”When I see a demolished house through the eyes of Palestinian children, I
want to show them that not every Israeli wants to demolish their home, in fact
some want rebuild that home”, says Arik Ascherman – a Reform Rabbi and
an activist. Currently he holds the position of general secretary for Rabbis for
Human Rights (Rabbanei Shomrei Mishpat), an Israeli organization founded
as a voice of conscience in Israel and which seeks to mitigate the quarreling
among ordained Orthodox, Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, and
Renewal Rabbis. The main idea that stands behind the ideological backgrounds
of Jewish religious activism, such as that shared by RHR, is that the main
concept behind being a religious Jew is being considerate about universal
human rights and social justice.
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”Our involvement in human rights issues comes from the principal belief
written in the very first verses of Genesis that all human beings are created
in God’s image, not just the rich, or not just Jews, but men and women. This
belief extends to Israeli Arabs, Palestinians, and African asylum seekers.” He
doesn’t differentiate between religion and activism, because he thinks that in
Judaism it’s much more important what you do than what you think, but what
leads him to social activism is the religious dimension of who he is.
It is not accidental that the people who founded RHR came from English –
speaking backgrounds, with the best role model being Rabbi David Forman
who had an activist past. He stood against the Vietnam War. The fact that
rabbi Ascherman was born in the United States has influenced him directly and
caused him to be engaged in human rights issues. When he was young, he was
influenced by the Jewish involvement in the civil rights movement in the United
States and by the writings of Warsaw-born Rabbi Avraham Joshua Hechsel,
a scholar fighting in Black civil rights battles and involved in Nostrae Aetate
during Vatican Council II.
It’s quite interesting that there is a disproportion in representation between
Israeli natives and the people who emigrated from the United States,
regardless of whether they are ideologically left or right wing activists. ”The
point is that if you’re a native-born Israeli you’re less selective towards the
environment you’re living in, because you have everybody available on site
without necessarily clicking into place.” Those who made aliyah (immigration
to the Israel) from various parts of the world do so because they suffer
extreme antisemitism or poor economic conditions. There is no particular
selection in terms of activism and non-activism. Coming to Israel from the
United States, where people are more exposed to activism in society, and
where the quality of life is quite high, one has to be ideologically or spiritually
motivated to leave the United States and come to Israel.
The other thing is that a public opinion poll of the North-American Jewish
population showed that of all the different measures of Jewish identity, that
aspect of Judaism with which more Jews identified than anything else, and that
gave more Jews pride in being Jewish than anything else, was the connection
between Judaism and justice. ”When I first came to Israel the first greatest
shock I had was that it was hard to find bagels here. It’s not like that anymore,
The more profound shock I had was when I discovered that these values which
were axiomatic, not to be questioned as far as I was concerned, were not
necessary shared by all, particularly by religious Israelis”.
The Judaism that with which socially active rabbis grew up in the United
States was a bit different to Judaism in the Israeli context. The religious
community in Israel has been socialized into very extreme nationalism and
particularism. Particularistic values mean basically that Jews apply Jewish
values for interpersonal relations only to other Jews, or perhaps only to their
own closed circle within the Jewish community. The humanistic understanding
of Jewish tradition applies these values to all human beings. ”One of the ways
of discounting and degrading us in many parts of the religious community in
this country is that they perceive us as not really religious. You’re Reform, it’s
not authentic, they say”.
However, the serious problems they deal with are affecting public opinion,
voting in the Knesset, winning cases in courts or convincing a particular army
commander. The three pillars of their educational activism are Judaism and
human rights, economic social justice for Israelis, and Palestinian human
rights, specifically the human rights violations stemming from the struggle for
control over the land. It is essential that these three mandates are followed
in their daily work. The first thing is to try to prevent or readdress human
rights abuses. The second is to introduce their understanding of Judaism into
the intellectual universe of their fellow Israelis. When they protect Palestinian
human rights, they also restoring hope and break down stereotypes.
The fact that RHR is not respected by the religious establishment of Israel is
nothing new. It happened before when after the 1st
wrote an open letter to the chief Rabbi of Israel inquiring as to the reasons
behind the rabbinic establishment being apparently interested only with
Sabbath observance or with the kashrut (Jewish dietary laws), as if there were
no other relevant issues in society.
As Rabbi Ascherman claims, human rights should not be perceived as only left
or right wing, because they are universal. In Israel, the motivation of RHR is
very much religious, but since the society is very divided, one of the major
issues that they face is that people who agree with Rabbi Ascherman’s values
and those of RHR tend to be secular Jews. ”In most of the world you think
about left and right in terms of economic and social policy whereas in this
country left and right are more associated with your positions on the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict”.
”RHR has no political affiliation. Most of us are probably center-left, with some
people going to the right. We are not affiliated with any political party, and
believe that human rights is above “Left” or “Right”. We don’t have a position
on political borders, or a one versus a two state solution. We can therefore
form coalitions with people on one issue whom would not agree with us on
another issue. For example, there was a Member of Knesset from the National
Intifada Rabbi Forman
Union Party whom we worked with very closely on foreign worker’s issues. We
differed on Palestinian issues. That’s partly illusory, it was more ideological
than it is today that most people assume that you can be concerned about
human rights for Palestinians only when you are left wing. Israelis are much
more simplistic about that, unfortunately”. That’s a problem faced by human
rights organizations, which are subsequently delegitimized.
The Rabbi looks at the peace process as a question of hope between two
nations. ”There’s a large percentage on both sides that say, “We want peace
but the other side doesn’t.” We have more political, economical and military
power but we are terribly symmetrical in this respect. Religious Israelis express
the worst Palestinian stereotypes about religious Israelis. Only we, as religious
Jews, can break down those stereotypes. Only Palestinians can empower me to
be heard by my fellow Israelis”.
Asked about the intolerance often discussed in Israeli public discourse, he
thinks that compared to the rest of the world, Israel isn’t more racist or less
sensitive about human rights, but the combination of the centers of oppression
and a struggle of survival have created a mentality here which sometimes
certainly goes into racism.
”I also think there is a connection between the history that took place in
Poland and what’s happening here, because psychologists say that when
people are beaten as children, they are more likely to beat their own
children. “It is thought that the Holocaust has shown that they all hate us
and don’t want us and this is one of the excuses why we don’t need to pay
attention to international law. It is directed against us, and we have to look
out for ourselves. That’s very ingrained in the Israeli psyche”. However it is
hard not to admit that in some communities all over the world the xenophobic
attitude towards Jews does exist.
Nevertheless, Rabbi Arik Ascherman holds onto hope by saying ”I try to
imagine a world where we act on our belief that everybody, even people we
don’t particularly like, are created in God’s image and where we need respect
the human rights of all human beings”.
Tagi: judaism, human rights, reform rabi, Rabbis for Human Rights, Rabbi
David Forman, antisemitism, jewish, Acherman, RHR, racism
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