The Jewish world still lacks a significant and professional go-to-place for community building. On top of this, little to no work has been done to excavate insights, concepts and tools that Judaism as a whole, and Hassidut more specifically, can bring to this field. This project aims to bridge this gap."

Aharon Ariel Lavi is the founder and director of Hakhel: The Jewish Intentional Communities Incubator in the Diaspora, at Hazon. Lavi is a serial social entrepreneur and a professional community organizer, who believes that networks are key to shaping our reality. He founded his community in Shuva in Israel, the Nettiot network and was also Co-founder of MAKOM: the national umbrella organization of intentional communities in Israel. In 2020, Hakhel was awarded the Jerusalem Unity Prize, by the President of Israel. Lavi is also a thinker who believes Judaism can inspire and inform all walks of life, and vice versa. He holds Rabbinic Semicha, as well as academic degrees in Economics, Geography and History and Philosophy of ideas. He writes his dissertation on migration of ideas between US Jewry and the Israeli society. He was a fellow in several research institutions in Israel and wrote extensively on Judaism and economics, environmentalism and other issues.

It seems like there was never a challenging period for communality like ours. Loneliness was recently defined as an epidemic, one of the most severe epidemics of our generation, even before Covid-19. A study published by Harvard University found that loneliness is not just an unpleasant feeling, but a real health risk factor. Loneliness leads to high levels of stress, which in turn causes a higher risk of heart disease than physical inactivity and is almost as dangerous as smoking cigarettes.

Loneliness, or rather "social capital” in professional terminology, can also be measured. Surveys in the field examine the composition of individuals' social networks, the strength of relationships, access to social capital, its actual use, and more.

Of course, one can fight stress by artificial means, such as various psychiatric medications, and one can also rely on social media, but it is not certain that these can solve the problem. It is more likely that the natural mechanisms will be more successful in achieving this, and that the best way to deal with this problem is to simply prevent it. Some hope that the government will solve this problem (too), and indeed some governments are trying to do so, such as the UK government that set up the world's first governmental Ministry for Loneliness in 2018, after it was found that close to a quarter of the population suffers from loneliness. And yet, the old-school natural means are still the most effective in dealing with the loneliness crisis. At the top of this list is the community.

Communities, Identity and Purpose

A Hasidic tale tells of a Rebbe who used to dip in the river every morning. One day, the new local policeman saw him diving into the frozen river. He ran to the strange old man, shouting, "Who are you? Where do you come from? And where are you going to?" The old Rebbe smiled gently and asked the policeman: "How much do they pay you?" "Ten Kufeykas a day", answered the baffled young man. "I'll tell you what", said the Rebbe, "I'll pay you twenty if you come every morning and ask me who I am, where do I come from and where I am going to.”

Human beings are dynamic and ever evolving creatures, and just like our muscle system becomes atrophied if it is not stimulated enough, so does our moral and intellectual systems.

Hence, it is crucial we get asked those questions constantly. We could create a mobile app to do that, but I argue that communities are the optimal environment for challenging our character and preserving our identity, i.e. becoming the better version of ourselves. This sentence may ring a bell as a common catch phrase among "Millennials", meaning people born after 1982 (and came of age at the turn of the millennium). Many see Millennials as a challenge to be addressed, especially in the Jewish context which is worried of diminishing engagement and affiliation.

The challenge is that a growing proportion of young Jews disengage with traditional Jewish structures, and this is true outside the Jewish world as well. This demographic is the fastest growing one, and it is rich with inspiring leaders with the potential to reshape the landscape of Jewish life, and society as a whole. Since the need for community is a deep and inherent human one, it should not come as a surprise that hundreds of new communities have sprouted throughout the world in recent years.

One idea that has been tested successfully in Israel, and through Hakhel in other countries, is Intentional Communities. An Intentional Community is a small and non-hierarchical group of people who have consciously decided to live together spatially and temporally around a shared purpose. In this sense, an intentional community can serve as a framework for both individual growth and moral behavior, as well as give people the opportunity to work collaboratively to make the world a better place.

However, it takes a surprising amount of hard work to build and sustain such communities. In fact, on average only two out of every 10 attempts are successful. Experience from the field has shown that these odds can be significantly increased by providing communities with professional mentors, training, and a global network of peers. While a lot has been written on community building, and there are many different tools scattered out there, the Jewish world still lacks a significant and professional go-to-place for community building. On top of this, little to no work has been done to excavate insights, concepts and tools that Judaism as a whole, and Hassidut more specifically, can bring to this field. This project aims to bridge this gap