US State Dept. Report Slams Religious Intolerance in Israel, Praises NGOs

November 18, 2009

The US State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor’s“International Freedom of Religion Report 2009 ” is heavily critical of Israel’s policies regarding religious pluralism and tolerance.  In its introduction the report notes, “Government allocations of state resources favored Orthodox (including Modern and National Religious streams of Orthodoxy) and ultra-Orthodox (sometimes referred to as "Haredi") Jewish religious groups and institutions, discriminating against non-Jews and non-Orthodox streams of Judaism.”

Congregants celebrate the dedication of the first state-funded Reform synagogue in Modi'in last year, breaching the Orthodox monopoly on religion.

The report deals with the civil rights abuses resulting from the Orthodox monopoly on personal status matters as well as discrimination against non-Jews.  The range of issues, all of which are being addressed by the NIF Family, includes the absence of civil marriage; burial and conversion laws that discriminate against non-Orthodox streams; the inability of many women to get a divorce (agunot); gender-segregated bus lines; lack of funding for non-Orthodox Jewish and secular education; destruction of mosques in unrecognized Negev Bedouin villages; and more.

The report relies heavily on research and reports from NIF grantees.  ”According to the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC) for Progessive Judaism (Reform), in 2006 approximately 96 percent of all state funds for Jewish religious education were allocated to Orthodox or ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools”; ”According to New Family: Organization for Family Rights, more than 5,000 couples marry in civil ceremonies abroad each year, primarily in Cyprus.”  The report also refers to Supreme Court petitions by IRAC and Adalah: Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel.

The report also observed that, “Numerous NGOs in the country remained dedicated to promoting Jewish-Arab coexistence and interfaith harmony,”

In an op-ed article entitled "Religious Freedom – We Haven’t Lost Hope" to be published in Israel, NIF President Prof. Naomi Chazan wrote, “Over the years, the State of Israel has consolidated its hegemony over religious matters, which do not represent the majority of the State’s citizens, and are even alien to part of the Orthodox Jewish community itself.  This hegemony dictates that there is only one way to be a Jew, to marry, to divorce, to be buried, to convert and instill significance to the vision of the Jewish State. This monolithic approach confuses the difference between unity and uniformity, and alienates many groups from the Jewish heritage, and is a far cry from the spirit of the Declaration of Independence, world Jewry, and the major conceptual range in all matters relating to Jewish expression in the 21st century."

NIF CEO Daniel Sokatch said, “American Jews are often the first to fight for religious freedom and the separation of religion and state in our own country.  We cannot have a double standard for Israel, where freedom of conscience and religion are too often sacrificed to the goals of an increasingly demanding ultra-Orthodox minority.  We urge the American Jewish community to help us and the many organizations we support to work for real change in Israel.”