The Jewish Federation of the Greater East Bay is buying stock in pluralism in Israel with $35,000 worth of direct grants to the two liberal movements and a progressive Orthodox group.
A $12,000 slice will go to the Reform movement in Israel, including $6,000 to ARZA/World Union, North America, which helps construct synagogues and day schools in the Jewish state.
Another $12,000 chunk will go to the Conservative-Masorti movement for similar projects. A grant of $3,500 will also go to Meimad, a modern Orthodox group that supports pluralism in Israel. Other grants will fund institutions that foster interdenominational dialogue.
“The federation has been looking for ways to express to Israel that we are concerned and committed to religious diversity and tolerance,” said Ami Nahshon, the agency’s executive vice president. “These grants send the message that our donors are committed to an open Israel.”
The grants come on the cusp of a “revolution happening internally in Israel,” according to Rabbi Steven Chester of Temple Sinai in Oakland, who is on the federation’s religious pluralism advisory committee.
That revolution, he said, is spurred by a new wave of secularists who are lining up with Conservative and Reform Jewry as a way of breaking the hold of the fervently religious on Israeli life.
As a result, the non-Orthodox movements should be ready for a windfall of new members — and American federations should step up to welcome them by providing assistance, Chester said. Non-Orthodox movements “need dollars to further all of this,” he said.
The East Bay federation set aside funds to support pluralism in December, before hostilities between the Orthodox and non-Orthodox reached a new peak, Chester said. It was also before several local Reform rabbis criticized the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation for not directly funding Reform and Conservative programs in Israel.
Nahshon said representatives from the East Bay federation observed widening rifts between the fervently religious and others in Israel a few years ago and decided to support pluralistic efforts.
“The Orthodox theocratic state in Israel is not the vision a majority of diaspora Jews hold,” he said. “As an American Jew who loves Israel, it’s very important to me to be sure there is a place on the country’s spiritual landscape I can relate to.”
The East Bay federation plans to give such grants on a yearly basis, said Amy Friedkin, the agency’s past president and current chair of the committee on pluralism.
She added that the because East Bay Jewish community enjoys “a high level of cooperation and respect among different denominations,” it had an easier time rallying financial support for pluralism in Israel.
Hoping to inject that mutual respect into the Israeli religious scene, $5,000 will be sent to Gesher, an independent group dedicated to bridging the gap between religious and secular communities. Another $2,500 goes to Alma, an independent institute that fosters adult Jewish studies.
Although the grants mark a surge in the federation’s push for pluralism, Nahshon said that local Jews, while supportive of the effort, have been slow to realize the magnitude of the crisis.
Pluralism does not appear to be the next Operation Exodus, said Nahshon, referring to the massive political and fund-raising efforts to resettle ex-Soviet Jews during the last two decades.
But while pluralism may not galvanize the Jewish community to the same extent, Nahshon said diaspora Jews should take the opportunity to help shape Israel’s religious landscape. For his part, he’s chosen to work toward Israeli constitutional reform to ensure religious rights.
“I sense that many Jews see the conflict over pluralism as another stage of evolution of Israeli history,” he said. “This is a frustrating, difficult stage of an evolving story. In our small way, the federation is having a say in how that script gets written.”