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In Israel and around the world, Jews will be celebrating Purim this week, one of Judaism’s most joyous holidays. This year, however, celebrations are overshadowed by the war, the hostages still languishing in Gaza, and antisemitism in the Diaspora.
It is the 157th day since the October 7th massacre. There is not a day that goes by that we don't have tears in our eyes as we watch new testimonies about what happened and relive the horror and terror that was the share of the victims, and the suffering of their family members and friends who are doing all they can to bring about the release of the hostages.
These are challenging times, and our national and personal agendas have completely changed. We oscillate between tears of pain and deep concern for the return of the hostages and for the families of the murdered, and hopes for the success and wellbeing of the soldiers on all fronts.
This week we published our annual unique 15th Israel Religion and State Index. The Index is the only systematic and in-depth periodic review of its kind of the positions of the adult Jewish public in Israel on matters of religion and the state, presenting a comprehensive picture of all the controversial issues in these areas.
More than once we have emphasized here the importance of the Jewish leadership in the Diaspora (and especially in North America) joining the struggle that seeks to protect the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state from the attempt to eliminate the independence of the highest judicial authority, curtail its powers and undermine the legal gatekeepers.
On the Festival Celebrating the Torah – It’s Time for Religious Freedom and Equality
As we were preparing this newsletter, missiles were leaving a trail of smoke and fire, the Iron Dome was in full action, mortar bombs, planes and drones were flying overhead. Over 1,200 missiles have been fired by the Islamic Jihad from Gaza towards the towns in the south and center of the country, and again Israel found itself in a cycle of war that returns annually again and again. Thankfully, a cease fire has been brokered with Egypt’s active engagement, but as of yet, no real solution seems to be in sight or is being seriously considered.
We have just concluded the celebration of Passover, the Festival of Freedom, and next week we will celebrate Israeli Independence Day. Both holidays have an added special meaning this year. The festival of freedom reminds us that freedom is not granted without a struggle, and Independence Day heightens our awareness that independence gained by blood 75 years ago is likewise not to be taken for granted nor guaranteed forever.
The storm in Israel is growing, and so are its reverberations and international consequences. Despite the attempts to downplay the importance and weight of the criticism, that of the American administration [“the US concerns about the judicial shake up that Netanyahu heard from US secretary of State Blinken”] as well as the criticism Netanyahu heard from French President Macron ["If there are no changes to his government's far-reaching plans to overhaul the judicial system, Paris should conclude that Israel has emerged from a common conception of democracy"] speak for themselves.
In 2003, while serving as Finance Minister under PM Ariel Sharon, and facing a state of economic crisis, Netanyahu explained that the previously awarded generous State child benefits (which mostly impacted Haredi and Arab families) threatened to destroy Israel’s economy, and therefore he was cutting them back drastically.
"The cause of this most severe impact and entry into the continuous cycle of poverty is the policy of [providing] excessive child benefits, which has taken whole generations out of the labor force… I want people to have children that they can support… A man can .. bring a family into the world with as many children as he wants, but he needs to understand that he has the primary responsibility to support them, educate them, finance them, take care of their future. He cannot abdicate this responsibility and transfer all or most of it to the state."
Following Hiddush's demand at the beginning of this week to the Population Authority and Attorney General, as well as our threat to file for Contempt of Court on Sunday, we were informed just today that the Population Authority has decided to reverse its decision to refuse to register couples that were married through the State of Utah, USA, which were not included in Hiddush's original legal petition (see below). The Population Authority will be registering all the couples who were married via Utah online weddings!
The die is cast, and given past experience, this will be the case, at least for a while. The world's attention is currently focused on the characters of Ben Gvir, the Kahanist, and Smotrich, who demands to serve as Minister of Defense or Minister of Finance. However, the questions regarding the consequences that the new government will have on Israel’s Jewish character and on the future of the rule of law are no less important.
The latest statements of the leaders of the ultra-orthodox parties that we reported on last week made it clear to what extent the demands they announced as pre-conditions to their joining the next coalition are related to their desire to eliminate the last barrier blocking their planned moves in the field of religious coercion, to further erode equality and pluralism, and to their attempts to perpetuate preferential treatment and favorable discrimination that they enjoy, as they demanded and received from their coalition partners (from the right, the center and the political left) in the past.
The court has ruled: all Israeli couples married via "Utah Marriage" (video conferencing) are entitled to register as married.
As in every year since Hiddush’s founding in 2009, on the eve of Rosh HaShanah we have published our unique annual Israel Religion and State Index.