NEWS ANALYSIS: Barak’s second front: The conflict between Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews

c. 1999 Religion News Service UNDATED _ World leaders anticipating a thaw in the Middle East peace process are busy scrutinizing the actions of Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ehud Barak as he goes about forming a new government. But for American Jewish religious leaders, there’s a second reason for looking closely at Barak’s actions in the […]

c. 1999 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ World leaders anticipating a thaw in the Middle East peace process are busy scrutinizing the actions of Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ehud Barak as he goes about forming a new government.

But for American Jewish religious leaders, there’s a second reason for looking closely at Barak’s actions in the immediate aftermath of his landslide election victory: a hoped-for truce in the theological war that has pitted Orthodox against non-Orthodox Jews in Israel and the United States.


The non-Orthodox _ Reform, Conservative and secular Jews _ view Barak’s election as a major boost for their side.”It’s a blessed development,”said Rabbi Amiel Hirsch, executive director of the Association of Reform Zionists of America.”It had gotten bad enough to the point where a lot of American Jews were caring more about the religious issue than the peace process.” The Orthodox, meanwhile, say they hope Barak’s campaign statements about the need for Jewish unity and the fact that about 25 percent of Israeli voters backed Orthodox political parties will not now be ignored.”Unity can only mean acknowledging the needs of Israel’s many traditional religious,”said Rabbi Avi Shafran, New York spokesman for Agudath Israel, an ultra-Orthodox group.

In Israel, the religious battle centers on ultra-Orthodox control of virtually all aspects of public Jewish life _ including deciding the fundamental question of who is and is not Jewish. That question impacts everything from who may marry in a religious ceremony _ the only kind currently allowed in Israel _ to where the dead are buried.

For Israelis, a secondary issue is official recognition of Reform and Conservative Judaism _ which account for the bulk of American Jews, but which have relatively few followers in Israel. In the Jewish state, most Jews are either Orthodox or secular, a term that in Israel includes Jews who maintain some traditional practices.

While the conflict has been played out most vociferously in the Israeli courts and political arena, its spillover has poisoned relations between American Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews as well.

In fact, it is mostly American Reform and Conservative Jews who have pushed the recognition issue in Israel, framing it as a fight for religious pluralism. In response, American Orthodox groups _ who say they are fighting to keep traditional Judaism from being diluted by liberal accommodations to modernity _ have rallied to the defense of their co-religionists in Israel.

At one point, the leader of a small ultra-Orthodox group in New York said Reform and Conservative Judaism were beyond the pale of acceptable Jewish religious belief, touching off a firestorm of nasty rhetoric between the two sides.

Consequently, how Barak handles the issue has the potential to heal or exacerbate the situation for Jews in the United States as well as Israel.


Under the defeated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the conflict intensified as he aligned himself with Shas and other ultra-Orthodox Israeli parties to cobble together a narrow ruling coalition. In return, ultra-Orthodox institutions received generous government subsidies and were allowed to tighten controls over Jewish religious life in Israel.

Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, chancellor of New York’s Conservative Jewish Theological Seminary, said Netanyahu’s defeat can be traced at least in part to his decision to court the ultra-Orthodox.

Immigrants from the former Soviet Union _ who now account for about 15 percent of the Israeli electorate _ deserted Netanyahu in droves in this election after helping him gain power in 1996. That happened, Schorsch said, because Soviet Jews, as many as a fourth of whom do not meet strict Orthodox rules concerning who is a Jew, were particularly scorned by Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox allies.”Religious pluralism came home to roost,”said Schorsch.”Under Barak, I expect we will have a climate in which the issue can be discussed in a more liberal, inclusive fashion than we have had under Netanyahu.” Hirsch said Netanyahu’s cozying up to the ultra-Orthodox alliance prompted large numbers of secular Israelis not from a Soviet background also to turn away from Netanyahu in this week’s election.”They came to equate the growing alienation felt by many American Reform and Conservative Jews toward Israel with the deterioration in the relationship between the U.S. government and Israel under Netanyahu,”he said.

Barak _ a secular Jew, as is Netanyahu _ won big enough to enable him to form a government without bringing ultra-Orthodox religious parties into the coalition he must form in accordance with Israel’s modified parliamentary form of government.

However, no sooner did the ballot counting end in Israel than word came that Barak was considering including Shas _ which won 17 seats in the 120-member Israeli Knesset (parliament), a seven-seat gain _ to achieve a broader coalition. Such a move would strengthen his hand in pushing forward the peace process, in addition to giving Israel’s largest religious faction a greater sense of involvement in Israel’s future.”Who is in the coalition is key,”said Dr. Mandell Ganchrow, a retired physician from Monsey, N.Y., who heads the centrist Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.”If Barak brings religious Zionists into his government, then the emphasis will be on unity and not just pushing pluralism. If that doesn’t happen, it will be a very sad day for Orthodox Jews, and we will become very apprehensive for the Orthodox community of Israel.” On Tuesday (May 18), the day after the Israeli vote, Barak visited the grave of Yitzhak Rabin, the assassinated Israeli prime minister, as well as the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City.

For secular Israel, Rabin represented its highest hopes for a modern Middle East free of continued Arab-Israeli bloodshed. The Western Wall, the only remaining remnant of the ancient Temple in which the very spirit of God is said to have dwelled, is traditional Judaism’s holiest site. Visiting both was meant to signal Barak’s desire to unite his nation and Jews everywhere.”It was very admirable of him to visit the Kotel (Western Wall) as well as Mount Herzl (the location of Rabin’s grave),”said Shafran, the Agudath Israel spokesman.”But Barak will soon reach a point where he can’t get by with symbolic gestures and will have to make some difficult and important decisions. Only then will we know if some of the heat will be doused between the Orthodox and non-Orthodox.”


DEA END RIFKIN

Donate to Support Independent Journalism!

Donate Now!