Synagogue In Bomb Shelter Appreciates Boosted Wartime Attendance

 “We usually struggle to get a minyan by eight-thirty; this week we had one at the outset.”

Ashkelon, May 20 – Congregation Kol Sasson has struggled for years to maintain regular services, owing to demographic changes in this Mediterranean coastal city, but the community’s spiritual leader confided today he harbors a hope that current hostilities with Hamas continue for some time, because the underground public facility where the congregation meets also functions as the neighborhood bomb shelter, and the frequent air raid sirens have resulted in the first weekend in years that he can recall that services began with a quorum of ten adult men already present.

“Don’t get me wrong, war is terrible,” stressed Rabbi Yitzhak Buzaglo. “The destruction to our city, the injuries, the death, the losses, the disruption – it’s been horrible. Every time a siren sounds, multiple times a day it feels like, the adrenalin and fear kick in, and it’s awful. I can only imagine the horror for the people who have suffered physically from this. But it has ensured that we have enough for a minyan.” Kol Sasson leases the bomb shelter from the municipality; as part of the lease agreement the congregation maintains the space as a viable shelter, a common arrangement for community organizations throughout Israel.

Rabbi Buzaglo noted that the specific timing of the missile attacks out of the Gaza Strip have had little bearing on the phenomenon. “Our Sabbath morning services start at eight, but folks chose to attend our congregation because they wouldn’t have to run anywhere in case of an alert,” he explained. “We usually struggle to get a minyan by eight-thirty; this week we had one at the outset. That hasn’t happened since 2014, the last time we went through this. Before that, it wasn’t a regular occurrence since 2006, 2007.”

Kol Sasson’s neighborhood has seen outward migration of Mizrahi Jews in recent years, and an influx of better-off Israelis who have begun a slow gentrification of the area but whose ethnic, religious, and communal allegiances share little with the forty-year-old synagogue. Buzaglo, whose father served as the synagogue’s Rabbi since its founding until his passing in 2010, confessed that the congregation has attempted numerous times to boost attendance and membership, to little avail. “The pool of potential members and worshipers is smaller than ever,” he lamented. “We’ve held events, classes, fairs, and communal happenings. We get some interest, but it never lasts. The older generation is dying out or too infirm to attend, the younger generation has all but moved out, and the newcomers don’t feel at home in a Sephardic place of worship.”

“But thanks to Hamas and Islamic Jihad,” he brightened, “we had stronger attendance this past Shabbat, and during [the holiday of] Shavuot [this past Monday] than I’ve seen in a long time. It’s an encouraging development. Maybe a plaque to [Hamas leader] Yahya Sinwar is in order.”

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