President Trump’s Order Discriminates Against Muslims and Harms Members of all Faiths

21 Tuesday Nov 2017

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in American Jewish Life, American Politics and Life, Ethics, Jewish-Christian Relations, Jewish-Islamic Relations, Social Justice, Women's Rights

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I have signed again on with 60 interfaith leaders and religious organizations as part of Amici Curiae, an interfaith group of religious and inter-religious organizations and clergy, who are supporting the plaintiffs-appellees against President Donald Trump to affirm the district court’s injunction restricting implementation of Proclamation No. 9645: “Enhancing Vetting Capabilities and Processes for Detecting Attempted Entry Into the United States by Terrorists or Other Public Safety Threats,” 82 Fed. Reg. 45, 161 (September 24, 2017).

I have joined with 9 rabbis, the Union for Reform Judaism (representing 900 Reform synagogues in America), the Central Conference of American Rabbis (representing 2000 Reform Rabbis), Women of Reform Judaism (representing 65,000 women), the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, Truah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, The New Israel Fund, Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice, The American Jewish World Service, the National Council of Jewish Women (representing 90,000 women) individual synagogues, churches, and a variety of Christian and Muslim Organizations as “Friends of the Plaintiffs against President Donald Trump” because we believe that his misguided order to increase vetting of immigrants to the United States is “intended to target Muslims in particular,” “to harm Muslims,” and “to violate the core Constitutional principle that is critical to the free exercise of all faith traditions in the United States” according to the First Amendment of the Constitution.

This Amici Curiae brief was filed in the Federal Fourth Circuit Court on November 17, 2017.

The following is language written in the brief:

“This order offends the fundamental tenets of all three monotheistic faith traditions including the Golden Rule, the imperative to welcome the stranger, and the belief that every individual has inherent value and dignity by virtue of being created in the divine image. Our faith traditions compel us to assist immigrants, particularly immigrants fleeing unjust persecution.

All our religious traditions have experienced prejudice against us and persecution, and it is out of our historic experience and our moral and religious values and our perception that Trump’s order is deliberately targeting the entire Muslim community that we shout “We protest….

This order recalls the infamous event in 1939 when a ship carrying 900 Jewish men, women and children fleeing Nazi Germany was turned away from our shores. This ship was forced to return to Europe and more than 25% of its passengers perished in the Holocaust….

All of our Amici understand exactly what the Trump Order is about – an official act of discrimination on the basis of religion. Trump said during the Presidential Campaign of 2016 that there ought to be “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our representatives can figure out what is going on.” He also said “Islam hate us” and that “we’re having problems with the Muslims….

Trump’s order also has ostracized those who simply want to practice their faith freely and live peacefully as neighbors, students, colleagues, families, and members of their community. It has contributed to an environment in which Muslims are increasingly subject to violence, harassment, and discrimination because of their faith. An FBI report has discovered that while hate crimes have risen by 6% overall in the United States, anti-Islamic bias has increased by 26.5% in 2012….

The Order’s near-absolute ban on entry by citizens of the seven countries it names is entirely contrary to the Golden Rule as well as the religious calling to welcome the stranger. Amici understand that the people barred by the Order are mothers and fathers, children and grandparents; they are clerics, congregants, shopkeepers, and students. Each one’s life is sacred-each a unique expression of the divine and a common member of humanity.”

The Kotel Agreement and the Conversion Law – A Report from Jerusalem

05 Sunday Nov 2017

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in American Jewish Life, Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Social Justice, Women's Rights

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Tzachi Hanegbi above. Rabbi Gilad Kariv, Executive Director of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism is standing behind Minister Hanegbi and to his left. My photo.

I just returned from meetings of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel (BOG of JAFI) and the Zionist Council of the World Zionist Organization (Vaad HaPoel of the WZO) that met this past week in Jerusalem. (See historical notes below about these two national institutions of the Jewish people).

Two items were prominent on the agenda of JAFI – The Kotel Agreement compromise reached by the government of Israel in January 2016 (19 months ago) and the Conversion Law introduced before the Knesset by the ultra-Orthodox religious parties.

Re: the Kotel Agreement compromise – This agreement was reached after nearly four years of negotiations. If implemented the agreement would create an egalitarian prayer space in the southern Kotel plaza that would be equal in size and accessibility with the traditional Kotel plaza. Whereas the traditional Kotel plaza would continue to be controlled and supervised by the ultra-Orthodox Administrator of the Wall, the new southern Kotel plaza would be controlled and supervised by the Reform and Conservative movements, the Jewish Federations of North America, and the Women of the Wall. There would be a common entrance and both the traditional and southern plazas would be visible from that entrance. The new southern Kotel plaza would include egalitarian mixed-gender prayer.

Prime Minister Netanyahu had asked Natan Sharansky in 2013 to find a compromise agreement that would calm the tensions that had developed as a consequence of the monthly prayer minyanim observed by Women of the Wall in the back of the women’s section for the last 25 years, and would address the concerns of many Israelis that the entire Kotel plaza had been turned into an ultra-Orthodox synagogue. Non-religious ceremonies had once been conducted in the plaza by the State of Israel including the induction of soldiers into the IDF. Whereas the plaza represented the modern State of Israel as a national heritage site, it had been taken over by the most extreme religious forces in the state.

Natan Sharansky and the committee representing all interested parties (including the ultra-Orthodox Administrator of the Wall) succeeded in reaching a compromise. Should the agreement then be implemented as intended, it would have marked a victory for religious pluralism and democracy as stated in Israel’s Declaration of Independence.

However, on June 25, 2017, the Prime Minister abandoned the agreement when the ultra-Orthodox religious parties in his ruling government coalition threatened to leave the government should the compromise agreement be implemented. This action infuriated Natan Sharansky, the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel that Sharansky now chaired, and the leadership of non-Orthodox Jews in Israel and around the world.

Also on June 25, 2017, the ultra-Orthodox parties submitted a bill to the Knesset that would restrict authority over all conversions in Israel to the ultra-Orthodox Chief Rabbinate. This means that 350,000 Israeli citizens who are not Jewish according to traditional Halacha (“Jewish law” defines a Jew as someone born of a Jewish mother) must convert according to the most rigid and strict standards as determined by the Israeli Chief Rabbinate. The 350,000 Israelis are primarily immigrants and children of immigrants from the former Soviet Union who either do not have a Jewish mother or who are spouses and family of Jews who would like to convert to Judaism but who would prefer to study with Reform or Conservative Rabbis and to live their Jewish lives according to Reform and/or Conservative standards and practices. Many would also choose to live their Jewish lives as does the vast majority of Israelis who practice Jewish tradition on Shabbat and the Holidays but are not Orthodox.

These non-Jewish Israelis, by the way, serve in the Israeli Defense Forces, speak Hebrew, pay taxes, and in every way identify as Israeli citizens. Many have been living in Israel for decades. But, they cannot marry in Israel unless they convert to Judaism. The Conversion Bill would make it far more difficult for them to ever convert. The ultra-Orthodox rabbinate converts only a few hundred individuals each year. If this bill were to pass it would take 1167 years to convert all 350,000 Israeli citizens. The Reform and Conservative movements in Israel are willing and able to convert thousands of individuals who seek to live their lives as Jews.

The Conversion Bill also rejects for purposes of Aliyah under the Law of Return any Jew converted in Diaspora communities by rabbis not approved by the Chief Rabbinate. This means that no Reform and Conservative rabbis, no modern Orthodox rabbis, and even many Haredi rabbis are not approved by the chief rabbinate as authentically Jewish.

The Kotel Agreement and the Conversion Law dominated our meetings of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency this past week.

In response to the outrage of the members of JAFI, Prime Minister Netanyahu asked his close political and personal ally, Minister of Regional Cooperation Tzachi Hanegbi (see photo above), to meet with us and explain the government’s position. The American Reform movement led by Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the Israeli Reform movement led by Rabbi Gilad Kariv, and the American Conservative movement led by Rabbi Steven Wernick expressed to Minister Hanegbi emphatically our demand that the original Kotel agreement be implemented immediately and that the Conversion Law be withdrawn from consideration permanently. PM Netanyahu had tabled the Conversion Law for six months and that period expires at the end of December.

In the same week when we celebrated the hundredth anniversary of the signing of the Balfour Declaration (November 2, 1917) in which the British government declared its support for the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in the land of Israel, it was shocking to confront the reactionary response of the Netanyahu government concerning the Kotel and Conversion Law.

These issues in and of themselves are important, but they are only the tip of the iceberg. The wider and deeper issue at stake is whether Israel will remain religiously pluralistic and democratic.

By his actions, the Prime Minister has created a serious rift between the government of the State of Israel and the Jewish Diaspora, so much so that for the first time in history an Israeli Prime Minister was not invited to address the Jewish Agency Board of Governors. For the first time in my memory as well, the Prime Minister will not attend nor address by video the General Assembly (GA) of Jewish Federations, the most important American Jewish body taking place next week in Los Angeles.

We of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency convened at the Kotel last week in a demonstration of our support for the original Kotel agreement. It is important to note that there are those in the JAFI BOG leadership who would take whatever we can get from the government now and continue to fight for the implementation of the rest of the original compromise agreement. There are others including our Reform movement leaders who argue that the negotiated agreement reached in June, 2016 is already a compromise and should be implemented without changes.

At the Kotel, after Minister Hanegbi tried to reassure us of the Prime Minister’s good intentions on behalf of the entirety of the Jewish people, I asked him an obvious question:

“It seems to much of world Jewry that Prime Minister Netanyahu is more concerned with holding his position as Prime Minister and keeping his governing coalition together than he is concerned with the best interests of klal Yisrael, the entirety of the Jewish people. How do you respond to this widely held belief?”

Minister Hanegbi said that this was not true, that the Prime Minister has political challenges to consider, and that he still believes that a compromise is achievable.

No one I know standing there at the holiest site in Judaism believed that PM Netanyahu would become a “profile of courage” and risk his government on this issue or, for that matter, on any issue. But, I for one would be thrilled if he did so and would earn my deepest respect.

What is the take-away for us as progressive Zionists?

First, it is our duty as Diaspora Jews to continue to support the State of Israel as the national home of the entire Jewish people and not walk away from her. We need Israel and Israel needs us.We need to learn the history of the state of Israel if we don’t already know it, and stay engaged with her.

Second, it is our obligation as progressive Jews and Zionists to align ourselves with progressive democratic forces in Israel that advocate for religious pluralism, democracy, and human rights. After all, that is the vision expressed in Israel’s Declaration of Independence.

The following day, the 120 members of the Jewish Agency Board of Governors went to the Knesset and met individually in groups of four with thirty-four MKs. Our message was simple – We asked the government to implement the original Kotel Agreement and to reject the Conversion Law.

After our individual hour-long discussions, we met in a large Knesset Conference room and many MKs spoke to us including members of Likud, the Zionist Union, Kulanu, Yesh Atid, Bayit Hayehudi, Yisrael Beiteinu, and Meretz.

To a person, each supported our agenda and said so forthrightly and without equivocation. We did not meet, however, with any members of the extremist ultra-Orthodox parties or the Arab List.

Historical Notes:

JAFI and the WZO are two of the three national institutions of the Jewish people. The third is Keren Kayemet L’Yisrael (i.e. KK’L – or JNF).

Theodor Herzl, the Father of Zionism, founded the WZO in 1897 in Basel, Switzerland. It is called “the Parliament of the Jewish people” and includes representatives from every major Israeli political party and all world Zionist organizations.

David Ben Gurion founded the Jewish Agency for Israel in 1935 and served as its first Chair. He was also the chair of the WZO before the state was founded. Today, Natan Sharansky serves as chairman of the Jewish Agency Executive.

JAFI’s purpose is to “inspire Jews throughout the world to connect with their people, heritage, and land, and empower them to build a thriving Jewish future and a strong Israel.”

The WZO’s purpose “… aims at establishing for the Jewish people a legally assured home in Palestine.” Today, the WZO includes the World Zionist Unions, international Zionist federations, and international organizations that define themselves as Zionist, such as WIZO, Hadassah, B’nai Brith, Maccabi, the International Sephardic Federation, the three religious streams of world Judaism (Orthodox, Conservative, Reform), a delegation from the Commonwealth of Independent States (i.e. the former Soviet Union), the World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS), and more.

Both national institutions bring the State of Israel and the Jewish Diaspora together to debate the great issues facing the Jewish people, to promote the Jewish people’s general welfare, and to fund programs and projects that support world Zionism and the connections of world Jewry to the State of Israel.

Additional note: I serve as the national Chair of the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA), the largest American Zionist organization representing 1.5 million American Reform Jews. ARZA’s President, Rabbi Josh Weinberg and other members of our ARZA national board were present in Jerusalem for these meetings, along with the leaders of Israel’s Reform movement, the Israel Movement for Progressive Judasim, the international Reform movement called ARZENU whose President is Rabbi Lea Muelstein from Great Britain, and Rabbi Daniel Freelander, President of the World Union for Progressive Judaism and his top leadership from Canada and around the world.

When attacked on Kol Nidre, President Obama was my model of dignity

03 Tuesday Oct 2017

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in American Jewish Life, American Politics and Life, Divrei Torah, Ethics, Holidays, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Jewish-Christian Relations, Jewish-Islamic Relations, Social Justice, Women's Rights

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For the first time in my 38 years as a congregational rabbi during a High Holiday sermon, a visitor to our congregation stood up, yelled out in protest, and slammed the sanctuary door on his way out.

It was Kol Nidre and our Sanctuary was packed with 1200 worshippers. My sermon that so disturbed him is posted on my synagogue website and it can either be read there or watched on Youtube – see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQyxdgcspw0 – I ask only that you read or listen to the entire address, which this man did not do.

As I do for all my High Holiday sermons, I spent a great deal of time over the summer thinking, researching, writing, and rewriting. It is important for me to be as clear and considered as possible while being as edifying and uplifting as I can be in these addresses. In this Kol Nidre sermon (“We the People”) I sought to address issues that transcend the daily politics that have consumed and stunned our nation in the last two years and focus instead on the greater Jewish and American values at stake.

I drew parallels between our liberal Jewish values based on the Biblical prophetic tradition, the ethics and compassion of the rabbis, and the values of American democracy, inclusivity, and exceptionalism. I called out the intolerance, bigotry, extremism, racism, nationalist nativism, Islamophobia, and xenophobia of “American Firsters” and drew parallels to a movement of the same name that was supported by 80% of Americans before World War II.

I offered thoughts about the long generational trend in America that put President Trump in the White House, and noted that he is there in part due to the Balkanization of America, the ignorance of American history so rampant in large portions of the population, the dismissal of the virtues embodied by American exceptionalism, and self-centered “me-ism” that Trump reflects in his own life, stokes and encourages among so many frustrated Americans.

Clearly, I hit the right note in my community resulting in a standing ovation at the conclusion.

The man shouted as he left “This is a house of prayer!”

I returned to the microphone to cite the Talmudic requirement (Berachot 34b) that every synagogue must be built with a window so that those praying inside will never be separated with what is going on in the street. I recalled the example of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel who joined with Dr. Martin Luther King in a march from Selma to Montgomery during the civil rights era and who explained that by marching he was “praying with his feet.”

After Yom Kippur, a distinguished member of my community and a Jewish leader in Los Angeles told me in an email that for a rabbi not to address the serious conditions of this country today as I did would be nothing shy of “spiritual malpractice.”

When this man screamed out I thought immediately of President Obama when he addressed a joint session of Congress in 2009 on health care. In the middle of the President’s speech, Republican Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina screamed out “You lie!”

I recalled President Obama’s restraint and dignity. I remembered his refusal to be distracted from his message. Following his example, I ignored the man’s outburst and continue to deliver my sermon.

This man’s behavior on the holiest night in Judaism, just as Representative Wilson’s behavior in a joint session of Congress, is exactly what’s ethically and morally wrong with large portions of our own Jewish community and the American population as a whole. The man’s intolerance, lack of civility, and nasty self-righteousness makes dialogue between people who hold legitimate differences of opinion difficult. Hate and rage replaced love and understanding. The lack of civility has replaced respect for the dignity of the other. That this should occur on the holiest night of the year is particularly disturbing but also revealing about our imperfections and need for moral and ethical improvement.

I wrote to President Obama today to thank him for modeling for me how to handle such a situation as a leader. This is what I said to him:

Dear Mr. President:

I write to thank you for … giving me courage in the middle of my Yom Kippur sermon … as what constitutes dignified behavior as a leader.

A visitor in my congregation stood up as I was speaking before 1200 congregants on Kol Nidre and began shouting at me before walking out and slamming the Sanctuary door behind him.

The episode was shocking not only to me but to our community as a whole much as it was shocking when a congressman called you a “liar” in the middle of your address on health care before both houses of Congress before the ACA became law in 2009.

I remember your dignity then, that you paid him no heed and went on with your speech.

… I decided on Kol Nidre to follow your example…and I write to thank you for this and for so much more.

With respect,

John L. Rosove, Rabbi

Temple Israel Rabbis’ High Holiday Sermons – 2017/5778

02 Monday Oct 2017

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in American Jewish Life, American Politics and Life, Divrei Torah, Ethics, Holidays, Inuyim - Prayer reflections and ruminations, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Musings about God/Faith/Religious life, Social Justice, Women's Rights

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For those interested, the High Holiday sermons for our three rabbis at Temple Israel of Hollywood, Rabbi Michelle Missaghieh, Rabbi Jocee Hudson, and me are available on line at http://www.tioh.org/worship/rabbis/clergystudy.

The Themes of our sermons are as follows:

Rabbi John Rosove’s High Holyday Sermons:

Rabbi Michelle Missaghieh’s High Holyday Sermons:

Rabbi Jocee Hudson’s High Holyday Sermons:

Reform Zionist Leaders Respond to Leah Aharoni’s Op-Ed on the Kotel Agreement

17 Monday Jul 2017

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in American Jewish Life, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Social Justice, Women's Rights

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Leah Aharoni’s “Undermining unity at the Kotel won’t make Reform great again” (op-ed JJ, July 11) is so riddled with mistakes and faulty metaphors that we are compelled to respond in order to set the record straight. http://jewishjournal.com/opinion/221495/undermining-unity-kotel-wont-make-reform-great/

Ms. Aharoni began her tirade against the international Reform and Conservative movements, the Jewish Federations of North America, and Women of the Wall in our advocacy of an egalitarian and equal prayer space at the holiest site in Judaism by citing a Chassidic tale in which a father tells his son that “If you want to be taller, make yourself a mound and get up on it. But don’t drive your brother into a hole.”

We in the Israeli and international liberal religious community are not trying to knock anyone down. All we are doing is reminding the Prime Minister and his government that the Kotel Agreement that he himself initiated and oversaw negotiations in good faith led by Jewish Agency Director Natan Sharansky is about equal recognition for all Jewish religious streams in Israel and preserving Israeli democracy.

Despite Ms. Aharoni’s false claim that our protest is a way to prop up a failing liberal Judaism, the facts are otherwise. The liberal movements in fact are growing rapidly.

Her claim that Reform and Conservative Judaism represent only a combined 25% of American Jews is wrong according to the Pew Survey that reports that 35% of the American Jewish community is Reform and 18% are Conservative (http://www.pewforum.org/2013/10/01/jewish-american-beliefs-attitudes-culture-survey/)

Her statement is pure nonsense that “Outside of North America, in Israel, Europe, Russia, and Australia, when Jews want to pray they go to an Orthodox synagogue, even if they are not observant in their private life. Reform and Conservative movements are negligible there.”

There are, in fact, vibrant Reform and Conservative movements and synagogues in every country in the world where there is a Jewish community.

Ms. Aharoni’s claim that “the main reason the Kotel is run like an Orthodox synagogue [is because for] the overwhelming majority of Jews worldwide, this is the face of Jewish holy places” is also false.

The Kotel became an orthodox “synagogue” after 1967 because the Chief Rabbi of the army was given jurisdiction over the area and because the Israeli government has handed over the official power of religion to the most extreme and fanatical ultra-Orthodox authorities.

The Kotel area is a national site and we in the non-Orthodox world believe it should be open and accessible to all. After the Kotel Agreement was made, Prime Minister Netanyahu said with pride that the agreement now enabled the Kotel to be “one wall for one people.”

Ms. Aharoni wrote: “By creating an alternative at the Kotel, Judaism’s holiest place, the liberal movements had hoped to create legitimacy in the eyes of Israeli and visiting Jews. For if you can pray this way at the Kotel, why not look up (or establish) a liberal community back home. While I disagree with the Reform and Conservative rejection of the Torah, attracting new membership is certainly their prerogative. But tearing the holiest Jewish site apart is not the way to do it. Questioning the relationship between Israel and Diaspora Jewry only hurts all of us. Bashing the Israeli Orthodox community isn’t what’s going to make the liberal movements great again.”

No – Ms. Aharoni. Our idea is to grant equal access to the Kotel as a national site to the majority of Israelis who do not consider themselves Orthodox and who would like to pray there without interference by the extremist Orthodox authorities.

Ms. Aharoni’s most egregious accusation is her assertion that we in the Reform and Conservative movements reject the Torah. To the contrary, we in the liberal streams believe that women ought to have the right and to be able to read and hear the Torah at the Kotel just like men.

We are not bashing Israeli Orthodoxy, though we vehemently disagree with its claim to be the only true and authentic expression of Judaism. Rather, we insist that Orthodoxy and the liberal movements should have equal rights to pray according to our customs and values at the Kotel. We do not at all wish to supplant Orthodoxy.

Ms. Aharoni says that “Maybe they [Reform Jews] should consider what makes traditional Jewish practice attractive to young Jews and do more of that.”

She ought to realize that extremist Orthodox religious claims that there is only one way to practice Judaism is among of the single greatest turn-offs to the younger generation of Diaspora Jews and is one of the reasons that young Jews are turning away from the State of Israel.

In her op-ed, Ms. Aharoni is called the “co-founder of Women For the Wall.” Her organization is to be distinguished from “Women of the Wall” which has been the driving force for equal rights for women at the holiest site in Judaism for more than 25 years. Ms. Aharoni has nothing to do with that large group of Israeli Jewish women.

Rabbi Josh Weinberg, President, Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA)

Rabbi John Rosove, National Chairperson, Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA)

Principle over Politics – Israel’s envoy in NY says Jewish state neglecting Reform, Conservative

11 Tuesday Jul 2017

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in American Jewish Life, Israel/Zionism, Jewish Identity, Social Justice, Women's Rights

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Dani Dayan laments Israelis’ lack of understanding and unwillingness to engage with liberal Jewish streams

Do read this article in the Times of Israel (see link below).

In Israeli’s political arena, one would have thought that Dani Dayan would align himself with the most right-wing in Israel on every matter – but it just isn’t true.

He was the head of the Yesha Council of settlers before becoming Israel’s Consul General for New York. As it turns out, on the pluralism issue the non-Orthodox have in Dayan a friend.

Dayan himself is not religious, and perhaps that’s why he is open-hearted to the non-Orthodox streams in Israel. But there may be something else as well.

I don’t know what Dayan’s attitudes towards the Reform movement in America were before he arrived in New York. He may already have been a religious pluralist. If so – terrific, but since coming to the US he has been nothing shy of a friend to all the religious streams.

In my own encounters with Mr. Dayan in New York as Chair of ARZA, I found that he couldn’t be more open-hearted towards non-Orthodox Jewry if he tried. His magnanimity is both surprising and refreshing.

What we need now is a Prime Minister to show a measure of courage and stop cow-towing to the ultra-Orthodox political parties on the Kotel issue and Conversion Law, and then on civil marriage and civil divorce, on women’s issues, on the rights of NGOs to operate on behalf of human rights in the state of Israel and the West Bank, and everything that makes for a true democracy that Israel is and ought always to be.

The greatest leaders are those who stand for principle over politics – Dayan is showing himself on the issue of who is a Zionist to be a democrat (with a small “d”).

http://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-envoy-in-ny-says-jewish-state-neglecting-reform-conservative/

What’s the current struggle in Israel all about?

02 Sunday Jul 2017

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in American Jewish Life, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Social Justice, Women's Rights

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As a consequence of the cacophony provoked by the President’s tweets coupled with the introduction of the Republican Senate’s “wealth-care” bill that there is another story with major implications for the unity of the Jewish people and the well-being of Israeli democracy about which many American Jews seem to be unaware.

My colleague and the President of Association of Reform Zionists of America (Rabbi Josh Weinberg) in his weekly email to ARZA members got to the heart of the matter on Friday that expresses concisely what is happening and why it’s important for the American Jewish community (regardless of whether one is Reform, Conservative, or Orthodox) to be aware. Rabbi Weinberg wrote:

“In the world of the struggle for religious pluralism in Israel, rarely has there been a week like this.

On Sunday [June 25], the Government of Israel decided to cancel the already-agreed upon deal to build an egalitarian prayer section at the Kotel, with full signage and administrative authority by the liberal movements, JFNA [Jewish Federations of North America] and WoW [Women of the Wall]. In addition it supported the passing of the conversion bill, which would place control of all conversions in the hands of the Chief Rabbinate and could have serious implications for already existing conversion programs as well as implications for Israel’s relations with Diaspora Jews in particular. Fortunately, as of this writing, the vote on the conversion bill has been stayed for 6 months due to significant pressure on the government from all sides and angles. We must acknowledge the tireless work of Rabbis Rick Jacobs [President of the Union for Reform Judaism in the United States and Canada], Gilad Kariv [Executive Director of the Israel Movement for Progressive Reform Judaism], Noa Sattat [Executive Director of the Israel Religious Action Center], Anat Hoffman [Chair of the Women of the Wall] and many more, who ably represent our [Reform] movement in Israel and abroad.

The week continued with the Jewish Agency for Israel, in an unprecedented move, canceling a dinner with the PM [Benjamin Netanyahu] and taking out ads in the Israeli media openly criticizing the decision beginning a wide spread response from mainstream Jewish organizations breaking stride and expressing their outrage to the PM and his government.

We all know that this essentially is about coalition politics. That PM Netanyahu made a calculated decision to renege on his promises to implement the [Western Wall Egalitarian Prayer Space Agreement] deal and at the same time take action that put his support firmly behind his ultra-Orthodox constituency, ensuring that he’ll last another day. This is neither shocking nor surprising, and the uproar is due to the coinciding events (The reneging on the Kotel agreement and the introduction of the Conversion bill into the Knesset) as well as the leadership of the organized Jewish community feeling the sting of this blatant betrayal.

Let’s be clear this is NOT about two things:

This is not just about the Diaspora. Many headlines read that this is a slap in the face to Diaspora Jews and it is important to note that this is an insult and a complete rejection of the growing trends of Israeli frustration and rejection of the Chief Rabbinate.* This is not only about Reform and Conservative Jewry. The conversion bill was set to transfer power away from a great deal of modern Orthodox (National Religious) rabbis. This is bigger than just angry Reform and Conservative Jews. We are angry. We’re outraged, hurt and betrayed. But this has now risen to the level of a “Gog and Magog” style battle over who holds the keys to Judaism in the Jewish State. Make no mistake, the Haredim [Ultra-Orthodox religious political parties] see the inroads the liberal movements are making [in Israel], and are (justifiably) feeling threatened. The Prime Minister will do everything he can to maintain his coalition even if it means going back on deals and promises (pittance) compared to risking losing his [governing] Our [non-orthodox] movements are gaining strength and building coalitions – including with Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman who is also considerably concerned about the conversion issue [Liberman represents a very large Russian Israeli community among whom are roughly 700,000 individuals who are not Jewish by traditional Jewish legal standards], but will unlikely risk his prize position over this issue.

Many have asked why the Reform and Conservative movements have not expressed equal outrage over the Occupation [of Israel in the West Bank beyond the Green Line], the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Syria, and the list goes on. Those do continue to be ongoing issues that we care deeply about. Each organization, movement and individual has to engage in the struggles that it can and fight the good fights that it can. אלו ואלו דברי אלוהים חיים. “These and Those are words of the living God.” [A famous principle found in the Talmud said by Rav Shmuel who believed that it is important to find truth in all sides to an argument].

We hope you join us in the struggle and work wherever you are for a Jewish and democratic State.

ARZA Statement on the Kotel Crisis and Conversion Bill: Two Attempts to Disenfranchise Non-Orthodox Jews

26 Monday Jun 2017

Posted by rabbijohnrosove in American Jewish Life, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Social Justice, Women's Rights

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On June 25, the Israeli cabinet capitulated to extremist pressure and froze its agreed-upon plan to develop an egalitarian worship space at the Western Wall (Ha-Kotel Ha-Ma’aravi). On the same day, it advanced a bill that would grant the ultra-Orthodox Chief Rabbinate exclusive control over conversions in Israel.

ARZA condemns both of these outrageous actions which, if allowed to stand, will cement the power of the ultra-Orthodox minority in Israel at the expense of Jewish unity and pluralism, undermine religious freedom in the State of Israel, and open a schism between Israel and world Jewry.

ARZA and the Reform Jewish movement celebrated the January 2016 agreement that promised investing in and constructing an egalitarian prayer space at Robinson’s Arch, just south of the existing Western Wall plaza, that would be equal in size and significance to the traditional Kotel prayer space. This was a milestone for compromise and unity; in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s words, it endorsed “One Wall for One People.”

Unfortunately, the compromise (that included the ultra-Orthodox Administrator of the Western Wall Plaza) was rejected by other religious extremists, who opposed any proposal that legitimates non-Orthodox Judaism. In the days following the agreement, extremist officials and the publicly funded Office of the Chief Rabbinate littered Jerusalem with placards calling for the “liberation” of the Kotel from the “demonic” machinations of liberal Jews, and threatened a coalition crisis for the government.

Prime Minister Netanyahu and his ruling coalition government’s succumbing to ultra-Orthodox pressure by halting the implementation of the Western Wall compromise is a tragic selling-out and betrayal of non-Orthodox Jews for the sake of political expedience, as vocal critics on the right and left have maintained. Reneging on the Kotel compromise is an abandonment of the principle of klal yisrael (Jewish unity) and a denial of the legitimacy of the majority of American Jews’ religious expression.

It is also a rejection of Zionism itself, which is premised on the idea of collective Jewish peoplehood as expressed by the Jewish state. These two decisions give preference to one extremist interpretation of Judaism over that of the majority, exacerbating a disturbing antidemocratic movement in Israel where religious freedom is endangered.

Some commentators have called these bills the trigger for American Jewry to abandon Israel. As the voice of Reform Zionism in America, we refuse this option: In fact, the reason for our outrage is precisely because of our movement’s deep and unending commitment to Israel. We fear that the extremist ideology expressed in the government’s action against the Kotel compromise and the conversion bill will drive Jews—especially the younger generation—away from Israel. We will continue to express our Zionist love for Israel by working for an Israel that reflects the vibrant tapestry of Jewish expression, free from religious coercion.

We call upon the Israeli government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resume their commitment to establishing a Kotel for all, and to reject the conversion bill that would hand more unfettered powered to the ultra-Orthodox political parties and Chief Rabbinate. We call upon synagogues in every religious stream, Federations, and all Jews to demand that Israel enact measures to be open and inclusive to all forms of Jewish expression in the face of antidemocratic forces from within the government and society at large.

Israel must remain true to its founding Zionist vision expressed in its Declaration of Independence: “[Israel] will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture.”

It is a sad irony that in the 21^st century, Israel remains one of the few remaining places where Jews cannot express their religious freedom. For the sake of Zion, we cannot remain silent; even in the face of this betrayal, we remain committed in love to building Israel based on our people’s ideals of freedom, inclusion, and democracy.

Rabbi John Rosove Rabbi Josh Weinberg
ARZA Board Chair ARZA President

Rabbi John Rosove's Blog

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