c. 1998 Religion News Service
TEL AVIV _ A first-of-its kind”pluralistic”synagogue structure, designed by world famous architect Mario Botta, recently opened on the campus of Israel’s largest university in an attempt to foster religious dialogue between Judaism’s Orthodox and non-Orthodox movements, which are often at odds.
The Tel Aviv University building, featuring twin towers and an expansive esplanade, is the first in Israel built to house an Orthodox sanctuary and another that can be used for Reform and Conservative synagogue services by students and faculty. The structure also encompasses a Judaica museum and a study hall.
Locating Orthodox and non-Orthodox sanctuaries in such close proximity is a sensitive matter.
Many Orthodox Jews will not enter a non-Orthodox synagogue, particularly during worship services, out of concern their presence will give legitimacy to forms of Judaism they believe to be compromised.
And non-Orthodox Jews often shun Orthodox synagogues because of their adherence to gender separation and a liturgy the Conservative and Reform movements consider archaic.
Like most things involving religion in Israel, the origin of the pluralistic concept for the structure has become the subject of debate.
Rabbi Uri Regev, an official with Israel’s Progressive (Reform) Movement, said the building was originally conceived with the intent of housing only an Orthodox sanctuary, as well as a hall for social and other functions.
Later, he said, the hall was redesigned as a second sanctuary for non-Orthodox prayers follows demands for such an accommodation from non-Orthodox students and faculty.
But the building’s donor, Swiss Jewish philanthropist Norbert Cymbalista, said the intent from the start of the design process two years ago was to construct a synagogue building that all Jewish groups could use.”This building is intended to facilitate the reconciliation between the different groups in Judaism,”said Cymbalista.”Here we have a strictly Orthodox synagogue and equal space, just across the hall, for Conservative and Reform services,”he said.”The whole thing is under one roof, and that was the intention from the beginning.” Cymbalista said he was excited by the opportunity for”a meeting of hearts”that he hoped the building would foster on the 26,000-student campus.
University spokeswoman Orly Frumer said the school had no comment on the issue.
Cymbalista, who himself is traditionally observant, said he decided to offer the university the new structure during a visit to the campus two years ago. During the visit, he asked to attend a synagogue service only to learn the secular university lacked an adequate facility.”They took me to a basement storeroom, where a few students were praying, and I said I think it is about time that they have something dignified,”recalled Cymbalista, who personally supervised the design and construction of the synagogue by Botta. The structure’s cost is reputed to be $4.5 million.
Regev said the pluralistic design was proof that”religious discrimination in Israel is not part of the elements. Just as it has been created in the past by Orthodox pressure and Reform and Conservative acquiescence, it is now being gradually undone by voices for pluralism rising loud and clear.” Regev noted that even at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, which boasts Israel’s largest population of overseas Jewish students, many of them non-Orthodox, the official campus synagogue is strictly for Orthodox use even though the school is also officially secular. Non-Orthodox services are held elsewhere.
Cymbalista said he hoped the proximity of Orthodox and non-Orthodox worshippers in the same building at Tel Aviv University would eventually lower the walls of intrareligious misunderstanding.”I am for the unity of the Jewish people,”he said.”And we are all praying to the same God, I just want to begin a dialogue.”
IR END FLETCHER
