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Hakhel Jewish Learning Festival at Tel Hai, Sukkoth 2006

An overwhelming turnout and demonstration of solidarity with the north 

Looking out over the fire ravaged hills surrounding Kiryat Shemonah, over 4,000 people—young and old, religious and secular, northerners and people from all parts of the country—gathered together at Tel Hai College for the Hakhel Festival of Jewish learning. Held every Sukkoth, this happening of Jewish identity and Israeli culture, which marked its tenth anniversary on October 8, 2006, is organized by Panim, for Jewish renaissance in Israel. Hakhel revives an ancient tradition born from a passage in Deuteronomy: “Gather the people—men, women, children, and the strangers in your communities—that they may hear and so learn…”  (Deut. 31:12).

Hakhel’s permanent location is the United Kibbutz Movement’s Efal Seminary, near Ramat Gan; but this year, to boost morale in the north, Panim and the festival’s steering committee decided to hold the event at the northern Galilee campus. Located on the grounds of the Tel Hai stronghold, overrun in March 1920 by an Arab raiding party, it was the site of heavy attacks by Hezbollah Katyusha bombs this summer.  So this change of venue was not only a gesture of solidarity, it also has symbolic meaning. Then as now, this area has had to withstand invasions in order to safeguard Israel’s northern border.

With schools and work places on vacation for the Sukkoth holiday, attendance at Hakhel is generally good, but this year the crowds, especially the numbers of young people, surpassed the organizers’ expectations. Enhancing the lively, festive mood with their obvious enthusiasm, they did not come just to mill around with friends, or to attend the films and the gala performance by the popular musicians.  The young people, as well as their more senior counterparts, were clearly drawn to the intellectual fare offered at the festival’s lectures and panel discussions, since there was standing room only in all the College’s classrooms and auditoriums. 

The younger participants included several hundred university students who had come north to volunteer, planting trees and picking fruit, or to work in communities affected by the recent war. All of the young people enrolled in the country’s pre-army preparatory programs, which combine study and volunteer work, came as well. Their student bodies are secular, Orthodox, or mixed.  Members of youth movements stood out in their distinguishing shirts.  All of them were obviously interested and inquisitive, and with myriads of festivals taking place all over the country, it was gratifying to see that they chose to come to this intellectual and spiritual encounter with Judaism and Jewish identity.

Hakhel is the high point of the work done all year long by the organizations and institutions involved in Jewish pluralism and Jewish education, Orthodox, liberal, and secular, batei midrash, colleges, study groups, etc.  Like any other fair, the choice of “wares” they offered was plentiful, if not overwhelming: dozens of panel discussions and lectures on matters affecting Israeli society today; musical performances, films, study sessions, creative workshops and more.  A few samples include: panel discussions about Jewish spiritual leadership, rescuing captives, the future of Israel as a Jewish Zionist society; lectures about Jewish secular culture, a socialist synagogue; the study of  texts dealing with leadership, the commitment of individuals; a creative workshop on prayer for women, and another on drama; lectures about Bob Dylan, the piyut, poetry and literature. 

Prominent professors and well-known personalities mingled with students, young people with politicians, veteran kibbutz members from the north with young yeshivah students. Everyone was in high spirits, reveling in this refreshing opportunity, talking to people they would otherwise not have met, participating in intellectual and spiritual discussions and debates about issues related to Judaism, Israeli culture, and the issues of facing our society.

Outdoors, the festive atmosphere was infectious, too. In addition to the Sukkah used as a session venue on this Feast of Booths, organization had set up booths to display their wares. With contemporary Israeli music playing in the background, people strolled among the tables set up by various organizations. They examined books—from children’s work books on Genesis to scholarly treatises—and brochures and pamphlets explaining the organization’s aims and activities.  Representatives answered questions and offered information.  

The festival, which continued from 1:00pm to the early hours of the morning opened with the performance of the first Hebrew play ever written, a comedy that deals with love, matchmaking, inheritance, etc.  A gala performance by Din Din Aviv, and “Dani, Gidi and Friends,” popular performers among wide audiences, topped off an event that brought together people of all ages and varied backgrounds.

The production of the festival was handled locally, employing many young people as well. It was well-organized and ran very smoothly. The people in charge, and the ushers, too, were well-informed and politely directed the heavy traffic. Nonetheless, participants had to scramble for seats because all the classrooms and auditoriums were packed to the rafters.  They sat on the floor and the stage, or stood.  The ushers had to turn people away.  In many cases participants saved seats a half hour before the activity they selected was scheduled to begin.

Many of the lecturers, discussion leaders, and participants chose to remain overnight in the north, eating in restaurants and staying at the guest houses and bed and breakfasts that had remained empty during the weeks of the war, their high season. 

Free transportation was provided from all parts of the country and busloads of people flowed in all day.  The venue also drew many northerners, first-timers to Hakhel.  In addition, with enrollment low due to the war, the Tel Hai College administration welcomed the exposure to potential students among Hakhel participants.

This year’s Hakhel festival and the important demonstration of solidarity with the north was made possible by funding that came from the Avi Chai Foundation, the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the United Jewish Communities of  Metro West, the New Israel Fund,  Efal – the United Kibbutz Movement College, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Culture and Sport, the Jewish Agency and Panim for Jewish Renaissance in Israel.

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