‘Birthright for moms’ resonates with world’s small Jewish communities

By Cnaan LiphshizDecember 5, 2016

The Greek delegation of the Jewish Women's Renaissance Project baking challahs in Jerusalem in 2015. (Courtesy of Jewish Women's Renaissance Project)

ATHENS, Greece (JTA) — Amid preparations for her wedding 12 years ago, Errika Abouaf was happy to skip the mikvah, the ritual bath where Jewish brides traditionally undergo immersion before marrying in an Orthodox ceremony. Her excuse for opting out was that her tiny Jewish community of Larissa in northern Greece has no mikvah.“

It’s a common sentiment in a country where 87 percent of Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. Members of Greece’s present-day Jewish community of 5,000 perceives its Jewish identity as mostly cultural and independent to religion, community leaders say. 

Abouaf je promijenila svoje stajalište nakon što je posjetila mikve, po prvi puta,  u Izraelu u sklopu  grupe "Women's renaissance projekta". Ta grupa, koja je osnovana 2008.  organizira izlete u Izrael koji traju tjedan dana a zadaća je da se židovske žene iz dijaspore ,  koje nisu "observanti",  približe židovskoj "praksi" To je tzv. "Birtright for moms" ( postoji i za mlade). Tisuće žena su sudjelovale na takvim izletima od kojih je svaki  sakupio oko 400 žena.

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The excursions are popular in Jewish communities from Sydney to San Francisco  ..But they seem to have a particularly strong effect on women from small, crisis-stricken communities where mothers face a growing uncertainty over the viability of raising their children as Jews.  Lori Palatnik, the founding director of the Jewish Women’s Renaissance Project, said the trips play a vital role in supporting communities facing rising anti-Jewish sentiment.

The trips for Jews in “smaller Jewish communities like Greece and Turkey have the potential to affect their future dramatically,” said Dvir Kahana, director general of Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, which helps fund the trips. Aware of the “big challenge to maintain Jewish life outside Israel and especially in small communities,” he said, Israel is “proud to give women from different backgrounds and places this remarkable opportunity to strengthen their Jewish identity … [and] transfer this to their children. ”