Here at YBK, I don’t try to get into politics. Being in a bi-partisan marriage (he’s a die-hard Republican, I’m… well, not Republican), I understand that sometimes bringing up tricky subjects in my beliefs will only isolate people, and the goal of YBK is to spread the love.
But there is no love in Israel with this Conversion Bill that the ultra-Orthodox parties are trying to pass through Israeli Parliament, or Knesset. If it passes, it means that the Hardei, or ultra-Orthodox rabbis will have full control over who is determined to be or not to be a Jew in the state of Israel. They will be able to reject any conversions that aren’t “fit,” including those by several Orthodox and modern Orthodox rabbis. They will have control over births, marriages and deaths and how they are dealt with in the state of Israel.
This reminds me exactly as to why my mother has had such a hard time dealing with members of the Orthodox community: When she was a child, growing up with a Sephardi lifestyle, these people were the ones who would harp on her family and tell them that they weren’t really Jewish because of where they were Sephardic. I’m glad we have moved forward in the American Jewish community, but it seems like Israel needs to get a grip.
In the Torah, it strictly outlines that G-d is the almighty and true judge, not the Hardei who will tell people if they’re Jewish enough. It’s almost as if this power would make them feel better about themselves, which G-d has told us in many different stories that to try to possess the power that G-d has is blasphemy.
I always wonder what these people would have told Ruth, who converted simply with, “Wherever you will go, I will go. Let your people become my people and your G-d, my G-d.” Would the Haredi tell her, the woman who would be one of the direct ancestors to King David and, eventually, our Messiah, that she wasn’t Jewish enough? After all, she was a Moabite woman, and she wasn’t supposed to be allowed to convert according to Jewish law. And yet she did, showing loyalty and being given the gift that from her line that the savior of her people would be born.
It’s here when I realize that I feel like that the Israel that I would want to be a part of is never going to exist. After all, it’s Israel that arrested Anat Hoffman, a member of the group Women of the Wall, for carrying a Torah scroll. It’s Israel that won’t recognize the fact that I’m married because I put in an important amendment into my ketubah, or marriage contract. It’s Israel that thinks it’s a good idea to give the Jewish world identity, particularly to those in the Diaspora, to a bunch of extremists. Israel, when I was younger, seemed to be a place where we can all be Jews together. Now, it seems, we can only be Jews if they say that we can be Jews.
I understand now why the secular Jews of Israel have such disdain for the minority of the Orthodox. Not only are they paying taxes so that the ultra-Orthodox won’t have to work, but now they are trying to force their ideas down everyone’s throats. And now, they’re trying to do it with Americans, who, when we go to Israel in the future, would not be considered Jewish because these rabbis say so. It’s isolating the people who love and believe in you. With Israel being such a PR disaster already, why would you want to do something stupid like that?
I would love if, in my lifetime, I could see the Holy Temple in Jerusalem be built up once more. But I have to ask the Haredi – how do you expect it to be built if you reject the majority of Jews from being a part of it? How are we going to get our Meshiach when all you want to do is fight those who are Jewish, identify as a part of the Jewish people and want to help shape our destiny?
So today, I wish on this Ninth of Av that we do not destroy ourselves by dividing us against one another. The Hardei could really use a lesson in that.
And since it is the Ninth of Av, it’s traditional not to eat, so therefore, there will be no recipe… just some food for the mind instead.
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