Religion and State in Israel
Ne’emanei Torah Va’Avodah creates a framework that offers all Jewish Israelis the opportunity to live according to the religious lifestyle that speaks to them.
· Developing mechanisms that allow communities to shape their own religious guidelines and services.
· Effecting change in the administration of religious sites, institutions, and services. This includes efforts to decentralize the problematic mechanisms governing Kashrut in the country.
· Sitting on government committees and composing bills for presentation at Knesset on the topics of Shabbat in the public sphere, Kashrut, and the responsibilities of the local authorities.
· Raising awareness amongst Members of Knesset, government officials, lay leaders, rabbinic figures, and the general public about the need for a religious framework that is more democratic and open.
· Raising awareness amongst the general public about the alternatives to the current state of affairs vis-à-vis the administration of religious services.
· Constant vigilance and immediate responses to all attacks on the democratic nature of the State of Israel.
The Democratic Communal Model:
Changing the Relationship between Religion and State in Israel
The goal of the Communal Model is to offer all Jewish Israelis the opportunity to live according to the religious lifestyle that speaks to them. By democratizing the Chief Rabbinate, we can give the different communities the opportunity to shape their religious guidelines and services in a way that is much closer to their beliefs. This is augmented by changes on the institutional and governmental level; once new procedures are put into place in the administration of religious sites and institutions, more voices will be heard in decision-making processes, creating a Jewish Israel that is more democratic and open.
Throughout its many years of activity, Ne’emanei Torah Va’Avodah has been at the forefront of the struggle to define Israel’s religious nature. The organization has been involved in any number of specific issues, attempting to find a middle ground that could be acceptable for all Jewish Israeli communities. Over the years, we have worked with such topics as prenuptial agreements to help stem the tragic occurrence of women chained to marriages; conversion; Shabbat in the public sphere; burial; public transportation on Shabbat; refusal to obey orders in military situations; encouraging citizens to pay taxes; mikvahs; social justice; conscription of young women to the army; and women in the public sphere. Very often, these initial efforts grew into entire organizations dedicated to one cause, and we were pleased to serve as their first home.
However, over the past few years, we have begun to work on a broader level, hoping to effect a change in the national rabbinic system. As such, we have developed the “Communal Model,” a program that removes the authority over religious services from the Chief Rabbinate and places it in the hands of different communities.
The Communal Model operates on a number of levels, including legal measures, advocacy, raising awareness, and creating a model for communities. The program hopes to effect a broad change, working from within the system to create an improved model for religious services and a greater understanding of the differential needs of religious communities.
The Communal Model aims to transform the current religious services using a two-pronged approach:
- Turning over the power and some of the budget for religious services to each community, giving them the ability to set their own standards and create a system that is meaningful for them.
- Changing current practices in administering sacred sites and institutions. Whereas at present these are controlled by haredi factions, our aim is to create new mechanisms and procedures whereby representatives from a much broader spectrum would be included in decision making, taking into account the needs and desires of the greater community and making these sites more open and welcoming to all.
Our media campaigns can be seen here and here.
At present a pilot of the Communal Model is being held in the Zevulun regional council. Staff is working with the regional council and communities to create the mechanism by which they will make decisions about religious services once the budget is transferred to them. To learn more about the communal model and its success, please click here.
Furthermore, legislation has been drafted that will transforms the Communal Model from a theoretical one to a practical one – on the national level. The communal model, once presented as a bill in Knesset, will be a starting point; while it no doubt will encounter resistance and not be accepted in its entirety, its elements can then be introduced over time as legislation and become binding on the national level, effecting a massive change in the way religious services run in the country.
Ne’emanei Torah Va’Avodah is grateful to have the UJA-Federation of New York as a partner in this project.
Our efforts have brought the issues of religion and state to the fore, bringing about exciting changes.
- Due to our appeal to the Supreme Court about the exclusion of women and various religious populations from the process of selecting rabbis, the state has decided that no new rabbis will be appointed until new policies are put into place. The Ministry of Religious Services is currently formulating its response to the appeal.
- As a result of our lobbying, conference, and media campaign, for the first time in the state’s history, the “Status Quo,” which dictates that the religious nature of the state will remain unaltered, was not mentioned in the coalition agreement.
- The Chief Rabbinate’s refusal to accept Rabbi Avi Weiss’s testimony regarding the Jewishness of his congregants brought the question of the Chief Rabbinate’s monopoly on the question of “Who Is a Jew” to the forefront. We are proud to be representing Rabbi Weiss in his legal battle against the Israeli rabbinate, and are pleased that the rabbinate has seen reason; more importantly, the media attention surrounding the case that we were able to generate highlighted the larger problem.
He Can Be Trusted’: Documents Reveal How Israel’s Rabbinate Recognizes Some U.S. Rabbis, Blacklists Others
Files released after Freedom of Information Act request show Israel’s Chief Rabbinate consults almost exclusively with rabbis from rigidly Orthodox groups in its vetting process
High Court denies Chief Rabbinate request for panel on hametz in hospitals
The court decided on Sunday not to hold a new hearing on whether hospitals can ban patients and visitors from bringing in hametz on Passover, upholding its 2020 ruling.
?RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS: HOW CLOSE ARE WE TO A ‘JEWISH REPUBLIC’ OF ISRAEL
A look into the heavy political clout of the haredi parties that could eventually impact the nation’s tenuous religious-secular balance.
Kosher and Open on Shabbat: Israel’s Restaurants May Be on Their Way to Revolution
A petition filed by a restaurant owner in Jerusalem seeks the same terms that hotels receive regarding Shabbat observance
“We feel like second-class citizens”
A new campaign by the Ne’emanei Torah v’Avodah raises awareness of couple who cannot marry in Israel and find a civil solution their problem
Marriage Without The State Clergy Monopoly / Rabbi Akiva Herzfeld
Almost a year ago, I received an urgent phone call from a woman (let’s call her Dina), who told me that the chief rabbinate’s office had just telephoned her here in Israel. They wanted more proof of Jewishness. She had already sent out invitations for her wedding, but now they wanted proof that she was Jewish.
Ne’emanei Torah Va’avoda slam Minister Ariel
The Neemanei Torah Va’avodah organization, which is supported by the New Israel fund, attacked Minister Uri Ariel in the wake of the State Comptrollers claim that he transferred funds to task-oriented groups.
Let’s share Western Wall rather than divide it
Op-ed: It’s time to stop fighting over the Western Wall and create ways to overcome division which cater for all sects. The holy site should be run by a public council including representatives of the relevant government ministries, public delegates representing male and female worshippers, and representatives of the Diaspora Jewry.
Klal Yisrael Matters
A “scandalous letter” in the files of Israel’s official rabbinate “reflects ignorance,” delivers “a severe blow” to Israel’s relations with Diaspora Jewry and “abandons the religious system in Israel to haredi hands.
RECENT TREND SHOWS JEWISH MARRIAGE ON THE WANE IN ISRAEL
Several organizations have expressed concern with the number of Jewish citizens marrying outside the rabbinate.
LIBERMAN PRAISES IDF SERVICE BY RELIGIOUS WOMEN, PANS ORTHODOX DODGERS
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman voiced strong support for religious women who enlist in the IDF on Monday while criticizing religious lifestyles that preclude military service and employment, focusing only on religious studies.
With disunity in air, groups hold dueling prayers for Western Wall’s future
Two large groups of Jews at diametric odds over the fate of Jewish prayer at the Western Wall gathered at the holy site Monday morning to mark the beginning of the Hebrew month of Av, when tradition holds both the First and Second Temples were destroyed for a roster of reasons, including a lack of unity.
RABBINICAL PRESSURE MIGHT CHANGE IDF MIXED-GENDER PROTOCOL
One of the most controversial clauses in the new protocol is one which stipulates that an officer or NCO will not necessarily be able to avoid serving in a mixed-gender units.
Gender separation front targets IDF
An aggressive campaign against joint service of men and women in combat units has been taking place in the past year on Israel streets and on social media under the slogans ‘Saving the IDF’ and ‘Stop the Madness.’ Yedioth Ahronoth uncovers people and organizations behind campaign, which was launched by anonymous group called Brothers in Arms, as well as the generous public funds received by some of these organizations.
ORTHODOX MK, NGO LAUD TRUMP AND WIFE FOR VISITING WESTERN WALL SEPARATELY
Trump entered the men’s section of the site together with Western Wall administrator Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, while Melania and Ivanka went to the women’s section accompanied by the rabbi’s wife, Yael
Ne’emanei Torah Va’Avoda – Yisroel Chofshit
Ne’emanei Torah Va’Avoda – Yisroel Chofshit
Rav Avraham Roznikov, the Rabbi of the Ichilov Hospital, has written a Responsum on this subject. Rav Roznikov identifies four reasons why Israel should adopt a more reasonable policy toward searching for chametz in hospitals prior to and during Passover. His fourth and final reason is that utensils that have absorbed the food taste of prohibited food that are then mixed with other utensils are considered to be kosher according to the legal principal of following after the majority status. This means, that in a case when a suspect utensil was mixed up with other utensils, the suspect utensil is considered to be nullified among the majority. We are not obligated to then purify all of the utensils because of the minority, but they are all considered kosher. In addition there is the halachic principal of kli shlishi (the third utensil). Jewish law distinguishes between the pot that cooks the food on the fire to the utensils in which the food is transferred after that fact.
For this reason and others food can be eaten on the utensils in the hospital and the hospital can clean the dishes with other utensils on Passover without concern for minority cases.
