Knesset Bans Non-Orthodox Rabbis And Rabbinical Students From Praying In Knesset’s Synagogue, Which Is Reserved For Orthodox Use Only, Knesset Speaker Says

“A lot of the students were very upset and shocked. You’d think that the Knesset would be a place of ingathering of the Jewish people, but actually we learned that it has boundaries that don’t include liberal Jews. Paradoxically, this decision served as an appropriate end to our conversation about religion and state in Israel."

 

Knesset Bans Non-Orthodox Rabbis And Rabbinical Students From Praying In Knesset’s Synagogue, Which Is Reserved For Orthodox Use Only, Knesset Speaker Says
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

As if anyone needed it, here's more proof Israel, in violation of its own laws, discriminates against non-Orthodox Jewish movements.

A group of about 60 male and female non-Orthodox rabbinical students attended an event in Israel’s Parliament the Knesset earlier this week and found out firsthand that despite laws that are supposed to protect freedom of religion, they are truly not wanted in Israel.

While most of the rabbinical students were  members of the Masorti (Conservative) Movement, there were also students from all major and minor non-Orthodox seminaries worldwide in the group, which was attending an event in Knesset organized by Jewish Pluralism Watch, a Masorti-movement-founded organization which which monitors elected officials behavior on matters of religion and state.

According to a report in Ha'aretz, the co-ed group asked permission to use of the Knesset’s synagogue to pray mincha (the afternoon prayer service). The brief prayer service would have been egalitarian.

But Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party refused to allow them to do so. The Knesset synagogue, Edelstein reportedly said, can only be used only for Orthodox prayer services. Instead, Edelstein suggested the group use a non-sacred space in the Knesset building.

“A lot of the students were very upset and shocked. You’d think that the Knesset would be a place of ingathering of the Jewish people, but actually we learned that it has boundaries that don’t include liberal Jews. Paradoxically, this decision served as an appropriate end to our conversation about religion and state in Israel,” Rabbi Joel Levy, the executive director of the Masorati Movement’s Jerusalem yeshiva and the man who asked Edelstein for permission to use the synagogue, said.

But it isn’t as if the Knesset was honest and upfront with the liberal rabbinical students and their teachers. At first, the group was reportedly told the reason they could not use the Knesset’s synagogue was because it was being used.

“So I told them we would wait [until the synagogue was free], and from there the request got shuffled up to [Edelstein] the speaker of the Knesset,” Levy said. Edelstein then told them they could not use the synagogue because they were not Orthodox.

Yizhar Hess, the executive director of the Masorti Movement in Israel, defended Edelstein, claiming that Edelstein is a long-time friend of liberal Jews, that the request to use the synagogue only came from one of the students “at the spur of the moment,” and that “the Knesset is blessed to have” Edelstein as speaker.

“The issue in question came up at the spur of the moment during the visit by one of the students, and knowing the Knesset speaker as I do, I have no doubt he will delve into the matter and find an appropriate solution. In his previous position as minister of Diaspora affairs and in his current position, Edelstein never made us feel discriminated against. The Knesset is blessed to have a speaker who understands the Jewish world, in all its different facets, so well,” Hess, who is widely but quietly looked down on by Conservative rabbis and scholars worldwide, said.

“Edelstein did not respond to a question from Haaretz asking him on what basis he made the decision to ban egalitarian prayer in the Knesset synagogue,” Ha’aretz reported.

Member of Knesset Dov Lipman of the centrist largely secular Yesh Atid Party, is a liberal haredi rabbi who immigrated to Israel from the US. Lipman “found himself serving as an intermediary between the group and the Knesset speaker’s office” as the conflict over using the synagogue escalated, Ha’aretz noted.

“There’s no doubt we need to work to find a solution to this problem, and I intend to address it with the speaker of the Knesset. After all, I’m heavily invested in making sure all Jews feel at home in Israel and certainly in the Knesset. Personally, I have absolutely no problem with the same synagogue being used at different times by different groups,” Lipman said, adding that reserving space in the Knesset for a particular use normally requires considerable advance notice.

Use of the synagogue for prayer – unless a previously scheduled event is taking place inside it – should not normally require reservations when the group seeking to use it is already in the building for an approved reason, because the specific purpose Israel’s secular founders had when building the synagogue there was to provide space for non-secular Jews to pray. (Indeed, three years ago a delegation from the Conservative Movement in the Knesset to meet with lawmakers spontaneously and without asking permission entered the synagogue and held a brief prayer service. They were not stopped.) But Lipman failed make this point.

Instead, in an attempt to at least partially justify Edelstein’s ban, Lipman went on to say that several hundred Orthodox workers in the Knesset use the synagogue regularly and “through a complete lack of understanding of Jewish life and values in America, they would view an egalitarian service in the synagogue as an affront.”

Comments

[H]

Sounds reasonable.

[normpress]

One more reason not to renew my Israeli bonds.

[Garnel Ironheart]

So your headline is a lie.
They weren't banned from praying in the shul, they were told they couldn't hold non-Orthodox services in an Orthodox shul. Had they gone in and sat separate there would have been no issue.
I am not aware of any Reformative law that says that they must pray in an egalitarian fashion.

[ah-pee-chorus]

Garnel-

You really are a dishonest piece of shit.

If a group of jews were barred from davening at a govt. chapel unless they prayed using catholic prayer books and rules, it would of course be accurate to say they were prohibited. But you knew this already.

[ah-pee-chorus]

Another shameful display by the current govt. there which seeks to eliminate all of the foundations on which Israel was built by removing one brick of democracy and freedom at a time.

[Alter Kocker]

Ah the Knesset of Israel: Sucking orthodox dick for re-election. May secular Israel awaken and wash you and your bearded brethren out of office. Honestly, these assholes act as if there are no other Jews on the planet. That is why I will not shed a tear when the real world comes crashing in on them. Self-hating Jew? By no means, Haredi watchdog? Abso-fucking-lutely.

[JACK]

Don't understand your problem Shmaryah, no orthodox shull anyplace in the world would allow mixed gender services,it is against HALACHA.
A room in the Knesset was set aside and given over to the religious Knesset members who happen to be all orthodox,and were given permission to turn it into a SHULL.
This has nothing to do with the Knesset or Israel,it is strictly a HALACHA question,and just like any other orthodox shull all over the world has the right to ban mixed gender services so too the one in the Knesset,
Shmaryah,can't understand why you getting bent out of shape,must be a slow day,
By the way I would agree that if the same group would ask the Knesset to set aside for them another Shull,where they would conduct their services,
They would have all the right to do that ,and the Knesset should accommodate them.
Shmaryah,there is one thing,I think I would agree with you 100%'the Government should absolutely get out of the religion business,there hold be a complete separation of state and religion,just like here in the good old USA

[Garnel Ironheart]

APC, it's quite simple. If I walked into a Reformative "temple" and put up a mechitzah I'd be shown the door.
But that's what it is, isn't it. If the Reformatives get insulted, its the fault of the Orthodox. If the Orthodox get insulted, it's the fault of the Orthodox.

[Sarek]

If that synagogue is said to be for Orthodox only, then the Knesset MUST provide another *sanctuary* for non-Orthodox Jews -- not some hidden corner of the building as suggested. Otherwise, any claims that the Knesset is representative of all Jews is shown to be bullshit.

And I can't understand why Hess is playing toady.

[Mickey Rosenfeld is a Joke]

Israel, the only nation in the middle east where Jews are not allowed to pray in their own shuls or temples.

[Allan]

It’s like that old joke:

“I’m a reform Jew. Can’t I just take a quick look around the Knesset shul?”

“Well, OK. But don’t let me catch you praying!”

[Nachum]

Wow, what a surprise! They come to Israel to make a big deal about the lack of "pluralism" and happen to chance into an example of it! Who would have thought?

Yes, I am accusing them of setting the whole thing up. I've seen this happen before. (And just look at the very end of the piece for proof of that.)

By the way, Dov Lipman's statement is despicable- blaming the ignorant Israelis for not properly understanding American values. Did he ever consider that maybe as guests in Israel, the visitors should show some sensitivity to local values? And did he ever consider that some people may (shocker!) be opposed to non-Orthodox Judaism even while understanding it all too well?

Sarek, the Knesset MUST? Why MUST it? The number of non-Orthodox Jews in Israel is negligible. And should the Knesset make a separate Reform chapel? Reconstructionist? It has a mosque for the twenty-odd Muslims in the building. Should it have a few dozen Christian chapels, one for each denomination?

[JACK]

Allan,
It's a sick joke,because no reform Jew has ever been barred from an orthodox synagogue,and you know it.
It is only when they want to change the venue ,which is halachickly forbidden ,only then would they be barred

[JACK]

Of course Jews being barred from praying on the Temple Mount ,which is a public place,that is no problem for Haaretz and Shmaryah.
The leftist hypocrisy is just mind boggling

[Rebitzman]

I am curious - how can a room with no one in it be Orthodox (or Reform, or.....)?

I ask because we once allowd the members of an Orthodox shul use our chapel for a while during renovations and while they were in there Orthodox rules were followed. Paradoxically in Youngstown a few years ago there was a fire in a Conservative shul and the Orthodox shul allowed them use of the space for their eval services (time staggered, of course).

Seems to me that a room can be neither Orthodox or Liberal.

[SkepticalYid]

Posted by: JACK | November 26, 2014 at 03:13 PM

Yet you condemn non-Orthodox Jews for desiring to pray according to their practice in the Knesset.

Hypocrite

[MarkfromShortHills]

Score another shitty act from those masters of shitty acts, the ever-so-holy Orthodox. Disgusting in every respect.

[Alter Kocker]

Once again, you sick intolerant orthodox fucks, you do not get it. Here we are, in Israel, the only Jewish state on the planet, in the Knesset, the only Jewish parliament on the planet, and there is a chapel in the only Jewish parliament in the only Jewish nation. And guess whose banned from praying in that little Jewish chapel, in the Jewish parliament in the Jewish state; Jews. Why, because those who believe that they represent Jews are intolerant of their own people and how they pray. For light reading, I assign Dr. Seuss' "Butter Battle Book". I assume my Haredi cousins have already banned that book because "Goyyishe". Like I say, I pray for the day that secular Israel finally finally rises up and says: "Go back to the ghetto and stay there" "You do not represent us, AND YOU NEVER WILL."

[Rocky]

For a country with so few friends in the world, Israel's behavior towards non-Orthodox Jews is very disappointing.

[Garnel Ironheart]

Again the misrepresentation is amazing.
No one is banned from praying in the Knesset chapel. Anyone can go in and pray.
But if people want to invent a set of religious rituals based on convenience and liberal feel-good principles and call it Judaism why does that chapel have to accommodate that?
And why is it that when Muslims do the exact same things to Jews on the Har haBayis it's once again the Orthodox who are to blame?

[jake]

When I was a kid my father and I walked into a reform temple in New York City. My father was asked to remove his hat and I was asked to remove my kipa. We peaked into their cathedral and then left.

[SkepticalYid]

Posted by: Garnel Ironheart | November 26, 2014 at 05:29 PM

"Feel good judaism..." The typical ignorant slander imposed on other denominations by Orthodreck Jews like you. There are many conservative, reform and reconstructionist jews who are devoted to their faith and make personal sacrifices ipas part of their commitment, they all include some people who are shomer Shabbat, shomer Yom Tov and kosher, to say the least.

[(The other) Eli]

Jake, you must be pretty old then. Wearing a head covering wasn't discouraged for quite a few decades. It's now heavily encouraged during prayers.

[Shari]

In the 90's, I belonged to a Chavurah that met in the chapel of a Modern Othodox synagogue, whose congregation had diminished in number. We held our egalitarian service in the chapel and they held their service in the main sanctuary. And nobody got hurt in the process.
And while this article doesn't indicate it, on a previous trip a similar group davened in the shul, without first asking permission. Apparently, the shul survived the experience.

[Nachum]

Shari: Your last point only proves what a stunt this was. They could have done exactly what they did the last time, but they had to make a big show and run to the media. And whaddya know, that was their whole reason for being there.

"There are many conservative, reform and reconstructionist jews who are devoted to their faith"

Rocky: You might as well point out that Israel has enough problems without its so-called "friends" piling on. And yet pile on they did.
Sure there are. But they're a relatively tiny part of the population overall.

"and make personal sacrifices"

Reform, at least, doesn't really demand any- that's the whole point.

[Achmad]

Orthodox jews are at least consistent. They pray 3 times a day in an orthodox minyan where the genders are separated.
These Reform and Conservitive americans only want to use religion for political mileage.
Do theser students insist on a mixed minyan 3 times a day?
Funny as no where in the world is there a minyan 3 times a day in the reform mixed fashion. So why onmly make troubler in the Knesset and suddenly have this urge to have a mixed minyan for Mincha. Did they have a mixed minyan for Shacharit?
Reminds me of the Women of the wall who only need their minyan once a month and only at the holy Kotel!

[hia5]

Events like this make me question my ties to the State of Israel—until I remember that the overwhelming majority of Israeli Jews are just as opposed to the Orthodox monopoly on Judaism as I am. And I feel more connected to 19th-century shtetl Orthodoxy than I do to 21st-century haredism. I find almost no connection between my Jewishness and the Jewishness of the haredim and the right-wing Orthodox. Maybe it's time to recognize that we are no longer one religion or one people. (Just as the Orthodox wouldn't want their children to marry my children, I certainly wouldn't want my children to marry theirs.) Maybe it's time for a divorce.