Conference on Religious Zionism

Ne'emanei Torah vaAvodah believes that it is vital for the religious Zionist community to more openly acknowledge the changes that have taken place in modern society and address the challenges they pose. We encourage the rabbis and educators of the community to address themselves to social and educational issues in an open and candid manner and ask for Halachic decisions on questions that arise from contemporary life in Israel and the Diaspora. This plea for a new and bold approach to burning, contemporary issues is an outgrowth from a conference held about a decade ago at Kibbutz Lavi, a seminal event that became known as the "Lavi Conference". In short, the conference stated clearly that religious Zionism must be prepared to examine difficult questions and propose solutions. With support from the Edah organization and with the participation of Beit Morasha, Kolech, the Religious Kibbutz Movement, the Yaacov Herzog Center, and others, the conference took a decisive step toward reshaping the character of religious Zionism. The progress made at Kibbutz Lavi, however, has come to a standstill. Ne'emanei Torah vaAvodah has taken on the task of reviving the effort under the banner "The Conference for Religious Zionism" and plans to re-institute a two-day summer event in which 3,000 men and women from throughout Israel will participate and where the issues on the agenda will be those of most concern to Israeli and Diaspora Jews, namely, the quality of services provided by the religious Establishment in Israel, the status of women, religious education in the 21^st century, religious and political extremism, involvement in social activity, and the central goals of religious Zionism in the coming years. The conference is being planned as a regular event to be held every two years in Jerusalem with participating lecturers and guests from Israel and abroad. It is hoped that the conference will constitute a meeting point for the many orthodox organizations working within the religious community and will generate new partnerships among them. All orthodox organizations working for social change will be invited.Support for funding the conference will come from participant fees and sponsorship. At this point, $100,000 is still needed. Expenses include advertising and marketing, printing, space rental, accommodation and speakers' fees.

The International Conference on Halacha, Justice and Society

Israel, July 2012

• General

In the discussion of social justice questions and issues taking place today in Israel and Diaspora Jewish communities, the voice & perspective of Halacha is not heard in many cases, despite its relevance to, and extensive treatment of, these issues. Moreover, in many areas of religion-state relations, Halacha and social justice issues are frequently seen as mutually antagonistic. The International Conference on Halacha and Social Justice is meant to address Halachic issues focused on social questions and their proper place in considerations of equality, tolerance, and social justice in Halachic rulings in the religious, communal and public realms of our lives.

It is important to note that this conference is intended to be a catalyst for ongoing cooperative activities among the various participant NGO’s in Israel, and particularly for cooperation among and between NGO’s in Israel and abroad.  Conference planning will include initial work on cooperative ventures that will be jointly launched during the gathering. Such ventures, involving any and all of the areas relating to tolerance and social justice in Halacha, will themselves be planned with quantifiable benchmarks for success and a built-in method for project evaluation.

• Discussion Objectives:

- Discussion of Halacha and Social Justice in its general social aspects, not merely through the lens of religious Zionism or modern orthodoxy.

-  Discussion of  a broad range of  issues relating to Halacha and social justice, not merely specific issues relating to only one aspect of it, as in other conferences to date.

• Public Participation Objectives:

• The Israeli perspective – reaching broader communities and audiences heretofore not actively participant in public discourse on the various aspects of Halacha and social justice: on the one hand, the secular public, which in most respects treats social justice as a non-religious matter; on the other, the “Sephardi” ultra-orthodox community that grapples with questions of Halacha and faces exposure to discrimination and inferiority within the ultra-orthodox world, as well as educators and therapists in the ultra-orthodox public who are prepared to more openly discuss questions of domestic violence and sexual harassment, children with special needs or disabilities, etc.

• The perspective of world Jewry – involvement of Rabbis, leaders and organizations from Diaspora Jewish communities active in areas parallel to the Israeli organizations and personages participating in the conference.

• General Goals & Expectations

• Provide a stage for religious voices attempting to sincerely address both the Halachic imperative to pursue social justice and the issues that seem to generate conflict between Halacha and social justice in the societal, political milieu that we inhabit.

• Unify and foster cohesion and tolerance among all the religious organizations, people and voices prepared to address the questions and demands generated by the various aspects of Halacha and Social Justice, as a global Jewish task force with a strong and clear religious and social message.

• Lay the groundwork for joint, unified activity in the future (see general notes above)

• Proposed format

-As with the annual “hakel” conference in Ramat Efal (during Hol Hamoed Sukkot), we propose an announcement to a select list of spokespersons, organizations and institutions active primarily or secondarily in these areas, requesting proposals for activities at the conference.

- We suggest that the activity proposals include panel discussions or lectures in the proposer’s field as it relates to Halacha and Social Justice, and the names of possible participants or speakers. As such we will try to link overlapping initiatives of different organizations in order to generate collaboration between them in building a program and presenting it as part of the discussions they propose such that it also includes representatives or activists from other organizations, both Israeli and (mainly) from abroad active in the same field. (In this context it will prove helpful to consider constructing the various sessions and discussions into more general clusters of discussion sessions on similar themes – see the attached subject list).

We can thus involve the organizations and people who in general operate in this area, and enable them to express and present before the conference’s organizing committee ideas for relevant activities at the conference, based on their areas of interest and specialties, which give expression to additional perspectives in the broad, overall realm of Halacha and Social Justice.

- We further propose educational tours before or during the conference to various places in the country in which activity toward social justice takes place (e.g. south Tel Aviv, clubs for the handicapped, soup kitchens, a battered women’s shelter, et al). The activity should involve leaders of the organizations participating in the conference.

The Halacha and Social Justice Conference – Discussion Clusters and Issues

-Tolerance towards, and fair treatment of,  the vulnerable members of society

• Converts
• Children and minors
• Minorities
• The financially disempowered
• Refugees
• People with disabilities

- Worker rights

• Social conditions and contract workers
• Foreign workers
• Responsibility to insure Third Worldadequate manufacturing conditions

- The right to parenthood and to raise a family

• Agunot and m’soravot get
• Persons disqualified or prevented from marriage
• Parenthood outside marriage (single mothers by choice)

-Justice and equality in the general public arena

• Accessibility for the disabled
• Women in positions of communal leadership and management
• The right to equal education
• Women and men in the public space
• The "basket" of subsidized medicines
• Access to justice – only for the rich?

-Halacha and social justice in practical terms

Creating a Tolerant Society

• The Religious Kibbutz – ideology and reality
• The Social Standards Certification
• Domestic violence and sexual harassment
• Should the local poor come first?
• Inclusiveness and exclusion in religious communal life

A Final Word

The impetus for this conference came to fruition during a series of meetings held last year withRabbi Marc Angelof the Institute for Jewish Ideas and Ideals; with leaders of Israeli-based NGO's including Ne'emanei Torah V'Avoda, B’Maaglei Tzedek, Kolech, Mavoi Satum, The Yaacov Herzog Institute, and the Religious Kibbutz Movement, together with The New Israel Fund and Shatil. Events inIsraeland theUSover the past year only heightened the participants' feeling that the time is ripe to broaden international cooperation on these issues crucial to the Jewish future. Rabbi Yuval Cherlow and Rabbi Shlomo Riskin are amongst the rabbis that will guide this conference. 

Suggested schedule and suggested presenters for 2-day conference.