Out of Zion

Announcer: Welcome to the Israel Answers series, connecting Israel, the Bible, and you. Join Susan Michael as she explores timely issues and current events from a scriptural perspective to equip the Christian world with a balanced and biblical response. Be sure to subscribe for future episodes which will ignite your faith and bring the Bible to life in your everyday world. Now, let's join Susan with your Israel Answers.

Shelley Neese: Welcome to the Out of Zion podcast. I'm Shelley Neese, filling in for Dr. Susan Michael. Today we have a special guest with us, a first-time guest, Ryan Levine. He is the executive director of the Efrat Development Foundation. Ryan, welcome to the show.

Ryan Levine: Thank you so much for having me. It's a real pleasure to be here.

Shelley Neese: First, Ryan, can you tell our audience—our audience is primarily Christian—about Efrat in the Bible? Is it Bethlehem? Is it on the way to Bethlehem? Just frame it for us.

Ryan Levine: Great question. Efrat and Bethlehem are often used interchangeably in the Bible, one to refer to the other. What adds further confusion to that is the use of the term "the way to" or "the way of" Efrat or "the way of" Bethlehem. But one thing is for absolute certain: Efrat and Bethlehem, its proximity, have a very shared biblical narrative. And that is true historically and true through until today.

Shelley Neese: What are some of those biblical high points? We know the Christian one, which is the birthplace of Jesus, but what about other big moments?

Ryan Levine: King David grows up and is raised shepherding his flocks in the hills surrounding Bethlehem. The story of Ruth and Boaz, which we read over the festival of Shavuot, happens and takes place on the outskirts of Bethlehem.

Finally, Samson battles the Philistines in the hilltop that's just adjacent to the northernmost tip of Efrat. Further south, we know that one of the Maccabean battles, the Battle of Eleazar, takes place literally on the other side of the highway. There is a lot of biblical narrative and heritage in our neighborhood.

Shelley Neese: One thing Christians say when Jews ask why they support Israel is that we have the same heroes, we have the same Bible, and the same stories. It's really amazing that you get to live in this place. To place modern Efrat where you live and your community, tell us where that is geographically in Israel.

Ryan Levine: If you're exiting Jerusalem through the southern tunnels on the way to Hebron, you'll pass Bethlehem on the left. The northern entrance to Efrat is at that same junction. Efrat geographically is spread across seven hilltops standing all the way down to the Gush Etzion junction. It's a pretty long shape, a little narrow, but that's the geography.

Shelley Neese: I lived in Israel during the second Intifada. One thing I remember about Efrat was that it was considered a very dangerous road. It was before the wall. Can you tell a little about those stories and what that experience was like before the wall?

Ryan Levine: We know that during the second Intifada, unfortunately, there were a lot of attacks along the 60 highway, which we like to call the Bible Highway because of its placement and its significance. There were a lot of shooting attacks on motorists. There's a school on the outskirts of Bethlehem, actually funded by UNRWA, the rooftop of which was used as a sniper point on attacks on Efrat motorists exiting from that entrance of Efrat.

In the context of all that happening, Efrat actually took the initiative and developed a medical center in Efrat servicing the entire region, not just Efrat but broader Gush Etzion and surrounding areas. It is the only self-sustained medical center in the entirety of Israel. It was so novel and the need was so relevant and pressing at the time. It didn't mean that the danger wasn't there either. Doctors whose services we employed to staff it at the time were still fearful.

The mayor of Efrat at the time took a sleeping bag and camped out for about three weeks straight there at night so the doctors would feel reassured that it was safe to work. Fast forward post-October 7th, and that whole need and sense of vulnerability goes to a whole other level.

Shelley Neese: Efrat is an unusual community in that there are a lot of English speakers that live there. Can you explain how that happened in its founding that it has become such a magnet for English-speaking Israelis?

Ryan Levine: At its founding, at its inception, there was an individual, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, an American immigrant to Israel who was very much part of the founding of Efrat at its inception. That created a sense of gravitation towards it as a point of familiarity. Like any immigrant, you're always drawn to a place of connection of shared identity and commonality. That began what ultimately was a decades-long trend. To this day, it is known around the country as a very immigrant-friendly landing place.

Shelley Neese: Do you know what the breakdown is?

Ryan Levine: We just did a survey, and something like 25 to 30 percent of Efrat residents are born outside of Israel. The vast majority are immigrants of America.

Shelley Neese: There's this other element too. Is it a pretty high number of religious people as well?

Ryan Levine: Efrat is for all intents and purposes a religious community, but religiosity is defined broadly. It doesn't have a very fixed religious ideological output, whereas other smaller communities may have. In that sense, it makes it very open and very welcoming. You can find those who identify center to center-right and within that gamut feeling very comfortable at home there.

Shelley Neese: Would you define that as Modern Orthodox?

Ryan Levine: It is definitely a Modern Orthodox city. Within that, there are a variety of religious affiliations, all within the Orthodox spectrum, which is another element that makes Efrat so unique.

Shelley Neese: In the time period leading up to October 7th, there were all these protests about conscription for Orthodox Israelis and whether or not they were participating enough. From what I understand, the Efrat community has a crazy high conscription rate.

Ryan Levine: It's over 90 percent. There were times during the initial months post-October 7th where you would only see women and young children in the playground and in the streets because it had emptied of its men of all ages. Those were obviously serving actively in the army. For anyone from 20-plus, including fathers, the need was so critical at the time that fathers and sons could be absent from a household structure for extended periods of time in parallel one to the other.

It was very challenging and that obviously had a significant impact on the social cohesion of the community. To this day, we're still unfortunately dealing with the ramifications of that. The war happened really on the back of COVID. It was just a perfect storm creating heightened cases of anxiety amongst our youth, a sense of social isolation, eating disorders, and PTSD. Those are areas that we, as the foundation supporting the municipality, are very much engaged in providing services to.

Shelley Neese: This is a narrative and a story that only so many people know. You weren't one of the communities that was on the Gaza border attacked on October 7th, but you have this really high participation in the IDF, so your community suffers in this very unusual way. It's not something many people know about. How did you go about providing those services for this high need that wasn't well-known?

Ryan Levine: It stands as a testament to the national identity that Efrat residents feel towards their sense of obligation and responsibility to the state and its destiny. That's also a testament to the immigrants that populate the city of Efrat. We could not have done and we still to this day could not do what we do without the generous support of our donor community who provide the ability for us to be able to action our mission. We remain eternally grateful to that and especially to those that saw the need and got on board when they previously weren't at the time.

Shelley Neese: What are your big projects in Efrat right now? Where are you putting most of your focus?

Ryan Levine: A lot of our focus is on the mental health space. We have a clinic that is an extension of the local council, making it very unique. It's not an external provider, which is what the vast majority of mental health provisional services are. It means that the needs are that much more immediate and reachable for our constituents.

That center opened about a year ago and is already at capacity with over 400 active patients. What's so unique about that center is that it doesn't just provide therapeutic services for the patient alone, but for the entire family structure. We empower them with the toolkit relevant and needed in order to be part of the solution when the anxiety attack happens in the middle of the night and a therapist is fast asleep. They know how to handle that and it's not overwhelming for them.

We also have an at-risk youth center. Unfortunately, the need is growing exponentially. We've had several suicides over the last few years of our youth. Those are our two big projects. In the education space, we're advancing and pushing harder the project to provide auxiliary and supplemental educational resources to all of our students. The Ministry of Education's budget allowance just doesn't meet that need, especially moving into a digital future.

One of our other big projects—and this is very exciting—is a Solomon's Pools visitor center. Solomon's Pools should have been part of Efrat for those who know the history. Solomon's Pools sit between Efrat and Bethlehem. They were the collection point of all of the fresh drinking water which flows through the Judean Hills through the Hebron region through Efrat and were collected into those pools which were dug during the Hasmonean dynasty in the Second Temple time.

They provided fresh drinking water to Jerusalem and to the Temple specifically. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin at the time of the drawing up of the Oslo Accords understood the significance and was very adamant they remain part of Efrat. The military generals, when they were dividing up the maps, got that brief. They found the words "Solomon's Pools" and circled that. Unbeknownst to them, right above the words Solomon's Pools were the pools themselves. Those maps got taken to the White House lawn and were signed into international law.

It was a real mistake. Unfortunately, those pools, which are so impressive for anybody who's been there, have fallen into a state of disrepair. There are three pools holding collectively some 290,000 cubic meters of water, which provide Jerusalem with over 360,000 cubic meters of clean drinking water every year. Our project that we're putting a lot of effort into is to revitalize and restore the water flow, particularly through the underground aquifers that flow into that, and to allow those of faith to come walk in the footsteps of the Bible and experience that for themselves.

Shelley Neese: Is there water in the pools now?

Ryan Levine: Of the three pools, one has some water, the other one is rather dry, and the third one has no water entirely. I've only ever seen the dry ones, so I can't even picture it with water. It's actually very impressive to see. We did a tour there with a group of local residents recently during Sukkot. One of the pools is half full. We have videos of Israeli kids doing backflips into the water. It's really a moving experience.

One thing that does exist is the underground aquifers. The water flow unfortunately isn't as it was back in the time for various reasons, but there are certain components that are accessible. In itself, you feel that you're touching the same stones that the Israelites of old during the time of the Second Temple themselves dug out.

Shelley Neese: I see a poetic connection, too. The Hasmoneans are famous for this heavy pursuit of self-governance in a time that no one thought it was possible. Here is Efrat with its overrepresentation in the IDF, so there's definitely a poetic link there for sure.

Ryan Levine: It's a very proud history that we see ourselves as the continuation of. The Efrat Foundation is the vehicle driving that success.

Shelley Neese: Do you see any change with the international communities? Efrat is part of Judea and Samaria, what the world calls the West Bank. There's some movement towards nationalizing these sites. I know Efrat has always been in the conversation that this will always be part of Israel. Do you see a positive move towards Efrat's rights?

Ryan Levine: I definitely see an exciting conversation around the topic, with a lot more engagement than was previously the case. That's good. We shouldn't shy away from what we claim right to as a biblical heritage. As Jews and Christians around the world, we should stand proud in asserting that birthright. If anything, the events of October 7th really shook us out of that comfort zone in a sense of realizing that if we're not proactive in seeking to strengthen our connection and our presence at those sites, we know very well that the other side has a very vested interest in ensuring that they get left to the dusts of history.

Shelley Neese: Even without the biblical significance and the modern significance of what you've done to build this community, Efrat has a very strategic importance for the protection of Israel. Can you explain that?

Ryan Levine: Firstly, Efrat is very long in its topography and that really provides quite a solid buffer from one side to the other. Efrat also sits at the footsteps of Jerusalem. A new neighborhood development in the Givat Eitam hill, which will be a large development project that will triple the population of Efrat, sits literally at the border of Bethlehem and Jerusalem.

For all intents and purposes, you refer to the Gaza envelope as what should have been the defensive barrier in that area. We see Efrat as providing that sense of security to the Holy City, Jerusalem. In that respect, the inherent connection between Efrat and its responsibility towards defending and protecting Jerusalem speaks even louder.

Shelley Neese: You certainly feel that when you pass it. It's a hilltop city that's looking down on everything else.

Ryan Levine: You can see Jerusalem very clearly from various parts of Efrat. It's higher than Jerusalem. Geographically higher, and also colder. We used to get snow, though unfortunately not so much of recent years. We definitely get the colder winds.

Shelley Neese: Ryan, it was so wonderful to have you on the show. I look forward to the day that I can bring tour groups to Solomon's Pools and it's healthy, clean water that's provided. I know that your organization is going to do wonderful things for an already Zionist community.

Ryan Levine: I appreciate that.

Shelley Neese: Thank you so much for listening to Out of Zion. Just give me one more minute; I want to offer you one of our free resources. We have wonderful resources in our show notes, and if you go to our website at icejusa.org/shownotes, you'll find links for a number of our free offers. We have downloadables to help root you in Scripture, help you to understand the issues surrounding Israel, and the importance of Christian support for Israel. And don't forget, please follow us on Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn and stay connected. Thank you and God bless.

Announcer: We hope you have enjoyed this episode of Out of Zion with Susan Michael. Be sure to subscribe to Out of Zion now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Pray.com, Salem Web Network, Salem Life Audio. Out of Zion with Susan Michael is a production of ICEJ USA. All rights reserved.