Volume 8, Issue 6 / Iyar 5765 / June 2005
Practicing What He Preaches
When Rabbi Eliahou Touitou (pronounced Twito) came on aliyah in the summer of 2003 with his wife, Ariella and four of their five children, he took along twenty of his students from Boulogne (near Paris). They did not go along with him on a field trip, but rather as Naaleh students who make aliyah before their parents.
Rabbi Touitou, 42, is an educator of tenth grade boys in the French Naaleh program of Boys Town-Kiryat Noar in Jerusalem. Teaching them Hebrew and Torah, he realizes that absorption for Naaleh students means more than passing the bagrut (matriculation) exams. "Every educator in the Naaleh program is like a father to the students. The program's founder, Rabbi Shimon Abiker feels personally responsible for each child that comes," he notes.
During the four-year program, founded in 2001, the French students learn together for the first two years. In the two upper grades, when they are more proficient in reading and writing Hebrew, they are integrated with the Israelis and take the bagrut exams in Hebrew (rather than the French version).
Many of the 80 students in this program are from families who eventually plan to make aliyah. Rabbi Touitou's eldest son, now an IDF soldier, went to Boys Town as a Naaleh participant when he was going into the eleventh grade - a year before his parents came. Boys Town, sprawled out on a large campus, is home to some 800 youth ages 12-20 from all over Israel and every kind of economic social and cultural background. At Boys Town they acquire an inspiring Torah, technological and academic education. Many serve in vital positions in the IDF and some become engineers.
Born to Algerian immigrants and raised in Vichy, France, Rabbi Touitou went to public schools, but absorbed tradition at home and from the local rabbi. "I had no problems living as a religious Jew amongst non-Jews." Every summer he would learn in the Aix Les Bains yeshiva in southern France where he discovered Jewish scholarship. In Paris he studied Jewish history and Hebrew linguistics at the Sorbonne. At the same time, he studied at the Rabbinical Seminary and received his ordination in 1988.
His first position as a rabbi of a congregation was in a suburb of Paris. Then, from 1991 - 2003, Rabbi Touitou was the rabbi of Boulogne. The congregation's members swelled during his tenure, from some 60 participants in Shabbat morning prayers, to about 500 people before he came to Israel.
He attributes his success also to his wife. "We are a rabbinical couple. Being a rabbi of a community is not just the job of the rabbi. My wife has always been active with the community."
Rabbi Touitou started contemplating aliyah around the time of his marriage in 1984, when the officiating rabbi told the couple that aliyah should be included in the ketubah (wedding contract). "Over the years since our wedding, I acquired various certificates, with the intention of eventually converting them to practical use in Israel. Otherwise it can be hard in Israel." Rabbi Touitou completed his Israeli teaching certification at the Herzog College in Alon Shvut.
His work in France was divided between the rabbinate and teaching in Jewish schools. A few years ago, two of his students returned from their one-year program in Israel asking him why he didn't make aliyah, after teaching the mitzvah of living in Israel. "They were right. It finally hit me! After all, for 18 years I had taught the importance of living in Israel. I couldn't go on living in France if I wanted to feel consistent with what I taught."
At this point, the amiable rabbi felt like a captain abandoning ship, both as a teacher at two schools, and as a rabbi of a thriving congregation, who would have to guarantee continuity after he leaves. The principal and the French chief rabbis requested of him to stay. He consulted with Rabbi Shlomo Aviner (a French-speaking rabbi in Israel) who was very impressed when he visited the Boulogne congregation. "Rabbi Aviner said that it is impossible to stay and not implement aliyah. He told me that by making aliyah I would still be the captain. From Israel - I would be a model for others and motivate them to come on aliyah." Rabbi Touitou and the congregation's president appointed another rabbi to replace him. He stays in touch frequently with the congregation.
Ten families from southern France came on aliyah with the Touitous. During the past year, twelve families from his former congregation in Boulogne have made aliyah to different parts of Israel.
The Touitous were advised by Rabbi Aviner to move to Modi'in, the new city in the center of the country slated as "Israel's city of the future". Rabbi Touitou and Ariella became active with the veteran French-speakers in the city and initiated activities and classes for them during the week. "The chief rabbis of Modi'in, Rabbi David Lau and Rabbi Eliahou Elharrar, welcomed and encouraged us."
In addition to traveling to France to recruit students for the Boys Town Naaleh program, Rabbi Touitou goes there with other French immigrant rabbis for 3-day missions sponsored by the Jewish Agency during the week that the "Lech Lecha" ("You shall go forth") Torah portion is read. (This portion relates how Abraham the Patriarch leaves his family to come to the Land of Israel obeying the command of the Almighty.)
"We try to convey the message that the potential oleh must know the reason for his aliyah. A 'switch' in the mindset must be made. One must understand what one gains by living in Israel - not in the material sense. It is a great privilege to come on aliyah."
Written by: Batsheva Pomerantz
Photos by: Eddie Wolf, Public Relations Director, Boys TownTo download this file as a word document, click here.
To download enlarged photo, click here.
