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THE ULTRA-ORTHODOX-CONSERVATIVE LOBBY
by Shahar Ilan, Haaretz, Feb. 23, 2005
Ultra-Orthodox cultural organizations are cooperating with Conservative groups
in the Council for Jewish Culture, and the president awards the prize for Jewish
Education in the Diaspora to a Reform Jew
The discussion in the Knesset this past Tu Bishvat was unprecedented. It wasn't
a discussion in the plenum about the constitution, but a meeting in the Shas faction's
office between members of the religious lobby and the Council for Jewish Culture,
the umbrella organization for groups that offer Torah classes.
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BANDEL:
Being a fig
leaf reprsents progress.
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Politicians present included the head of the religious
lobby, Shmuel Halpert (who will rejoin the Knesset next Monday, replacing Yisrael
Eichler under a rotation agreement within Agudat Yisrael) and Knesset Finance
Committee Chairman Yaakov Litzman, also of Agudat Yisrael.
Sitting across from them were leaders of ultra-Orthodox and nationalist-religious
organizations and the president of the Conservative movement in Israel, Rabbi
Ehud Bandel.
Only six years have passed since the debate over the inclusion of Reform and Conservative
representatives on the religious councils helped prompt a huge ultra-Orthodox
rally against the High Court of Justice.
In the case of the Council for Jewish Culture, there is no High Court ruling imposing
collaboration; it actually came voluntarily. The ultra-Orthodox and nationalist-religious
organizations agreed to work together with the Conservative network providing
Torah classes simply because they believed it would improve their chances of getting
increased funding.
It's not that the Conservatives asked to join. On the contrary, the Council
officials invited them. The Jewish culture budget is the latest incarnation
of the special funding disbursed until the early 1990s to party institutions
like Shas' El Hama'ayan and Agudat Yisrael's Torah Veyahadut La'am. The decline
in the religious parties' power, the budget cuts and a series of fraud cases
led to dramatic cuts in the budget for Jewish culture.
In 2001, NIS 93 million was still allocated for this purpose, but in 2004 the
funding was less than half that amount — around NIS 43 million. Another
change in recent years, with the intervention of the High Court of Justice,
was the inclusion of non-Orthodox groups as recipients of the budget for Jewish
culture.
In 2004, the Conservative Movement received NIS 100,000. The Council for Jewish
Culture was established two months ago with the aim of restoring the budget
to its past glory and relaxing the criteria for receiving allocations. The minister
of education's adviser on ultra-Orthodox affairs, Hezi Shinelzon, who is behind
the activities of the Council for Jewish Culture, says he wants all the organizations
to reach a consensus.
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SHINELZON:
Reach a consensus.
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"There were two or there organizations that scowled and said they would
not sit with the Conservatives, so I said, `You won't get money.' Whoever receives
support is a member of the council. All of them have common problems."
Bandel says that for the ultra-Orthodox, "It was important to include us
so that the budget for Jewish culture would not be presented only as allocations
for the ultra-Orthodox." He acknowledges, "There are some who saw us
a fig leaf." But he also says that the ultra-Orthodox consenting to recognize
them as a fig leaf can be considered "an amazing innovation."
What is making this cooperation possible? Apparently, it is the growing self-confidence
of the ultra-Orthodox and greater openness on their part to the non-Orthodox.
> A woman and Conservative
Another problem arises from the inclusion of women on the council. Five days after
the Knesset meeting, the two issues arose together. The council met with Education
Minister Limor Livnat. Bandel was abroad and asked the movement's chairwoman,
Dr. Irit Zmora, to attend the meeting. Zmora says, "I was an outsider there,
that's for sure, but they received me very nicely."
>
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ZMORA: Livnat's
Conservative guard.
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She sat with the other women alongside Minister Livnat, but came with her hair
uncovered and wearing a pants suit. Her conclusion after the meeting was that
"perhaps we were being paranoid when we thought the Education Ministry's
supervisors were looking for us."
She found out that they were strict with everyone. Rabbi Naftali Porush, director
general of the ultra-Orthodox organization Degel Yerushalayim, which is associated
with the Porush faction in Agudat Yisrael, is one of the two members of the Council
for Jewish Culture's secretariat. Porush refrained from addressing the breaking
of the taboo on cooperation with the Conservative movement, and settled for attributing
responsibility for their inclusion in the council to Education Minister Limor
Livnat.
According to him, "The council was formed at the minister's initiative and
she is interested in having whoever gets funding in the council. It is her right
to invite whoever she wants."
The second member of the secretariat, the coordinator of Torah classes for the
Ma'ale cultural organization, which is identified with the National Religious
Party, was less restrained. "They are an organization that gets funding and
they are partners. I welcome the cooperation of everyone, both the cooperation
of the nationalist-religious and the different variations of ultra-Orthodox. It's
a breath of fresh air. It stems from the fact that we all have a common interest.
The sectarian issue is irrelevant."
The ultra-Orthodox-Conservative cooperation is so unusual that it overshadowed
another milestone that occurred last week regarding progressive streams of Judaism.
On Sunday, President Moshe Katsav awarded the President's Prize for Jewish Education
in the Diaspora to none other than Prof. Sara Lee, director of the Reform movement's
Hebrew Union College School of Jewish Education in Los Angeles. Lee has trained
generations of Reform educators and is an important researcher of inter-religious
cooperation.
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KATSAV: Don't get
the orthodox angry.
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During the ceremony President Katsav congratulated Lee "for her many years
of activity in dialogue and studies in the field of religious education."
He praised the prizewinners "for displaying educational leadership and setting
an example," and expressed the State of Israel's sincere appreciation to
the recipients.
It is doubtful if there could be greater recognition for the Reform education
system in the Diaspora than this. Lee had already won the Hebrew University's
Jewish Education prize in 1997, at the height of the fight over the conversion
law. Then, she says, a debate arose over the participation of Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu in the ceremony. This time the award presentation took place relatively
quietly.
Chosen by committee
The president was not enthusiastic about the importance attributed by this writer
to the awarding of the prize to a member of the Reform movement. He stressed the
fact that he was not the one who chose the prizewinners; rather, it was a committee
from the Jewish Agency.
"I trust the judging committee," said Katsav. "Prof. Lee deserves
the prize and I'm not bothered by which stream of Judaism she belongs to."
That's a chilly reaction. "I very much respect the members of the Reform
movement. I have no problem with the prize."
Conclusion: The president is willing to award a prize to a Reform Jew, but above
all it's important to him not to anger the Orthodox. At the president's residence,
officials sought to stress the fact that Lee was not the sole recipient of the
prize, that there were three other awardees.
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