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Class tries to connect Jews, Israel

Concerned that the younger generation is losing touch with the importance of Israel to the Jewish people, Lubavitch Chabad of Northbrook is joining synagogues around the world to offer a new course it hopes will help people see past politics, and discover Israel's spiritual meaning.

The six-week course, "Israel: The Land and the Spirit," began Oct. 30 and runs on Tuesday and Wednesday evening sessions through Dec. 5 at Chabad of Northbrook, 755 Huehl Road. The course is also running at eight other locations the suburbs and Chicago, including Glenview, Wilmette, Skokie and Highland Park. It was developed by the Jewish Learning Institute, the adult education arm of Chabad-Lubavitch, which offers programs in 300 locations around the world.

A study released earlier in October found that only about half of all American Jews under 35 are comfortable with the idea of Israel, said Rabbi Meir Moscowitz of Chabad of Northbrook. "We are shocked and deeply concerned by these findings as is everyone in the Jewish communal world," adding, "We decided that for anyone under 30, there would be no charge for them to join the course except for a small fee for the textbook."

The full price is $100 per person or $180 per couple.

Moscowitz said older generations gave more thought to Israel because they came to see it as a kind of refuge and source of strength after the Holocaust.

Younger Jews, he said, don't have the same kind of direct memory of those times and may be put off by the region's seemingly intractable conflict.

Moscowitz said the course won't get into the politics of Israel. Instead, it will focus on the broader themes of what the land has meant to the Jewish people from the earliest days.

"When we talk about the Holy Land, how could a land be holy? How can a philosophy and a spiritual thought relate to something as physical as land?" Moscowitz said. "What we're going to do through this course is study that idea and connection every week."

Moscowitz said interest in the course has been high in the weeks leading up to it, and the course has won endorsements from people such as Natan Sharansky, former deputy prime minister of Israel, who now heads a think tank in Jerusalem.

Moscowitz said it's possible that the course will kindle interest in an upcoming trip to Israel organized through Chabad of Northbrook, but his main hope is that younger people will gain a new appreciation for the land, regardless of whether they ever travel there. He hopes they realize that Israel is not just another foreign country, but a place with a spiritual connection for Jews everywhere.

"Whether the person is in Northbrook or in Timbuktu, it still relates to him," Moscowitz said.

For more information on the course and other Jewish Learning Institute offerings, visit www.myJLI.com