Orthodox Jews vow to continue gap-year trips to study in Israel
|
Version 0 of 1. For almost every American Orthodox Jew, the killing of 18-year-old Ezra Schwartz feels one degree of separation away. Schwartz was fatally shot Thursday by a Palestinian motorist who opened fire on a line of cars in traffic in Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem, in the West Bank, the Associated Press reported. Two other people were killed in the incident, the latest in a wave of deadly violence in the region that began weeks ago. But the Massachusetts teenager was killed in the midst of a ritual that has become enormously common in recent years for young Orthodox Jews — a gap year before college of intense religious study in Israel. Meant often as a way of solidifying one’s Jewish identity, maturity and knowledge before heading to college, the gap year is of great importance to Orthodox Jews. Jews from across the denominational spectrum over the weekend mourned Schwartz, a camp counselor with four siblings — one older, three younger— who had planned to attend Rutgers University next fall. Religious schools paused for tearful assemblies and prayer, rabbis sent out statements of solidarity and many parents wondered “what-if.” Some residents of Sharon, Mass., his home town, are displaying blue and white ribbons — the colors of the Israeli flag — on their mailboxes and on buildings in the town center to honor his memory. At his funeral Sunday in Sharon, Schwartz was eulogized as a huge sports fan, in particular of the New England Patriots. The team announced that a moment of silence would be held in his memory at its Monday night football game against the Buffalo Bills. A Patriots jersey, alongside an Israel flag, was placed beside his body at the funeral,The Jerusalem Post reported. Earlier, hundreds prayed and sang and wept at an Israeli airport as his body was sent home. Many of the mourners had a connection to Schwartz’s New Hampshire summer camp, the Jewish school from which he graduated outside of Boston, the school he was attending in Israel — Yeshivat Ashreinu — or had a relative who had followed the same gap-year path. “People can close their eyes and see their own kid in that situation,” said Rabbi Nissan Antine of Beth Sholom Congregation in Potomac, Md. “This really hit home in a very particular way.” Jewish Americans have long gone to Israel to travel and study. And Orthodox Jews — who make up about 10 percent of U.S. Jews and include the more conservative communities called Yeshivish or Black Hat Jews — have long studied in yeshivahs. But the gap year has come to have very specific meaning for the more open and liberal subset of Orthodox Jews known as the Modern Orthodox, of which Schwartz was a member. Modern Orthodox Jews aim to balance deep faith and observance with full immersion in mainstream, secular culture. Polls also show they are the most attached to Israel. As a result, there was almost no open talk of people calling their children home, or canceling gap years in the future. Instead, many responded in a way that underscores their commitment to continue a ritual considered core to Jewish identity. “It would be false to say there isn’t anxiety. But also there is determination. These are very special young men and women who have decided to take a year of their life, as self-improvement, studying Torah, working on their personalities, their characteristics, focusing on who they are and what they want out of life, what their responsibilities are, to their selves, their families, to their God,” said Rabbi Elisha Prero, who is also a Chicago lawyer and has two children in Israel. The younger, who is 18 and studying at a yeshivah, called his father, shaken. “I told him he should ask one of the rabbis if they’ll talk about it,” Prero said. “And secondly, he should rededicate himself to learning Torah. To be distracted from that would be giving victory to the enemy.” Josh Levisohn is headmaster of the K-12 Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy in Rockville, from which many graduates do gap years. “The idea of abandoning Israel when it’s having a tough time is difficult. It’s a time of soul-searching, but there is a feeling this is not a time when we can abandon Israel,” he said. Fears of violence related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict come and go, but there has been a surge this fall. Earlier on the day Schwartz was killed, a man with a knife stabbed and killed two Israelis as they gathered for prayers at an office building in Tel Aviv. Violence continued in the region over the weekend ahead of a visit Tuesday by Secretary of State John F. Kerry. In the past two months, 19 Israelis have been killed, mostly in stabbings, and 89 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire. Of those 89, 57 were said by Israel to be attackers and the rest were killed in clashes with security forces. Schwartz was studying at a yeshivah in Beit Shemesh, an Israeli community west of Jerusalem. Israeli news media reported that he and several classmates had visited the large Gush Etzion settlement as a community service project to deliver food to soldiers. They also visited a memorial nearby for three Israeli teens who were kidnapped and killed in the summer of 2014. Taking gap years at yeshivahs has become more prevalent in recent years, as the Orthodox community has become larger and more affluent, rabbis said Friday. Yeshivahs offer a range of programs, some focused exclusively on study, others with a big emphasis on outreach and service or travel. Typically yeshivah is the word for boys’ schools. Girls’ schools are called seminaries. While Modern Orthodox students usually go between high school and college, more conservative Orthodox youth often go to Israel a few years later, after completing more Judaic study in the United States, some rabbis said. Reassuring parents has become a cottage industry as well, with security consultants working with yeshivahs and Israeli government officials to provide regular updates. Earlier this fall, some rabbis said, several yeshivahs had temporary periods where they told students not to leave campus. Many statements from Orthodox leaders about Schwartz’s death emphasized the Jewish commitment to the state of Israel. “For those who ascribe to the Zionist vision that the Jewish State was established to be a safe haven for our beleaguered and tortured people, last week was a week of shattered dreams,” Rabbi Eric Grossman, head of the Ramaz School in Manhattan, wrote to his community. “What is Israel if it is not the safe haven for Jews? Why have a Jewish state if it only provides a more focused target for our enemies? Did the Founding Fathers of Zionism ever imagine that over 100 years after their inaugural congress we would have a Jewish state where Jews did not feel safe walking down the street or driving their cars down the road?” |