Dear friends of Sulam Yaakov

Almost 13 years ago a group gathered together in Zichron Yaakov for Friday night and holiday prayers in the spirit of Liberal and Reform Judaism.  Without any funding or external support, Friday night prayers took place in the home of Prof. Ken Grossberg.  A couple of years later with the gradual growth of the "prayer group" a Liberal Jewish congregation named "Sulam Yaakov" (Jacobs Ladder) was established in this wonderful location between sea and mountains. Ken became the first congregation chairperson and prayers moved to a classroom in a local School. Rabbi Kineret Sirion came from Tel Aviv to lead services every second Friday. Following the official establishment of the congregation and the nomination of a permanent Rabbi the weekly prayers moved to a more appropriate location in the Wizo house in Zichron Yaakov.

Over the years the congregation kept growing and developing. We have regular prayers every week and many Bar Mitzvah ceremonies for kids including many that are not members. We are active in local schools and the community. Naturally we have also had our ups and downs particularly with regard to retention of our Rabbis and communal staff.  But our main problem was the lack of a "home" as a focal point of liberal Judaism for the local communities and towns in our vicinity.

Following a legal battle led by IRAC – Sulam Yaakov together with 3 other Reform congregation in Israel were allocated a prefab mobile building by the Ministry of Housing to serve as synagogue. This was the first time any non-Orthodox Jewish organization received such government support.

It took us over a year to actually move into the building as the congregation with help of its supporters had to fund much of the infrastructure work. In these times of economical downturn it was not easy to raise the funds for this project. However members of the congregation and its supporters managed after an heroic effort to enable the move into our new but modest home. We celebrated this move on September 10th just a week before the Jewish New Year 5770. How excited and happy we are that we will be able to celebrate the High Holidays in our own building.

The ceremony was very emotional – We had many guests who have supported, followed and participated with us over the years. Among our distinguished guests we had Rabbi Gilad Kariv the managing director of Israel Movement of Progressive Judaism (IMPJ) as well IMPJ lay leadership. Eli Abutbul the mayor of Zichron Yaakov gave warm words of support which is not common among Israeli politicians. We were very happy to see close friends from our sister communities in the north of Israel from Tivon and Haifa, as well as our honorary old members which came  to this occasion from all over Israel and abroad. 

We have great challenges ahead to achieve our vision of becoming a major center and focal point for Liberal Judaism– We are still in great need for financial support to expand our activities and make Sulam Yaakov the congregation of choice for Israelis living "between Natanya and Haifa".  This includes supporting new outreach programs and upgrading the part time status of our Rabbi. Fortunately for the last two years we have a student Rabbi who has been wonderful in moving Sulam Yaakov into a brighter future. She will be inaugurated in a couple of weeks and we hope she will stay with us for many years.

We wish you all a happy new year and hope you will be able to continue supporting us. We will be delighted if you will be able to come and visit us in our new home

Dr. Gideon Gerzon

Chair Person
Sulam Yaakov Congregation
Zichron Yaakov