Over the course of the last month, Conservative and Reform synagogue’s in Israel have been under attack. They have been vandalized and had stones thrown at them. They have had their windows broken and the ensuing glass shards scattered amongst their playgrounds and sanctuaries. Some of these attacks have come during Shabbat, while the congregation was praying their Friday night prayers. One synagogue was graffitied with the threat that “it has begun”
Witnesses have claimed the attacks are being carried out by young Orthodox Jewish boys.
Practicing, but non-Orthodox, Jews in Israel have long been discriminated against and displaced. Israel may be a Jewish state, but in Israel, Judaism is synonymous with Orthodoxy. Reform and Conservative rabbis are not legally allowed to marry their congregants in Israel. If a couple of one of these movements wants to have their rabbi officiate their wedding, they must also get an orthodox rabbi to sign off on the nuptials. Despite the massive government funds set aside for Jewish institutions in Israel, there is no money making its way outside of the Orthodox communities. In fact, one of the synagogues that has been under attack was only given permission to build, despite private funding, after they agreed to build “two kindergartens on the property and gift these to the city.”
The recent attacks have been perpetrated against synagogues in Netanya and Ra’anana. In Ra’anana, the attacks were condemned by the Chief Rabbi of the city. Not so in Netanya. In fact, as reported by Haaretz, when Netanya’s Chief Rabbi, David Shlush, was asked to comment on the recent vandalism and acts of aggression against the local synagogue, rather than condemning the acts, he simply “dismissed the legitimacy of the streams of Judaism that are practiced in those buildings.”
