c. 1999 Religion News service

JERUSALEM _ There could have been no better snapshot of the schizophrenic split in Israeli society between secular and religious Jews than Sunday’s (Feb. 14) demonstrations bringing both camps into the streets in competing displays of protest and power.

Near the entrance to the city, main arteries turned black with the swaying figures of 250,000 ultra-Orthodox protesters. They mournfully chanted the liturgies of the Jewish Day of Atonement in a prayerful protest against what they say is the unwarranted intrusion of Israel’s Supreme Court into religious affairs in the Jewish state.

Not far away, in a big city park, secular forces staged a”counter-happening.”There, a jeans-clad crowd danced to popular Israeli rock songs, banged bongo drums, and paraded T-shirts etched with slogans calling for”democracy not theocracy.” Like a city under siege from itself rather than a foreign army, thousands of soldiers and police kept the two groups apart and barricaded nearby government buildings _ an unprecedented display of military might in Israeli civil society.

In the aftermath of the protests, it’s clear that deep fault lines have appeared between social liberals and conservatives, shaking the foundations of Israeli democracy.

Still, many observers are hoping Sunday’s massive protests ultimately will rouse moderate Israelis to action _ and swing thousands of voters toward overtly secular or religiously moderate candidates in the upcoming May 17 elections.”I see this as a real turning point in the culture of Israeli society _ an awakening,”said Rabbi Ehud Bandel, president of Israel’s Masoreti (Conservative) Movement in Israel, which has been fighting the state-sponsored Orthodox rabbinical establishment for recognition.”I’m sure that the recent demonstrations will ultimately work as a boomerang.” What touched off the massive protests _ bigger than anything Israel has seen in the past 30 years _ was not only the longstanding dispute between the Orthodox and liberal Jewish movements over the”Who is a Jew”issue; the deeper issue at stake is the role of the courts as social guide and arbitrator in a fast-changing Israeli society.

It is a dispute that can be compared with the American turmoil over the precedent-setting Supreme Court decisions of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s on such issues as school desegregation, prayer in the schools and abortion.

Like their conservative counterparts in the United States, Orthodox Jewish groups here are angered and frustrated by the increasing intervention of the civil courts into religious affairs in a country where such issues were once the exclusive domain of state-appointed Orthodox rabbis.

But some prominent rabbis are making it increasingly clear their ultimate aim is a new Israeli theocracy in which religious courts would replace civil institutions.

Indeed, the ultra-Orthodox leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, regarded as a moderate on issues of Israeli-Arab peace and diplomacy, last week set the stage for the wave of protests by condemning the high court justices as not only”stubborn and rebellious,”but also illegitimate.

Fueling the religious leader’s sentiments have been a series of recent precedent-setting court decisions eroding religious powers of the rabbis. They range from a November 1998 High Court ruling granting Reform and Conservative Jews seats on municipal religious councils to a December decision upholding the right of kibbutzim to operate businesses on the Jewish Sabbath, or day of rest.

In yet another controversial decision, the Supreme Court in December ordered the government to begin drafting at least some of the estimated 80,000 ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students who have been exempt from military service.

Next week, the most explosive issue of all comes before the Supreme Court when the court, on Feb. 26, holds a final hearing on the”Who is a Jew”case.

The case pits the Orthodox establishment against Reform and Conservative Jewish groups who want state recognition for the conversions they perform in Israel.

Hopes for a quick court decision have been scuttled in the wake of the protests. Most observers now believe the court will delay a final decision until after Israel’s May 17 elections when a new parliament convenes and legislators can take up the thorny issue. “The demonstration Sunday had only one goal _ to intimidate the justices,”said Bandel.”It is a violation of the basic principle of democracy and the independence of the judicial system.” Recognition of the Reform and the Conservative movement is anathema to the ultra-Orthodox groups, whose leaders have attacked the non-Orthodox movements as a plague akin to the Holocaust.”Let the Reform stay in America. Israel is the only place that is for us _ the Jews,”said an ultra-Orthodox woman named Hanna, a mother of nine, at Sunday’s prayer rally. Added Tzippori Ginzbury, an Orthodox social worker,”They are a foreign body in Israeli society. They’re out of their element here. They have no roots and no continuity.” Until very recently, few secular Israelis felt very differently about Israel’s tiny Reform or Conservative communities. Liberal, non-Orthodox congregations counted only a few dozen congregations nationally, and were widely dismissed by even liberals and leftists as an American import.

Now, however, in the aftermath of Sunday’s demonstrations, public attitudes are rapidly changing.

On Monday, a group of Israel’s most prominent writers, artists and intellectuals issued an unprecedented appeal to secular Israelis to join the Conservative and Reform movements here by the tens of thousands. Leaders of the initiative included the internationally known authors Amos Oz, A.B. Yehoshua, David Grossman and Yehuda Amichai. “As long as they are persecuted, we are all Reform and Conservative,”said the appeal, published in Israel’s major Hebrew dailies.”We are calling on the Jewish democratic public to get up and to register, as an emergency measure, as members or supporters of the Conservative or Reform Movement.” Behind the battle cry is the growing recognition, say observers, that the broader struggle of the ultra-Orthodox is against the very secular and pluralistic nature of Israeli society today. Not only the Reform and Conservative movements, but other groups ranging from Christians and kibbutzim have been singled out for vitriolic attack in the ultra-Orthodox press.

Although Sunday’s demonstrations concluded peacefully, there still are growing fears that disgruntled extremists might use violence to press ahead with their agenda. “It’s sickening that our Supreme Court justices need bodyguards to protect them _ as do Sicily’s judges to protect them from drug barons,”stated op-ed writer Yoel Marcus in the Hebrew daily Ha’aretz, reflecting on the heavy security now surrounding the judges and the courts.”Where can we be headed if a single demonstration can turn the Supreme Court into an armed fortress with snipers on its rooftop and contingency plans for helicopter rescue?” Many commentators blame the current crisis on the longtime cowardice of Israel’s politicians who, they say, have failed to take bold action on the issue of religion and the state. In this view, the politicians have left the courts on the frontlines of the battle between the Orthodox establishment and disgruntled religious minorities who now regard the legal system as the only avenue through which they can press their complaints.

Both Israel’s left-wing Labor Party and the right-wing Likud have been blamed for bolstering the powers of the extreme religious right by courting the ultra-Orthodox as political partners during decades of internal strife over the Israeli-Arab peace process.

Incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in particular, has been accused of selling out to religious politicians by increasing government contributions to ultra-Orthodox yeshivas and backing recent legislative efforts to curtail recognition of liberal Judaism in exchange for Orthodox support of the government’s hardline position on peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

Now, however, as Israelis prepare to go to the polls to elect a new government, domestic affairs are suddenly looming as bigger issues, including religion. And candidates on all sides of the political spectrum are under increasing pressures to take a clear position on where they stand on the place of religion in Israeli society.

The pressures are coming not only from Israeli voters but from wealthy American Jewish contributors who quietly finance many of the key Israeli political campaigns. In many cases, those contributors are Reform or Conservative Jews who fear the increasing Orthodox influence on Israeli society.

Israel’s Reform and Conservative leaders here say that while the movement is not making political endorsements, American supporters will be looking closely at the voting records of Israel’s political contenders on religious-state issues before opening their wallets.

Remarks Bandel,”Let’s say that those that already know us and support us should be rewarded.” DEA END FLETCHER