Study Shows That Rabbis Are Reluctant to Express Their True Feelings about Israel

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?” •