(IsraelNN.com) Eilat, southern Israel’s capital of international tourism, is thriving religiously as well. The city yeshiva director tells Israel National Radio: “Of all places, Eilat is open to religious ideas.”

INR show host Yishai Fleisher spoke on Monday with Uriel Cohen, executive-director of one of Israel’s most unlikely yeshivot: Yeshivat Ayelet HaShachar (Morning Star) in what many consider to be a beachfront version of Las Vegas – the southern port city of Eilat.

Fleisher noted that the city was once noted for its end-of-the-road desert location, scuba diving, proximity to Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, and, for the history-minded, the Timna Mines of King Solomon. Today, however, the city is undergoing not only a physical growth spurt, numbering nearly 50,000 people, but a religious one as well.

Notable in this connection are the aforementioned post high-school hesder yeshiva, a girls’ high school, a yeshiva high school for boys to be opened this year, nearly 30 synagogues, and various programs and centers for Jewish studies and services.

“Some 27 years ago,” Cohen said, “a group from Machon Meir [Meir Institute in Jerusalem, the “beginners’ branch” of Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav Kook –ed.] came down to Eilat as a Torah seed-group – the first one. This was precisely at a time when people were leaving the city. The mayor offered them whatever building they wanted, as most of the public structures were empty. So they started with 80 pupils in the religious school - while now, there are more than 3,000 students who receive Jewish studies each week!”

Cohen noted that Rabbi Tzvi Kustiner of the Mitzpeh Ramon yeshiva had a hand in Eilat’s religious growth when he agreed to send 20 of his students to start the yeshiva. Rabbi Yossi Rodriguez, who has headed the yeshiva for over a decade, was a top student of Rabbi Tzvi Tau in Mercaz HaRav, and also served as a paratroopers battalion commander in the IDF.

More Receptive Than Tel Aviv
Uriel commented that the atmosphere in Eilat is more receptive to Jewish values, particularly those of a religious-Zionist yeshiva, “than is Tel Aviv, for instance”  – although a measure of a religious renaissance is taking place there as well. “People in Eilat knock on our doors and say they want to be like us, and that they want our children to have our values,” Cohen said. “Half the children in our public-religious schools come from families that are not religious!”

Three Fallen Soldiers, Three Community Projects
Three years ago, Cohen said, “during the Second Lebanon War, we lost three students in just one week. This was a very big shock for us; we felt that we had lost our sons.  So we decided to open a special project in the name of each one: The Chasdei Yehuda soup kitchen, which distributes more than 5,000 meals a week to needy people all over Eilat, is named for Yehuda Greenfeld, who was married and had two children. We also have the Noam Family Center, dealing with young couples, marital problems, and family issues, in the name of Noam Mayerson, and the third project is Keshet Yonatan, in the name of Yonatan Einhorn, which provides Jewish studies classes for all the army bases in the area.”

Eilat and the Holy Land
Fleisher said he wished to clarify a question that is often raised: whether or not Eilat is officially part of the Land of Israel. Uriel said, “I am not a rabbi, but I can tell you that the first time the borders were physically delineated in our history was when Joshua led the people in battle, and the borders reached to Maaleh Akrabim – which according to some is the Aqaba area, adjacent to Eilat. Later, when the Jews returned from Babylon after the destruction of the First Temple, we know that Eilat was definitely not part of the borders. In practice, Chabad Hassidim do observe two-day holidays [an indication that the area is not Halakhically a part of the Holy Land – ed.], but the custom among everyone else follows the opinion of [Land of Israel expert] Rabbi Yechiel Tukechinsky, who ruled that we should observe one day, just like the rest of the country."

Many scholarly articles have been written on Eilat and the Aravah region vis-à-vis the laws of tithes, shemittah, and other Land of Israel issues.

“The bottom line,” both Cohen and Fleisher agreed, “is that the Jewish People have merited to return to the Land of Israel, with the great historic and legal significance that this entails, and the religious rejuvenation in Eilat is a glorious part of this.”