In Search of Atonement

"For the Sin Which We Have Sinned Against You Through Immorality"

 


Chana Kehat, founder and former director of NIF grantee Kollech – Religious Women's Forum has pioneered Israel's Orthodox Feminist movement. The daughter of a prominent Haredi rabbi, she is the principal of the Midreshet Hartman Religious High School for Girls, which she established this year.

Q. For what do we need to atone this Yom Kippur?
A. I think the abandonment of the country's citizens by the government has become more severe. When the State agreed on a plea bargain [on rape charges] with President Katsav and dropped the more serious charges against him, and when Haim Ramon was re-appointed to the cabinet, although he was found guilty of a sexual crime, we abandoned all women who are victims of assault. (Kollech has petitioned Israel's Supreme Court against the Katsav plea bargain.)

But it is not only women who have been abandoned by the government.  It is the economically disadvantaged, the minorities, immigrants and the residents of Sderot and the North, that have no adequate shelters. We are all to blame for this situation because Israel has a democratically elected government.

Q. How can we best bring about tikkun olam?
A. The social change movement must shoulder a heavy burden and the solution is to empower the young generation of Israelis. Empowerment is the most essential of Jewish values, just as God empowered us at the Creation when we were made in the divine image. This is why I have set up my new junior high and high school to empower teenaged Orthodox girls. We are socially very integrative and, for example, 10% of our girls are from Ethiopian immigrant families. We dare not despair nor tire. We must empower those who the authorities have abandoned.

"For the Sin Which We Have Sinned Against You Through Brazenness"

Professor Gerald Cromer of Bar Ilan University's Department of Criminology is a member of NIF's Board of Directors. Born and raised in London, he has a Ph.D. from Nottingham University and immigrated to Israel in 1972. He was one of the founders of Netivot Shalom, Israel's religious peace movement.

Q. For what do we need to atone this Yom Kippur?
A. There are so many things from corruption and poverty to our treatment of minorities and the Palestinians. But the commonality of all these issues is that our leaders have lost their sense of shame, and in Judaism you cannot repent at Yom Kippur if you have not even acknowledged that you have done wrong. We can take some comfort that, thanks to the social change movement built by NIF over the years, new norms of wrongdoing have been established. In part we are finding more corruption because we are looking in places that were once left unexposed. We are putting issues on the public agenda. There were always battered and abused women. It is just that there is now a consensus that this is not acceptable.    

Q. How can we best bring about tikkun olam?
A. We must continue putting issues on the public agenda. Unfortunately, some problems are simply accepted as part of the landscape and are not even viewed as problems by most Israelis. I'm thinking, among other things, of poverty and the occupation of the West Bank. We must persuade much larger numbers of Israelis that there is a problem that must be tackled on these matters in the way that we have succeeded on the issue of violence against women.

"For the Sin Which We Have Sinned Against You Through Scorning."

Tamar Gindif is a Founder and Chair of Green Environment Fund* grantee Shomera.  A Jerusalem-based organization that works towards creating a green and healthy Israel and an environmentally-responsible society, Shomera incorporates conventional environmental sources along with Jewish texts and approaches.  Born and raised in Montreal, Canada, she has a BA from Bar Ilan University and MBA from Harvard. An Orthodox resident of Jerusalem, she is a professional environmental activist.

Q. For what do we need to atone this Yom Kippur?
A. Each Yom Kippur we are judged by God on whether we have observed His laws. Caring for the environment, which has been given to us by God to look after, is one of the most important of those commandments. Most of us, activists and non-activists, are guilty of apathy and a lack of faith in our abilities to make a difference. We are scorning our own abilities. We write ourselves off.

Q. How can we best bring about tikkun olam?
A. We must ask for the strength to believe that we can make a difference. Even though in recent month we have been part of the Coalition to Preserve the Jerusalem Hills, which persuaded the government not to implement a plan to build neighborhoods in the countryside west of Jerusalem, I believe it is the small things rather than the major issues that make the difference. By emphasizing grass-roots educational activities in the community and with the youth we can change attitudes. For example, convincing people to pick up one item of garbage a day from the street opens their eyes to the mess that our cities are in and often turns them into activists.  

* NIF is a key partner in the Green Environment Fund, which is at the forefront of Israel's environmental movement and the largest funder of environmental NGOs in Israel.