Some things religious in Karmiel

"THINGS RELIGIOUS"

Karmiel is primarily a secular community. There is a Reform community in Karmiel which meets weekly in the Naamat hall and is comprised mostly of native Spanish speakers and a Conservative (Masorati) synagogue, Kehilat HaKerem, most of whose members are either English speakers or families of English speakers.
 

There is a Chabad learning center near the entrance of town.

There is the usual complement of orthodox synagogues which pretty much break down into ethnic groups. I believe this is standard practice, i.e., the Yemenites attend one synagogue, the Moroccans another, etc. There is a religious school for boys in the old town center and an Amit  High School in the Rabin neighborhood.
 

Someone wrote:
"[Beit Knesset] Moriah seems to be the place where most of the Anglos, religious and not, daven. Or at least, the place where most of the Anglos have occasionally davened. :)"
I recently met with a friend who has attended this synagogue for more than 20 years.  He says that Shabbat services bring in about 150 people and that at least 50% of them are native English speakers.  The women’s section is upstairs and has upholstered chairs (while we men, he continued, sit on wooden seats).  The synagogue recently received a gift that made it possible to buy a new aron kodesh and bima.

The writer continues:
"One of the things that's nice about Karmiel is there aren't really separate movements, there are religious people and non-religious people. Religious people might daven at an Orthodox synagogue but work on Shabbat. Someone might be shomer shabbat and not show up at the synagogue... lots of variations. A lot of the people tend to float among all of the synagogues..."
I would agree with this. It represents a live-and-let live atmosphere that is really great about our town.

The following is from a message posted on the gonorth@yahoogroups.com website: “In the Rabin neighborhood of Karmiel, in the Amit high school, there's a new open-minded, welcoming, community-focused Orthodox minyan. It started less than a year ago and has already become a home for a number of people on this list. In addition to shabbat tefilot, we're connected to Mibreishit and have lots of fun family-oriented programming, especially around the chagim.”   In addition, a one-a-week lesson (men and women together) in English currently exists in the Rabin neighborhood, led by a new oleh rabbi from the USA and at least 2 learning possibilities in English are sponsored by the Conservative congregation.

From "gonorthkarmiel" bulletin board (Dec 8, 2010)

"We are delighted to announce the launching this week of a new Shabbat Minyan for English speakers this week. The Minyan will have Friday Evening services in the Carlbach style and Shabbat morning services 8:30 AM accompanied by a Drasha in English.  The Shul is being started with the blessing of the Rav Haroshi of Karmiel Rav Avraham Tzvi Margalit and he is generously allowing us the usage of the Beit Me"li Beit Midrash located  at 24 HaChavtztelet to host our services until a more suitable location is found.

The Services shul will be led by Rabbi Ephraim Schwartz and will be traditional orthodox (Nusach Sefard)and welcoming of Jews of all backrounds and affiliations.Rabbi Schwartz a recent Oleh to Karmiel has been invovlved in Jewish educational Outreach work across the United States was the founding Rabbi of the West Seatttle Torah Learning Center(TLC) and the founder of the Norfolk Area Community Kollel. He is  a Musmach of the Talmudic Acadamy of Miami and is the author of a weekly Torah E-Mail and Blog Holyland Insights and Inspiration. 

The Young Israel of Karmiel invites you to join us for services and we value your input into developing our Shul to serve as a community center for Torah Tefilla and community educational and social programming.

For more information please contact Rabbi Schwartz
rabbschwartz@yahoo.com "