot. I lived in Safed for a bunch of years, and then we went off to shlijut, my parents were emissaries in Los Angeles for six years. But really, hence my English. I came back with no Hebrew. That was a problem. I finished high school here, I would say, in a pretty right wing, Orthodox, all girls high school in Jerusalem. I was at Tsvia, it's hard core. Some would say that I'm at the bottom of the Midron Ha'Khalaklak, The slippery slope. Because I got my rabbinic ordination. I'm not sure that they would really welcome me into the school today.You're not on the homepage of the website. Correct. That is correct. I've learned a lot of Jewish text and halakhah, but definitely not on the homepage. I would say that really my career or my trajectory towards becoming also a rabbi, I really started as I was myself, a Shlicha, from the Jewish agency in the summer Shlichim program. I was sent to the Northwoods of Wisconsin, in Ramah, Wisconsin. Ramah is part of the conservative camping movement. Me being very young and naïve. It was the first time that I was really exposed to anything that was liberal in a Jewish setting.Did you know what you were going to?I was a little bit overly self-confident as an Orthodox woman coming to a conservative camp. This was right after the army. The fact that I did the army was also not in my favor with my school at that point.They wanted girls just so everybody understands to do national service. Correct.What did you do in the army? I was a tour guide. I was a for school kids, so definitely not a combat soldier in any shape or form. But I felt like it was very important to me as the stamp of what it means to be Israeli and to be a part of society here. I felt very passionate about being in the army and wearing that uniform warm. Right after the army, I decided to go and explore Wisconsin. And I felt like as long as they kept Shabbat and they could provide me with kosher food, I was like, great, I'm fine with that. And I was going to go off. And little did I know that that really set me on a totally different track as I came back.Was the first time you saw women participating in tfila?It was the first time that I not only saw women, but at the time, the head of my group, my Roche Eda, came up to me and was like, you're religious. You be in charge of all the services and tfilot because you have fluency and you have the Hebrew, et cetera. I was like, Great. I'm happy to give where I can. I have never spent any time on the other side of the mekhitza, let alone how to run any sort of minyan. And that was a summer that I learned a lot. And came back here and was angry. I was really angry. I was angry at my father for not having me learn any Talmud, never opened up a book of Gamara, and I went to learn. And that was my revenge a l...

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