Letter from Jerusalem (Part One)


Rabbi Michael L. Feshbach
Temple Shalom
Chevy Chase, Maryland

Shabbat slips into the past, and the city awakens from its restful slumber. The rest of my family pokes out onto the increasingly busy streets, in search of ice cream and about to brush up against friends and strangers from all over the world. I am left with a moment of quiet, to reflect on what a profound two weeks it has been.

Great and monumental events happen around us, blocks away or even in front of our eyes, and at the same time I am so immersed in the most powerful experience of growth and learning that I have had in 20 years, and so it is hard to pick apart the strands, and weave my way between what you must be hearing back home, and what we are experiencing here.

What I want to share at the moment, however, are some reflections on the timely and important events which I assume you have heard something about over the past several days: the latest legislative initiative to codify conversion practices in Israel, and the arrest of Reform leader Anat Hoffman at the Western Wall.

Whenever it comes to Israel, at some point, it seems, someone inevitably sighs and says: “It’s complicated.” That has to do with issues of international relations, war and peace, negotiations and security… and it applies equally profoundly to the internal issues of Israeli society, such as navigating the path between Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews (lumped together as all “secular” in common parlance here, but including, of course, those “religious” but non-Orthodox streams such as Reform and Conservative Judaism), immigrants and veterans, army life and societal norms.

Yes, you have heard (I assume) about the new conversion bill tabled in the Knesset, and how it will consolidate the power over conversion in Israel in the hands of the charedi (ultra-Orthodox)-controlled Chief Rabbinate. Yes, you may have heard about the Reform movement response to this mess (also visible at www.urj.org and www.rac.org). But before we plunge into the conversations, a bit of background will help. The best explanation I have seen about the reason why such a bill came up in the first-place, before it was politically hijacked for other purposes, can be found in a recent editorial in the Jerusalem Post. In his well-written piece, “Don’t Fracture the Jewish People” (available online at www.jpost.com/Opinion/Editorials/Article.aspx?id=181575), the Post’s editor David Horovitz explains why this bill was put forward by a Russian immigrant party called Yisrael Beiteinu, why it was meant to help 350,000 new Israelis from the former Soviet Union who are not considered Jewish by Jewish law – and why the bill won’t now achieve that purpose, if ever it would or could have. There is every reason to write Prime Minister Netanyahu with our thoughts and passionate opposition to this bill, with our plea that he makes sure it never becomes law. But it is also important to know the nuances and the history as well.

The other disturbing development in the past several days was the arrest, on Rosh Hodesh Av (the first day of the Hebrew month of Av), at the Western Wall, of Israeli Reform leader Anat Hoffman, complete with (You Tube accessible) video footage of the police practically ripping a Torah scroll out of her hands. Some of my colleagues here, some of the female Reform and Conservative rabbis I am studying with at the Shalom Hartman Institute, were at the monthly service of a group called Women of the Wall, and witnessed this atrocity first hand. The Wall is supposed to be a unifying symbol of the entire Jewish people – indeed, in these days leading up to Tisha B’Av (the ninth of Av, the somber fast-day which commemorates the destruction of both the First and Second Temples) we are reminded that the Second Temple was destroyed because of sinat chinam, baseless hatred between and amongst different factions of our own people. The tragic reality is that the Wall has become – often with the assistance of the Israeli police – the private domain of the most sexist, fanatical, narrow-minded extremists of our people. The story of Women of the Wall, however – and our own synagogue’s coming attempt to have a service at or near the Wall on August 6 – represent the other side of the story, however – the commitment to an Israel of Jewish pride, pluralism and equal rights. If this is a story of extremism it is also one of heroism, and of a long struggle whose ultimate outcome will be decided not in the coming days or weeks but over the course of the coming years. I strongly urge you to read more about Women of the Wall at their own website (http://womenofthewall.org.il). In the midst of our anger at these crazy extremists, let us remember the courage and tenacity of those who fight to shape Israel into what she can and, we believe, should be.

This letter is already getting long, and I have not yet begun to share the blessing, and the amazing quality, of the experience of study I came here for in the first place. There are so many issues to share, beyond the topical ones of conversion and religious pluralism, and so much more at stake in what is going on in terms of engaging Israel. Indeed at some level these flash-point issues are things we catch-up on only in the morning or at the end of the day, when we have a chance to glance at the news. (One exception was when Natan Sharansky spoke at the Hartman Institute, days before the conversion bill was voted on in committee – and the Orthodox but pluralistically-inclined founder of the Institute, Rabbi David Hartman, publicly begged Sharansky to play whatever role he could in preventing this bill from passing, which, as the new chair of the Jewish Agency, Scharansky has now attempted to do.)

But few of you will read more and may not have made it this far, so I will close with an ongoing invitation to engagement, and a sense of gratitude to all of those who have supported my presence here… and who, I hope, will benefit from the learning, and the depth, of this experience.

Awaiting the arrival of the Temple Shalom trip (they depart from the States on August 2), and thinking of all of you…

With my love,

L’shalom (In Peace)…