ISTATE and RELIGION in ISRAEL This Maxim Has Obviously No Validity in Israel
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Vol. VI. No. 5 MAY, I95L.,,... INFOR aSUED Br THE ASSOCIATION OF JEWISH REFUGEES IN GREAT BRITAIN 8, FAIRFAX MANSIONS, FINCHLEY ROAD ( FAIRFTXTOAD ) LONDON. N.W.3 Office and Consulting Hours : 10 a.m.—I p.m., 3—6 p.m, Sunday 10 a.m.—I p.m. Telephona : MAIda Vale 9096 (General Offlce) MAIda Vale 4449 (Employment A(ency) Voltaire's maxim : "I hate what you say, but I would fight with my life for your right to say it," ISTATE AND RELIGION IN ISRAEL this maxim has obviously no validity in Israel. \lf •^"''"'''"'^ '""' itrticles deal with a highly topical question. A s a strictly impartial periodical, AJR Whoever is dependent on restaurants will have [''^formation is not entitled to take sides in this controversy andan has therefore opened its columns to to walk far every Friday night until he finds an '^."^''r^ists of both ccnfiicting conceptions. It is stressed that the articles solely express the views of their open cafe—a procedure which is repeated at lunch- i»WWs.—THE ED. time on Shabbat. Many have friends and relatives g THE " SECOND FREEDOM " National Service. The religious bloc accepted the who would wish to invite them—but to accept an y Herbert Freeden challenge and asked all-its followers to disobey this invitation in another town, or in a settlement, is Roosevelt's four freedoms have become the law, even at the risk of being imprisoned. This difficult indeed, for there are no means of traffic on ^terion of a genuine democracy. Without the attitude has been backed not only by the extremists Shabbat. Shabbat, the day of freedom, has become ^om of speech and of rehgion, the freedom from but by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. The question, very much a day of coercion. When one drives ^'it and fear, the rights of citizens are crushed therefore, whether there are two kinds of law in in a car one runs the risk of being stoned in A n anth'^d °° people can be free. The question whether Israel—the law of the State and the law of the some orthodox districts. One might wait for *-^.^^e exists in Israel freedom of religion may sound Torah, as interpreted by the rabbis—has become important news—but telegrams are not being M ) J, ^st paradoxical. Where else, if not in their owm topical indeed. The parting of the ways poses a delivered. Medical help is, especially in rural J fj.itry, should the Jews be allowed to uphold their problem in all clarity : Is Israel to become a secular State or a theocracy ? districts, almost unobtainable—let alone the services "^^ lOn^ ^'^'^ *° enjoy unhindered their cults ? When, of hospitals and ambulances. On Friday eve, the J^ Shabbat eve, one glances through the wide open Rabbinical Jurisdiction evening before the only day on which one can sleep {L'^'^OWS into the brightly-iit synagogues ; when Matters are more difficult as there is no clear longer, one cannot attend entertainments such as Q^ J^citals of the prayers echo in the streets ; when demarcation line between State and " Church." concerts, theatres, pictures. r J. *om Kippur men walk in their prayer shawls Some fields of law, for instance, are outside the % V^^ divine service, or \*hen the sound of the A majority must go without meat, or if it comes d, jurisdiction of the State. There is neither a civil be° '^ heard up and down the towns, then one marriage nor a civil divorce in Israel. The whole to the best, with very little meat, because only l5^°'nes acutely aware of the difference between marriage legislation is in the hands of the clergy. kosher meat is being imported, the price of whicli J ^61 and the countries of the Diaspora. Wherever In the case of entering a marriage, it is only a in the world market is sky,high. Chickens are rare ,0^ live in a minority, their rituals have to be matter of submitting to the religious ceremonies but many a family must (go without because the Lvf^'^ed behind closed doors, removed from the but in the case of divorce, the problem is much birds are sold only aliye and not a few housewives Iti °^ ^^^ public. In Israel, there is, for the first more serious. The rabbinical law is based on the are unable to stand the nauseating sight of the Ifgij^ after thousands of years, again ffeedom of moral code of the Middle Ages which deprives slaughterhouses. People who consider the eating tg ,^'on, at least for all Jews who live according women of equality. Thus it is, for instance, im of Matzot not as an indispensable expression of ^^,L "6 postulates of the Law. But how about those possible for a wife to institute divorce proceedings Judaism cannot obtain bread during Pessach. trgj. ^o not feel themselves bound by religious against the will of the husband. The legislation on as ''on, but consider themselves first and foremost Tliese are a few of the many instances in which a inheritance, too, is administered by the clerical majority has to submit to the will of not even J'a-tional Jews ? hierarchy and it limits the self-determination of the :aQj'^^edom of religion is not only the unhindered 13 per cent, and not only in matters of religion. testator to such an extent that his last will is not For the religious rites cut deeply into the public life . brgj °pen expression of religious sentiments—a always identical any more with his free will. 4re '^ of this freedom is no less apparent when men of the community and into the private life of the rioL ?i^e to participate in rituals to which— The opinions and customs of the orthodox deserve individual, and hand in hand with the infringement The ^ or wrongly—they do not feel attached. high respect. Alas, in Israel one often misses sadly on the freedom of religion goes the infringement the same respect, or at least some consideration, on on individual freedoms as such. At the time of IS , pressure to take part in a religious ceremony their part towards people who do not share their "^ much an infringement on the " second free- the French revolution it was said : "To the Jews interpretation of religion. The effects of this as individuals everything, to the Jews as a nation as the ban of a religious ceremony, attitude may sometimes be trivial, but this is not ^rtlha ^^^ recent municipal elections in Israel the nothing." The orthodox front in Israel has reversed the point. Important is the principle, and the this principle : " To the Jews as a religion every l2 °dox parties altogether received just over right of man to take or to leave, as he thinks fit. the "^^"^ °* ^^^ votes. The other 87 per cent of thing, to the Jews as individuals nothing." hlj(,P°Pulation, as in any other nation, show a isolation and persecution. If the Jewish people ™i: ^ different nuances of religious thought and THE MEANING OF TRADITION l^'ent. Among them are atheists, agnostics. would have been a nation like the others, it could ^.^tic, By Dr. E. Lichtigfeld have merged with them as the Greeks and the ith^"*^^ and the innumerably many who live by With the establishment of the State of Israel a Romans did and could have left to the working of ilvjj,. Own version of religion, including those who, most difficult problem was created which does not history how much of its literature and culture was (leve?*^' being orthodox, wish to preserve and to seem to have a parallel in legal history, that of pro to remain. No doubt such an attitude would have •J, ?P the spiritual values of Judaism, viding the new State with the constitution and a been welcomed, especially by the Western world. i'^'de overwhelming majority lives, no doubt, legal system adequate to do justice to the long It was precisely for the reason that they were not |%_ ^ Severe pressure from the religious sector. history aud the great tradition of the Jewish prepared to give up their practical loyalty to Isho^'^n-Gurion's Government, which resigned a people. In the existing states, Law has developed Judaism that they had to incur the hostility of the I ^l^'le ago and which is carrying on only until against the more or less uniform background of a their non-Jewish neighbours. To do this now when, 4 (,j^ ^hcoming elections, was, in the main, based on continuous national culture based on an autonomous in a miraculous way, the establishment of the State teljjjj'tion between the socialist Mapai and the territory. The Jewish position is entirely difierent. of Israel has been made possible seems to be a Jle^.p^s Mizrachi. In order to uphold this coalition, The Jewish people is heir to a great culture which senseless disregard of the long history of the iS 'Ss^^'^rion was ready to compromise on several has been maintained without the support of a Jewish people. .fJ'j'^Oaiii.' Only now, after the breakdown of the national territory and a uniform population. It has i'ot ij'^l. did he introduce to the Knesset a law survived in the conscience of the various sections Israel's Specific Role ^ ^v«^ conscription of girls into a two-years' of the Jewish people with varying degrees of The ingathering of the exiles, though being a intensity, recognition and loyalty. historical event of the first importance, is not the |/ TT i HELPERS WANTED main aim of the rebuilding of the Jewish people in f^ •«.