TORONTO — Rabbi Stanley Davids and his wife Resa, left, divide their time between homes in Israel and California and they recently spent 10 days touring North America encouraging people to do the same.
The Davids made aliyah in 2004, but they spend a significant amount of time at their home in Santa Monica, Calif., in order to be with family and friends.
Following a recent speaking tour, which began in Toronto and London, Ont., and went on to Chicago, Connecticut and New York, Rabbi Davids said that the Reform movement has decided to promote the couple’s living arrangement as a great way to build bridges between North American Jewry and Israel.
“When they retire, people can either buy a second home in Israel and vacation there just like they’d vacation in Florida, or else do what we do, and spend six or seven months of the year in Israel,” said Rabbi Davids, who was senior rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in Atlanta for 12 years until his retirement.
In the mid-1990s, he said, the Reform movement embraced aliyah as a mitzvah, and in that vein, the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA) brought in a shlichah from New York who was responsible for promoting aliyah.
“She came up with idea that Resa and I speak to Reform congregations about our experience.”
“Flex-aliyah” has been a positive experience for them, “because Israel is desperate for an influx of religiously liberal, democratically inclined, western Jews,” Rabbi Davids said.
“I believe [Israel] is at a critical turning point in the evolution of social society. There are two powerful forces, secular and ultra-Orthodox, and unless there is some counter-balancing, [the country] could be ripped apart.”
He said that even spending two months a year in Israel can make a big difference. “On Friday evenings, we always have guests. They come after services, and we pray and sing. Inevitably, residents in our building say ‘You are Reform, and you are celebrating Shabbat.’ By our very presence, we are helping to open the eyes of Israelis.”
He would like the presence of liberal Jews in Israel expanded, he said, so that “at the most basic areas of human interaction – in the green grocer, at the barber shop, or even with cab drivers – we can become visible and understood.”
Israel has finally awakened to the reality of the importance of this type of aliyah, Rabbi Davids said.
“They see flex-aliyah not as incomplete, but as a new, innovative form. It’s being seen as a slow, strong way to make aliyah. Laws are being passed that says new olim do not have to pay income tax on money earned outside of Israel for the next 10 years.”
He predicts that the Knesset will pass new laws that will make it possible for “flex-olim” to get insurance, an ulpan, and help with job placement. “Until now, olim had to be there full time, but now the government is ready to say, ‘Give it a try.’”
Israel has a right to call for the committed support of those who choose to live in the Diaspora, but as well, “it must support the Jewish lives of our people, wherever they might freely choose to live,” Rabbi Davids said.
“At the same time, North American Jews must recognize that they cannot build an affirmative Jewish identity at whose core is an affirmation that real Jewish living can only exist elsewhere.”
He believes it’s a two-way street. “Both sides need each other. That is pure mutuality.”
He called his promotional tour exhilarating and said that people welcomed the “flex-aliyah” idea.
“We were on such a high we promised we would do it again in the spring. We felt it was useful, important, and that we had an impact.”
