Vita Rosenberg emigrated to Israel from Lithuania in the former Soviet Union as a small child. Years later she and her then husband were seeking an end to their 12-year marriage and as is the practice in Israel, their first stop was Israeli family court. There they agreed on an amicable settlement. But even though they had married outside of Israel in Cyprus, they were surprised to learn they would also need to obtain a religious divorce through the Chief Rabbinate. The result was an inquiry into Rosenberg’s Jewish identity, a complicated and lengthy process and something she flatly refused to tolerate.
Rosenberg sought help from a non-governmental Israeli organization called Israel Hofsheet (Freedom), headed by Uri Keidar, the founder and executive director. The organization advocates for the separation of religion and state. Rosenberg’s case is one example of their work promoting the right to civil marriage outside of the rabbinate. “When the Nazis were after her grandparents, no one had questions to ask,” says Keidar.
Israel Hofsheet helped Rosenberg take her case all the way to the Supreme Court and after three years, the decision was made to grant the divorce without the inquiry. “It was powerful because the Supreme Court recognized that the rabbinical court has the authority to grant the divorce without going through the inquiry,” says Keidar. The case took a few more twists and turns but eventually, Rosenberg got what she wanted: a Jewish divorce without the need to clarify her Judaism.
Of note is that in Israel, Keidar says Jews are 80% of the population and of those about 45% are secular, and about another 20-25% who define themselves as traditional but not religious. And while Keidar believes many people are happy to marry in a traditional Jewish ceremony, when it comes to divorce, that is where the problem lies. “Rabbinical courts are courts. They can just decide that you’re not getting divorced. You need to figure it out maybe think about it again.”
In another case, the organization helped the family of a 10-year-old girl who plays basketball on a local team. The case centered around a by-law in the Israeli Basketball Association that says if a coed team is playing against a religious team, the girls must be benched. After a two-year legal battle, the by-laws were changed. “We are dealing with a lot of gender segregation around the idea that there needs to be an acceptance that ultra-orthodox men can’t share a public space with the opposite sex,” says Keidar.
These examples highlight a fact not known to many outside of Israel, which is that religious institutions are governmental agencies. Top among those is the Chief Rabbinate, but Keidar says it also includes other ministries. And the legal separations apply to all religions in the country, including Muslim Sharia courts, and 14 different Christian courts. “The same power structure isn’t specifically only relevant to Jews,” he says, “In Israel the religious institutions control your personal status.”
The bigger issue, says Keidar, is that a civil society bound by religious rules is not conducive to modern democracies. “The idea in general that the way our country holds these discussions just do not exist in Western democracies. They do not exist outside of theocracies like Iran, Saudia Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, which isn’t a good group to be part of.”
In addition to addressing rules governing divorce, and gender equality, Israel Hofsheet advocates for equal mandatory military service, public transportation on Shabbat, and conducting civil wedding ceremonies, among other things. “As an organization we push for policy change,” says Keidar.
Israel Hofsheet is just one partner in an initiative through Jewish Federations of North America, called the Israel Religious Expression Platform, or iRep. The Jewish Federation of Greater Nashville is one of the 34 US Federation partners that supports the work of iRep to help support and promote respect for more diverse expressions of Judaism in Israel. According to Michal Becker, chief impact officer for the Jewish Federation, “It’s about giving Israelis access to alternatives religious services.” The goal is to help create a broader more inclusive society in Israel. “At the end of the day, people don’t have the freedom of choice to mark these very important times in their lives.”
Becker says the problems being addressed by iRep are not universally known to the Jewish communities outside of Israel. She says since social services in Israel are all publicly funded and administered, people are bound by religious views they may not hold. “If the government decides the only way to be Jewish is ‘religious,’ meaning orthodox, which it is, the pluralist ideas don’t have funding.” She adds that since Israelis do not have a culture of philanthropy, like in the US, it is dependent on Jewish communities outside of Israel to help. She says this is precisely why the Jewish Federation of Greater Nashville supports iRep through its grants program.
The help is coming and Keidar and while he says Israel currently has the most religious government in its history, he is optimistic about the future. “It’s a seismic change,” he says, “At the moment what we’re seeing is the beginning of a long process in which we are setting the record straight, and how things should evolve.”
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