Shortly after a group of rabbis’ wives publicized a letter calling on Jewish
girls to keep away from Arab men, over 30 Reform women rabbis issued a statement
on Wednesday declaring the rebbetzins’ letter “yet another link in the growing
wave of racial incitement and intimidation, that has not received the
appropriate response from the country’s leaders and its law enforcement
agencies.”
No legal or disciplinary action has been taken against the
nearly 50 municipal rabbis who recently issued an edict against renting or
selling real-estate to non-Jews in Israel.
RELATED:Poll: 48% of Israeli Jews oppose rabbis' edict“This letter,” the women
rabbis, from the Israeli Council of Progressive Rabbis, wrote of the rebbetzin’s
document, “is a call to exclude the Arab citizen in Israel from workplaces, the
cities’ streets and the public sphere.”
On the same day as the Reform
rabbis’ letter, the Labor Party called to put an end to the “racist sentiments,
recently aired in the media.”
“The rabbi and rebbetzin letters are part
of a wave of racism that is threatening to pull Israeli society into dark and
dangerous places,” Labor Party chairman Ehud Barak said in an announcement. “The
Labor Party under my leadership is active in bringing together the various
groups of Israel’s citizens, in the spirit of the Declaration of
Independence.”
In their statement, the Reform rabbis noted four “sins” in
the rebbetzins’ appeal: “the sin of racism and hating the Arab residents and
citizens living among us here... the sin of insulting condescension aimed at our
girls... who are presented as helpless and objects of manipulation...
the
sin of chauvinism, in addressing the letter only to women, while the rates of
men marrying non-Jewish women are much higher than those of women marrying
non-Jews... [and the] sin of an exile mind-set, in creating a discourse of fear
and seclusion that does not suit a nation safely living on its
land.”
While stating their objection to interfaith marriages, a ceremony
they would not conduct, the women rabbis noted their positive outlook on social
and professional connections “between ourselves, our daughters and our sons, and
all citizens and residents of the State of Israel, regardless of religion, race
and sex.”
The statement added that “Jews confident in their Jewish
identity should not fear contacts with people of other races,” which, it said,
are the foundation for the construction of a tolerant, healthy and sustainable
society. “There is no point in preserving our heritage without keeping its
command of being better people, worthy of God’s image in which we were
created.”
On Tuesday, nearly 30 wives of prominent rabbis issued a letter
warning young Jewish women who work or volunteer with Arabs, against being drawn
into relationships with them. The letter was the initiative of an organization
called Lehava, an acronym for “preventing assimilation.”
“Your job is
tough, your dedication great, and you don’t always get sufficient recognition,
or a word of thanks,” the rebbetzins wrote of young women who work in hospitals
and other public institutions as part of their national service. “In those
places, there are quite a few Arab laborers who give themselves Hebrew names.
Yusuf becomes Yossi, Samir – Sammy, and Abed becomes Ami. They seek
relationships with you, try to win your affection and give you all the attention
in the world.”
However, the good manners and concern displayed by the
Arab men are but a ploy to draw the women to their villages, the letter
cautioned, “and when they are in control everything changes.”
“Your
grandmothers never dreamt that one of their descendants would do something that
would remove the family’s following generations from the Jewish people,” the
rebbetzins wrote. “For your sake, for the further generations, and so you don’t
undergo the terrible ordeal, we appeal to you... do not go out with non-Jews,
don’t work in places with non-Jews and don’t do national service together with
non-Jews.”
Among the signatories on the letter were a daughter-in-law of
former chief Sephardi Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the wife of Kiryat Arba’s Rabbi Dov
Lior and the wife of Beit El’s Rabbi Zalman Melamed.
Rabbi Mauricio
Balter, president of the Masorti (Conservative) Movement’s Rabbinical Assembly
of Israel, said in a statement on Tuesday that “the Masorti Movement does not
support intermarriage, of course, but there is no connection [between that and]
the hatred and incitement campaign, appropriate to dark periods in history when
the fear of the stranger turned into persecution and manhunts.
Whoever
feels the need for seclusion should check their Jewish identity.”
Balter
asserted that “our faith is firm enough to treat non-Jews equally and with
respect.”