By Rabbi Yair Hoffman

On September 13^th, erev Rosh HaShana, another fact on the ground will be established.  A synagogue will be established in Kibbutz Lehavot Chaviva in the Moatzah Ezorit of Menashe.  It will be accompanied with a hachnasas Sefer Torah.

But let’s start at the beginning.  The organization is called “Ayelet HaShachar” and it brings Shabbat, and the Yomim tovim to the most religiously remote Kibbutzim and Moshavim throughout Eretz Yisroel.  Rabbi Shlomo Raanan is the founder and CEO.  He learned under Rav Michel Feinstein zt”l and Rav Dovid Soloveitchik zt”l in Brisk.

Ayelet HaShachar has three mobile shuls wherein the Kibbutz or Moshav can experience what a shul is or can be.  Recently, one of these mobile shuls was used for Slichot and Shacharit for people that never before observed it.

This organization has placed 180 frum families in irreligious Moshavim and Kibbutim from the northern border of Lebanon to Eilat in the south.  In the past few months Ayelet HaShachar sent frum families to Beit HaShita in Emek Beit Shaan, Chulda in Darom HaShfeila, to Metzuba on the border of Lebanon.  Ayelet HaShachar provides complete support for these families.  The influence they have is unparalleled.

“It is not a simple matter to match the families with the Kibbutzim or Moshavim,”  says Rabbi Shlomo Raanan.  “It is like a shidduch – but a shidduch that affects hundreds of families and for thousands of years.”

Ayelet HaShachar has built over 60 shuls in these remote locations and now the government of Israel is planning to participate in this incredible endeavor, and will underwrite half of the costs.

Currently, in the wake of the “judicial reform protests,” Israeli society is being torn apart like never before.  It is due to a lack of understanding of what it means to be religious, what it means to be secular, and how all of us belong to the same people.

Most importantly, Ayelet HaShachar has arranged for some sixty Yom Kippur minyanim in these remote Kibbutzim and Moshavim.  “It is possible that by Yom Kippur, we will have as much as seventy minyanim.”

“This past Yom Kippur was a different vibe entirely,” remarked one secular woman.  Watch a video of it here.

“If you want to experience a Yom Kippur like never before – come daven with us in a Moshav in a newly established minyan.  You will never forget it,” says Rabbi Raanan.

Sadly, the average Israeli often looks at his fellow religious Jew with a measure of contempt and hatred.  Ayelet HaShachar is determined to make a difference.  Their website can be seen at AyeletHaShachar.org.  Rabbi  Raanan is in the United States for the next week and can be contacted at [email protected]

The author can be reached at [email protected]