“It’s frustrating, and maybe a little suspicious.”
Tel Aviv, June 6 – Activists campaigning for representation of non-Jews in the official organs of governance in Israel voiced confusion today at statistics showing that despite efforts to open Rabbinic positions to all possible candidates, not a single non-Jew has expressed interest in such positions.
Members of the Equality Coalition, a group of pluralism-minded organizations, admitted bewilderment in an interview this morning that no non-Jews have attempted to enter the field of community Rabbinics, even though the coalition has labored for years to convince the public and the organs of government not to discriminate against those who happen not to be born into or adhere to Jewish religious tradition in its hiring practices.
“It’s frustrating, and maybe a little suspicious,” remarked Noa Billiti of coalition member organization Shivyon. “We filed a Freedom of Information request to get access to the applications of all the candidates for governmental Rabbinic positions, hoping to assess our progress. It’s easy to accuse the Rabbinate of discriminating against non-Jewish applicants, and of course we love to do that, but it looks and sounds much more impressive when we can back those accusations up with hard data. Only it seems we have nothing to work with, because every single one of the applicants appears to be Jewish, and we may have to revert to flinging our charges around unsubstantiated but sounding good.”
Ms. Billiti added that the absence of non-Jews among the applicants does not, perforce, indicate the absence of discrimination, and that finding the discrimination that must exist – the system, after all, is a Jewish one, and therefore must by definition ooze oppression and bias – necessitates expanding the lens to focus on the wider society that fails to encourage non-Jews to view the Rabbinate as a suitable field of employment.
“It’s not just institutional; discrimination is always structural,” she insisted. “The fact that we could not find the discrimination in the hiring process per se only means it’s been disguised elsewhere, because it must exist, ontologically, given our a priori assumptions that are always right, and always on the side of justice. What is it about Israeli society, specifically the orthodox Jewish establishment, that fails to integrate non-Jews into the religious leadership? We suspect it lies in the discriminatory insistence on proficiency in Jewish sources as a prerequisite for being a Rabbi. Such an attitude privileges those inclined to devoting their time and energy to studying those sources, and must be undone.”
Please support our work through Patreon.
“despite efforts to open Rabbinic positions to all possible candidates, not a single non-Jew has expressed interest in such positions”
Perhaps, some Jews might try as well to join a monastery or better the Vatican?
Certainly enough of them have joined those institutions against their will.