In the past, I have occasionally reached out to my mailing list on behalf of certain chesed organizations with which I'm familiar – e.g., for Eim LeBanim's Rosh Hashanah and Pesach programs for single-mother families. But never before have I made a solicitation for any cause in which I have a personal interest.
I am, however, doing so now for Kehillas Darkei Yitzchak, a growing congregation in Ramat Beit Shemesh Gimmel, which I believe can serve as a vital model for many other such shuls throughout Israel. At present the congregation is housed in a narrow caravan, furnished with white plastic chairs, and lacking even standing room for all who want to daven there, as well as an ezras nashim. My son, Yechezkel Rosenblum, is one of the gabbaim, and has himself committed to raise 500,000 shekels for the current building campaign.
Even for those who do not live in Ramat Beit Shemesh, or even in Israel, I think that contributing to the 8 million shekel building campaign is also an investment in one's future or that of one's children or grandchildren. There will be, I suspect, more and more reasons for Torah Jews from chutz l'aretz to contemplate aliyah in the coming years, especially for those who have skills in demand in the growing Israeli economy and are beset with high tuition and health insurance costs in America.
Many will hesitate, however, either because they do not want to be far away from their families or because they fear that they will experience a ruchnius decline in Israel, without a rav, a kehillah, and chavrusas. And those fears are not without basis in the Israeli Torah world today. Many, if not most, batei knesset do not have a rav, and for those still learning in kollel, the shul is rarely the center of their social life or their families.
Kehillos Darkei Yitzchak serves a community that is very diverse in every way possible: country of origin of the member families, whether the husbands are in full-time learning or not; and in the age range of the members from multiple great-grandparents to newlyweds just starting their families. The current make up of families includes 25 families from North America, 18 families from England; 18 families of those raised in Israel; 10 families from Brazil and Chile: and 8 from South Africa. Somehow these diverse elements have been forged into one unified community around the rav of the kehillah, Rav Boruch Dzialowski.
At the dinner kicking off the building campaign earlier in the week, a member of the shul was quoted as saying that never before has he ever felt that everyone with whom he was davening on Rosh Hashanah was a brother and the rav like a father. Rav Dzialowski knows every child in the kehillah by name and learns with them. He is available to both the children and every woman in the kehillah for any shaylah they may have.
Every member feels that the shul is a second home, despite its homely appearance. The kehillah's sense of shared purpose was clear at the dinner last week in the enormous pledges of shul members – up to a million shekels – even though none of those making those pledges are personally wealthy. (The Rav himself took on to raise two million shekels.)
In Kehillas Darkei Yitzchok, the terms avreich and baalebos are never heard. The relevant terms are ben Torah and ben aliyah. Does one seek to guide his life by Torah or not? Is he or she seeking to grow in ruchnius or not? Those are the only relevant questions.
That should not be considered as muvan m'elav (self-understood). In the three years my son lived in another chareidi neighborhood, he never once received an aliyah because he was a "working person."
Rav Dzialowski has ensured that whenever members have time to learn the beis medrash will be open and inviting for them. There is an early morning chabura of about thirty or so members, and two kollelim – one in the morning and one in the evening. The voice of Torah does not cease from early morning to late at night. And the Rav's many weekly shiurim present deep yeshivish lomdus, as befitting a descendant of Rav Akiva Eiger and the Chasam Sofer, with such clarity that every member of the kehillah, no matter what his level of learning, can participate.
There is already a far larger demand of families eager to join Kehillas Darkei Yitzchok than can be accommodated in its current flimsy structure. And if such a kehillah grows to its potential, there is no doubt that it can be a model for other such shuls all over Israel, and that more talented young talmidei chachamim like Rav Dzialowski will be drawn to the role of shul rabbi.
Your help in building a community that can serve as a model for many more like it will be greatly appreciated. Thanks very much.
Attached below is a video on the kehillah and my son Yechezkel's causematch page:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IiO_OuqLURPgX6PMjcqbZikaU7SVj8cW/view?usp=sharing