February 22, 2016: Antisemitic conspiracy theories still thrive

By Michael Regenstreif

I get a lot of emails every day: press releases, editorial enquiries, submissions to the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin, news reports and feature stories from our wire service, news digests from Israeli and other Jewish publications, messages from readers and colleagues, and much more.

Once in a while, though, I’ll get something that is blatantly antisemitic. Such was the case, earlier this month, when I got an email from what purported to be a pro-democracy organization in Moscow (it was in English).

The email included a long list of what it claimed the Talmud teaches Jews, including such things as it’s not a sin for a Jew to kill a non-Jew and that only Jews are actual human beings.

It went on to say that communism was a Jewish plot under which all the banks, media, business and property in communist countries were controlled by the Jews. And the kicker was that, since the fall of the Soviet bloc, Jews have fanned out into the Western democracies and taken control. These were “the most successful countries in the world,” but are all now on the verge of economic collapse, thanks to the Jews.

This so-called pro-democracy organization has a website chockfull of strange conspiracy theories covering four focus topics: Jews; Israel; the war on terror (which, it seems, is an international scheme controlled by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu); and, for some reason, Hillary Clinton.

More than a century after the creation of infamous forgery known as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (which also originated in Russia), there are still hate-mongers sitting in little rooms dreaming this stuff up. Scratch the surface of social media and the Internet, and it’s all too easy to find.

One of the strangest such examples was earlier this month when rock star Ted Nugent – who was already well known for extreme positions on a number of issues – said on Facebook that efforts toward gun control in the United States was a Jewish conspiracy led by such figures as Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of “Jew York,” and 11 other Jewish American political figures identified by a photo with their name and an Israeli flag.

As editor of a Jewish community newspaper, I spend a great deal of time immersed in news from around the Jewish world. In addition to the articles and columns for our print edition, I edit hundreds of additional articles each month for the online Bulletin and there’s no shortage of articles dealing with resurging antisemitism around the world, both classic antisemitism expressed as hatred of Jews and of individuals because they are Jewish, and what eminent experts like former justice minister Irwin Cotler have described as the “new antisemitism,” in which Israel is targeted as “the collective Jew” among the nations.

So, while I’m only too well aware of antisemitism in today’s world, it is still disconcerting to see it flourishing in an era when so much real knowledge is so easily and so readily available.

Jewish religious pluralism in Israel

The lack of Jewish religious pluralism in Israel is an issue I have raised before in this column. Much of Israel’s Jewish religious life is regulated through the haredi Orthodox lens of Israel’s Chief Rabbinate – and with the support of the haredi Orthodox political parties in the Knesset (and currently part of Netanyahu’s governing coalition).

I have long advocated that Israel, as the homeland of all Jewish people, needs to embrace all of the Jewish denominations equally. But that wide Big Tent embrace has been slow in coming.

In recent days, though, there have been two big steps forward for Jewish religious pluralism in Israel.

The Western Wall – regarded as Judaism’s holiest site – will soon have a much expanded and accessible non-Orthodox section in which egalitarian Jewish observance will be practised. And the section will be administered by non-Orthodox authorities.

Then, just as we were going to press, we learned that Israel’s Supreme Court had ruled that mikvahs in the country must open up to Reform and Conservative converts for their ritual immersions. Until now, only Orthodox converts were allowed to use mikvahs in Israel.

These are most welcome developments.

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.

July 27, 2015: Israel needs to move toward Jewish religious pluralism

By Michael Regenstreif

One of the weaknesses of the coalition-based system of government in Israel is that parties representing very small segments of the electorate are sometimes able to exert inordinate amounts of influence. Such is the case of the two religious parties – Shas and United Torah Judaism – who now sit as part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition and are able to advance policies at odds with the vast majority of Israelis.

In the Israeli election earlier this year, Shas took 5.73 per cent of the vote, winning seven of the 120 Knesset seats. United Torah Judaism took 5.03 per cent of the vote and six seats.

For both parties, this was a drop of support from the 2013 election when Shas took 8.75 per cent of the vote resulting in 11 seats and United Torah Judaism was supported by 5.16 per cent of voters giving them seven seats.

Combined, the two religious parties dropped to 10.76 per cent of the vote and 13 seats from 13.91 per cent of the vote and 18 seats in 2013.

The two parties and their 18 seats were not part of the Netanyahu coalition following the 2013 election, which meant Israel was finally able to begin making some small steps toward Jewish religious pluralism in the world’s only Jewish state.

Religious affairs in Israel – including such matters as marriage, divorce and conversion – are almost entirely controlled by the Chief Rabbinate, an institution controlled by haredi Orthodox rabbis (and allied, if not officially, then at least nominally, to the two religious parties). Even many modern Orthodox rabbis have spoken out against the hegemony of the Chief Rabbinate on religious affairs in Israel.

The small steps made by the last government toward Jewish religious pluralism in Israel seemed popular with Israelis. So popular that the religious parties that opposed any reforms lost a significant number of votes and seats in the 2015 election.

But – and it’s a big but – Netanyahu desperately needed every seat he could get in forming what turned out to be his very narrow coalition after this year’s election. So, the religious parties, with fewer votes and fewer seats, are back at the seat of power rolling back the small steps toward greater Jewish religious pluralism.

And, perhaps, even worse than the disproportionate amount of power being wielded by the religious parties is the outlook expressed by (at least some of) their MKs.

Earlier this month, David Azoulay, the religious services minister in Netanyahu’s cabinet and a member of Shas, said that Reform Jews cannot be considered Jews.

“A Reform Jew, from the moment he stops following Jewish law, I cannot allow myself to say that he is a Jew,” Azoulay said, July 7, on Army Radio. The interview was given just two days after the Cabinet – under the demands of Shas and United Torah Judaism – reversed the steps taken toward conversion reform by the previous Netanyahu government.

There was, of course, a backlash – in the Diaspora and in Israel – over the comments of the religious services minister. Even Netanyahu rejected the comments – although he would not accede to demands that he fire Azoulay from cabinet, which likely would have caused his narrow coalition to collapse.

The next day, Azoulay issued a clarification in a Knesset speech, saying that Reform Jews, while sinners, are still Jewish.

“Of course, all Jews, even though they sin, are Jews,” he said. “At the same time, it is with great pain that we view the damage caused by Reform Judaism, which has brought the greatest danger to the Jewish people, the danger of assimilation.”

The contemporary Jewish world is pluralistic. Some of us are very religious, others not at all. In our communities, we must respect all Jewish denominations – haredi Orthodox, modern Orthodox, Conservative, Reconstructionist and Reform – as equally legitimate. That is why rabbis from across the denominational spectrum represented in Ottawa have a voice in our rotating From the Pulpit column.

As the homeland of all Jewish people, I believe Israel needs to respect the legitimacy of each of the denominations and move toward Jewish religious pluralism.