Not Rhetoric, But Reality
Va-era 5773, Exodus 6:2–9:35
By Rabbi Marc Wolf | Vice Chancellor and Director of Community Engagement
One of the more disheartening reports about Israeli society these days is that our brothers and sisters in Israel are simply not as concerned with the struggle for religious pluralism to the degree that we are in North America. Reporting this past week from the JTA, Ben Sales added his voice to the chorus of journalists writing about what many in the Diaspora consider to be of preeminent importance, but what many in the Israeli population are, at best, disinterested in. The last few months have seen a number of media-covered incidents during which activists for religious equality at the Kotel have been publicly detained for violating the religious strictures defined by the ultra-Orthodox controlling interests of the Western Wall Plaza. A Facebook comment posted after the most recent arrest at the Western Wall stated the issue clearly: “If a Jew were arrested for expressing their Jewish identity in any other country, the world Jewish community would declare it anti-Semitic.” The North American Jewish community has been fighting this Orthodox control in the public and private spheres, but, as Sales writes, “Among the Israeli secular majority, such restrictions rank near the bottom of a long list of church-state issues they would like to address.”
Related to the broader issue of the strangle hold ultra-Orthodoxy has on religion in Israel, writer Yair Rosenberg, in a piece in Tablet magazine, wrote about the recent surge of the popularity of Tzohar, a more moderate Orthodox group maneuvering to gain control of the Chief Rabbinate. Its outreach to the ever-growing secular majority of Israelis has made it a popular alternative to the Haredim currently in control. Nonetheless, even though it is more moderate, Tzohar is still Orthodox, thus, Masorti and Reform marriages and conversions would not be recognized if the group was to assume control. Quoted in the Tablet piece, Yizhar Hess, executive director of the Masorti Movement in Israel, argued against what many in the secular camp are regarding as progress: “I don’t want to have a moderate Orthodox service. Each [movement] has its own identity. That’s how it should be.”
Rosenberg contends that there is a fundamental disconnect between Israelis and American Jews with regard to this question. Citing an article written by Professor Yehuda Mirsky of Brandeis University, Rosenberg states that “Israelis and Americans are speaking two very different languages when it comes to Jewish life and practice, which stem from two distinct historical experiences.” Our denominational structure with its roots in Western Europe that we embrace and rebel against in North America is foreign to the Eastern European ancestry of much of Israeli ideology. As such, Rosenberg continues, “Secular Israeli Jews might not believe in Orthodox doctrine, but many respect it as the authentic representative of the tradition.” The result is the rampant disinterest that Israelis have for the flag of religious pluralism that we so fervently wave in the Diaspora. Is religious pluralism doomed in Israel? Do we have a hope of stirring the hearts of Israelis?
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