First Visit to Synagogue

I went to the Netivezra Synagogue off Ives Dairy Road.

It was a small, very new looking building with yellow walls and a beige marble dome over the entrance. The parking lot was empty except for a shiny red Cadillac and a beat up '97 Nissan Sentra.

I took a deep breath before opening the 8-foot tall black door.

I entered the empty building. The entrance hall was 7x7-foot square with black double doors on either side. A small hall led to restrooms on the right. I made a right into the hall and was greeted by some migrant construction workers. They were installing lighting in an empty room.

Finally, a man wearing a yarmulke greeted me. We stood in the hall and spoke for an hour.
His name is Ofir. He is 37.
I discovered he was from Tiberius which is in northern Israel. He told me his father is a traditional Jew, however most of his family is not practicing.

Ofir wasn't a religious man until he attended a retreat four years ago. He burst into tears the moment he first felt God in his heart.
Ofir told me, "I felt so embarrassed to cry.. it felt like an arrow hit me in the heart. This is what I was looking for all my life."