Secular Humanistic Jews in Israel are establishing their own yeshiva – and getting funding from the Ministry of Education to do it.
The Israeli government historically has provided funding only to Orthodox yeshivas, but a recent Supreme Court decision paved the way for other Jewish denominations to receive support.
The court’s ruling supported an action brought by non-Orthodox religious groups, including the Conservative, Reform and Secular Hunmanistic movements in Israel.
As a result, the movement of Jewish humanists, known in Hebrew as “Tnuat Hiloni Yisraeli,” recently received the equivalent of $16,200 from the government to aid in the planning of the yeshiva, which probably will be located in Jerusalem.
Although the aid is a breakthrough, the money is a pittance compared to what Orthodox institutions receive from the government, said Zev Katz, a co-founder of the Israel Association for Secular Humanistic Judaism.
“The Orthodox get mind-boggling sums of money, hundreds of millions of shekels” each year, said Katz, who teaches at Hebrew University.
There are some 10,000 to 15,000 Israelis who are connected with the humanist movement in Israel in some way, he said.
They hope to have the yeshiva doors formally opened in a year or two and to be offering full-time study of Judaism to 30-50 people, one-third of them new immigrants.
The new yeshiva, once opened, will offer training in Torah, Talmud, Chasidism, Kabalah and neo-Orthodoxy, Katz said.
“A secular Jew should be knowledgeable about what he rejects,” he said.
“Tanach is to us like Shakespeare is to English,” said Katz. “It is a central part of our tradition. And there can be no Jewish continuity without tradition.”
“Those who finish the yeshiva program will be the first formally trained cadre to teach Judaism from a humanist, pluralist point of view,” he said.
In the program, held every other Friday, 30 students in each of nine Israeli cities – many of them recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union – take courses with humanistic teachers, said Katz.
The groups visit museums and historical places, and meet with rabbis from Orthodox to Reform.
The movement gets about $120,000 a year from the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Ministry of Absorption to run the Friday program, which is now in its fourth year.
Courses are also offered by the movement to about 75 university students in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Several dozen native Israelis and about 18 immigrants from the former Soviet Union have already been trained to speak about humanistic Judaism to school and army groups, said Katz.
The movement was also recently invited by the Ministry of Education to design a curriculum for pluralism that will be used in schools and the army, he said.
The movement is also planning to produce two new prayer books – one for daily use and another for the holidays.
Humanistic Jewish practice in Israel is substantially different from the way it is practice in North America, said Katz.
Tradition is taken seriously by Israeli humanistic Jews, rather than rejected as it tends to be by their North American brethren, he said.
“Torah is not canon, but an inspiration. Torah was created in ancient times by the geniuses of my forefathers,” said Katz, explaining the Israeli humanistic view. “That’s why it is holy, not because it is endowed by supernatural qualities.”
“The values of humanism are holy, like human life, not as supernatural mysticism, but because they represent the ultimate values. Judaism is blessed because it is an idea of genius” said Katz.
Traditional prayers are often adapted to be nontheistic and not completely eradicated from practice.
Many secular Israelis light Shabbat candles, said Katz.
Rather than recite the traditional blessing, which begins “Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the Universe,” they say, “Blessed is the sanctity of the Sabbath” and “Blessed is the Sabbath Day.”
And one of the traditional Yom Kippur prayers of repentance, the “Al Chet,” has been adapted to ask forgiveness from other people who the praying person may have hurt, rather than from God.
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