The "Water and Wine Mystery"

When California native Orin arrived for his Jewish Service Corps year in Izmir, Turkey, he found a declining yet committed community eager to connect with the wider Jewish world. Together with the first JSC volunteer in Istanbul, Shayna Scarf, he offered just that, creating the first-ever joint programs for young adults in the two cities. But he also ended up restoring the meaning of an ancient community custom: mixing water with kiddush wine on Shabbat.

Until the summer, when he led Izmir’s third delegation to the Lauder/JDC Camp in Szarvas, Hungary, Orin could find no one to unravel the tradition’s mystery. But as he helped the children enjoy the camp’s Jewish programming, he too learned something to bring back to Izmir.

During a lecture, an Israeli madrich mentioned that the custom was one of rabbis, like those from Izmir, who were steeped in Jewish mysticism. "Wine signifies blind justice, and water, mercy," Orin relates. "The latter softens the former in order to maintain the joy of Shabbat."

On returning to Izmir, Orin began to share the meaning of the tradition in his discourses on Jewish subjects to the community at large. Then one Friday evening, he overheard a young boy ask his father about the custom. Listening to the father reply with the explanation he had brought from Szarvas, Orin knew that moment was a symbol of his year as a volunteer – and of the incremental impact of the JSC’s presence in Turkey.

"Izmir’s participation in the camp, which was initiated by my predecessor, creates a level of enthusiasm among the young generation that we can leverage in helping the community prepare for the future," Orin reflects. "But this year, it also gave me the chance to reconnect local Jewry with its past."