ORTHHODOX ACTIVISTS MEET WITH MK STEINITZ IN NEW YORK
Am Echad Delegates Apprise Likud Leader of Concerns

BROOKLYN – A group of approximately 50 American Orthodox Jewish representatives met here yesterday with Knesset Member Professor Yuval Steinitz (Likud) to discuss recent events in Israel and, in the words of a spokesman for Am Echad, the group that sponsored the gathering, "the Jewish future of the Jewish State."

The meeting took place at the home of Mr. Gedaliah Weinberger, a board member of the Orthodox media resource and educational outreach organization, which is dedicated to responsible depiction of Orthodox positions and Orthodox Jews.

Present were many key Orthodox Jewish lay activists, including top leaders of Agudath Israel of America, the National Council of Young Israel, and the Orthodox Union, as well as many of the delegates who participated in Am Echad's mission to Israel this past January.

Professor Steinitz was warmly introduced by Yonason Rosenblum, internationally acclaimed writer and Israeli director of Am Echad, who had accompanied the Likud leader on a tour of several Orthodox Jewish communities and yeshivos over previous days. Mr. Rosenblum lauded the Israeli legislator as "one of the Knesset's brightest stars" and as a fair-minded intellectual who, though himself not personally observant, has forcefully articulated the case for retaining Israel's character as a Jewish State without sacrificing its status as a democratic society.

Am Echad's American director, Rabbi Avi Shafran, made a brief presentation to the MK, conveying the American Orthodox community's deep concern over recent developments, particularly in the Israeli High Court, that threaten to erode the State's Jewish character. The most recent example, he said, was the previous week's Supreme Court decision to allow a vocal women's service at Jerusalem's Western Wall, over the strong objections of Israel's religious community and without regard for the Jewish religious tradition that has governed conduct at the Wall since its capture from Jordan in 1967.

Indeed, that very day, Israel's High Court issued a new decision undermining traditional Jewish values, ruling that the Interior Ministry is not bound by the traditional Jewish definition of a family and must register a child's mother's female partner as the child's "second mother."

MK Steinitz spoke at first about Israeli security issues, and about his own transformation from a "Peace Now" activist to a skeptic of a peace process in which one partner refuses to recognize the legitimacy of the other's existence. He went on, though, to agree that a concomitant threat to Israel 's Jewish character looms large these days, particularly among those who seek to transform Israel into a mere "state of all its citizens." He concurred that Israel's High Court was deserving of criticism for misguided decisions but maintained only a change in the climate of public opinion in Israel will effect change in how the state's judiciary views its role. Professor Steinitz put the lion's share of blame for the mounting Israeli denial of the Jewish people's roots in the Jewish religious tradition on the Israeli media and on many of the Jewish State's academics – which, together, he said, present "a danger to Israel's soul."

Recalling his own days as a philosophy professor at Haifa University, MK Steinitz characterized the press' mocking of academics who dared take principled Jewish stances as "psychological terrorism."

"To the press," Professor Steinitz averred, "'freedom of the press' apparently means 'freedom of the press to suppress the opinions of others'."

Among suppressed opinions, he alluded, are those of Israel's Haredi community. The Likud leader warmly praised Am Echad for taking the lead in promoting responsible Haredi ideas and opinions, and wished the Orthodox venture well in helping those who are unfamiliar with their spiritual heritage see it represented responsibly, rather than filtered through the dim prism of a hostile press.

Copyright © 1997-2008 by Ira Kasdan. All rights reserved.
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