“The expression goes – ‘It takes a village to raise a child.’ I decided to transform the nature of our village.”

So Rabbi Tamir Nir describes the beginnings of the Jewish community he founded around a community garden which includes an untraditional synagogue because it has no physical walls.

The absence of walls serves as metaphor for this growing community building itself on fertile ground in Jerusalem.

Rabbi Nir responded to the increasing number of parents and young people he encountered in his neighborhood, who were struggling with feelings of being unconnected. “Too many of us are disconnected from our physical surroundings, from our culture, from community. This state of alienation leads to real pain and loneliness.”

“And, of course, you must overlay the growing distance in the ‘secular’ community from Jewish culture,” observed Rabbi Nir.

We wanted to create a community gathering space that connects us to our physical environment, to the neighborhood, to Judaism and allows residents to connect to one another.”

“The idea to establish a community garden was motivated by seeing all these disconnections within Israeli society. We wanted to create a community gathering space that connects us to our physical environment, to the neighborhood, to Judaism and allows residents to connect to one another.”

The community garden serves as the base to bring people into Jewish community. By means of initiatives around diverse activities not traditionally understood as “Jewish” like carpentry, sustainability, live music performances and jam session opportunities, a farm, gardening, and then of course prayer and learning, the community garden community adds new partners.

“From the beginning, our desire was to connect more people to Jewish culture and content –from a place of joyous celebration – while encouraging a sense of responsibility for the larger world. And we are watching the shoots grow in our community without walls!”

The Honey Foundation for Israel

Leading a revolution in Israeli Judaism… for the benefit of Jews everywhere.