The traditional all-night "study awakening" of the festival of Shavuot, known in Hebrew as Tikkun Leil Shavuot (the custom of studying the Torah throughout the night of Shavuot), was once commemorated only by religious Jews and a handful of secular Jews who peeked in. This year, dozens of alternative events are being held all over Israel, offering the experience of studying subjects related to Judaism and Jewish culture linked to a secular identity on the May 23-24 Feast of Weeks.

Such alternative events include an evening at the Georgian Vegan Nanuchka restaurant examining “the way our choice of nutrition impacts the environment, animals and our health, with a link to the Jewish bookshelf [mostly religious research]”; the "Garden of Eden" event at Beit Daniel for Progressive Judaism, featuring director Shira Geffen, Dr. Doron Lurie and Rabbi Meir Azari, with a performance by singer Corinne Alal, culminating in a “dawn Shaharit prayer concert on the banks of the Yarkon River”; and an evening at the Zappa Club in Herzliya with singer Avraham Tal and actor Shai Avivi who will be discussing “the long road to true love: about the Sisyphean task of conserving love in daily life and the tension between corporal love and endless godly love.” Singer Shlomi Shaban and poet Dori Manor will also hold a “musical dialogue on the subject of freedom and choice.”

For Mickey Gitzin, a Tel Aviv city councilman for the left-wing Meretz Party, these events indicate a broader course of action: the renewal of the link between Israel's liberal left wing and the language of Judaism, which, he believes, is essential for the survival of the left and its ability to impact the future. Gitzin, who is also director of Be Free Israel, a nonprofit organization dedicated to cultural and religious pluralism in Israeli society, said, "True, to draw masses to large events you have to also bring singers such as Shlomi Shaban, but every event has a public relations level and then an in-depth process.”

Al-Monitor:  And that is?