The battle between Jews and Jews
Member of the Knesset Elazar Stern is in Sydney to join in the celebrations of property magnate 87th birthday and to spread his message of hope to the Jewish world that generations to come will be proud of being Jewish…and that each individual can find his/her own way of expressing their own pride.
Elazar Stern Photo: Henry Benjamin/J-Wire
He said one may be able to express in a religious way another one may have totally different way saying “but I don’t want to be a judge what is the right way to be a Jew”.
“Each individual should be able to adapt his life in his/her way to exercise their own Jewish life. But not outside of the religion…it must be inside the religion. According to my belief, the religion can be exercised in many ways.”
He believes the biggest mistake of the religious Zionists is not seeing the rate of assimilation as a challenge. The ultra-orthodox see their tiny amount of assimilation as a victory but Stern sees overall assimilation as a common challenge to reduce it.
Elazar Stern believes the conflict which exists within Jewish communities who live different lives is more dangerous than the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians..and even Israel and Iran.
He said: “I think we are strong enough to overcome the threat of the Iranians, strong enough to survive the struggle with the Palestinians but I am not sure if we understand the danger of gap within Israel society and the Jewish communities throughout the Diaspora, in fact, the Jewish nation.”
Shalom Norman CEO of the Harry Triguboff Institute in Israel added: “The Chief Rabbi in the UK can visit Westminster Abbey but cannot visit a reform synagogue. The Chief Rabbi of Israel has no problem visiting The Vatican but will not go into a reform synagogue. It’s pathetic. We are shooting ourselves in the foot.”
He added: “We are facing a disaster. We have 430,000 Israeli citizens who belong to the Jewish collective who are not registered as Jews by the State authority called The Chief Rabbinate. They are not the 20% Arabs. There is now such alienation from the secular Jewish boys and girls who have decided they can live without the Rabbinate and will hold their weddings in places such as Cyprus or Bulgaria ad will register later on.”
Norman is not proud of this situation and can see it will enormous problems in the future.
Elazar Stern explained what happens when two comrades are killed in combat. One is registered as a Jew and the other is not. They can not be buried alongside.
He explained: “We are fighting for a conversion process in the most compassionate way that Halacha can allow us. If you cannot bury two soldiers who gave their lives for Israel because one is registered as a Jew and the other one’s grandfather is a Jew. This may create hatred within us.”
I succeded to allow burials of two soldiers who died under these circumstances to be buried side by side with a bench between them. It doesn’t cover Muslims or Druze soldiers as they have their own cemetery.
A tree or a flower bed are being added to the bench option.
Elazar says he is not a rabbi. “But if you bury a soldier not registered as a Jew who has lost his life defending Israel, I cannot imagine a better conversion process.”
Stern is not a member of a religious party. He says he does not believe ib religious parties or a secular party. He believes the parties should be like the military. All together and each one to make the best contribution they can.”
The conversion turned to Malka Leifer and Israel’s Health Minister Yaakov Liztman accused of protecting her. Stern said he kept his position because he had a captive following.
Stern said he didn’t care about Australia or wherever the sexual abuse and apparent protectionism could have been. He commented: “I care about it is happening to us. This is not my Judaism. That someone can escape from paying the price of child sexual abuse and takes Judaism as a shelter.”
He said that Israel’s relationship with Australia is important. The big picture worldwide people cannot be proud of Judaism being a shelter for criminals.
“This I cannot accept this…Leifer must be extradited. The power Litzman has played out is on our account.”
Going back to Jews v Jews Elazar want to implement a compromise at the Kotel.
To allocate all streams to pray in the southern part of the Kotel as offered below.
He said: I cannot define the difference between Jewish religious practices. All Jews should be able to pray at the Kotel.”
Also on his agenda is creating a Beth Din in each municipality with rabbis in a position to grant a friendly conversion…and that each person seeking conversion to have the right to go any municipality of his or her choice.
He added: “The only office which can certify Kashrut is the Chief Rabbi and that creates corruption. We need to have many authorities not just one. It sends people away from Kashrut and we need to bring them back.
I also want to see how Shabbat is dealt with in public life in Israel. For instance, life in Tel Aviv is more pluralistic than life in Jerusalem. When the ultra-orthodox extends its power from its own municipality to others, it creates problems.”
We have to undermine the office the Chief Rabbi, It is alienating so many young people.”
Power to all Jews to be treated with respect and tolerance – Rabbis were not voted for BY the People for The People – I agree we will cause our own holocaust if we continue in this way