A Brooklyn shul in Israel - Haaretz

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Fri., November 16, 2007 Kislev 6, 5768

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A Brooklyn shul in Israel

By Daphna Berman

Despite its relatively small size, Hashmonaim has seven synagogues, which all share a rotating rabbi. The largest, Glenwood Jewish Center, is home to the majority of the community's Anglo population. Sermons and activities are in Hebrew - usually accented and spoken slowly enough for the congregation's benefit - but board meetings often take place in English. The synagogue is named after the Glenwood Jewish Center in Brooklyn - an aging synagogue that closed its doors because it could barely get a minyan, or the required group of 10 adult Jewish men, on Shabbat. After the building was sold, the synagogue leadership transferred the majority of the funds to the construction of the synagogue in Hashmonaim, which opened its doors some 10 years ago. In exchange, memorial plaques from Brooklyn were brought over to Israel; in Hashmonaim, they now say El Maleh Rachamim, the prayer for the deceased, for synagogue members in Brooklyn who passed away long ago. "It's perpetuating a shul that would have disappeared," said Ira Hartman, who attended Glenwood in Brooklyn during his youth and was among the founders of the Hashmonaim synagogue.

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Priced high and rising

Only 30 empty lots with building rights are left in Hashmonaim and prices are sky high, with a 600-meter lot fetching upwards of $330,000 - and that's before building costs. The result, residents say, is that property is prohibitively expensive for many Israelis, leaving relatively well-off American immigrants as the only ones with the means to move in. The situation also means that young couples - Israelis and immigrants alike - who grew up in Hashmonaim and want to return home to live near their parents cannot afford to do so. "The problem is that we'll finish building and people will have no where else to move," said Ira Hartman, a candidate for the governing committee, who says land is now 16 times more expensive than what he paid. "When a place becomes stagnant, it turns into a problem. And my children cannot even begin to think about moving here."

Support for the commute

The rate of "commuter husbands" - who continue to work in the U.S. but live in Israel - is high in Hashmonaim, in part because of its close proximity to the airport and the community's popularity with more recent waves of American immigrants. Exact numbers are difficult to determine, but an estimated 30 families have one member who regularly travels to the U.S. in cycles that could be every week or every other month, for a few weeks at a time. The phenomenon, which encompasses the "vast minority," according to one commuter wife, means that there is a significant support system for women who spend large chunks of a given month alone with their kids. "It's a community where commuting is very common," said Tamara Laufer, whose husband works abroad. "It's normal to be without your husband here. There's one man who leaves Sunday and comes back Thursday, other people who only go for tax season. People can work part time there and still make it here."

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