Support Reform Rabbis in Israel

Israel is still a work in progress. At just sixty-one years old, Israel is still defining itself and tackling the challenges of Jewish state sovereignty in the twenty-first century. One of Israel's ongoing challenges is the role of religion in the public sphere. Lacking the strict separation of "church" and state that we have in America, Israel struggles to balance democracy and pluralism with the presence of an official state religion, Judaism. Many rabbis, for example, are state employees. That has put the state in a quandry: who is to be considered a rabbi and who in the state (or the world) gets to set the standards. The case of my colleague, Rabbi Miri Gold, is a good example. Prof. Avraham Melamed, chair of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism, and Rabbi Ada Zavidov, chair of Israel's Union of Progressive Rabbis, describe her case:

Rabbi Miri Gold has served as the Rabbi of Birkat Shalom congregation in
Kibbutz Gezer since her ordination as a Reform Rabbi by the Hebrew Union
College in 1999. Sixteen other local rabbis serve the area of the Gezer
regional council and receive a State salary. Rabbi Miri Gold, who serves the
entire region, is not recognized by the State because she is a Reform rabbi.
Out of the thousands of rabbis recognized by the State of Israel there is
not a single Reform rabbi!

In 2005 The Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism filed an appeal with
the Israeli Supreme Court through the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC),
demanding that Rabbi Miri Gold is recognized by the State. The court has ordered
the State to present the criteria according to which rabbis are recognized. To
this day the State has not replied. This fall we hope that the State will
present an equal and just set of criteria, such that is accepted by the Supreme
Court.

Please sign the petition through the Israel Religious Action Center demanding the State of Israel officially recognize Rabbi Gold and provide her with the support given to all other rabbis in her position. For another example of the struggle over Reform Judaism in Israel, see this article describing the Reform movement's successful lawsuit against the Ministry of Religious Affairs.