When worshippers arrive for Friday-night services at Israel’s newest Reform congregation, they don’t greet one another in Hebrew. Not in English either, as they would in some of the more established Reform congregations founded by Anglophone immigrants around the country.
At this brand-new congregation in Tel Aviv suburb Ramat Gan, Russian rules. Not only is it the mother tongue of every single worshipper showing up for services, it’s the language in which many of the prayers are recited and the rabbi’s sermon is delivered.
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