Keshet 12 presenter Jacky Levy: "Something must change regarding this matter"

Keshet 12 presenter Jacky Levy has moved to Beit Zayit. During the program "Amar Sharki" with Yair Sharki, he spoke about his first Shabbat in his new home. However, the conversation about the move quickly turned into a broader discussion about a phenomenon that deeply concerns him: people are stopping their attendance at synagogues due to political arguments.

"First Shabbat in the new residence, congratulations," Sharki said to Levy at the beginning of the conversation. "Thank you very much," Levy replied, explaining what he usually looks for when arriving in a new place: "You arrive in a new location, and one of the things you want to find out is where the grocery store is, where people meet, and where the synagogue is." According to him, this is a habit that has accompanied him from all his previous neighborhoods.

When Sharki asked if there was a choice of synagogues in Beit Zayit, Levy replied: "There are two places. Yes, there are good relations between them."

However, the conversation soon took a different turn. Levy said that recently he has been hearing about a trend where the decision of whether to attend synagogue is not necessarily related to faith or a change in lifestyle, but to disputes that follow worshipers even into the space meant for prayer.

"I hear from people something I know well. People who lately do not come to the synagogue at all, not because they went through a religious crisis, but because they are tired of finding themselves in the middle of political arguments."

According to him, these political conversations do not stop outside the doors of the synagogue. "It is the same thing that breaks up families, the same thing that canceled Passover Seders in all sorts of places," he said.

At the end of his remarks, Levy returned to the point that bothered him following his move and his encounter with the new environment: "Something must change regarding this matter."