A dozen of Reform, Conservative and Orthodox American rabbis visited Israel this week and met with senior officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, as well as other ministers such as Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, Heritage Minister Rabbi Amichai Eliyahu, Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli and Knesset speaker Amir Ohana. These rabbis are members of the Zionist Rabbinic Coalition (ZRC) and the delegation, which also visited the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, was led by Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt, a Conservative rabbi from Potomac, Maryland, who serves as chairman of the ZRC.
Minister Eliyahu, a member of the extreme-right-wing Otzma Yehudit party, met with the ZRC rabbis and discussed current political events as well as the treatment of American Jews in Israel. The Reform Rabbis on the delegation were Ariel Boxman from Naples Florida, Rosie Haim of Cleveland, Ohio, Aaron Melman from Northbrook Illinois,
This is the second meeting between the minister and American Jewish leaders, after last month when Eliyahu met with a larger group in New York, “with the aim of strengthening the relationship between American Jewry and the State of Israel,” a statement on behalf of Eliyahu to The Jerusalem Post said.
Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt (credit: Courtesy)No mention of the presence of the Reform rabbis
A spokesman on behalf of Eliyahu approved in a written statement that the minister met these leaders, but wouldn’t mention the presence of the Reform rabbis at the meeting.
“As part of last night’s meeting, rabbis and leaders from various movements in the US participated, including leaders from the Conservative movement who complained and asked about the ‘Bennett Plaza’ [the egalitarian prayer section at the Kotel, which was built by Naftali Bennett as religious affairs minister about a decade ago] and the attitude towards them.”
“Minister Eliyahu stated during the meeting that he personally considers the entire Western Wall to be the largest Jewish synagogue in the world and claimed that this must not be changed,” the statement read, meaning: Eliyahu thinks that all parts of the Kotel should be run like an orthodox synagogue.
“The minister pointed out that there is indeed a Jewish and ethical obligation for every Jew to feel that the Western Wall is their own synagogue, but there is no doubt that all this should happen without changing the current local regulations of the Kotel, as has been kept by our ancestors for generations.”
The participants asked Eliyahu about the current situation in Judea and Samaria and the burning of the houses in the village near the settlement of Ateret.
“I strongly condemned it,” the minister replied. “But I’m speaking to you, not only as a minister in the government, but also as a resident of Judea and Samaria. I heard about the hard feelings among the friends of those murdered in the Eli attack; young men from whose friend was murdered. These young men felt that law enforcement wasn’t doing enough for their safety.” Eliyahu emphasized that “unfortunately, the feelings among the residents of Judea and Samaria, who in many cases feel like sitting ducks, are difficult and frustrating.” He added that he doesn’t “justify their actions and of course what the boys did is a wrong act, which again, we do not justify even for a moment. Yet, we must understand how we got to such a situation, that young boys feel such great pain. “As a party, we work within the government to encourage the system to strengthen the sense of protection and personal security among all Israeli citizens, and we will continue to push for this, in the hope that we will not see such scenes again.”
The minister was also asked about the reports of the cancellation of the Israeli Shabbat initiative, which offers Israelis free entrance to any of a list of 100 heritage sites on Saturdays.
“This is total fake news,” the minister replied, “it’s simply amazing, after all, in the same interview I said that the project would continue, and that I see no problem with its continuation. I even added that I would like to extend it to take place on Friday as well, but of course, a few minutes after that, it this journalist twisted my words and took them out of context, while creating a headline, all this with the aim of dividing and conflicting the society here in Israel a outside of Israel.”
The coalition was established three years ago, after rabbis, mainly from the Reform and Conservative movements, felt that their movements weren’t representing them on issues regarding Israel and Zionism. Weinbnlatt told the Post a year ago, that the establishment of this organization is a counter reaction to the reaction of the Reform movement to the move of the American Embassy to Jerusalem and anti-Zionist trends from within the progressive Jewish religious movements. Ever since canceling the Kotel Compromise 6 years ago, the Reform and Conservative movements haven’t been in dialogue with Netanyahu and were only welcomed back at the Prime Minister’s Office, when Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid served briefly as prime ministers. Netanyahu and Dermer, who was Israel’s Ambassador to the US for many years, wouldn’t create dialogue with these movements, rather with members of the movements who do not represent their streams officially. This has been sort of a back channel to the movements, without engaging in dialogue with their elected officials.
During a 52 hour visit in Israel this week, they met with senior officials at the Foreign Ministry, visited the Kotel and learned about the situation at the egalitarian prayer section, met with Natan Sharansky and the Bahraini Ambassador in Israel. In a conversation with the Post, Weinblatt wouldn’t speak of the content of their meetings with Netanyahu or Dermer, but said that both leaders met with them for an hour and that the meetings were positive.
“We are a delegation of 12 rabbis from the three movements, engaging in dialogue with Israel. We also met Jewish communities in the UAE and in Bahrain.”
He said of the meeting with Chikli that “we primarily spoke about areas of education and the program that the Diaspora Affairs Ministry rolled out for formal education in North America. We spoke about the things that the ministry is thinking of doing and we gave feedback, as well as suggested ideas for working together to strengthen Jewish identity.”
Chikli said in a statement about the meeting with the rabbis that he was “happy to meet with a distinguished delegation of Rabbis from the ZRC, led by Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt.” Chikli explained that “our discussion centered around the pressing challenges and promising opportunities pertaining to Jewish education in North America, as well as strategies to fortify the Jewish identity and foster a deeper connection to Israel in the present era.”
Weinblatt stressed that “we recognize the importance of conversation and dialogue with individuals affecting Jews in the Diaspora. In several of our meetings we spoke of the judicial reforms and part of the message was the importance of encouraging compromise, regardless which side you support or believe.
“We understand the complexities better and the root causes of the divisions in Israel,” Weinblatt concluded, adding that these causes are also “reflected in the American Jewish community.” He added that “we wanted to see how to build the bridges between American Jewry and Israel.”