Twenty-six years ago, an English-speaking group of immigrants decided there was a need to establish a place of prayer where traditions could be observed in Kiryat Bialik. Thus the Masorti Congregation began in the Krayot.

Rabbi Mauricio Balter, in 1995, was appointed the spiritual leader of the congregation. Simultaneously he holds the post of co-ordinator with the Masorti Movement in South America, from where many immigrants have arrived over the past five years.

The membership at our synagogue today, is 180 families from all parts of the world. One of our advantages is that we have many Israeli families amongst us, and this aids integration into Israeli society.  Today we have in our community people who come from 28 countries: Israel (natives), Syria, South Africa, Argentina, India, Germany, Uruguay, Morocco, Canada, Tangier, Brazil, England, Chile, Panama, Russia, Poland, Rumania, USA, Mexico, Peru, etc.

The Kehila offers various services in the north of Israel and particularly in the Krayot area.  Our Kehila is a very lively and active one in which we run many projects for example there is our "aliyah project"; our pesach project; charity drives etc.

Our beliefs are based on:

• Commitment to the Halacha

• Zionism and devotion to Israel

• Democracy

• Pluralisms: equality (all services are egalitarian)

Since the founding of our Kehila, emphasis has been placed on helping the absorption of immigrants, by holding courses in Judaism, in Hebrew Spanish, Russian and English

Our dream is to work together to spread our message. We are trying to contribute to creating a better State based on Jewish traditions and Jewish life style.

Our Congregation began in a private home.  As a result of our expansion we were given premises from the local municipality where we could "build" our community.  By this I mean on Friday evening we assemble the "Aron Kodesh", the bima and set out the chairs for some 140 people.  Saturday after tefilot we have to dismantle everything and make the hall available for the educational activities the municipality requires.

We have services every Friday evening and Saturday morning, and of course for every "chag".  On Friday over 120 people attend the services and on Saturday 30 people attend them, (when there is no Bar Mitzvah.) We conduct bnei and bnot mitzva services almost every week. These are both within the members’ families and from the local Israeli population. We are known for our warm and family-like atmosphere.

Friday evenings we have a South American immigrant who runs the children's services for us (in Hebrew and Spanish) for children from 5 to 9 years old.  We also hold "Shabbat Chatan and Kallah" ceremonies, about 12 a year.

Our Rabbi is Rabbi Mauricio Balter and he has been with us for 9 years. He made aliyah from Argentina.  He is extremely dynamic and has endless energy.  Rabbi Mauricio Balter is a graduate of the Beit Midrash for Rabbis in Latin America.  He made aliyah in 1995. Rabbi Balter was the Director of the Conservative Movement in Argentine and also served as a congregational rabbi there for many years.  He has experience in organizational management and informal education.  He established a program of aliyah for Conservative families through which more than 330 families have made aliyah from South America to Kiryat Bialik.  Rabbi Balter has also been the chairperson of the Religious Affairs Bureau and he is the President of the Rabbinical Assembly in Israel.

We have conversion courses held in Spanish (all the time), Hebrew and English when needed. These people are invited to have an "Aliyah to the Torah" and receive their blessing on completion of the course. (This is very important now due to the number of olim who have come as mixed marriages or children of Jew fathers)

One of our committee is responsible for "Erev Nashim" for every other "Rosh Chodesh" where we have some form of "dvar Torah" and encourage a social atmosphere for the women to meet and get to know each other outside "Tefillot".

Community Aliyah
Our largest project is a project initiated by Rabbi Balter.  This is the "community Aliyah" from S. America. The project has helped 450 families to come to Israel, a considerable part of them participate actively in the community. Many families were in dire financial straits because of the situation in South America (Argentina and Uruguay)  Rabbi Balter together with the Mayor of Kiriat Bialik visited Argentine (11 short missions in the last six years) and interview the families and then bring them to Kiriat Bialik to find a future and build their homes.

This project is known almost world-wide today because of the endless energy of our Rabbi.  These families arrive in Israel, totally lost and apprehensive.  They find in our community a home (almost shelter) and people more than willing to help and guide them.  They begin to settle and soon feel they have made the right choice.  They are assisted in finding jobs for the first 6 months within the framework of the municipality, they get free education for the children, medical needs and other perks.  The cost of absorbing these people is huge as you can imagine but well-worth it when we see the children befriending Israeli children and speaking fluent Hebrew. This is our future.

Our dream of course, is to build our own Synagogue and we have just been granted permission by the city council to start this project.  Needless to say we are now desperate to find funds to help us on our way.

Learn More About Ha'Krayot