Yom Yerushalayim

Jerusalem Day

Today we celebrate Yom Yerushalayim. Jerusalem was regained and reunited not through study, which keeps us alive spiritually, but thanks to armed forces. The Charedi population that throngs the Western Wall would not have been able to, had it not been for soldiers of the Defence Forces of Israel. And I am so proud of one of my grandsons, who, after two years of intense Torah studies, will be joining the Air Force to fight for us.

But my joy on this day is tempered by our inner struggles.

I was brought up by my parents in the Oxfordshire countryside, where my remarkable father had founded a Jewish school. And he was the dominant example of Jewish life I had until I was sent to yeshiva in Israel as a teenager. There, I began to search for my own religious identity

The Israel that I encountered in the 1950s was a very different world. To oversimplify, it was overwhelmingly secular (from Marxist to liberal), and the religious (as well as the Sephardi) were treated as inferior.  The religious middle ground, which was represented by what was called Mizrahi, is now represented by Religious Nationalists. And what we now call Charedi would best be described as passionate religious fundamentalists of various shades and communities.

Within the Charedi world, the three major dynasties at the time were Belz, Ger and Viznitz. Chabad and Satmar were later forces. The three giants were the powers behind the Agudah political party, which also included the non-Chassidic Yeshiva world.

They were all involved in government despite the fact that their ideology was very far removed from secular nationalist Zionism. All of them were involved originally in the struggle for Israel’s independence and encouraged those who wanted to enlist and fight for their country.  As the Charedi community grew exponentially, they used their seats in the Knesset to ensure that they received their fair share of the national budget. The electoral system enabled and gave them the power to support or bring down governments. And things changed over the years.

The Yeshiva I was sent to as a teenager, Be’er Yaakov, was run by contemporaries of my father from Mir Yeshiva in Lithuania. Which set me on the religious path that I have never left. Later, I decided to try a more overtly political yeshiva called Mercaz Harav Kook in Jerusalem, which I enjoyed because its curriculum went beyond the Talmudic to the Mystical and the historical. However, I found its association of religion with political parties untenable, a position I discovered my father shared, having resigned as the president of Mizrahi in Britain specifically over the coercive tools used to achieve their ends. Later still, I went to Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem, and Jerusalem became my second home.

So that my religious soul was loyal to the Charedi world. Although I never liked to be labelled. If I had to choose, it would be the Yeshivish wing of the Charedi world. But things have changed since then.

Under Ben Gurion, Aguda had achieved agreements with the secular government to release religious students who wanted to study Torah from the army. And religious women were given the option of social national service, as were the physically challenged. Concessions were accorded to academics who wanted to study too. But then the numbers were limited. Today, thousands of perfectly strong, fit young men are refusing to serve in the army (IDF) because they have been encouraged by the Charedi leadership to protest and disobey civil laws. Even when they are not serious students, they do not enjoy studying and are living lives of idleness. But Israel needs them, and the Charedi leadership refuses to compromise while demanding funds for its institutions.

There was a time when advances in artificial intelligence and technological changes in warfare might have reduced the need for boots on the ground. But the situation is that more manpower is essential. Reserves are now often required for months on end. Otherwise, there is no way that Israel will be able to survive the ongoing and never-ending threats from growing alien populations.

These past years, hundreds of wonderful young men and women have lost their lives and limbs to protect the citizens of Israel. There are some Charedi who do volunteer, but when they come back to their communities, they will often be ostracised or even attacked. I can understand that in a predominantly secular army, religious Jews might find themselves outnumbered and very often unsupported. But increasingly, there are religious units being set up to overcome this problem.

The fact that the religious leadership of the Charedi world does nothing about it is unacceptable, given the clear Biblical requirement that when one’s country or one’s life is threatened, it is a religious obligation to come to the defence of the nation. If God forbid Israel would ever be overrun as it nearly was, the Charedi world would be massacred alongside everybody else, including those apologists for Jews who support Hamas and Iran.

We do not rely on miracles, that’s very clear from our holy texts, which they seem to ignore when it suits them. Too many pious fools believe but we can guarantee that God will be on our side.

I am so offended by the unwillingness to compromise that I have decided I cannot continue to support Charedi institutions as I have hitherto. At the same time, there is much in other areas of Israeli life that disturbs me morally and politically.

But nothing can compare to the joy of walking the streets of the Old City after the conquest in 1967, when the barriers that forbade us from entering were pulled down. So that today I pray for Jerusalem on High in the conviction that the good will overcome all else.