By Alyse Feldman
A few weeks ago, we met on a Sunday afternoon in a lovely Jerusalem apartment near the neighborhood of Talpiot. We sat on the couch and the floor, waiting for our guest to arrive. We knew she was important, as we had to go to her home to squeeze in a meeting with her during her one hour of free time for the day, but we didn’t yet know how special she was going to be.
When Rabbi Tamar Elad-Applebaum, a Moroccan Jewish Israeli woman who paves her own way, walked into the room I was ready to hear anything and everything she had to say. Soft spoken and small in stature, Tamar’s presence felt spiritual and she arrived with an energy that led me to know was going to be very inspirational and mind-opening, before she even began speaking. And I was right.
Rabbi Tamar grew up in a very religious and traditional household. In school she learned to sew and cook, like all the girls did. But her life took a different direction when she realized that as a Jewish woman, she did not want to fall into the traditional female role, while watching the men from a distance going out to learn the important texts. Although her extended family may not have approved entirely, Tamar stopped learning the typical housewife things and began to study Talmud and Mishnah. After learning as much as she could in school, she joined the IDF for her mandatory military service. After thinking she knew it all in terms of Judaism, she met people in the IDF who showed her otherwise. Never before had Tamar met secular Jews, and she was about to see just how much she could learn from them. At the end of her service, she was sent to New Jersey for one last army task. It was there that she saw yet again another side to Judaism. Women who were rabbis, conservative Judaism, American Judaism, and more. She was ready to go to school to go into Jewish education when a friend convinced her that she should go to rabbinical school. Tamar told us that her family had never heard of such a thing- a female rabbi. To everyone’s surprise, her grandfather gave her well wishes.
Now, Tamar is a rabbi living in Jerusalem who started her own, new kind of congregation. Although there are many, many different types of synagogues in Jerusalem, Tamar realized there was none that combined many different types of Judaism. Her shul, "Zion", is about what Judaism is in Jerusalem. It’s traditional and innovative, combining customs, tunes, and practices from Moroccan, Orthodox, Reform, Conservative, Ashkenazic, and Sfardic backgrounds and so many more. Tamar’s focus is on creating a community of inclusion and support while inspiring Jewish devotion for the community members.
The service was fantastic. It was filled with soul and spirituality. It was full of tunes I knew, tunes I could follow along with although they were new to me, and tunes that were so unfamiliar and beautiful, all I could do was sit and listen. The woman leading the signing had an absolutely astounding voice and listening to the whole congregation get involved in these incredible melodies was very special. It truly was unlike any service I had ever been to before, and although I didn’t know anyone in the room beside the rest of the Nachshon group (and my Rabbi from back home in North Carolina who happen to walk in during the service!), the feeling of community was undeniable. It was a night I’ll never forget and I can’t wait to go back to Zion again.
To me, the best part of the entire experience was that Tamar validated for me something that no one else in my life has- that it’s okay to not feel like you identify or fit in with one particular sect or denomination of Judaism. She makes me want to continue exploring my Jewish identity and assures me that no matter what role Judaism plays in my life, I’ll always be able to find a Jewish community that I can call home.
