Jewish Home Youth in Haifa
Jewish Home Youth in HaifaJewish Home Youth

"Jewish Home Youth" activists on Thursday joined Leadership Day activities in northern cities.

The youths began with a tour led by Rabbi Shmuel Sasson, who is a resident of Haifa's Hadar neighborhood.

Hadar is Haifa's second-largest neighborhood.

They also learned about the challenge of integrating 27,000 Jews and 10,000 Muslim Arabs, Russians, and Christians, into a single city. Because of the influx of non-Jews, dozens of Haifa synagogues have been forced to close. A Torah nucleus community of young National Religious families who moved to the neighborhood is trying to change that reality.

The group then continued to the municipality, speaking with Haifa Deputy Mayor Yaakov Broyner about the Hadar neighborhood's past. They then continued on to tour Acre's Old City and went sailing in the Mediterranean, and ended in Haifa's Rambam Hospital.

Jewish Home Youth Chairman Yair Buchnik said, "On Thursday, we were directly exposed to the problems faced by mixed cities and their difficulty in observing Shabbat and Jewish holidays. This is especially true in the Hadar neighborhood.

"This problem is not new to anyone, but only recently has their been any improvement or effort to find a solution. We hope to continue to help, tour, and learn about how we can help cities retain their Jewish identity and help the residents observe Jewish holidays in a better fashion."