Israel’s Lack of Religious Freedom Is Causing a Rift with American Jews

In June, Israel’s government backtracked on a decision to create a space at the Western Wall in Jerusalem where men and women could pray together and non-Orthodox rituals could be practiced. The suspension of the plan by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, under pressure from ultra- Orthodox Jews, has deepened the divide between Israel and a majority of American Jews, who are affiliated with non-Orthodox streams of Judaism.

In Israel, Orthodox Judaism is, in effect, the state religion. Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist rabbis cannot perform weddings or funerals, and their conversions are not recognized. Israel’s holy Jewish sites are managed by ultra-Orthodox Jews. The area for prayer at the Western Wall is divided according to gender. Women are not permitted to read aloud from the Torah, wear prayer shawls or sing there.

Writing in The Jerusalem Post, editor Yaakov Katz declared that this “… will go down in history as a shameful day for the State of Israel, another nail in the coffin of Israel’s failing relationship with Diaspora Jewry.”

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, said: “We are not going to quietly accept this. It is so insulting. I know there will be a series of responses. The decision delegitimizes the overwhelming majority of Jews on the planet.”

Charles Bronfman, the Canadian-American billionaire and a major Jewish philanthropist, sent a letter to the Israeli prime minister taking him to task and noting that, “To my knowledge, no other country in the world denies any Jew based on denomination.” (The New York Times, July 4, 2017).

Writing in The Forward (June 25, 2017), editor Jane Eisner declared: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just gave the finger to a huge chunk of American Jews, and by doing so, dangerously upset the precarious relationship between the Israeli government and the Diaspora. Netanyahu showed his true colors by essentially dismissing non-Orthodox Jews the world over … Netanyahu has turned his back on pluralistic Jews and that fundamentally changes the relationship between Israelis and the Diaspora.”

Eisner notes that, “Israel asked Diaspora Jews to ignore the half-century occupation of the Palestinians, to spend millions trying to defeat the Iran nuclear deal, to lobby for billions of American taxpayer dollars for Israel’s military and to send more billions of dollars its way to pay for every sort of charitable fund imaginable. And in return the American Jewish leadership — and the Jewish Agency speaking for Diaspora Jews — asked that non-Orthodox Jews be recognized as Jews, too … We have to write new rules for this relationship, because the old ones were just merely tossed away …

According to UJA Federation of New York CEO Eric S. Goldstein, the decision to suspend the Kotel agreement “would destroy the fundamental principle that Israel … is a place where all Jews can and must feel at home. The … agreement would have protected worship for Jews of every denomination. Instead, a single group will continue to control prayer at the Kotel, restricting the rights of millions of Israeli and Diaspora Jews.”

Washington Jewish Week (July 6, 2017) editorially stated: “The new, clear message from Israel is that Diaspora Jews are kosher enough to be relied upon to act as a unified community to help and support Israel from afar, but not kosher enough to be welcomed as one people in Israel. The discordance of that message is unnerving, and consequences should be of real concern.”

The view of Israel’s ultra-orthodox community toward non-Orthodox Jews can be seen in an editorial published in an ultra-Orthodox news site which described Reform Judaism as “perhaps a kind of religion, but a foreign religion like Christianity and Islam.” (New York Times, July 4, 2017)

Some critics have noted that Jewish groups have been vocal in criticizing Israel for denying equal rights to non-Orthodox Jews, but have been silent when it comes to Palestinians.

Rabbi Brant Rosen, who serves Tedek Chicago Congregation and also serves as Midwest Regional Director of the American Friends Service Committee, wrote an article in The Forward (July 2, 2017) with the, headline, “The Real Wall Problem: When Will Diaspora Jews Fight for Palestinians?”

He writes that, “The North American Jewish establishment is furious with Israel and has just let loose an astonishing fusillade of collective protests. … Has the Jewish institutional community finally broken their abject silence over Israel’s human rights abuses? Are Jewish communal leaders finally finding the courage of their convictions on the issue of Israel/Palestine?”

Rabbi Rosen notes that, “While Israel’s oppressive occupation now marks its 50th year and the cause of a just peace remains more remote than ever, our Jewish leaders are still more concerned about the rights of Jews than the rights of all who live in the land … We will willingly violate our own values for you. Just give liberal Jews rights and we’ll remain silent on your unchecked militarism and oppression of the Palestinian people. The silence is all the more egregious given the humanitarian crisis Israel is currently inflicting on the people of Gaza. Now, 11 years into its crushing blockade, the government announced this past month that it will start cutting electricity to the Gaza Strip, a move that could cause 21-hour blackouts just as the heat of the summer is gearing up. Surgeries have already been canceled … Medical equipment is rapidly degrading due to constant fluctuations in electrical currents. The effect of the Israeli blockade upon children is particularly tragic. Almost 50% of Gaza’s population is 14 or younger. According to UNICEF, the 2014 war took a heavy toll on children.’ More than 500 were killed, 3,374 were injured — nearly one third of whom suffered permanent disability, and more than 1,500 were orphaned. Hundreds of thousands were left in trauma.” He concludes that, “I can’t help but ask: where is the moral outrage in liberal Jewish establishments over these cruel human abuses? While I certainly believe in the cause of religious freedom, I find it stunning that so many liberal- minded members of the Jewish community are more concerned with Jewish rights in a Jewish state than the basic human rights of non-Jewish children who live under its control. Such are the sorrows of Jewish political nationalism — even the more ‘liberal’ among us seem only to be able to express their tolerance selectively.” •