Coming full circle

Rabbi Rimon, a prolific author of many halachic works, is the founder and chairman of the Halacha Education Center, located in Alon Shvut in Gush Etzion

By BATSHEVA POMERANTZ
Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon (photo credit: SHILOH KINARTI)
Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon
(photo credit: SHILOH KINARTI)
A street named for Yosef Zvi Rimon, a well-known poet and author in the Land of Israel during the first half of the 20th century, is located in Ramat Beit Hakerem, not far from the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens, where his grandson and namesake, Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon, initiated the Year of the Land project for this shmita year.
Rabbi Rimon, a prolific author of many halachic works, is the founder and chairman of the Halacha Education Center, located in Alon Shvut in Gush Etzion. The center, which employs about 50 scholars, was founded in 2008 to address the need for profound yet user-friendly study of Halacha, for students and community rabbis in Israel and abroad who want to assist their congregants.
“The Halacha Education Center focuses on making Halacha accessible by producing inspiring and innovative materials,” says center director Rabbi Eli Taragin. Its books cover kashrut, observance of Shabbat and holidays (including a Haggada), laws for IDF soldiers and materials related to shmita. Its scholars provide in-depth analysis of halachic issues, offering consultation services for community rabbis in Israel and the Diaspora.
“The Halacha Education Center develops curricula with the Education Ministry and has produced to date 13 books on Halacha, Mishna and Gemara,” says Taragin. “Published also in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French, the books are part of the curriculum of Israeli students, as well as schools in the Diaspora like SAR Academy in New York and Ida Crown Jewish Academy in Chicago.”
Rimon, who serves as the rabbi of Alon Shvut South, founded JobKatif shortly after the Gaza disengagement. To fulfill the goal of helping Gush Katif evacuees reintegrate into the workforce, JobKatif developed specialized programs incorporating coaching, individual counseling, academic scholarships, volunteer bridge-to-work programs, vocational retraining programs and employment placement.
JobKatif has indeed succeeded in turning the “numbers upside down” – from 85 percent unemployment following the disengagement to 85% employment today. There remain a few hundred who still need help, and the organization continues to work with them.
For his involvement with JobKatif, Rimon was awarded the 2008 President’s Prize for Volunteerism by then-president Shimon Peres – about 50 years after his grandfather, poet Yosef Zvi Rimon, received a 1956 prize for his poetry from then-president Yitzhak Ben-Zvi.