Dear Yair,
It was just announced that Yesh Atid decided to support Rabbi David
Stav, chairman of Tzohar rabbis, as the candidate for chief Ashkenazi rabbi and
demanded his appointment as part of your coalition negotiations. This raises a
major question: Is Yesh Atid just as determined to demand freedom of marriage in
Israel as it is to support Rabbi Stav?
Following your public statements on
religious pluralism, as I do, I can only imagine we share similar feelings on
these issues. But this question becomes doubly important in light of Rabbi
Stav’s problematic positions on this very subject of marriage. I truly hope that
your support for him doesn’t detract from your determination to advance a civil
agenda in Israel. We need to know that you are ready to raise freedom of
marriage at the negotiation table. We want to feel confident that you will not
give in to the continued denial of so many Israelis’ right to marry, regardless
of how antagonistic Rabbi Stav is towards civil marriage and a pluralistic
Israel.
Many in Israel and the Jewish world were encouraged by your
public statements less than a month ago at the Conference of Presidents of Major
Jewish Organizations, as you enthusiastically proclaimed: “Complete dominance of
the Orthodox rabbis over marriage and divorce is an insult to every free man.
This is just wrong and therefore it has to disappear.” You rightly emphasized,
as all Hiddush studies demonstrate, that “most Israelis want a pluralistic
Judaism.” You emphatically promised that, “I’m going to do everything in my
power to see that there’s going to be civil marriage.”
The problem, Yair,
is that Rabbi Stav – no less than his fellow ultra-Orthodox candidates – opposes
that very viewpoint which you expressed. He stands in stark contradiction to the
desire of the overwhelming majority of your voters. Rabbi Stav insists on
perpetuating the Chief Rabbinate’s monopoly over marriage and divorce. He vainly
threatened that if the rabbinate’s control over marriage is not maintained, the
Jewish people will “split into two or three peoples.” He is a staunch opponent
of Jewish pluralism and his organization recently announced that it opposes any
state recognition of Reform Judaism. He fiercely opposes civil marriages and
sees them (and non-Orthodox marriages) as the direct path to apostasy and a sure
recipe for the loss of those couples and their offspring to the Jewish people
forever! In contrast to your commitment to advance same-sex marriages in Israel,
Stav boasts that “I confronted the chair of the ‘Opposite Sexual Orientation”
movement on Channel 2 and spoke against this phenomenon and the Pride
Parade.”
Hardly a likely partner in the quest for a pluralistic
Israel.
In your public appearances you expressed a sincere support for
mainstream Jewish denominations and stressed the need for Israel to recognize
them. As Rabbi Stav labels Reform conversions as “fictitious” and attacked the
Supreme Court when it ruled that the State of Israel must recognize these
conversions, it is very clear to me that you and Rabbi Stav do not share the
same positions. Have you managed to convince him to change his views? You may
have not been aware of his harsh positions on such core issues, but trust that
you realize these very topics only generate more tension between Israel and the
predominantly non-Orthodox diaspora Jewry.
I was glad to read that your
colleague, Rabbi Shai Piron, who announced Yesh Atid’s support for Rabbi Stav’s
candidacy, has expressed support for civil marriages in Israel. It is gratifying
that this is the position of your party, which rose to power in order to
facilitate this necessary transformation and herald in a new era for a civil
agenda in Israel.
I commend Rabbi Piron for courageously declaring that
he himself has changed his own views on a number of such issues, but wonder
whether Rabbi Stav is similarly open. His public pronouncements certainly do not
reflect that.
As I am sure you know, 94 percent of your party’s
supporters want to see a reality of religious freedom and equality in Israel and
85% support recognition of all forms of marriage. Assuming that Yesh Atid
remains committed to these values and its voters, it is essential that you raise
your demands for freedom of religion in Israel at the negotiation table. We wish
to know that the call for religious freedom will be amplified with no less
volume than the announcement of your support for Rabbi Stav’s candidacy for
chief rabbi. Otherwise, the integrity and trustworthiness of your party and its
path may be called into question.
I cannot emphasize enough how
imperative it is that at this stage of the coalition negotiations, you declare
that these values are essential to you. As you enter the coalition and support
Rabbi Stav’s candidacy you must not lower the flag on the mast of religious
freedom and equality. As you rightfully said to the Rabbinical Assembly
Convention last May, “Israel cannot be the only country in the Western world
that has no freedom of religion for Jews.”
If this is to become a
reality, we need to hear it from you, forcefully, here in Jerusalem, at the
negotiation table. As first step, we need to know that Yesh Atid is demanding
that freedom of marriage is realized, bringing Israel in line with all other
world democracies, and responding to the yearning of the clear majority of
Israelis and all of Yesh Atid supporters! I wish you much success in this sacred
undertaking at such a crucial time for Israel.
Sincerely, Rabbi Uri Regev
Hiddush – Freedom of Religion for Israel