Rabbi Lau at EduAction
Photo-Israelnationalnews.com

On monday, Chief Rabbi David Lau participated in EduAction, the largest educational conference in Israel. When asked what religious people can learn from the secular population, Rabbi Lau replied, “who is wise? He who learns from all people”. Lau went on to stress the importance of living one’s life with devotion, values, and ethics in addition to the rituals of Judaism. He values freedom of religion and understands that people who disagree on faith can agree on living one’s life with certain morals and ethics.

The tensions began in the late 19th century, when many Jews in the Diaspora began actively rejecting religious Judaism for reasons including assimilation, anti-Semitism, and a turn to the increasingly popular socialism. Secular Jews led the first two major waves of Jewish immigration to Ottoman Palestine, or Aliyot, and established communal farms called Kibbutzim. They brought with them many socialist ideals and helped found what would become the state of Israel on those ideals.

Upon the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Ben Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, decided that a certain number of Ultra-Orthodox (or Haredim) should be exempt from the army in order so that they could focus on studying Jewish texts and revive scholarship in Judaism after the Holocaust. The founders of Israel founded it as a Jewish state with equal rights for all. But, this tricky distinction between a Jewish state and a state for Jews led to the creation of a democratic state with a religious authority. The rabbinate (or rabbinical council comprised of only orthodox rabbis) received power over public adherence to Kashrut (Jewish dietary laws), Sabbath, marriages, Jewish conversions, and laws relating to the Sabbatical year and Jubilee year. This meant the state would only recognize weddings and conversions performed by an Orthodox rabbi. Many problems arose over the years, because a majority of Jews are not Orthodox. Many are married or converted within Reform, Conservative, or Reconstructionist Judaism. When these Jews made Aliyah to “come home” they felt rejected and hurt by the state that was established to be their save haven.

Over the years, the Haredi community grew as their birth-rate skyrocketed and their community became more and more isolated due to their exemption from the military and devotion to preserving their way of living. Simultaneously, their occupation with Jewish studies and dependence on the Israeli welfare system in place of tangible employment made the Haredi community an increasing burden on the rest of the country. Tensions between them and the secular community began to swell to the point of violence during the 1986 “bus stop war” in which Haredi Jews vandalized bus stops that featured advertisements of women wearing what Haredim deemed as inappropriate clothing. Some secular Jews burned down a synagogue in retaliation, forcing the government to issue a special ministerial meeting. Secular teenagers would drive through Haredi neighborhoods on the Sabbath, when it is prohibited to drive and operate electricity, in order to provoke angry responses.

In recent years, however, enlistment in the Israel Defense Forces’ units that are designated for Haredis has increased. A law was passed by the coalition government that will gradually remove the Haredis’ army exemption over the next three years. Rabbis and religious leaders of various denominations within Judaism have been given more influence, as now Reform and Conservative rabbis also receive stipends from the state and will soon be able to conduct weddings.

As Abraham Lincoln once said “a house divided against itself cannot stand”. Rabbi Lau’s comments are an example of a bridge-builder that can help ease the longstanding and tumultuous tension between religious and secular Jews and hopefully unite Israeli Jewry.

For more information, check out-

https://hamilton.edu/documents/Joshua%20Yates%20Levitt%20paper.pdf

http://www.nytimes.com/1986/06/12/world/in-israel-s-bus-stop-war-a-synagogue-burns-too.html

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/184398#.U_yEabxdWwE

http://www.jewishhistory.org/the-first-aliyah/

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-26542316

http://www.timesofisrael.com/thirteen-haredi-protesters-to-be-indicted/