American Jews hope Joe Biden can challenge Israel’s orthodox monopoly

NEW YORK – As leaders in Israel and the American Jewish community begin to reflect on the changes under the incoming administration of US President-elect Joe Biden, some predict long-standing controversies over religious pluralism will receive a new attention. The former vice president has for decades berated the Israeli government for giving too much power to Orthodox Jews on issues like prayer at the Western Wall and the power to convert to Judaism. “It is a very sad time for me, as a progressive rabbi, when Jews do not recognize the legitimacy of others. It’s a pointless moment of hatred, ”said Rabbi Joshua Stanton, who runs the East End Temple, a Reform synagogue in Manhattan. “Members of other denominations not only ignore mine, but actually claim that it is illegitimate and that it has no interest in Israel.” As much as the Orthodox maintain a monopoly on funding, resources, and state rules at the Kotel [Western Wall], the reform movement is beginning to undermine that monopoly, ”Stanton continued. “If Israel is really going to support Jewish life and all its manifestations, it will have to pay attention,” Stanton said. The Jerusalem Post He hopes the Biden administration will include advocating for religious pluralism in Israel, bringing about the changes he has been promoting since he became a reform rabbi a decade ago. Given the number of members of the Jewish family that both Joe Biden and [US Vice President-elect] Kamala Harris has a nuanced understanding of the realities of Jewish life. They are probably discouraged because members of their own family are deprived of their rights to practice spirituality in their own homeland. His family members could go to visit Israel and have the same religious rights denied, “Stanton continued.” Biden and Harris understand as insiders. As people connect deeply with the Jewish people, they will understand the pain of exclusion felt by progressive denominations. I think they are going to defend the vast majority of American Jews, in terms of pluralism and wanting a two-state solution, “he said.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for the Reform of Judaism, also noted that he anticipates that the Biden administration will foster a change of environment. “We are ready to [Prime Minister Benjamin] The Netanyahu government will work alongside the Biden administration to rebuild bipartisan trust. It’s naive to say this will be easy to do, ”said Jacobs. The Reform Movement is the largest Jewish denomination in North America. Jacobs said the movement will continue to work with Israel to promote its values ​​of “democracy, equality, religious freedom and Jewish unity.” But Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal, executive director of the Rabbinical Assembly, the international association of conservative rabbis, said he does not envisage a new administration in the United States to calm friction between Israel and American Jews. “That is not an area the US administration should be concerned about. It’s an internal Jewish conversation between Diaspora Jews and Israel’s leadership, “Blumenthal told the Post. Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, echoed Blumenthal’s presumption that advocacy and religious pluralism in Israel they will not be a priority for the Biden administration. ” I think no American administration has made that a priority. Usually they deal with political issues, like Judea and Samara and the Palestinian state. Their policies when it comes to Israel are almost always based on politics, not religion, “Klein told the Post. THE REFORM and Conservative denominations in America together claim about five times more domestic members than the Orthodox. But liberal denominations have significantly smaller footprints in Israel. According to a 2016 Pew Research Center survey, very few Jews in Israel identify with Conservative (2%) or Reform (3%) Judaism, while half (50%) identify with Orthodoxy, including many Jews who They are not very observant but they may still be more familiar with Orthodox Judaism. Blumenthal said that current public policy challenges facing the Masorti Movement (conservative Judaism in Israel) include equitable funding and the ability of the clergy to be able to function fully as rabbis in Israel. “In general, we ‘are always interested in strengthening our communities with the state of Israel and its people,” he said. Blumenthal and Jacobs noted that a good start in ensuring representation for all streams of Judaism was the compromise agreed in October at the 38th World Zionist Congress. , a democratically elected global Jewish forum. “The reformist, reconstructionist and conservative movements, together with our partners in our international and progressive Zionist organizations, have succeeded in mobilizing our movements in Israel and around the world to prevent the marginalization of progressive voices in the WZC. That effort towards marginalization … reflected by the leaders of the right-wing and ultra-Orthodox parties, would have weakened the World Zionist Organization and Israeli national institutions. This new agreement specifies the important roles that our reform leaders will play in Zionist institutions and will continue to fund critical work of our movement in Israel and around the world, ”URJ stated immediately after the WZC conference on October 20-22. , which was practically carried out due to pandemic restrictions. “There is no doubt that the current agreement, which reflects the current Israeli political reality, gives significant power to the right-wing parties,” the statement continued. “However, as a result of our negotiations, there will be a more pluralistic leadership that will allow for important checks and balances and help to enforce the critical need for transparency and accountability.” A substantial majority of Israelis – 70%, according to an October Israeli Voice Index poll – supported the reelection of US President Donald Trump, while roughly the same percentages of American conservative and reformist Jews voted for Biden. Additionally, a 2019 Pew study surprisingly found that a candidate’s support for Israel is a lower priority for the American Jewish electorate than for Christians. When asked if he thinks these trends could dampen Israelis’ support for the reformist and conservative movements in your country. , Blumenthal said no. “I think [the divide] more reflects an important cultural difference between Israelis living in a predominantly Jewish society and Jews outside of Israel living as minorities. I don’t think it is based so much on religious difference as on difference in experience. Israel established itself as a Jewish country, and therefore its understanding of the relationship between religion and the state feels different from how we feel as American Jews, “Blumenthal said.” Our experience as a religious minority is one where we want to ensure that pluralism is a high value. Israel would create a better society if it embraced religious pluralism because within Judaism there are many ways to express our values. “