Study Shows That Rabbis Are Reluctant to Express
Their True Feelings about Israel
Allan C. Brownfeld, Editor
Special Interest Report
December 2013
A Jewish Council for Public Affairs study involving 552 rabbis, the majority of
whom identify themselves as liberals, found that one-third of those polled are
reluctant to express their true feelings about Israel when they are speaking to
their congregations. Eighteen percent of those reluctant rabbis described
themselves as more dovish than they let on to their members while more than 12
percent say they are “closet hawks” according to the study entitled “Reluctant
or Repressed? Aversion to Expressing Views on Israel among American Rabbis.”
Discussing the study, Washington Jewish Week (Oct. 10, 2013) reports the “About
40 percent of the rabbis who are not totally frank with their congregants about
Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict cited fear of offending their
listeners. Some rabbis said they were concerned about professional repercussions
and others pointed to criticism from congregants. Some rabbis admitted to
refraining from holding programming about Israel at their synagogue for fear of
controversy or conflict.”
With regard to Middle East policy, by a six to one margin, the rabbis in the
study favored a freeze on Israeli settlements on the West Bank “to a great
extent.” When asked to what degree they believed the Israeli government wants
peace, 20 percent replied “to a great extent” while 41 percent said “a little,
not at all, or not sure.”
About 52 percent said the Israeli government wants peace more than the
Palestinian Authority, and 48 percent “gave the two sides equal scores.” All
responding Orthodox rabbis see Israel was wanting peace more, followed by 69
percent of the Conservative rabbis, but less than half (45 percent) of the
Reform rabbis.
Rabbi Steve Gutow, JCPA president said that what he found “most compelling and
surprising” was the large number of rabbis who took the time to participate in
the study. “One third of the rabbis contacted responded. That is an unbelievably
significant number.”
In Gutow’s view, the large response could be attributed to the fact that the
rabbis who are reluctant to speak their minds “wanted to get that out. They
didn’t think it was a good thing.”
In an article entitled “What Do Jews Lose when Rabbis Feel Compelled to
Dissemble on Israel?” Emily Hauser, writing in the Daily Beast’s Open Zion
section (Oct. 11, 2013) notes that, “The findings are entirely resonant with the
experiences of rank and file Jews as well, and I would argue are a major reason
why so many in the rank-and-file have chosen to remove themselves from communal
life or give up caring about Israel at all … I agree with the report’s authors
that the fact that so many rabbis feel they can’t be honest with their
parishioner is ‘a cause of concern for a community that champions open and free
discourse on key issues affecting it.’”
Emily Hauser asks, “What do we lose when our clergy feels they cannot be honest
us? What do we lose when political argument pushes out spiritual practice? And
who have we lost along the way — which intellectual giants … how many Arnold
Jacob Wolfs and Abraham Joshua Heschels — have broken down and walked away
because we wouldn’t let them engage honestly with the challenges presented by
seemingly endless conflict and occupation? In short: when we force our rabbis to
lie to us, what are we doing to ourselves?” •
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