Yesterday in Bnei Brak, a majority Haredi city just 15 minutes east of Tel Aviv, thousands of Israelis gathered to march in a women’s rights rally organized jointly by several groups protesting the judicial overhaul. In particular, the groups are responding to multiple cases of harassment of women who were deemed not to conform to the modesty requirements of some ultra-Orthodox Israelis.
According to The Times of Israel, several “women were documented over the summer being denied service or segregated aboard public buses.” This is in violation of rulings of the Israeli Supreme Court in recent years in cases brought by our own Reform Movement’s Israel Religious Action Center.
We all have a stake in issues like these. I’m proud to be part of a synagogue community that is committed to egalitarianism and LGBTQ+ inclusion. Certainly, private institutions and other synagogue communities should be allowed to practice Judaism in their own ways, as much as I might personally believe that their approach is fundamentally at odds with the core Jewish value of “b’tzelem Elohim” that teaches that we are all created in God’s image. But when those same people seek to impose their values on others in a public context—in settings that are funded by communal dollars, no less—a line in the sand must be drawn.
This is part of what the protest movement in Israel is all about: a fierce opposition to the tyranny of the majority.
This week’s haftorah portion offers us another way. The prophet Isaiah invites us to imagine a more expansive Jewish community, one that makes room for every person: “Enlarge the site of your tent, Extend the size of your dwelling, Do not stint! Lengthen the ropes, and drive the pegs firm.” (Is. 54:2). In such a big tent, there is room for all. Isaiah imagines a Jewish future in which no one “shall be shamed,” where no one will “be disgraced.”
In such a vision, there is room for Jews of all beliefs, ethnicities, genders, sexualities, and levels of observance from secular to Haredi.
I know such a community is possible because I’ve experienced it right here at Wise. It’s not always easy; It takes an effort sometimes to make room for one another, but it’s the only way forward, the only way we will ever be able to experience true unity.
Until then, we must raise our voices, march if we can, and support in other ways if we cannot, including by ensuring that places like the Israel Religious Action Center have the resources they need to fight on behalf of oppressed minorities.
The Judaism that inspires me is like an expansive, beautiful, colorful tent in which our whole community is included—along with our friends, allies, and beloved guests. It is a place where the ultimate shame comes from excluding those who have been marginalized for too long.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Yoshi
