This season, please support Hiddush advocacy work for religious freedom!

An End-of-Year review for Hiddush

With the end of the year approaching, we turn to you with a request to support the work of Hiddush and generously donate to us to enable us to expand and strengthen our advocacy work to promote freedom of religion and equality for all.

Uri Regev 21/12/2017 12:54

Tags: Hiddush ·  advocacy ·  religious freedom ·  equality

New Year 2018, source: Pixabay

Dear Friends,

It is no secret that the political reality in Israel in the field of religion and state is bleak, and in recent times it has also been accompanied by growing disdain of governing political circles and their affronts against Diaspora Jewry in general and American Jewry in particular.

The Israeli government not only perpetuates violations of the values that are close to the heart of the overwhelming majority of pluralistic Jewish communities, but indeed does great damage to Jewish unity and solidarity and peoplehood. The Government is first in service to the narrow political interests of the religious parties. It is has no compunctions against selling off the principles of freedom of religion and equality to the ultra-Orthodox parties, who reject the principles of democracy and aspire for a theocratic Torah state.

Hiddush is at the forefront of the struggle to strengthen Israel and promote the fundamental values it has championed, i.e., freedom of religion and conscience; and equality, regardless of religion.

We do this in multiple ways.

Hiddush is at the forefront of the struggle to strengthen Israel and promote the fundamental values ​​it has championed, i.e., freedom of religion and conscience; and equality, regardless of religion.

This week, for instance, we achieved another victory in dealing with the desire of politicians to refrain from implementing the law regarding coed service in the military and their willingness to ignore mass fraud and to accept affidavits from young women falsely claiming religious lifestyles that prevent them from serving in the army.

Only Hiddush's petition to the High Court has forced them to take the legally required steps to implement the law passed by the Knesset six years ago, which have been utterly ignored throughout the turbulence of Israeli politics. We have also score victories to ensure equitable female representation on Israel's religious councils, after decades of gross inequality, and forced a change to the rules of the military in such a way as to allow for non-Orthodox military burials for the first time. These are just examples of Hiddush's increasing legal advocacy, which is intended to advance these principles despite the political reality, in which it is impossible to rely on Israel's politicians to do the right thing.

As you know, Hiddush also holds a mirror up to the politicians (who, not surprisingly, falsely accuse the Supreme Court, the non-Orthodox streams, and Diaspora Jewry), with our periodic, systematic public opinion polling on issues of religion and state, which illustrates time and time again how detached the politicians are from the public's will on all of these matters.

Our work is also essential for clarifying the true reality of these issues to the Jewish leadership in the Diaspora, given that Israel's official representatives are often sanctimonious and claim that they are the genuine, authentic representatives of the will of the Israeli people. Every day, Hiddush continues its work (in close cooperation with like-minded organizations in civil society in Israel and the Diaspora) to contribute to the expansion of public and media discourse on issues of religion and state, build bridges between diverse groups in the religious and political worlds, and strengthen Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.

None of this would be possible without the generous support of friends like you.