A courageous and necessary leap
The American Jewish Committee workshop: A step of exceptional importance
The American Jewish Committee brought together leaders and scholars from America and Israel to form a strategic path towards freedom of religion in Israel and equality between Israeli and Diaspora Jewry.
06/02/2014 14:59
Tags: AJC · Chief Rabbinate · Orthodoxy · Shlomo Riskin · Israel-Diaspora partnership
Swearing-in ceremony for the newly elected Chief Rabbis in the presidential residence in Jerusalem. From the left Chief Sephardic Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef , President Shimon Peres
During the past year, Hiddush, led by CEO Rabbi Uri Regev, has played a significant role in crafting a strategy with the American Jewish Committee (AJC) to challenge the Israeli Chief Rabbinate's monopoly on religious life. In January, Rabbi Regev participated in a workshop sponsored by the AJC, which brought together leaders and scholars from Israel and the United States to discuss strategies to partner with Israelis in helping Israel realize its founding promise for freedom of religion and equality. This exciting meeting will undoubtedly serve as a catalyst for an American-Israeli partnership to finally end the ultra-Orthodox Chief Rabbinate's stranglehold on key areas of Jewish life in Israel.
By the end of the five hours of discussion, dialogue, and debate, the group of over 30 representatives of major American Jewish and Israeli organizations, including the religious denominations, drafted a mission statement, which set out to form, “a broad-based initiative to advocate for religious freedom and equality, notably with respect to personal-status issues, as a means of strengthening Israel’s identity as a Jewish and democratic state that enhances its ties with global Jewry.”
The group laid the groundwork to organize an Israeli-American coalition of organizations and individuals to garner support for this initiative as it advocates for alternatives to the Chief Rabbinate's monopoly over marriage, divorce, and conversions.
This historic event marks a new chapter in American advocacy for resolving Israel's religion and state conflict. It portends the achievement of a greater collaboration among American Jewish communities and organizations and their like-minded allies in Israel in the battle for freedom of religion in Israel.
Rabbi Regev presented Hiddush's position, emphasizing freedom of marriage as the key issue which Israelis and Diaspora Jewry can rally around regardless of denomination or political affiliation. He also stressed the unfortunately understated notion that assertive American Jewish activism can have a far-reaching effect on Israel's religion and state policy. One of the noted challenges in this campaign in the American Jewish community is to overcome the reluctance of its leadership to openly and honestly discuss these issues with their own community members and Israeli politicians.
This meeting was a serious indication of a positive change in the aforementioned hesitance. The AJC has a pioneering record of providing firm support by a major Jewish organization for freedom of religion and equality in Israel. In June 2012, the organization adopted a landmark resolution calling on the Israeli government to:
"Undertake promptly all needed actions to the end that (a) matters of personal status may, at the election of the persons involved, be determined by civil authorities, and (b) that all organized Jewish denominations recognized by the American Jewish community, along with their rabbis and rabbinic decrees and rulings, be acknowledged and accepted by all Israeli government bodies and accorded the same rights and privileges as all other currently sanctioned religious communities present in Israel."
Following the adoption of the resolution, the AJC hosted Rabbi Uri Regev in June 2013 at the showcased "Great Debate" as a part of its annual Global Forum. Rabbi Regev debated Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, the Orthodox Chief Rabbi of Efrat, formerly of New York’s Lincoln Square Synagogue, who also called for freedom of marriage, and greater acceptance of religious pluralism and spoke out against a coercive Chief Rabbinate.
Rabbi Riskin's supportive remarks represent a growth in Modern Orthodox support for freedom of religion, which was also heard at the January workshop. Many of the Orthodox leaders present at the deliberations, including Rabbis Asher Lopatin and Dov Linzer, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah's current president and Rosh Yeshiva, respectively, and Prof. Blu Greenberg, unequivocally joined the call for freedom of marriage in Israel.
This historic event marks a new chapter in American advocacy for resolving Israel's religion and state conflict. It portends the achievement of a greater collaboration among American Jewish communities and organizations and their like-minded allies in Israel in the battle for freedom of religion in Israel. Hiddush is committed to partnering with the AJC and other like-minded organizations in Israel and around the world to further freedom of religion in Israel.