Remembering Yossi Sarid, a Secular Leftist Who Never Abandoned His Jewish Commitments

Yossi Sarid, the longtime leader of Israel’s far left, passed away earlier this month. The British rabbi Jeremy Rosen reflects on his legacy:

Yossi Sarid was the standard-bearer of secular, left-wing Judaism in Israel. Unlike most of his colleagues, he was well versed in Judaism, a master of sources, and an elegant speaker and writer in literary Hebrew. But above all he was a man of principle, idealism which I respect even when I disagree with the ideals. He always expressed himself openly and honestly and calmly, no matter how controversial or unpopular his views. . . .

He despised corruption of any sort, both secular and religious, and everything he did he measured by the ethical standards of Judaism. It was typical of him that he insisted that no rabbi or cantor or representative of institutionalized Judaism be present at his funeral. Yet his two sons and daughter joined together in reciting the traditional kaddish most movingly. . . .

He was . . . a Jewish renaissance man, a man for all seasons. [Watching the funeral on television], I felt a powerful sense of regret and loss that Sarid’s much more balanced and softer voice would no longer be heard. I can respect the left’s opinion even if I disagree with them. But I think they have abandoned a Jewish commitment for the neo-Marxism of many of their forebears. This, I believe, is a luxury we cannot afford at this moment.

Read more at Algemeiner

More about: Israel & Zionism, Israeli left, Israeli politics, Israeli society, Meretz

It’s Time for Haredi Jews to Become Part of Israel’s Story

Unless the Supreme Court grants an extension from a recent ruling, on Monday the Israeli government will be required to withhold state funds from all yeshivas whose students don’t enlist in the IDF. The issue of draft exemptions for Haredim was already becoming more contentious than ever last year; it grew even more urgent after the beginning of the war, as the army for the first time in decades found itself suffering from a manpower crunch. Yehoshua Pfeffer, a haredi rabbi and writer, argues that haredi opposition to army service has become entirely disconnected from its original rationale:

The old imperative of “those outside of full-time Torah study must go to the army” was all but forgotten. . . . The fact that we do not enlist, all of us, regardless of how deeply we might be immersed in the sea of Torah, brings the wrath of Israeli society upon us, gives a bad name to all of haredi society, and desecrates the Name of Heaven. It might still bring harsh decrees upon the yeshiva world. It is time for us to engage in damage limitation.

In Pfeffer’s analysis, today’s haredi leaders, by declaring that they will fight the draft tooth and nail, are violating the explicit teachings of the very rabbis who created and supported the exemptions. He finds the current attempts by haredi publications to justify the status quo not only unconvincing but insincere. At the heart of the matter, according to Pfeffer, is a lack of haredi identification with Israel as a whole, a lack of feeling that the Israeli story is also the haredi story:

Today, it is high time we changed our tune. The new response to the demand for enlistment needs to state, first and foremost to ourselves, that this is our story. On the one hand, it is crucial to maintain and even strengthen our isolation from secular values and culture. . . . On the other hand, this cultural isolationism must not create alienation from our shared story with our fellow brethren living in the Holy Land. Participation in the army is one crucial element of this belonging.

Read more at Tzarich Iyun

More about: Haredim, IDF, Israeli society