The Book of Shtisel

THE BOOK ON

SHTISEL

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THE BOOK ON SHTISEL

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Would have taken Kiva’s Bubbe to Tel Aviv.

Local Professional staff serving the community together again.

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Father Of The Tribe For his portrayal of Shulem Shtisel, Doval’e Glickman has won fans from B’nei Brak to Lakewood.

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A Date With Kive The hunky secular actor’s charedi education.

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‘Shtisel’ Behind The Scenes A photo spread from the set.

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Out Of Character For Neta Riskin, playing Giti Weiss poses challenges on many levels.

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‘The ‘Shtisel’ Family Is Like Your Family’ For producer Dikla Barkai, the show fuses ‘attractive television’ with a ‘literary side.’

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16 On the cover: The ‘Shtisel” cast. credit: Aya Efraim

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AN EVENING WITH ‘SHTISEL’

Dear Friends,

New Jersey Jewish News, along with our sister publication The New York Jewish Week, and the Jewish Week Media Group’s board of directors are delighted to welcome you to a very special evening with three cast members and the producer of “Shtisel,” an Israeli television series that has become an international cultural phenomenon.

The program’s success is a reminder that the human condition has universal appeal, that the lives of charedi (or ultra-Orthodox) Jews in the Geulah section of Jerusalem resonate with Jews and non-Jews in America and, presumably, around the world. And, of course, the popularity of “Shtisel” demonstrates the power of 21st-century technology to connect civilizations, allowing people everywhere to share and reflect on their stories.

We at NJJN are all about telling the story of the Jewish people, live and in real time. From Sussex to Somerset, our robust website (njjewishnews.com, in partnership with Times of Israel) and weekly print edition cover the issues of the day in the entire Greater MetroWest community through news reporting, analysis, and observation. As a local institution for more than 70 years, we take pride in not only covering the community, but being a part of it as well. We are a bridge that spans, connects, and interprets Jews in New Jersey, the other 49 states, and Israel. Even as those respective communities grow further apart in many ways, we seek to find common bonds of history, culture, and tradition that strengthen the ties that go back to our ancient past.

One of the ways we accomplish this is through programs like tonight — our NJJN forums, featuring thought leaders, authors, trend-setters, and cultural figures talking about their work and what motivates them. And we are pleased to partner this evening with our host, Congregation Agudath Israel.

In these difficult financial and political times for news organizations, we encourage your support so we can continue to offer these forums and to ensure the quality of our other programs — and NJJN itself.

Enjoy the evening, Stuart Himmelfarb President, The Jewish Week Media Group Board of Directors

Peter Wang Chairman, The Jewish Week Media Group Board of Directors

A Special Thank You to

for Their Donation to Tonight ’s Event

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A GREETING FROM RABBI ALAN SILVERSTEIN, CONGREGATION AGUDATH ISRAEL Dear Friends, It is a great honor for the 900+ households of Congregation Agudath Israel to host the cast and producer of the Israeli television smash hit “Shtisel.” We are most grateful to our partners: the Jewish Week Media Group, the New Jersey Jewish News, the Honey Foundation for Israel, and the family of Karen and Jerry Glaser for making tonight possible. We also are grateful to the Avi Chai Foundation for having the foresight to have helped fund the initial project which became “Shtisel We live at a time of political polarization, as well as religious polarization. “Us” against “Them modes of thought create false stereotypes and stigmatizing of “the Other.” Shtisel offers an alternative approach.

“Shtisel” artfully presents aspects of the inner life of Israel’s Haredi [ultra-Orthodox yet not Hasidic] community.

The goal is to remove the veil created by “frum” [religious-style] garments, thereby revealing human emotions and challenges held in common with all other Jews and non-Jews alike.

Senior Rabbi Shulem Shtisel [Doval’e Glickman] sensitively depicts the effort to preserve inherited religious mores even while gingerly treading into the realities of modern Israeli statehood. He speaks not only Yiddish but modern Hebrew as well. Hebrew is no longer confined to “leshon kodesh”--a sacred tongue to be used only for prayer and study. Insistent that God reigns over all aspects of life, he tries to limit the allure to his pupils of Israeli Independence Day, which celebrates Jewish self-sufficiency and statehood. Nevertheless, he too cannot refrain from gazing into the heavens to view IDF jets in flyover formation.

Shulem’s daughter, Giti Weiss, [Neta Riskin] movingly portrays a Haredi young wife and mother. She is caught within the expectations of “baalabatishkeit” [proper behavior] as seen by tight-knit Haredi “eyes.” She faces the difficult realities of a challenged marriage, of temporary abandonment, and of an at-times unwanted pregnancy. She is placed into the pivotal female role played by being Shulem’s “go-to daughter” once her sister Racheli’s alignment with Habad led to her “banishment” from the Shtisel inner circle.

Shtisel’s youngest offspring is Kive [Michael Aloni], symbolizing the new generation of Haredim in search of a personal identity. Aliva is not comfortable conforming to the typical matchmaker process for the purpose of marriage. Love or infatuation wreaks havoc with inherited norms. Although he teaches Torah in his father’s elementary school yeshiva, art is his passion. He also is attracted to experience adventures beyond the confines of his Haredi community, whether at beach on the Kineret, in Acco, in Klezmer music, at museums or elsewhere.

Shtisel’s producer [Dikla Barkai] is representative of the new generation of creative Israeli masters of artistic expression making an impact upon the international world of television. Her skilled hand enables us to peer into a world which otherwise would remain closed to most of us. Her talented touch makes that world come alive in ways that relate to our own dilemmas. As the episodes unfold, we start to see ourselves when the actors grapple with life: finding a suitable spouse, sustaining family harmony, coping with lose of a long-term spouse, adjusting to life in an Assisted Living facility, contemplating how to remain active during retirement, or charting a meaningful career path.

Watching “Shtisel”, seeing selected clips, hearing the insights of actors and producer, and benefiting by the artful moderating by Dara Horn will make this evening into a most memorable and illuminating experience. Welcome to one and all!

Rabbi Alan Silverstein Congregation Agudath Israel asilverstein@agudath.org| www.agudath.org 20 Academy Road |Caldwell, NJ 07006 973.226.3600 ext. 111 |fax 973.226.7480

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Father Of The Tribe

For his portrayal of Shulem Shtisel, Doval’e Glickman has won fans from B’nei Brak to Lakewood.

Father knows best? Glickman, far left, and above.

Joshua Mitnick Contributing Editor BEFORE HE GOT THE ROLE OF HIS career as Shulem Shtisel of the eponymous television drama “Shtisel,” Doval’e Glickman knew precious little about the ultra-Orthodox life of Jerusalem.

“It was like another world,” said Glickman, a distinguished actor with a long resumé and a lifelong secular Tel Avivi who never married or had kids.

Glickman’s seamless transformation into the charedi rabbi and family patriarch is a coup that won him two Israeli Television Academy best actor awards. It also has won him fans in charedi communities from B’nei Brak to Lakewood, N.J. Over a recent lunch at a café in Tel Aviv’s Gan Meir park, with his dog Momus in tow, Glickman tried to explain how he bridged these two Israeli realities to accomplish that feat.

It all began when he first read the screenplay of Yehonatan Indursky and Ori Elon.

“I thought I was seeing the ultimate script I had ever read, and I still believe this. It was so good — the characters and the relationships between them.”

The same goes for the dialogue, said Glickman. The writers succeeded in transcending the normally blunt nature of Hebrew conversation, and in crafting a script that is more nuanced — like the Yiddish culture that the ultra-Orthodox world still clings to.

“Hebrew is a very tough language. It says things di-

rectly,” he said. “There is no subtext in Hebrew. [Indursky and Elon] were able to write a subtext in Hebrew. There are many layers.”

To prepare for the series, Glickman and the cast traveled to Jerusalem to immerse themselves in the storied charedi enclave of Mea Shearim. Glickman took mental notes, like the way men held cigarettes in restaurants.

“They looked at us like a strange chicken, and we looked at them like a strange chicken,” Glickman once told an interviewer from Israeli television. “It’s only an hour from Tel Aviv … but even so, it’s another world.”

Glickman, 69, boasts a five-decade acting career that includes stage, screen and cinema. He co-anchored the weekly sketch comedy “Zehu Zeh” in the 1980s and ’90s — the local equivalent of “Saturday Night Live.” His credits include the 1979 film “The Troupe” among many others. His role as Shulem Shtisel should secure his place as one of the giants of Israeli acting.

In Rabbi Shulem, Glickman brings to life a character who is difficult to connect with at the outset: he lacks emotional self-awareness, ignores the aspirations of his children and lacks empathy for those around him. Rabbi Shulem’s love is tough.

The father isn’t interested in showing a nurturing sort of empathy, Glickman explains. Instead, he worries about ensuring that his children establish families of their own, thereby preserving his family’s reputation.

Shulem Shtisel’s principal challenge — to uphold the rigid norms of ultra-Orthodoxy while dealing with the messy necessities of daily life — is one that Glickman

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hones in on.

“This is exactly the issue with ‘Shtisel’: you come faceto-face with religion and its rules — which tell you do to this, that and the other — and also the practicality of life,” he said. “You need to get your kid married. This father is ready for a lot of compromises. He’s willing for his son to marry a widower — the main thing is that he should get married.”

The role was physically demanding. Glickman would arrive on the set before dawn for a two-hour makeup session to outfit him with Rabbi Shulem’s large belly and beard. In the few years since the show went off the air in Israel, Glickman said that he has missed transforming himself into the charedi figure.

“I miss him because he’s so far away from me personally, and, as an actor, I like to play people who are far away from me. It might be the role that I most enjoyed playing.”

Glickman grew up the child of Russian parents who arrived in pre-state Israel in the 1920s and spoke Yiddish among themselves. The language, he said, is somewhere in his DNA, but he never actually learned to speak it. Like other actors on the show, he got coached.

“I am Jewish, and I never thought to be religious; and

the series didn’t make me think about becoming religious. But I can understand now how I am close to those religious people.”

The actor’s portrayal of Shulem Shtisel has resonated among charedim (even though they watch the show over social media because of a community ban on television), and some even quote Shulem’s aphorism — “Reshaim Arurim!” (damn evil-doers). Many have even tried to reach out to him.

When asked if he thought that the series might help improve ties between secular and ultra-Orthodox Israelis, Glickman said the politics that divide the two demographic tribes are too strong. The divergent cultural worlds of each group will never meet, he added. And yet, “Shtisel” still succeeds in exposing a more fundamental human common denominator between secular Israel and the ultra-Orthodox.

“We are fundamentally very similar,” Glickman said.

“True, there are things that are very different: the way of life, the ceremonies. But in substance we are very close, despite the fact of how far apart we are. When you check relationships between people, what happens between their love, desire, their frustrations, it’s the same.” ■

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A Date With Kive

credit: Ohad Romano

The hunky secular actor’s charedi education.

Michele Chabin Contributing Editor MICHAEL ALONI, THE 35-YEAR-OLD ACTOR who plays Akiva (Kive) Shtisel, is still a little stunned that “Shtisel,” whose final episode aired two-and-a-half years ago in Israel, has gained an international following.

Then again, he was shocked when it gained a local Israeli following.

“Honestly, I didn’t think anyone would watch it in Israel,” Aloni told The Jewish Week. “I loved the scripts and I said to myself, ‘Thank God for whoever wrote this.’ I was so excited.

It was the kind of series I like to watch: the depth of the characters, the relationships. I was thrilled.”

But then reality set in for Aloni, who plays “Shtisel” patriarch Shulem Shtisel’s artistic, ever-hopeful son who is searching for a soulmate.

“It suddenly hit me that in this day and age, people expect shows to have sex scenes and action,” he said. “All ‘Shtisel’ has is a bubbe,” a grandmother, he said, laughing.

“I called the producer and told her, ‘Let’s just make a great f--king series, pardon my language, that no one will watch.’

And then it became a hit in Israel. We won 11 of the 12 Israeli Television Academy awards and were renewed for a second season. Everyone was watching it.” (The show’s head writer recently announced that a third season is now in the works.)

When Aloni says “everyone,” he means the gamut of Israeli society, from secular Jews to charedim, who generally

credit: Dor Malka

Meal ticket: Aloni, as Kive Shtisel, with Doval’e Glickman. The success of the show floored Aloni.

shun TV and rarely watch films.

The most fervently religious “don’t have TVs and many don’t have internet. So they watched the show on their kosher phones,” Aloni said. The community so embraced his character, Akiva, that some people found it impossible to believe that Aloni isn’t a charedi Jew looking to be set up on a date.

“Let’s just say I received thousands of offers for shidduchim on Facebook.”

The feedback from the charedi community has been “amazing,” he said. “They made ‘Shtisel’ costumes for Purim and put up pashkivilim — notices — on billboards to come celebrate Akiva’s engagement.”

Were these real notices or put up just for fun? Aloni doesn’t know.

“What I can say is that, during the second season, when I was standing in the street, people would come up to me and say, with all sincerity, they have a cousin they think I should meet.”

Aloni, who describes himself as completely secular, is pleased that viewers find it hard to believe he’s not Orthodox off-screen. He and the show’s other actors spent three full

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months preparing for their roles.

“I spent Shabbos with a charedi family, and we needed to learn Yiddish and a different kind of Hebrew, loshen hakodesh, from the one we speak day-to-day. We learned prayers and the rules of Jewish law. We had to learn everything from scratch. I loved it,” he said excitedly.

Raised secular, Aloni donned tefillin for his bar mitzvah but hadn’t since. “I’m a bad Jew but a good Jew, if you know what I mean.”

Aloni said putting on his costume and payot, or side curls, during the shoot helped him get into character every day. Shooting in an actual ultra-Orthodox neighborhood helped as well.

“I grew my own beard and the clothes helped bring it all together,” he said. “The fact that we shot a lot in actual [charedi] neighborhoods was an amazing experience. I’ve learned about a whole different culture.”

When Aloni wasn’t immersing himself in charedi culture, he was learning about brush strokes and drawing techniques to faithfully convey Kive’s passion for painting.

“I did painting lessons and also drawing lessons. Although I had the basics of drawing, there was a lot more to learn and I enjoyed it very much,” he said.

Aloni said playing Akiva has been an uplifting experi-

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ence thanks to his character’s inherent goodness.

“We all have a lot to learn from Kive. I think the core of what I worked from was to remain innocent. To look at the world with belief and big eyes and hope and love. I think that’s the way he looks at the world. He gives every single person a chance, without prejudice or judgment. He’s able to keep that childlike innocence. Let’s not forget the child within us.”

Responding to feedback the show has received from viewers in Israel and elsewhere, he said, “I think ‘Shtisel’ has built a bridge between secular and religious people, though it’s incomplete. You would expect secular people not to be interested in a show about the Orthodox community, but they are interested. I’m happy to be part of something that in a way changed people’s point of view about the other.”

Although Aloni is gratified by the response to his acting — he stars in another Netflix show, “When Heroes Fly,” and he hosts the Israeli version of the singing competition “The Voice” — he doesn’t mind when fans swoon over his tall, lean good looks and his blue eyes.

“I don’t see it as objectification. If people are flattering about my eyes I’m very thankful. My mom would be happy to hear it, too. It’s a great compliment. Thank you!” ■

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‘SHTISEL’ BEHIND THE SCENES

Photos by Victor Bezrukov and Go2Films

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OUT OF CHARACTER credit: Ohad Romano

For Neta Riskin, playing Giti Weiss poses challenges on many levels.

Riskin as Giti Weiss, above, with Doval’e Glickman as Shulem Shtisel, and right as secular Tel Avivi.

Nathan Jeffay Contributing Editor SEEING GITI WEISS SLEEVELESS AND IN black leggings, as she is for our lunch at a Tel Aviv café, leaves some “Shtisel” fans devastated. “One man just dropped the things in his hands, and said he was disappointed,” she recounted. “He said, ‘I thought you are real.’”

Of course, I’m not actually dining with Giti, the fictional ultra-Orthodox Jerusalemite, but Neta Riskin, the non-religious actress from Tel Aviv.

Riskin dislikes Jerusalem, a “depressing” place where she feels “choked.” Her antipathy for the city is so strong that she was originally reticent about auditioning for “Shtisel.” Her character is a mom always surrounded by kids, but in real life she doesn’t have children or a partner, or, naturally, an ultra-modest wardrobe like Giti’s.

Riskin’s achievements go far beyond “Shtisel.”

Though she didn’t decide on a career in acting until she hit 30, around 2006, she has become an icon of Israeli acting. She starred in the psychological TV thriller “The Gordin Cell” and the movie “Shelter,” in which she plays a Mossad agent. As a “sideline” she is an accent coach, her most famous client being Natalie Portman, whom she taught to perfect her Hebrew for her role as Amos Oz’s troubled mother in “A Tale of Love and Darkness.”

When Riskin started her training to portray Giti, with the help of a charedi expert, “I thought it would be all about religious beliefs, but she said it’s not about beliefs but about how you behave.” Hence, Giti’s ramrod straight sitting posture, often with eyes lowered.

Riskin believes that the writers’ decision to mostly sidestep matters of faith and belief, and focus instead on social behavior, is what has made “Shtisel” such a success. And this approach will ensure that writers steer clear of stock storylines in dramas about Orthodox Jews that many viewers are anticipating.

While she won’t talk about plotlines for future episodes, she does say that fans won’t be seeing characters having crises of faith and leaving the charedi fold.

“People are waiting for a character who will break out, but it’s not an option there.

“The people in ‘Shtisel’ don’t look for a way out; they like their life and they don’t see anything wrong with it — that’s their community and family, and they don’t want out.”

But what about her husband Lipa, I shot back. Didn’t he more or less break out by going AWOL to Argentina, leaving rumors swirling that he’d taken up with a gentile woman? “We don’t know what he’s done,” she replied. “I have absolutely no idea.”

When Lipa finally returned home, and fans were yelling at their screens, urging Giti to give him a piece of her mind and uncover all the details of his disappearance,

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she calmly served breakfast and carried on as normal.

When he tried to discuss his disappearance with her in the bedroom, she said she was tired, and the conversation has never happened.

Riskin admitted that the breakfast scene was “shocking” to her when she read the script. But she believes Giti’s “what-good-can-come-from-knowing?” ethos is true to her character.

She says Giti is “really challenging” to play because of her complexity. The character is determined that she won’t be pitied, that her children won’t be stigmatized because of family problems becoming public, and that she will retain her image as a pillar of strength.

“The reason Giti is stronger than the other characters is because she knows all along what she wants,” said Riskin. “She is a woman who didn’t believe in her abilities to survive, but then finds she can.”

“Shtisel” hasn’t changed Riskin’s attitude towards Judaism or warmed her to tradition, and she says she is now more convinced than ever that religion and state should be separated in Israel.

Riskin is candid about Giti, praising her good qualities and highlighting her shortcomings. She’s quick to

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criticize Giti’s parenting style, saying that her emotional dependence on her daughter Ruchami turned the girl almost into a “husband” figure — “traumatizing her” along the way. Yet she’s full of admiration for Giti’s strength, and thinks the way she masks her hurt and loneliness is empowering. “We always think suppressing is the worst [approach], but in some cases it can serve you well.”

Riskin is amused that she has unwittingly sparked wonky talk among fans about Giti’s wardrobe. She showed me one of many online threads about the symbolism of costume and set design. Her outfit — striped like that of a prisoner — was praised for implying imprisonment.

“It’s bull----,” she said, revealing that the only reason the character is regularly seen in stripes is that she hates Giti’s “ugly” wardrobe — kept dull as she isn’t courting — and asked for stripes to brighten things up.

During filming for Season One, “we used to laugh and say no one is going to watch it anyway, it’s very niche.”

But, of course, the show developed a mass following, and Riskin finds the exegesis that has resulted funny — though not alien. “I do the same with ‘Game of Thrones,’” she admitted. n

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‘The ‘Shtisel’ Family Is Like Your Family’

“You feel like your soul as a viewer becomes linked to the soul of the character,” Barkai says.

Joshua Mitnick Contributing Editor WHEN “SHTISEL” PRODUCER DIKLA BARKAI approached an executive at the Israeli television company Yes about developing a drama series set in Jerusalem’s cloistered ultra-Orthodox society, the initial response she got was not encouraging.

“He said, ‘If it’s about charedim, there’s no chance.’ I said, ‘Just read it,’” said Barkai, 48, who had already produced several award-winning Israeli television series and movies.

In Israel, the charedi community is at the center of ongoing cultural battles over religion and state, most notably army service exemptions, government stipends for yeshiva study, and enforcement of public observance on Shabbat. That political crossfire made a series about an ultra-Orthodox family almost seem like a commercial taboo.

“Charedim are a controversial subject. They stir up a lot of resistance among the secular public,” Barkai told The Jewish Week. “Television doesn’t look for trouble. Charedim are not attractive. The television audience is mainly secular, and charedim don’t even have television. There was a lot of fear. No one thought it would sell.”

Shortly after getting the initial “Shtisel” screenplay, the television executive came back with an answer. “Let’s give it a shot.”

Barkai said she got the original script treatment for “Shtisel”

Courtesy of Go2Films

credit: Ohad Romano

For producer Dikla Barkai, the show fuses ‘attractive television’ with a ‘literary side.’

from Ori Elon, a screenwriter working with her at the time on “Srugim,” a successful three-season drama about a group of Modern Orthodox singles in Jerusalem. Elon had teamed up with Yehonatan Indursky, who grew up in the Jerusalem religious neighborhood of Givat Shaul and attended the Litvak Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, to create a story about the relationship of a father and a son.

“The ‘Shtisel’ script tells a story for the television screen, and has a literary side that allows you to delve into the interior of every character,” Barkai explained. She was quickly won over.

“You feel like your soul as a viewer becomes linked to the soul of the character. You want to ‘read’ more and more and more, because you feel that the ‘Shtisel’ family is like your family,” she said.

“Television is mostly commercial; it’s not literature,” Barkai continued. “When, as a viewer or a producer, you find a work that succeeds in being both attractive television and also deep, like a work of art, that combination is something that you can’t refuse. That’s what happened to me.”

Both “Shtisel” and “Srugim” (a reference to the knitted kipas worn by the Modern Orthodox) won the Israeli Television Academy award for best drama. In addition to those two shows, Barkai’s producing credits include the groundbreaking 1990s drama-comedy series, “Hafuch,” about a group of friends living in the so-called Tel Aviv “bubble,” the 2004 movie “A Summer Story” and the romantic comedy series, “When Shall We Kiss?”

Barkai is a partner in the production company Abot Barkai,

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which is headquartered in north Tel Aviv’s Ramat Hahayal Despite the fact that charedi community leaders oppose the office park. Along with a poster from “A Summer Story,” her viewing of secular television, many ultra-Orthodox watch enthusioffice is adorned with a painting of a surreal image from “Sht- astically. Barkai shows photos of hats bearing quotes from “Shtisisel” of a charedi boy holding a goldfish. el” patriarch Rev Shulem for sale in a charedi store, and a video of The producer likened the making of “Shtisel” to the mak- an ultra-Orthodox singer performing a tune from the show. ing of a period piece. Every item of clothing and small detail “This isn’t a series that looks at [charedim] like animals of dress carries a unique marker within charedi Judaism. in a zoo,” Barkai said. “This doesn’t condescend. This tells Actors got a crash course in Yiddish. their story without pretension, without judgment.

Scrolling through a PowerPoint study of charedi street life “Politics here is so strong. Opinions ofwww.bnaikeshe people are formed shot surreptitiously, Barkai explained, “The more you learn through the media and current events — for instance, did you enlist about this world, then you realize how much you don’t know.” in the army or not? But here is a chance to tell a story about people.

The production crew relied on the expertise and community And it breaks down the walls that secular people put around themconnections of charedi filmmaker Shalom Eisenberg, who grew up selves, and that religious people put around themselves.” in Mea Shearim, to help actors immerse themselves in the ultra-OrThe “Shtisel”-mania generated by the show’s availability on thodox Jerusalem neighborhood. The crew visited homes and Netflix caught the crew unprepared. Despite much speculation restaurants, and were hosted for Shabbat on several weekends. about a third season — Indursky reportedly confirmed plans for is an inclusive, welcoming, dynamic, progressiv “We were able to learn and feel it,” Barkai said. “We were fresh episodes — Barkai said there’s no concrete plan as of yet. congregation.

Weiscelebrate ourarole in able to see how people look, how they talk and behave.”

(A labor dispute reportedly threatening third season.)

However, the sensitivity to outside customs is so strong Even if a third season never to pass, Barkai saidtradi she Reconstructing Judaism bycomes engaging our in Mea Shearim that the first time the film crew tried to do believes that “Shtisel” has already chalked up a societal achievethoughtfully, remains meaningful and a shoot there, crew members were kicked out because the ment that so goesitbeyond awards and the worldwide recognition. team consisted of both men and women. As a result,relevant the crew can sayof thatus.

I won’t view the charedim in the same to“I each went undercover, shooting from inside a van with darkened way I did before the show,” she said. “I humbly believe that www.bnaikeshet.org www.bnaikeshet.org windows and communicating with actors through earpieces. this is a mission.” ■

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Reconstructionist Synagogue

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ABOUT

CONGREGATION AGUDATH ISRAEL (CAI) As one of the nation’s largest suburban Conservative synagogues, CAI is a thriving center for engaged Jewish living. Its far-reaching, substantial influence is balanced by its intimate, friendly character.

Led by Senior Rabbi Alan Silverstein, Associate Rabbi Ari Lucas, Cantor Joel Caplan, and Education Director Susan Werk, it offers an impressive portfolio of religious, cultural, academic, musical, and social experiences.

Weekly Shabbat morning services in our bright and welcoming Werb Sanctuary are regularly attended by 300 people. Daily minyanim are held in our Sidney Feinstein Beit Midrash and Toby Shapiro Library. High Holy Days at CAI, which draw more than 2,200 members, include alternative services for young families and those seeking a contemplative meditation experience.

CAI is firmly committed to serving members at all stages of life. Each year, over 100 children begin their relationship with the synagogue in our nationally recognized Early Childhood Center, which offers research-based curricula from ages two to four. A yearly average of 300 students pursue education through the b’nei mitzvah stage in our Religious School and in regional Day Schools. Young parents, empty-nesters, and seniors return to the classroom in our Adult and Scholarly Education programs that engage more than 200 learners each week.

As a leading regional event venue, CAI annually offers programming for enrichment and entertainment. Film screenings, book signings, musical performances, comedy shows, and academic presentations are offered regularly, contributing to the congregation’s active culture.

CAI is also a model of meaningful interfaith engagement. As a past president of the New Jersey Coalition of Religious Leaders of All Faiths, Rabbi Silverstein leads the community in building relationships, sharing resources, and co-programming with our Christian and Muslim friends and neighbors.

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