abcd2 – Yasher Koach for your moving words. You’re absolutely right that the frei chilonim in E”Y need kiruv way more than any harsh words. It’s already 3 generations into the reality of the medina, and so many Israelis have been robbed of their Jewish Education. But they still know where they’re from…
Here’s a story that just happened last week. Someone in my community nebach lost his father and the kvura was in E”Y. This man was returning to the States immediately after the kvura. He came back and said that at the airport in Tel Aviv, so many total strangers – and among them many, many chilonim who had to cover their heads with their arms to make up for their lack of a yarmulka – saw him, assessed what had happened to him by the rip in his jacket, and stopped him to wish him HaMokom Yinachem.
I don’t know about you, but I never heard such a story coming out of JFK or Newark…