's Orthodox Jews: The New Holy War

Uri Huppert

t is an unfortunate fact that today Israeli society is no • The public-religious educational system, which inculcates longer merely threatened by the spectre of a Kulturkampf Orthodox religious dogma, was established alongside the secu- I between the goals of religious orthodoxy and those of a lar system by the Public Education Act of 1953. Jewish state. It is now an unhappy reality. • Local Jewish religious councils compete for authority with Perhaps because they receive so much media attention, the secular municipal authorities. ultra-Orthodox Jews (the non-Zionist and anti- • The democratic vision embodied in Israel's Declaration Zionist "haredi" groups, who attack the very idea of a Jewish of Independence is now routinely attacked by the Orthodox. state) appear to be responsible for Israel's present religious Said one such extremist: "Democracy is not a Jewish value." extremism. But in fact it has been the so-called moderate, • In many settlements roadblocks are set up on the Sabbath religious-Zionist parties (the Mizrachi, Hapoel Hamizrachi, and day in violation of freedom of movement. their successor, the —the NRP) that • Economic pressure is exerted on places of entertainment have brought about the present situation and profit from it by the Rabbinate—by virtue of the authority granted to it by today. the secular —in violation of one's freedom of expres- The NRP and its predecessors have had a long association sion. with the Zionist movement and have been granted special privileges by it almost from the beginning—privileges that were ong before the issue reached its present, explosive propor- the forerunners of today's "coalition" compromises. Already in tions, Orthodoxy was the dominant voice for dormant 1920, for example, the Mizrachi was given total autonomy in ethnicity. It was largely due to the religious Orthodox pressure, educational matters by the World Zionist Organization—and for example, that sovereign state structures, as well as programs the seeds of today's public-religious school system were planted. financed by the state budget, became institutionalized along By 1934—fourteen years before the Israeli state was founded— ethnic lines. the Mizrachi party forced the Jewish National Fund to mandate Israel's Family Courts, for instance, are explicitly based on Sabbath observance in all leases for new settlements. It was the principle of ethnic balance. There, the division between not long before the Mizrachi began setting up alternative Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jew is sharply emphasized, a separa- Orthodox-religious institutions parallel to those established by tion that is presented as ostensibly the legacy of Ottoman rule the secular Zionists, the , and afterward the state, in all but is in fact a direct expression of Orthodox policy. And, spheres of life. For example: indeed, state funds are not distributed to the Reform syna- • A system of religious courts was developed in opposition gogues, which avoid blatant ethnic division; yet funds are to the secular system by the Jurisdiction of the Rabbinical poured into Orthodox synagogues and institutions, including Courts Act of 1953. burial societies, that manifest ethnic divisions the Jewish Israeli is supposedly inextricably entangled in from birth to death.

Uri Huppert, a -based lawyer, is former National he achievements of Orthodox religious politicians have Chairman of the League Against Religious Coercion in Israel, Tbeen enormous—and ought to be noted more often, and as well as a former member of Jerusalem's City Council. This with criticism, by the rest of the world. Today in Israel, issues essay is excerpted from Back to the Ghetto, to be published by concerning "personal status"—that is, of marriage and Prometheus Books this fall. divorce—have been transferred exclusively to the tender mercies of the rabbinical judicial system. Although the Marriage and

46 FREE INQUIRY Divorce Act of 1953 states that "marriage and divorce of Jews Office revealed that the Israeli government allotted about 2.6 in Israel will be performed according to the law of the Torah," billion shekels for the rehabilitation of eighty-two neighbor- the monopolistic rabbinical Family Courts adhere to an even hoods, where approximately 600,000 Israelis lived. At the same stricter orthodoxy. They render judgment based solely on the time the government allotted 2.8 billion shekels to Orthodox most rigid of its tenets, negating any ceremonies held according religious institutions—study centers for approximately 50,000 to other shades of religious Judaism, such as Conservative or yeshiva students. What does this mean? Each yeshiva student Reform. was given, for study purposes, a sum ten times greater than the These religious institutions are empowered by a secular amount given to a resident in need of rehabilitating his home institution, the Knesset. Yet they are kept exclusively for and town. representatives of orthodoxy. To satisfy the Orthodox business Even the pragmatic , Teddy Kolleck, community, Israel created a local-government system parallel has bemoaned the ruthlessness of the extremists. He was re- to the secular, municipal system. In many instances the religious cently quoted as saying that they behave "like the Italian mafia." councils' jurisdiction overlaps the municipal's, leading, obvi- And the late Professor Yigael Yadin, who gained world-wide ously, to duplication and waste. Although positions on these renown as an archaeologist and served as deputy prime minister religious councils are theoretically open to all religious Jews, during Menachem Begin's first term, described the activities of no Reform or Conservative-affiliated Jew has ever been the ultra-Orthodox as "terror." To be sure, the incidence of appointed to them. Recently, a test case was brought before assault and violence by the Orthodox towards secular and non- the Israeli Supreme Court to resolve the matter judicially. The Jewish institutions is so high that it has almost become the Court endorsed the right of non-Orthodox Jews to membership social norm. on these local-business councils. But that is where it remained— An example: In 1983 Dr. Uzi Ritta, a lecturer at Jerusalem's the fact is that non-orthodox Jews are still excluded from these Hebrew University, was driving on the Sabbath with his small councils. Principles of law and orthodoxy do not mix. daughter. His car was pounded with stones and he was gravely Even more pointed is the discrimination against non- injured. Hospitalized for long time, Ritta is now permanently Orthodox institutions in the distribution of funds. All money brain-damaged. Yet just as appalling as this act of this Jew- allotted for religious affairs is given to the Orthodox—non- against-Jew violence was the response of the "Jewish Moral Orthodox religious Jews stand no chance of receiving what Committee." Wrote Rabbi Marvin Friedman: "Dr. Uzi Ritta should be their due share. ... is the infamous protagonist of the heretical theories of But perhaps the Orthodox Jews' most profound success is evolution. In keeping with his theories, he reverted to the in the area of education. Education in Israel is divided into primate sate by deliberately crashing through the Sabbath police three streams: the public-secular, public-religious, and indepen- barriers.... Indeed, it was moral justice!" dent-religious (the non-Zionist and haredi Orthodox). Unfail- The hooligans who disabled Dr. Ritta received no punish- ingly, every year contests are waged for the souls of potential ment. Following this tragedy, Police Inspector-General Arye students. It is usually the Orthodox groups who get the best of Ivtzan said that "Police treat ultra-Orthodox groups according the deal, even over their fellow religionists. They lead in every- to their own discretion, while the rest of Israeli society is thing: government and private contributions, influence, educa- handled strictly according to the law." tional and rabbinical positions. And, with the educational While militant Orthodox Jews are receiving increasingly system under their power, Orthodox Jews can much more tolerant treatment from civil and police authorities, they are easily lay claim to other institutions. now targeting secular academic and scientific institutions for All theological institutes, for instance, theoretically are repression. For the Jewish conscience, ever since its emergence entitled to receive state-owned land for their buildings. Yet in from the provincial ghetto, the freedom of scientific research practice it has remained a very restricted right. The Tel Aviv has had special significance; for the modern Israeli it is even Reform Jews fought a ten-year struggle for land for their more important. After all, the Israeli is weaned on the outlook temple. And in Jerusalem, Conservative Jews have been trying that a special scientific, technological, and military quality has for six years to build a synagogue in their neighborhood. given their state an advantage over her more than 100 million Members of Jerusalem's religious council, who alone are re- warring Arab neighbors. Moreover, that Israel has been able sponsible for supplying the city's "religious needs," and who to develop agriculture in a desert environment is largely due to have sole control over the financial means of doing so, have uninhibited scientific research. But science and technology are been in the vanguard of the struggle against allocating any hallmarks of the modern Western world, and, by its very nature, land to their Conservative fellow Jews. Orthodox theology rejects this world. Indeed, it seeks to stifle If they are usually not permitted to receive land for their wherever possible Western traditions, even sports, which the buildings, Reform and Conservative rabbis are never permitted Orthodox condemn as "Hellenic." to officiate there at ceremonies once they have them. They Why do these Jews fear what they call "alien" cultures? can't marry, divorce, or bury their own congregants. Reform They typically claim that it is precisely the isolation and segre- rabbis are not even authorized to serve as chaplains in the gation of the Jewish people that has preserved the nation of Israeli Army. (They are not forbidden, of course, from being Israel over the 2000-year-long diaspora. Alouph Hareven, of drafted into its ranks as fighting soldiers.) Jerusalem's prestigious Van Leer Institute, has argued elo- Let me give you a dollars-and-cents example. During a quently against this view: recent Knesset debate, the chairman of the State Comptroller's

Spring 1988 47 ments, was obviously lost on them. It therefore came as no surprise that, when Rabbi Meir Kahane held his party conven- The ability to exist as a nation for over one hundred genera- tion in that same building in 1986, the Orthodox establishment tions does not mean that the Jews could exist forever without altering their lifestyles and their political frameworks. We can refused to criticize his demand that Israel be made "clean" of say that the Jewish lifestyle that collapsed was that which Gentiles. belonged to its founders, who did not have sufficient insight to If in 1983 the Orthodox claimed to have no objections to find new solutions to problems of a changing reality. Alterna- the Mormons or the Messiah just to the piece being sung in a tively, on those occasions when the Jews did succeed in finding particular hall—very quickly they began to object to the different lifestyles by adapting to a changing reality, they also Messiah being sung anywhere in Israel. And today they also found they were able to continue their Jewish existence. frankly object to the Mormons. Since 1983, when they purchased a plot of land on Mount owhere has the struggle for freedom of academic and Scopus, the Mormons have been trying to build their own Nscientific research been more violent than in the discipline university campus. At first there seemed to be no obstacles. of archaeology. Recently, the battle centered around Dr. Yigal University officials submitted the proper blueprints and ob- Shilo, of Jerusalem's Hebrew University, who was leading a tained approval from the Council for Higher Education and dig at the Jerusalem "City of David" site. The excavation had the minister of Education and Culture. They even had the already produced remarkable artifacts dating from the reign of formal approval of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Yet, after the shepherd-turned-king. The religious Orthodox were not the buildings were under construction, the storm broke, al- impressed, however. They claimed that there was a possibility though by no means spontaneously. The religious right, headed that the site sat atop an ancient Jewish cemetery—and hence it by "Yad L'Achim," a non-Zionist, "anti-missionary" organiza- was forbidden, according to Jewish law, to dig there. Archae- tion, began organizing demonstrations. The head of the ologists said that this claim had no basis and continued their Jerusalem extension of Brigham Young University received dig, often within earshot of bloody demonstrations by extremist threats that were ominously familiar to Jews: "Dirty Christian! Orthodox groups, who were supported by the leaders of the Get out of here! Go back to America! If you don't stop that Zionist religious establishment. The irony seemed clear: These building, we'll kidnap your children and burn your cars." people were, after all, roaring into battle because of their How do they justify such violent threats? It's the logic of burning desire to protect the peace and holiness of what they their faith, they say. The Mormons are commanded to prosely- maintained were ancient cemeteries. tize in Israel. Of course, we cannot ignore this claim. Mormons The demonstrations at the dig, and the conflict between the are indeed required to missionize—as are adherents of the other scientists and the religious masses, served as a backdrop for a Western faiths. Islam, for example, enjoins this command to constitutional struggle that was taking place inside the Knesset. be carried out even by violence, by a "jihad" or holy war. And Knesset members representing Agudat Yisrael threatened to over its long history of missionary work Christianity has also walk out of Begin's precariously balanced coalition government occasionally encouraged violence as a way of increasing the if the purported cemeteries were not preserved. Begin's number of "believers." It was precisely because of this aware- (Right Wing) party would almost certainly have lost power if ness that the Israeli legislature passed a special directive in its this threat was carried out. penal code that prohibits the offering of compensation for While the Labour Party opposition predictably attacked missionizing. There is thus very little scope for the Christian what became known as the Archaeology Law, other political missionary in Israel. factions opposed shutting down the dig as well. Yet the bill The Orthodox campaign against the Mormons has become slipped through the Knesset in a piece of neat parliamentary institutionalized. In December 1984 the "Agudat Yisrael" pro- chicanery—most of the members were absent. Despite protests posed a motion of no-confidence in the government because of from the opposition parties that the law was approved in an its refusal to halt construction of the Mormon buildings. The unconstitutional manner, the Orthodox won the day, the bill other religious parties pressured the government into establish- went through, and the archaeologists' struggle for academic ing a special, permanent cabinet committee to investigate the freedom to investigate Israel's past was lost. Mormons and their university. We should not regard this development lightly. The very establishment of a cabinet com- he dream of Israel's founders was of a free, democratic, mittee implies that the Mormons should be singled out and Tand pluralistic nation. The dream of Israel's Orthodox, on investigated, that their activities be scrutinized in a way that the other hand, has been of an authoritarian, ethnically "pure" Jews—at least Orthodox Jews—are not subject to. theocracy. It is disgusting how far the Orthodox are willing to Anyone believing that Jewish orthodoxy hates only the go in order to crush religious diversity. In June 1983, for exam- Mormons is foolish. The Mormons, after all, were not among ple, one hundred yeshiva students stormed the Binyanei Ha'uma the inquisitors, nor were they ones who sanctioned pogroms. Hall in Jerusalem because the Mormon Utah Oratorio Society The orchestrated campaign against the Mormons is a warning was singing Handel's Messiah. At the time, the demonstrators to all non-Jewish religious believers, seculars, and agnostics in claimed that they found it inappropriate that a work about Israel that tolerance and diversity are coming to an end, that a Jesus was being performed in a building that belonged to a new generation of religious Jews has now arisen. And this Jewish agency. That the Mormons were here to praise Israel, generation is imbued with the conviction that it must wage a that the Messiah is one of Western civilization's great achieve- holy war. •

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