Prime Minister Netanyahu promises 'audacious hospitality' to American Jewry, but how serious is he?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promises freedom of religious practice to the delegates of the 2013 URJ Biennial Convention in San Diego. Given the reality of religion and state in Israel, his rhetoric will not easily turn into policy.

17/12/2013 12:30

Tags: Benjamin Netanyahu · URJ · Biennial · Western Wall · Women of the Wall

Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu meets with soldiers in his office before the IDF conversion. 15.12.2010. Photography: Amos Ben Gershom, Government Press Office via Flash 90

Rabbi Uri Regev, CEO of Hiddush- Freedom of Religion for Israel, welcomed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's comments on religious freedom in Israel during his address to the Union for Reform Judaism's 2013 Biennial Convention in San Diego, but was doubtful that the Prime Minister's statements would become policy, given the current wider conflict over religion and state in Israel.

Rabbi Regev said, "The problem obviously comes from the immense gap between Prime Minister Netanyahu's statements and the Israeli government's current policies which systematically discriminate against non-Orthodox denominations and Secular Judaism. As long as Israel refuses its citizens freedom of marriage, and the reality in which a majority of the next generation of American Judaism cannot marry in Israel persists, the Prime Minister is contradicting himself with empty rhetoric. Either he understands but prefers to view the world through rose-tinted glasses or he just does not understand at all. Neither of these options are encouraging and it's difficult to discern which one is worse."

During his address to the Union for Reform Judaism's 2013 Biennial in San Francisco, Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke about religious equality, specifically at the Western Wall, among his comments about Israel's foreign and internal policies.

"While the Wall may be in Israel," he said, “it belongs to all of you, it belongs to you and to all the Jewish people, and I am committed to making sure that all Jews feel at home in our holiest site.”

Netanyahu recognized the need for a serious change at the Western Wall, but it was unclear how drastic that change will be. “No compromise is ever perfect,” he said. ”But I am convinced that because of the work we are doing together we will ensure that the Kotel will be a place of unity, not division, unity, where all Jews feel at home."

As long as Israel refuses its citizens freedom of marriage, and the reality in which a majority of the next generation of American Judaism cannot marry in Israel persists, the Prime Minister is contradicting himself with empty rhetoric.

Prime Minister Netanyahu said that the Western Wall, “is about what Israel has always stood for and what it has always stand for, that Israel is and must continue to be the homeland of the entire Jewish people. That's the place where all Jews, including Reform Jews, experience nothing less than ‘audacious hospitality’."

URJ President Rabbi Rick Jacobs thanked the Prime Minister for the current support that the Israeli government has provided for the Reform movement at the Western Wall and saw it as a launching point for the wider religion and state conflict in Israel.

Rabbi Jacobs said, "To us it is a symbol of the day when those from the non-Orthodox streams will stand equal with the Orthodox rabbinate and community in the eyes of the state...It is a symbol of your efforts and ours to resist the attempts of those who would turn back the equality advances of women in Israel, before all those assembled here I want to acknowledge your personal role in achieving at the Kotel something that, when fulfilled will be a historic transformation.”

In the effort to broaden American Jewry's advocacy to other pressing religion and state issues, like freedom of marriage, Rabbi Regev called on Jewish leaders to support legislative initiatives that will promote Israel's founding principles of religious freedom and equality.

He said: "Only consistent and complete policies which promote equality and freedom of religion will give useful content for the necessary vision in which every Jewish person will feel that Israel is their home and their rights and worldview are respected by it, as promised in the Declaration of Independence."