But
with the massive Haredi protest at the Wall last month, and Sunday’s
large showing in Lower Manhattan, the Haredim have begun to mobilize.
The immediate issue which brought thousands to Foley Square on Sunday is the attempt to conscript Haredi
Israelis into the army. A parliamentary committee advanced a bill last
month that would do just that. But the banner under which the protestors
gathered on Sunday surprised me a little, as it’s one that has been
largely the domain of religious liberals: freedom of religion.
As one sign carrier told me, his religion requires him to sit and
study Torah. Any attempt to draft those like him into the military would
be a violation of his religious rights.
It has generally been the liberals who have taken this line (in several
cases, to the Israeli Supreme Court), arguing that religious law should
not be the law of the land, and that Reform and Conservative Jews also
have rights, in particular at the Western Wall. The effort has borne
fruit, leading to a court ruling in favor of women’s prayer at the Kotel
and an announcement by the Religious Services Ministry that it would
institute changes to allow for the funding of non-Orthodox rabbis.
The support that such efforts have drawn from the ranks of American
Jews shows that the quest for religious equality is a resonant one.[...]
clever but such a demand (recognition of a religious right to learn) will go no where without them recognizing the rights of others.
ReplyDeleteWell, sort of. If it's against your religion to pay taxes - tough luck! And the draft is along these lines, like it or not.
ReplyDeleteI think that the real issue is that in Judaism there are NO rights - only obligations. So a non-religious Jew may project the things that he views as obligations on other communities. To say that they have the 'right' to ignore this obligation will not be accepted.
However, that which is considered an obligation by the Charedi world is denigrated by their endarkened bretheren.
So it's not a question of freedom of religion (which is in the Bill of Rights), it's a question of what is the obligation of man in this world.
> As one sign carrier told me, his religion requires him to sit and study Torah
ReplyDeleteYeah, no it's doesn't, not to the exclusion of participating in society's obligations while simultaneously demanding the support of that society.
> Any attempt to draft those like him into the military would be a violation of his religious rights
Should we therefore allow Muslims to perform genital mutilations and conduct honour killings with impunity as well?