U.S. rabbi envisions pluralistic utopia in planned Negev town

Where most people see a dusty plot of land 15 minutes north of Be'er Sheva, one prominent Chicago rabbi sees a religious "utopia." Rabbi Asher Lopatin, of the Anshe Sholom B'nai Israel Congregation, envisions the future community of Carmit - which is currently no more than some pipes, a few dozen pebble heaps and a handful of tractors and other earth moving vehicles - to be a religiously pluralistic town, "demographically diverse and environmentally sensitive."

In a recent article Lopatin, named by Newsweek in 2008 as one of America's top 25 pulpit rabbis, wrote that "nothing is more central to the Jewish tradition than the dream of returning to our land and building a type of utopia in the Land of Israel." Lopatin stated, "As a rabbi who preaches, prays and observes that dream every day, at some point I have to say: It is my responsibility, and that of my family, to make this dream a reality."

The first 200 families - half of them from North America, the other half native Israelis - will move to Carmit by the summer of 2011, according to Daniel Mattio, the chairman of the Chicago Israel Philanthropic Fund. "Over the year or two following 2011, we hope to grow the community to 735; that's the initial phase of the development as presented to the government," Mattio told Anglo File. Eventually, Carmit is supposed to accommodate 2,650 families. While Anglos would soon become the minority, the community will retain an Anglo feel, the planners asserted.

The fund teamed up with the Or Movement and the Jewish National Fund to implement the project. The Or Movement, which is dedicated to facilitating the settlement of the Negev and the Galilee, wrote in a April 2009 brochure that the "purpose of Carmit is to absorb affluent immigrants from English-speaking countries" in order to "bring light and new hope to Israel's largest and least populated periphery."

The idea for Carmit was born in 1996, Roni Flamer, the Or Movement's co-founder and CEO told Anglo File in his office in Omer's industrial park. "The Israeli government established a plan to populate this area and created a few communities there. But since then, these communities were neglected and nobody really took care of them. In 2006, when we heard that the construction of Carmit was finally going to be approved, we said to ourselves: What a fantastic idea - we'll take this place and build a community for English speakers in the Negev."

Currently, he said, the Israel Land Administration is building the main entrance road to Carmit and laying its infrastructure.

Flamer explained that Anglos are one of six groups his organization considers for special projects. The others are students, army personnel, Ultra-Orthodox, ecological groups and "free market buyers."

Pure Zionism

Rabbi Lopatin first heard about Carmit when in late 2007 an Or Movement staffer spoke in Chicago. A few months later, Lopatin brought the topic up with Mattio, one of his congregants. "We were having a random conversation when Carmit came up," Mattio told Anglo File during a recent site visit. "We said to each other: Hey, there's this plan for a community in Carmit. It's huge opportunity, one you get very rarely, to build something entirely from scratch."

Last summer, Mattio, a Baltimore-born finance professional, contacted the Or Movement and initiated the cooperation between the two nonprofits. Soon after, he founded the Chicago Israel Philanthropic Fund to help market the project among North Americans. "It is exciting to come here and play a significant role in the design and evolution of what is going to be a huge community in the Negev - this is pure Zionism," the 32-year-old said, adding that he plans to move to Carmit with his wife and daughter as soon as the first buildings go up there.

In a phone interview from Chicago last month, Lopatin told Anglo File that while his idea of religious pluralism - the cornerstone of his vision - is not new, Carmit would be the "first place where it all comes together." He explained that Carmit's central synagogue would include a main service modeled after "progressive but mainstream Orthodox synagogues in America," such as the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale and B'nai David in Los Angeles.

His synagogue would also have two side minyans: one with a more traditional, Haredi feel and one "that really pushes the limits of Orthodoxy" where men and women sit separately but women could lead the services and read from the Torah. "This hasn't been done in America yet; I can't do this in my shul," he said. "That's one of the advantages of Carmit being a new town. We're just going to say: Look, that's the way it's going to be."

Lopatin added he would also reach out to non-Orthodox streams and even non-believers. "As long as people are committed to Judaism and Israel - let's open it up," he said. Yet, as an advocate of the strict separation of church and state, he said his community would not try to be accepted by the Israeli rabbinate.

"Whatever they want to do is their own business," he told Anglo File. "We'll be different, we'll be a marketplace of ideas." He said he is not deterred by the fact that in Israel the rabbinate regulates weddings and other life-cycle events. "There are lots of ways of getting around that. I have friends who got married outside the system and they say they're fine."

He added: "We will reach out to the local rabbinic establishment in friendship. We don't want to push anyone away, but we won't be dependent or let trying to be part of that system get in the way of being as inclusive as we can be."