Mission Statement

Hiddush will work to implement the basic values guaranteed in Israel’s Declaration of Independence

06/07/2011 11:00

Tags: Jewish ·  Hiddush ·  Israel

Uri Regev launching Hiddush at the Hall of Independence in Tel Aviv 14.11.09. Photography: Limor Edery

Hiddush will work to implement the basic values guaranteed in Israel’s Declaration of Independence, freedom of religion and equality, without which no enlightened democracy can exist. This is a viable mission, and we can make it a reality

Freedom of religion and equality in shouldering the civic burden are among the issues of greatest importance to Israel’s citizens and greatest impact on the quality of their lives and the future of their country. The Declaration of Independence promised Israeli citizens freedom of religion and conscience. But in the state’s 61 years this promise has been realized to a very partial extent. As a result, democracy and the safeguarding of human rights have been severely undermined. There is no other enlightened democracy in the world where freedom of religion and freedom from religion are in a worse state than in Israel. The religious legislation that exists in Israel, particularly in the area of marital status, exists elsewhere only in radical Muslim countries.

Hiddush was founded as a result of a growing recognition that the problems of religious freedom and equality in shouldering the civic burden are harming large parts of the population, from cradle to grave. They are endangering Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state. As time goes by, the task of carrying out the necessary root canal operation on matters of religion and state in Israel is becoming increasingly difficult.

Hiddush was founded at the initiative of Rabbi Uri Regev, in collaboration with businessman Stanley Gold. Regev, who previously founded the Israel Religious Action Center and headed it for many years, serves as the CEO of Hiddush. Gold, who is a prominent leader in the American Jewish community and has done a great deal to help the Israeli economy through investments, is the chairman of the organization in the United States.

The principles that guided them in founding the organization were:

1. There is a need for an active organization to promote religious freedom and equality in shouldering the civic burden; an organization that will act on behalf of the entire public, from secular to religious, from right, center, and left.
2. There is a need for an organization that will deal with the full range of issues pertaining to religious freedom and equality in burden sharing, all of which have a common root, and that will act to realize the public’s aspiration to have an in depth correction performed on these matters.
3. There is a need to join forces and forge a partnership between the Israeli public and the vast majority of Diaspora Jewry in order to meet the challenge. This derives in part from the natural partnership between Israel and the Diaspora in building the land, and also from the fact that the issues in question are ones in which Diaspora Jews also have a clear interest (marriage, conversion, etc.)

The goals of Hiddush:

1. Implement the promises that were made in the Declaration of Independence for freedom of religion and conscience and equal rights without regard to religion or creed.
2. Work toward increasing parity in shouldering the civic burden, both in terms of military service and the work force, among other ways by enforcing the core curriculum throughout the school system.
3. Educate and inform on the subject of Israeli society’s duty to adopt in practice the principles of religious freedom and equality as fundamental components of democracy and respect for human and civil rights.
4. Instill the understanding that there is no contradiction between Israel’s being a Jewish state and implementing the principles of democracy and freedom of religion and conscience. To the contrary, the more the Jewish religion is freed from the chains of politics and the wheeler-dealers who purport to speak for it, the better its standing will become.

The Problems

The issues that need to undergo change are many and diverse. They straddle the lives of the country’s residents and citizens from cradle to grave, from the right to raise a family to the right to dissolve a marriage, from the blood discrimination in the military draft to the inequality in allocating public resources, from the question of who is a Jew to the question of who is a rabbi. This state of affairs is entirely of our own making, a result of political maneuvering that distorts the wishes of a majority of the Jewish public in Israel and the world, violates the democratic nature of the state and prevents the implementation of the guarantees set out in the Declaration of Independence. Because of political maneuvering the numerous attempts by prime ministers to advance conversion in Israel have failed. Because of coalition considerations the passage of a law that would enable every person in Israel to wed in accordance with his or her worldview is being thwarted. For the sake of maintaining government stability, the Tal Law formalizing draft dodging was granted an extension for no less than five years. For the same reason the previous government also passed a law exempting ultra-Orthodox yeshivas for high-school ages (“small yeshivas”) from teaching the core curriculum.

Current policy in the area of religious freedom contravenes the wishes of a majority of the Israeli public. It disrupts the foundations of democracy and causes great cynicism with regard to democracy and the political system. It is creating a danger and a threat to the judicial system in Israel. It is continually widening discrimination against the public that serves in the military and is productive, while making warped use of public funds. Unless a change occurs, it is estimated that in 2020 a quarter of the draft cycle will enter a yeshiva instead of serving in the military or working, and that rate will continue to grow. In that same decade a third of the children in Israel will be enrolled in the ultra-Orthodox education system, which does not prepare its graduates for the work force, or else prepares them very partially. This state of affairs poses a genuine problem for the country’s security and economic strength, and threatens the state of Israel’s very existence.

Violations of religious freedom

• The basic right to get married in their own country is being withheld from more than 300,000 Israelis, members of Jewish families, who are not recognized as Jews by the Orthodox rabbinate. Among these are new immigrants, converts, and others. They are compelled to live as common-law spouses or travel to another country to get married.
• The rabbinic establishment and rabbinic courts not only do not welcome the thousands of new immigrants, members of Jewish families, who wish to join the Jewish people, but have also begun to nullify retroactively conversions that were performed by Orthodox rabbis with a relatively moderate approach.
• One consequence of the ultra-Orthodox hold on the religious establishment and of the very unholy link between religion and politics in Israel is that Diaspora Jews, who are for the most part not Orthodox, are perceived here as second-class Jews.
• When the courts rule in keeping with the values of the Declaration of Independence and the principles of religious freedom, which are the accepted norm throughout the Western world, they come under attack for being one-sided and attempts are made to neutralize and neuter them.
• More than 13 years have gone by since a law was passed enshrining the public’s right to alternative civil burial. But the state has yet to arrange for such burial plots in any of the three major cities. As a result, anyone who wishes to be buried in a non-Orthodox manner has to pay a fortune to buy a burial plot outside his hometown and the burial fees.
• There are more and more bus routes on which women are required to sit in the back of the bus or to enter through the back door. These gender-discriminating bus routes are called by the euphemistic term “Mehadrin lines.”

These examples are of course just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to violations of religious freedom.

Violations of equality in shouldering the civic burden

As the years go by a smaller and smaller majority bears the brunt of military service, and an ever-growing minority does not carry the load – employing supposed religious principles as an axe with which to justify the damage to state security and the blood discrimination. The number of avrechim (married yeshiva students) and yeshiva boys who dodge military service has reached a record 55,000. Fourteen percent of every cycle of candidates for the draft goes to a yeshiva instead of the military, compared to 6% at the beginning of last decade.

More than a quarter of Jewish students in Israel attend private ultra-Orthodox schools that steer them toward a track of avoiding military service and work. They do not study civics, mathematics, or English, or else they study these on a partial basis. They learn that the rabbis’ orders take precedence over the rule of law and the rules of democracy, and they do not receive training for integrating into the modern economy.

Two out of every three ultra-Orthodox men do not work, relying instead on the state’s generous support for ultra-Orthodox schools and large families. This policy is driving Israel’s economy downward in the direction of the Third World and is also abandoning ultra-Orthodox children to a future of poverty.

The need for Hiddush

In recent years numerous parties have been dealing with “the Jewish bookcase” and Judaism’s renewal. They express the realization of many that Judaism belongs to everyone, that there are many aspects to it, and that we must no longer put up with the monopoly over Judaism that the Orthodox establishment assigned to itself. On the other hand, there are few parties that deal with promoting freedom of religion and conscience in Israel, and with attempts to reduce and moderate the undermining of democracy and human rights. This handful of organizations attained significant achievements in certain areas, such as conversion, aid for agunot, restricting the power of the rabbinic courts, canceling “the discretionary funds” and more. But in many areas the fruits of their labor remain limited. Hiddush strives to work in close cooperation with these organizations, to expand the circles of support for freedom of religion and conscience in Israel and the world, and to create new channels for advancing the necessary change.

Jewish communities in the Diaspora enjoy religious freedom, but their establishment tends to refrain from confronting the Israeli political establishment, as well as confronting the Orthodox minority in the Diaspora communities themselves. The sole exception in which Diaspora communities went to battle was the “Who is a Jew” crisis, which broad sections of the Jewish world viewed as a declaration by Israel that they and their families are second-class Jews. There is insufficient awareness in the Jewish communities regarding the consequences of the growing processes of religious radicalization for Israel’s future image as well as for the problematic treatment of new immigrants at the present time.

Mission Certainly Possible

One of the reasons why matters of religion and state do not occupy the place they deserve on the national agenda is that there is a prevailing public atmosphere of despair at the possibility of change. This stems from, among other things, a series of political promises for a civic revolution and enlistment of yeshiva boys that were never kept.

There is no room for such an atmosphere! The breakthrough in holding cultural and entertainment events on Shabbat, the successful campaign to gain recognition for converts of all streams of Judaism, the cutbacks in child allowances, the elimination of the religious affairs ministry, and other accomplishments prove that the battle gains results. Even if these come slowly and with difficulty. The key is increasing awareness, seeing the big picture and grasping its implications, education, broad cooperation among various public entities, use of the Internet and the social networks that operate on it – and most importantly: making the public’s voice be heard, loudly and adamantly, consistently, by the policy makers.

Hiddush strives to get the political establishment in Israel and the Diaspora to stop ignoring problems of religious freedom and equality in shouldering the civic burden, and to force them to deal with these challenges. It does so in the spirit of the promises contained in the Declaration of Independence and out of allegiance to the wishes of the general public. Among other things it will work for the introduction of civil marriage and divorce, putting an end to the disadvantaging and abuse of women in the name of religion, and full recognition for all types of conversion. It will fight to limit the draft exemption for yeshiva boys, to institute the core curriculum in all schools that receive state funding, and to encourage avrechim to get jobs.

Hiddush will thereby strengthen both Israeli democracy and Israel’s status as the national homeland of the Jewish people. Ensuring freedom of religion and conscience will also advance Jewish renewal and creativity, which are currently being blocked by the religious coercion and politicization of religion. Our activity will be carried out on the basis of partnership and a joining of forces between Israel and the Diaspora, and on the basis of creating a broad front of all parties that support freedom of religion and equality in shouldering the civic burden in Israel, from all political circles and all stripes of the secular and religious public. Hiddush will act to implement the basic values guaranteed by the Declaration of Independence, without which no enlightened democracy can exist. This mission is possible, and we can make it a reality.