Orthodoxy’s Negative Impact on Israeli Society
Moni Mordechai, who served as public relations advisor for the Tzohar forum of rabbis and for Rabbi Michael Melchior when he served in ministerial posts, has written an important opinion piece in YNet News.com titled "Unworthy Rabbis".
This article is a concise critique of the negative social and political impact which the ultra-orthodox haredim are having on Israeli society. In my view, it exposes a root cause of much of the internal conflict and contradiction which plagues Israel’s policymakers and ripples through the country’s socio-political infrastructure.
I quote a section of the article below:
"As a Jew who belongs to the broad branch of Judaism and refuses to view religious practice as the only important thing, and as someone who views Judaism as an important cultural source, and who defines himself as a secular traditionalist, the word "rabbi" is a romantic one, possessing charm and power.
However, to my regret, today it is empty of meaning. I met very few truly relevant rabbis, who were leaders. In my mind rabbis are more closely associated with shady deals, religious enforcement, efforts to convince Jews to become religious, and racism.
An example of this can be found in news reports from recent weeks: Rabbis in Bnei Brak ruled that apartments must not be rented out to Arabs and foreign workers. At this time, ultra-Orthodox rabbis are trying to overpower El Al because it was forced to fly on the Shabbat and were able to defeat bus companies Dad and Egged, who ran an advertising campaign that included a bare male chest.
Leading religious-Zionist rabbis decided that in order to address the rift between religious Zionism and the rest of the people, all of us should be made to become religious.
Those are not my rabbis. In fact, no kippah-wearing rabbi can be referred to as my rabbi, not because the term is simply irrelevant for modern life, but rather, because most of those people hold on to a conservative, anti-democratic worldview that is sometimes racist and anti-humanitarian, all under the guide of kindness."
Forced ritual in religious practice, racism, discrimination… and these are rabbis?
When we consider the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian question, when we consider the foreign policy challenges that Israel faces at multiple levels, let’s not forget that a minority of politically empowered fundamentalists in Israel effectively deny the right to worship to the vast majority of Jews in Israel, that they do not recognize the legitimacy of Reform or Conservative Judaism in Israel or in America, and that they do not tolerate diversity.
It is hard for me to see how Israel can resolve conflicts with others when it cannot resolve fundamental conflicts of Jewish identity in the State of Israel in order to embrace the 13.3 million Jews that are all that remain of global Jewry. I hope that will see more progress in the direction of religious pluralism in Israel in 2007.
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I am a venture capitalist focused on investing in Security, Cleantech, and Digital Media. I have a strong interest in public policy issues and advocate public-private collaboration to protect our nation's critical infrastructure.
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January 4th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
For 3000 years there was no such thing as religious pluralism as you see it. There were 12 tribes, each finding their own way under the aegis of the tradition. Reform and conservative decided on their own (what nerve!) to alter the traditon. Now they want to be accepted with the claim that the keepers of the trust should be more pluralistic. Nobody is denying anyone the right to worship anyway they want. To be called a legitimate movement in Judaism, however, is a different story.
January 4th, 2007 at 4:57 pm
Pascal Responds:
If only the operative part of Dovid Lefkowitz’s comment were true:
“Nobody is denying anyone the right to worship anyway they want.”
This is certainly not true if you are a Jewish woman, orthodox or not, wishing to worship at a spot of your choosing at the Western Wall, or if you are a Jewish man who does not look right to the haredim who have staked out the Kotel and routinely harrass and intimidate people. I have been harrassed EVERY time I have visited the Wall, which means more than 10 times since 2002.
As to the last sentence of your comment, I not only beg to differ, I rest my case.
January 11th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
Thank you for your post Pascal. I am not a Jew. However, I rode my motorcycle alone across Africa. Along the way, I met two Israelis doing the same; both farmers from kibbutzim. We became friends travelling together, and I learned a lot about their perspectives about Israel, the Middle East, and on the control exerted by the ultra-orthodox (and their–quite resented–exemption from military service).
I wound up attending one of their weddings in Israel at the Palmahim Kibbutz and travelling across the West Bank and visiting another friend, a Druze, in Mashdal Shams in the Golan Heights. It was a tremendous experience.
My experience has been that those that take religion as a form of exclusion — be they the “chosen”, the “saved”, or the “born again” — are sometimes the most divisive.
Thanks again for being a voice of reason.