November 23, 2015: Israel takes small steps toward Jewish religious pluralism

By Michael Regenstreif

In my column in our July 27 issue, I argued against the hegemony of the haredi Orthodox Chief Rabbinate in Jewish religious affairs – including such matters as marriage, divorce and conversion – and the control of Israel’s religious services ministry by the haredi Orthodox parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition.

I pointed out that we live in a religiously pluralistic Jewish world, that some of us are very religious, while others are not at all. I said we must respect all Jewish denominations – haredi Orthodox, modern Orthodox, Conservative, Reconstructionist and Reform – as equally legitimate and that Israel, as the homeland of all Jewish people, needs to respect the legitimacy of each of our denominations.

I wrote that column in reaction to a shocking statement, “a Reform Jew, from the moment he stops following Jewish law, I cannot allow myself to say that he is a Jew,” that Religious Services Minister David Azoulay said in an interview on Israeli Army Radio.

The next day, Azoulay rose in the Knesset to clarify his opinion. Reform Jews, he admitted, while sinners, are still Jewish.

There have since been some steps – albeit very small steps – to begin the process of addressing Jewish religious pluralism in Israel. In a speech to the Jewish Federations of North America annual General Assembly, November 10, in Washington, D.C., Netanyahu said he would strengthen the rights of non-Orthodox Jews in Israel.

“As prime minister of Israel, I will always ensure that all Jews can feel at home in Israel – Reform Jews, Conservative Jews, Orthodox Jews – all Jews,” he said.

Netanyahu said the government had formed a roundtable group of representatives of the different religious movements and government ministries in order to address the movements’ concerns. (JTA, the Bulletin’s wire service, reports the roundtable, though first announced months ago, has yet to meet formally.) A couple of days after Netanyahu’s speech at the General Assembly, it was announced that the Jewish Agency for Israel’s annual funding to the Reform and Conservative movements in Israel – $1.09 million each – would be matched by funds from the Prime Minister’s Office.

It’s a beginning, but there is still a long way to go before the non-Orthodox movements attain equal legitimacy in Israel’s religious affairs. Despite being doubled, the funding for the non-Orthodox movements is still very modest and it is coming from the Jewish Agency and the Prime Minister’s Office, not from the religious affairs ministry. But at least Netanyahu recognizes there is a problem that must be addressed.

However, Netanyahu heads Israel’s government by virtue of a numerically weak coalition and, as long as the Knesset seats (currently 13 of 120) controlled by the religious parties – Shas and United Torah Judaism – are enough to put a coalition into power, the government will not take the big steps necessary to effect real change.

June 18, 2012: The Olympic Games should remember the Olympians murdered in 1972

By Michael Regenstreif

The opening ceremonies for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games will take place in London on July 27 and many people around the world are asking that a moment of silence be observed in memory of the 11 Israeli Olympians murdered by terrorists during the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany.

Initially, two Israelis were murdered and nine more taken hostage by Black September, a PLO faction at about 4:30 am on September 5, 1972, during the second week of the games. Less than 20 hours later, at four minutes past midnight on September 6, the nine hostages were machine gunned to death.

The Munich Massacre shocked the world. It was, and remains, the darkest moment of the modern Olympic movement (rivalled only, perhaps, by Hitler’s use of the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin as a showcase for Nazi pageantry).

This year, 40 years after the massacre, the State of Israel asked the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to remember the slain Olympians with a moment of silence at the opening ceremonies in London. All Israel asked for was a 60-second pause in the otherwise joyous celebrations. Israel was supported in its request by many throughout the world. As we reported in the May 7 issue of the Bulletin, the Jewish Federations of North America asked Jewish communities to sign an online petition in support of Israel’s request.

However, the IOC has refused the request. Would the response have been different if the murdered athletes had come from almost any other country in the world? I’m tempted to think so.

Israel, in a campaign led by Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, continues to campaign for the moment of silence and is being supported by political leaders in such countries as Australia, the United States and Canada. On June 7, Liberal MP Irwin Cotler, a former minister of Justice, spoke about the issue in the House of Commons and said Canada should support Israel in its quest for remembrance.

“For 40 years, there has been no official Olympic remembrance, no honouring of memory, no moment of silence,” said Cotler.

“Let us solemnly observe this 40th anniversary of remembrance. It is our duty to observe a moment of silence to remember. We remember. Never again. Never again, not for Jews, not for anyone.”

In response, Minister of State (Sports) Bal Gosal and Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird wrote to IOC Chair Jacques Rogge expressing “Canada’s disappointment with the International Olympic Committee’s decision not to agree to the request by the Government of Israel” and urged the IOC “to reconsider the decision given the gravity of the events that took place in Munich in 1972.”

As Gosal and Baird noted, “The terrorist attack targeted not only Israel, but the spirit and goals of the Olympic movement. Given the impact of this tragedy, on the Olympic community as a whole and the world, it should be marked publicly as part of the official opening ceremony of the games.”