Rabbis For Human Rights

Our organization has been primarily concerned with human rights violations against the non - Jewish minority in our midst, particularly those against the Palestinians across "the green line".

This concern is what was behind the initiative of David Forman and other colleagues back then in the dark days of the intifada. Our relatively intense involvement in the issue of home demolition in "the territories" led by our dedicated executive director, Arik Ascherman, is a natural outcome and continuation of that concern.

In recent times we have also been involved in the struggle to protect the rights of the Jahalin Bedouin, an issue that Jeremy Milgrom has devoted himself to with some success. We have over the past few years (with my urging) been involved also in the issue of the rights of foreign workers, particularly in the area of health care.

Underlying these concerns is our desire to balance the apparent distortion of Israeli Judaism by ultra-nationalism, chauvinism and even racism, with an alternative vision. These negative phenomena seem to have increased in the context of the Jewish "return to power" and the reality of having become an occupying power locked in a bitter conflict with the indigenous Palestinian population.

Seething below the surface of apparent Jewish insensitivity to the rights of "the other" in this country is also the traumatic memory of the Nazi Holocaust, and the continuing tendency, despite a radically changed reality, of Israeli and Diaspora Jews to see themselves as the victim.

This view of our existential situation is spiritually destructive, as well as serving as a basis for unfortunate rationalizations of unethical and immoral behavior toward non -- Jewish minorities in Israel.

Members of our organization, whether Reform, Reconstructionist, Conservative or Orthodox, have a common goal to present a different, humane, face to Israeli Judaism and the conviction that this is authentically part of our religious teaching.

We believe that when our texts speak of the people of Israel as a "light unto the nations" or say of the seed of Abraham that "in you all the families of the Earth will be blessed", they are to be understood in a broad universalistic sense, and not narrowly interpreted as a justification for selfish tribalism.

The sometimes brutal reality of human rights violations in this country deeply shocks our religious sensibility, and what we do, with our limited resources of time, energy and money, is, we hope, truly "kiddush Hashem". Nevertheless, we must also make room for concern with the rights of fellow Jews, particularly their social rights in a society that is increasingly more materialistic and insensitive to the rights and needs of the poor and powerless.

The distinction between individual human rights and the social rights of the relatively powerless is not the predominant approach of classical Jewish texts. In most texts the emphasis is on "duties", not "rights". The duty to protect and defend the rights of the socially disadvantaged is repeatedly emphasized in both biblical and talmudic texts.

The message is clear.

We are responsible for "the widow, the stranger in our midst and the orphan.

We are responsible for the well-being of those who work for us. In these matters the distinction between Jews and non-Jews is not significant.

Unfortunately, the signing of peace agreements with neighboring Arab states and the ongoing negotiations with the Palestinians have not brought with them any significant change in the area of human rights.

Our work is cut out for us. May we, with G-d's help, continue striving to realize the prophetic dream of a world where the wolf and the sheep shall live together in peace and swords will indeed be turned into ploughshares. It is not ours to complete the work, but neither are we permitted to desist from it!