For months, Beth Levine, a lawyer in New York, has been worried about developments in Israel, where the far-right government is trying to limit the independence of the judiciary. His efforts sparked massive protests in Israel and smaller ones across the United States, including most Sundays in Washington Square Park in Manhattan. Although she agreed with the cause, Ms. Levine, who lives in the Bronx, never attended.
Then two things happened: The Israeli government passed the first of its judicial amendments in July, a move that supporting ministers said would remove an obstacle to the will of the people. And Israeli expatriates in New York, loosely organized under a grassroots group called UnXeptable, planned a rally this summer opposite the Israeli consulate in Midtown to coincide with the Jewish holiday of Tisha B’Av, which commemorates the destruction of the ancient temples in Jerusalem and others Tragedies. The timing was good for Ms. Levine and she came for the first time.
“It seemed very meaningful to me,” she said. “Many of the worst things that happened on this holiday were because of ‘Sinat Chinam,’ or baseless hatred among Jews.”
This month promises a lot of activities. Organizers held rallies in dozens of cities around the world on Sunday, two days before Israel’s Supreme Court considers an appeal against the first reform law, including one before the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington. Protesters in New York plan to greet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on September 21 when he is scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly. And a “Democracy Prayer” co-authored by a prominent American rabbi will be read in synagogues across the country to mark Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year that begins Friday evening.
Polls show that many American Jews, like many Israelis, oppose Israel’s judicial changes. But some were also hesitant to openly criticize Israel over what appeared to be a domestic matter.
But that hesitancy has begun to thaw, Israeli protesters and American advocates said, as more and more American Jews were swayed by President Biden’s vocal concerns about the Israeli government’s actions and were persuaded by the argument that the Jewish diaspora was fighting over the status of the Israeli government Israeli democracy should be taken care of.
Many Jewish American leaders and organizations, including the Jewish Federations of North America, a philanthropic giant, have publicly objected to the changes, as have several prominent centrist and center-right observers and journalists. This protest is now spreading to individuals and local synagogues.
“American Jews are really used to being asked to commit to Israel,” said Rabbi Michelle Dardashti of the Kane Street Synagogue in Brooklyn. “Being asked to reassess our relationship with Israel and publicly protest against the government — that is foreign to American Jews.”
Ana Blumenthal, an Israeli organizer based in Philadelphia, said she and her colleagues have been invited to speak by synagogues and Jewish community groups that want to take part in protests. “We are experiencing a change,” Ms. Blumenthal said.
A poll of American Jews conducted in June by the nonpartisan Jewish Electorate Institute found that 61 percent believe the proposals would weaken Israeli democracy. The new law limits the Supreme Court’s ability to overturn laws, eliminating control over Israel’s political leadership. The Israeli government, the most right-wing in its history, also hopes to enshrine the role of rabbinical courts in civilian life and increase Israel’s presence in the occupied West Bank.
Sixty-five percent of Orthodox Jews said in the same poll that the changes would strengthen Israeli democracy, revealing a divide in the United States between progressive, religiously liberal Jews and conservative, devout Jews, many of whom are Orthodox, according to Rabbi Moshe Hauer The union’s executive vice president “does not find the level of concern about the ‘end of democracy’ rhetoric that can affect them.”
Ameinu, a North American Jewish group that represents progressive positions on Israel, has told American Jews that its comments would not be perceived as a transgression. “Israelis asked us to do this,” said Nomi Colton-Max, the group’s vice president.
American Jews “not only have an interest, but a vital interest, in the well-being of the State of Israel,” said Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch of New York’s Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, a Reform congregation. The current administration, he added, “risks further disrupting relations between world Jewry and Israel.”
Jonathan Goffin, a dual American-Australian citizen in New York, said the Israeli protesters – and his standing with them for the first time this spring – brought him closer to Israel, which he was supposed to worship in Melbourne.
“Israel should be based on liberal, democratic ideals,” Mr. Goffin said. The rallies, he added, were “the first time in a long time that I was proud to wear the Israeli flag.”
Yet some committed American Jews continue to feel that the protests are not for them. About 15 percent of American Jews surveyed by the Jewish Electorate Institute say the changes will strengthen Israeli democracy, and another 24 percent do not believe the changes will have an impact.
Jonathan Greenberg, a Reform rabbi and adviser to a private charitable foundation in the Chicago area, said he has not yet taken a position on the changes but believes it is up to the Israelis to decide. “The will of the people in democracies is expressed in elections,” he said. “I trust the Israelis to determine their own domestic policy.”
Jonathan Wornick, who works for a Bay Area investment advisory firm and is a member of the national council of AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby, said he opposes American protests. “I think, ‘Wow, democracy in action, that’s a beautiful thing,'” he said of the protests in Israel. In contrast, he added, “My role as an American Jew is to support the relationship” between the United States and Israel.
Stephen Lurie, a strategist at a nonprofit in New York, is not interested in attending a pro-Israeli democracy rally because, he said, “Israel has not been a true democracy for many, many years because of the way it treats everyone. “People in the West Bank under his control.”
Shany Granot-Lubaton, an Israeli who has been organizing protests in New York since this winter, said she respects that many American Jews are ambivalent about criticizing Israel. She has stepped out of her comfort zone in other ways: Like many non-Orthodox Israeli Jews, she and her colleagues are not religious; The Tisha B’Av rally featured an afternoon prayer for the first time ever. The rally’s explicit connection between social justice and Judaism — a mainstay of non-Orthodox denominations here — was new to her. “Practicing Judaism in your life and still being liberal — that’s an option I didn’t know about,” she said.
Ms. Levine, who is active in her synagogue, found the rally significant in other ways, too. “It was amazing to see secular Israelis and more thoughtful Americans,” she said. “I had a little tears in my eyes.”