On Thursday morning at 5:30 AM, Israeli police officers came to the house of a colleague of mine, the Conservative rabbi in Haifa, Rabbi Dubi Haiyun. They were arresting him because he had violated the law of the country, performing a wedding outside of the auspices of the Israeli Rabbinate. The law he broke carries a sentence of up to two years in prison. The law prohibits rabbis that aren’t part of the Israeli Rabbinate, run by an ultra-Orthodox body, to officiate at weddings, despite the fact that 55% of Israelis believe that civil and non-Orthodox weddings should be available to all who want them.
Yesterday’s incident in Haifa hits home as a lover of Israel and obviously as a Conservative rabbi. I’m so saddened and angry that the homeland that I pray for daily attacks rabbis that are trying to bring people closer to their Judaism. A Jewish state means a place for all Jews to fully express their Judaism. While on a personal level it pains me that any wedding I officiate is not accepted by the religious body of the state of Israel, I’m more pained by what this means for the Jewish people.
The book of Lamentations, which we’ll read on Saturday night in commemoration of Tisha b’Av, begins with the word Eicha, ‘how?’ and the word serves as a refrain throughout the book, as well as in our Torah reading and Haftarah tomorrow. Eicha, how have we arrived at a place where our Jewish state doesn’t recognize the rights of so many Jews? Eicha, how have we not stood up for the religious ideals we know to be true? Eicha, how have we not pushed our elected officials to support a Jewish state that honors all Jews?
Hours after being detained and questioned by the police, Rabbi Haiyun was teaching about pluralism and tolerance at an already-scheduled commemoration of Tisha b’Av at the President’s residence. The major theme of the day is sinat chinam, baseless hatred. It’s the hatred that keeps us from respecting one another despite our different or religious ideologies, and we’re taught that it was this hatred that brought about the destruction of the Temple and the exile of the Jewish people.
This Tisha b’Av, I mourn not just the calamities of the past, but the ways in which we continue to destroy ourselves. I pray that we work towards the creation of a Jewish state that understands the plurality of the Jewish community we live in. I pray for a Jewish future that allows all of us to express our Judaism in a way that is authentic to who we are. May we all work towards that future.
