In U.S., Israeli expats turn to growing number of Israeli rabbis
Itzik Abu-Hatzera rarely attended synagogue in his native Haifa when he lived in Israel. But last December his family was among those of nearly 200 other Israelis in South Florida at a Chanukah party sponsored by the Chabad Israeli Center in Boca Raton. “In Israel you don’t need it, Jews are all around you,” says Abu-Hatzera, who moved here 10 years ago. Like Abu-Hatzera, the rabbi of the Chabad center, Naftali Hertzel, is Israeli. At the Chabad he runs with his wife, Henya, Hebrew is the lingua franca. That, rather than the specific religious components of the evening, was why Abu-Hatzera and his family came here rather than to one of many similar Chanukah events organized by American Jews in this heavily Jewish area.