Is it the Chief Rabbinate of Israel?
So, who owns Judaism?
MK Israel Eichler [United Torah Judaism] had this to say yesterday about the new Labor MK, Rabbi Gilad Kariv when the new MKs were sworn in and the new Knesset launched its anticipated stormy, possibly short lived, term. Kariv was, until recently, the Executive Director of the Israeli Reform Movement, and Eichler’s vitriol is not directed against him personally, but rather against all Judaism’s liberal streams:
Uri Regev 08/04/2021 01:36
Tags: Gilad Kariv
“I would not say ‘shalom’ to him, God forbid,” said MK Eichler, “‘There is no peace, saith the Lord concerning the wicked.’” Secular [Jews] are not evil, they are ‘captive babies’... These Reform Jews are [promoting a] forgery of Judaism, like Christians, but Christians are more honest than they are.” [You can see the full Hebrew interview HERE]
MK Eichler being asked about MK Kariv
In the past, we wrote about the heads of the ultra-Orthodox parties’ pre-election threats to boycott Rabbi Kariv if elected to the Knesset, as well as his party, Labor, which included him on its list of candidates. It is clear, therefore, that many more storms are to be expected in the Knesset, with the first Reform Rabbi in its history now serving as a member.
Early in Hiddush’s history, back in February 2011, we exposed MK Eichler’s hateful views, hate speech and anti-Zionist theology, just as he was about to re-enter the Knesset. However, cynicism and political opportunism prevailed, and nobody seemed seriously concerned about him and other like-minded ultra-Orthodox Knesset Members being considered valued partners in self-proclaimed “national” and “Zionist” governmental coalitions. None of his political partners called him to task, and, therefore, his most recent outburst against MK Rabbi Gilad Kariv should not have come as a surprise. It was just a matter of time, and MK Eichler did not wait a single day after the swearing in of the new MKs.
Hiddush’s detailed report documents Eichler calling Israel “an enemy state”, “a historical national disaster”, “an evil regime” and a “Jewish ghetto”. He referred to secular Israeli Jews as “two legged animals” and said that “all talk of democracy is just lies and hypocrisy”.
As long as the State of Israel is not willing to recognize in a dignified and egalitarian manner all streams of the Jewish people, throughout all communities of the Jewish people, the important investment of the Israeli government in the Diaspora will be for naught.
The ideological debate that we can expect in the Knesset in the coming weeks and months was also evidenced by the exchange between MK Kariv and MK Avi Maoz who heads Noam, the extremist Zionist Orthodox party, who entered the Knesset this week as part of the “Religious Zionist” faction, headed by MK Betzalel Smotrich. MK Kariv spoke briefly after Minister of Diaspora Affairs, Omer Yankelevitch reported on her work, rightly stressing that:
“As long as the State of Israel is not willing to recognize in a dignified and egalitarian manner all streams of the Jewish people, throughout all communities of the Jewish people, the important investment of the Israeli government in the Diaspora will be for naught. Because the people are not willing to have one hand investing in them and the other hand telling them: ‘you are second- and third-rate Jews’, and the Jewish state is ready to receive you as occasional tourists but not to let you feel that this country also belongs to you.”
Maoz responded to Kariv, demonstrating his party’s fundamentalist approach, which is clearly opposed by the overwhelming majority of both world Jewry and Israeli Jews, who reject the authority of Israel’s Chief Rabbinate, especially when it comes to defining the parameters of Judaism and of “Who is a Jew”:
“A Jew is one whom the supreme halakhic authority of the Jewish people, which for generations has been the Chief Rabbinate, declares is a Jew… The exclusive authority to interpret the Torah and the Oral Torah [rests with] the Chief Rabbinate.”