September 14, 2009. Tel Aviv, Israel.Hiddush, aimed at  “Promoting Religious Freedom and Diversity; Realizing the Promise of Israel’s Founders”is a new trans-denominational advocacy and public education organization comprised as a partnership between Israeli Jews and World Jewry. Launching in time for the beginning of the Jewish New Year, the new organization’s intention is to have an impact on Israel’s direction and the global Jewish agenda in the year ahead. 

 

Hiddush, which in Hebrew means innovation and renewal, marks an unprecedented new drive to strengthen Israel as a Jewish and democratic state and to realize the promise of Israel’s Declaration of Independence, which states that “The State of Israel… will uphold freedom of religion and conscience and ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion.”

 

The new organization was launched at a press conference in Tel Aviv, Israel this morning (September 14^th), held at the historic building where, on May 14, 1948, Israel's independence was announced and David Ben Gurion, the country’s first prime minister, read Israel’s Declaration of Independence.

 

Hiddush is led by Israeli and Jerusalem-based Rabbi Uri Regev, Esq. as its president and CEO, and chaired by prominent Los Angeles-based American businessman and Jewish philanthropic and communal leader Stanley P. Gold, This launch marks the first time that Jewish leaders hailing from the worlds of religion, finance, entertainment, academia, and more have come together from the various Jewish religious streams and secular Judaism and from diverse political views, to promote religious freedom and diversity in Israel.

 

For Israeli Jews, their birth to death and almost everything in between is controlled by a chief rabbinate and an ultra-Orthodox (or Haredi, in Hebrew) ideology that is estranged from democracy and the majority of Jews today. Hiddush seeks to change this status quo.

 

Hiddush will strive to work in concert with the forces that are currently promoting change in Israel and the Diaspora, guided by the following principles, which make it unique by addressing the root challenge of religious freedom and equality, enhancing the current efforts of important existing organizations that are aimed at specific areas of inequity; Focusing only on issues of religious freedom and on strengthening Israel’s character as a Jewish and democratic state –to enable groups and individuals from the political left to right and from secular to Orthodox to join together in promoting this cause; Viewing this challenge as a global Jewish concern that seeks Diaspora involvement in pursuing the pluralistic and Jewish/democratic character of Israel.

 

Among the topics it will tackle are: promoting civil as well as religious marriage and divorce officiated by rabbis of all streams in Judaismincluding Jews by birth, Jews by choice and new immigrants; promoting civic equality in education, employment and army service including the mass exemption of ultra-Orthodox youth from military service or national service; discrimination of women; refusal of ultra-Orthodox schools to implement the legal requirement for teaching mathematics, English, sciences and civics; and enabling  Israelis to actively and fully participate in Jewish life by allowing free, pluralistic practice of all streams of Judaism.

 

 “This new organization will be greater than the sum of our parts. It is high time to go back to the core principles of freedom of choice and diversity, supported by the overwhelming majority of both Israelis and world Jewry. We will facilitate a partnership to promote a legal and spiritual change in Israel that will allow Judaism to freely flourish and strengthen democracy,” Rabbi Regev said. “We will be mobilizing among opinion leaders and the grassroots, among business leaders and other segments of the community. Jews the world over have a stake in this issue. We plan to continue to grow public support.”

 

The organization’s website, www.hiddush.org, will keep up to date on all happenings regarding this topic, provide educational material for use in synagogues, schools and elsewhere and provide ongoing news coverage on the topic. It will be a one-stop-shop for any and all religion/state matters.

 

Additional early endorsers include business leader and philanthropist Charles Bronfman, producer Norman Lear, author Amos Oz, feminist writer Letty Cottin Pogrebin, former Israeli Minister of Justice Prof. Amnon Rubinstein, Religious Kibbutz Movement activist Dr. Gili Zivan, jurist Alan Dershowitz, and leaders of the Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist movements.

 

“Today, Israel’s democracy is under threat. The increased stronghold of religion on the state has a dire impact on both Israel’s image and the rights and dignity of hundreds of thousands in Israel. Importantly, this is not an episodic situation. Nor was this situation handed down to Israel by divine commandment; it is a human-made situation, and it can and must be changed,” said Regev. “We intend to do just that.”

 

U.S. businessman and Hiddush chair Stanley Gold warned of the "weakening of the Israeli economy if a drastic shift in the Ultra-Orthodox school 
curriculum does not occur, and if a large-scale increase in their 
participation in the workforce doesn't take place."

According to Gold, "Today, Israel is an attractive place for 
investors, in large part due to its educated work force. The fact that 
a quarter of Jewish students in Israel study in the Ultra-Orthodox school 
system threatens to destroy this advantage.  In the Ultra-Orthodox education 
system a large percentage of male students study mathematics on a very 
low level and they don’t study English or science at all. 



 

“This situation," Gold said, "threatens to reduce the Israeli economy 
within ten years to a third-world level." Gold emphasizes that sixty percent of 
ultra-Orthodox men in Israel study in yeshivas and do not work, supporting 
their families solely with government stipends. Different studies have found that ultra-Orthodox men’s avoidance of joining the Israeli job market 
costs Israel between NIS 5 to 15 billion annually. There is nothing in the Torah that prohibits a religious man from providing for his family with dignity.”

 

World renowned Israeli novelist and activist Amos Oz recently told over 100 rabbis from the Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements who took part in a special High Holidays webinar regarding the organizational launch: “Today, there is a new Hiddush,  a movement of all those who believe in spiritual pluralism… the movement of everyone who wants to cherish and enhance the great Jewish tradition of cultural, spiritual and religious pluralism.” Urging cooperation among Jews in Israel and around the world, he said, “The prime struggle is not between left and right, not between Ashkenazi and Sephardic, not even between the rich and the poor or between Jew and Arab. It’s the struggle over tolerance, pluralism and open mindedness.”

In conjunction with their launch, Hiddush commissioned a large-scale public opinion survey by well-known Israeli pollster Rafi Smith where time and again, a majority of Israelis were found to be against the status quo. This marks the beginning of an ongoing Religion and State Index that Hiddush will conduct.  Among the key findings:

·        84% of secular Jewish Israelis think the state should grant equal status to all 3 major streams of Judaism (Orthodox; Reform; Conservative);

·        84% object to the current system of mass exemption from army service for men who study in yeshivas; 


·        92% of secular Israelis support ending the ultra-orthodox monopoly on marriage; 95% of new immigrants from the Former Soviet Union;

·         64% of all Israeli Jews support introducing civil marriage and/or Reform/Conservative;

·        72% of Jewish Israelis object to the current policy of making conversion to Judaism contingent on observing the Sabbath and Kashrut (ritual dietary laws) and retroactively revoking conversions for not fully observing Sabbath/kashrut;

·        66% of Jewish Israelis believe that Israel should take into consideration the opinions of world Jewry on matters of law of return, conversion, marriage and matters of religion & state;

·        80% of Jewish Israelis object to the gender-segregated Mehadrin bus lines, public bus lines that segregate women and requiring that they sit in the back;

·        Tension between secular and ultra-orthodox is second in importance, after Arab-Jewish tensions, and double that of the tension between left and right or between poor and rich;

·        71% support reducing financial support given to yeshivas and large families (5+ children) in order to increase participation in the workforce;

·        60% of Jewish Israelis support the separation of religion and state in Israel.

Public transportation is prohibited on the Sabbath throughout most of the country, resulting with limited mobility available to the elderly, sick and those who cannot afford a private car. Moreover, this also results in the loss of many lives when young people drive under the influence when they return from Friday night partying, since Saturday is the only weekend day.

Today’s situation has a great impact on Israeli society. Here are just a few examples.In Israel today, ultra-Orthodox schools receive full public funding despite their failure to implement the core curriculum of general studies required by the Ministry of Education. Ultra-Orthodox boys receive minimal instruction in math, sciences and English during elementary school. Their yeshivas for high school-age boys teach no general studies whatsoever. As a result, public funds are diverted to a school system that does not prepare students to participate in the work force.

By 2025, twenty-two percent of all Israeli children are expected to be ultra-Orthodox. So if this educational inequality continues, within fifteen years, one-quarter of all Israeli children will not receive a basic education, nor will they be prepared for gainful employment.

Today, two-thirdsof ultra-Orthodox men do not participate in the workforce, compared to one-third of non-ultra-Orthodox men. Underemployment of Ultra-Orthodox men drains the Israeli economy of NIS 5-15 billion ($USD 1-4 billion) per year.

Over 300,000 immigrants from the former Soviet Union are children or grandchildren of Jews, but are not considered Jewish by the Orthodox Rabbinical authorities, and therefore cannot wed in Israel since there is no civil marriage in Israel, and neither are Reform or Conservative conversions and marriages recognized by the State.

In 1974, only two and a quarter percent of young men enlisted in the army that year were granted exemptions based on their enrollment in a yeshiva. Today, fourteen percent of eligible eighteen-year-old Jewish men evade military service by studying at an ultra-Orthodox yeshiva. It is expected that if current policies are maintained by the year 2020, twenty-five percent of Jewish youth will claim exemption from military service on the basis of Yeshiva studies.

Another egregious state supported phenomenon is state financing of gender-segregated public bus lines.  Publicly subsidized bus companies have instituted this service for their ultra-Orthodox riders who refuse to allow men and women to sit together. In a number of instances these segregated bus lines are the only direct bus route offered by the bus company (such as Jerusalem – Safed) and offer cheaper fare than the regular lines.

PRESS CONTACTS:
US/UK - Jo-Ann Mort, info@communicatechange.com, (917) 464-4593
Israel - Shmuel Bahagon, press@hiddush.org, 054-473-3337