A U.S.-sponsored charity is urging Israeli families to dine together on Fridays.
Family Friday, a new charity whose senior activists include retired athletes, entertainment stars and senior civil servants, was created this month to campaign for re-enshrining family Shabbat meals in the Jewish state.
“We want to strengthen family values, and believe that a family meal is important for relationships between relatives and for better communication,” activist Yuval Neeman, a former Israeli justice minister, told the daily Yediot Achronot.
According to the newspaper, Family Friday received $5 million in funding from a group of American Jews.
Polls show that as many as 75 percent of Israeli families never eat meals together, though the incidence is far lower among religious respondents.