Englewood—Many members of the local Jewish community braved the snow and freezing temperatures to join Congregation Ahavath Torah’s Scholar-in-Residence Rabbi David Stav last Shabbos for three well-attended sessions. Rav Stav, as he is known, is the chief rabbi of the town of Shoham and co-founder and the chairman of Tzohar, the largest organization of religious Zionist rabbis in Israel. Tzohar has emerged as a powerful national movement at the forefront of a “revolution for a more ethical, inclusive and inspiring Jewish Israel.”
During a post-Shabbat interview, Rav Stav shared a few comments about Tzohar’s inspiration. “The future of the State of Israel’s main threat is not Iran or their nuclear bomb, it’s the social nuclear bomb defined by the gaps between secular and religious societies. We need to bridge these gaps, deepen the understanding of the Israeli mentality, and to create awareness of the needs for tools repair the situation,” he said. Stav considers this growing rift between religious and secular societies to be tragic, and feels that the bureaucratic and highly political functioning of Israel’s religious establishment has created obstacles to practicing Judaism and resentment towards Jewish tradition which is fueling “an alarming wave of assimilation and intermarriage in Israel.”
“The dysfunctional of these agencies has alienated much of world Jewry, posing a fundamental threat to the Jewish state. I’m interested in reaching out to everyone interested in the future of the State of Israel, I don’t measure the size of his kippah.” he said. “Through grassroots services and outreach, rabbinic leadership and public policy, our mission is to guarantee the Jewish future of the State of Israel and create a meaningful and relevant Jewish identity for all Jews in Israel.”
The Friday night topic was “Who says you are Jewish?” and included a discussion of the problem: How does the community handle a claim of Jewishness by someone unfamiliar? In the gemara, as he pointed out, they would accept the claim, because no one would want to claim Jewishness if it weren’t true; however, issues are complicated when there is a motive, such as marrying a Jew, or, as in Soviet Aliyah in the 70s and 80s, escaping a totalitarian regime, there is a benefit to being identified as Jewish.
Shabbos morning featured “Religious Establishment Without Corruption. Is it Possible?” The rabbi spoke about how in Israel, unlike other Western democracies, religion and state are highly integrated; because the earliest founders agreed that Israel’s existence depends on preserving its Jewish character, the Chief Rabbinate and the Ministry of Religious Affairs were established to govern fundamental legal issues such as the Right of Return, Jewish marriage and divorce, shabbat and holidays, conversions, kashrut and burial.
Rav Stav spoke about how often secular Israelis or Israeli immigrants’ first and only exposure to Judaism is a harsh and un-navigable bureaucracy with the inevitable rampant corruption that unchecked power yields. Tzohar’s concern is that the Chief Rabbinate and Ministry of Religious Affairs have evolved into powerful government monopolies which directly impact the lifecycles of every Jewish person in Israel as well as its economy, demography, agriculture and military.
This creates a distaste for religious control over their lifestyle, often resulting in couples not marrying, or going overseas to marry. People feel betrayed and manipulated by these agencies, and the mission of Tzohar is to ultimately privatize them to dissolve monopolies and provide choice. Rav Stav said the approach of Tzohar isn’t to fight the establishment, but to work within it to nurture Jewish social justice in Israel and to help individuals navigate the process as effectively and painlessly as possible.
At Seudat Shlisheet, the focus was “The Tzohar Revolution—Heart and Soul.” Rav Stav shared that he has encountered many Israeli Jews with clear religious leanings, and even distinct religious practices, who refuse to identify as dati—because religion and the rabbinate have a low place in Israeli public opinion, where rabbis are ranked as more corrupt than politicians. Tzohar believes that rabbis should inspire, rather than acting as “sheriffs” policing an exclusive mandate for lifecycle events.
A distinguished scholar, Rabbi Stav has helped Tzohar grow in numbers and influence. Considering what the role of rabbis were in creating this situation, and what should they be doing to change the effect of rabbis and religion in Israeli society, they started with weddings, an area where most secular Israelis must encounter the rabbinate have been turned off by both the insensitivity and corruption they encountered. The underlying philosophy was that rabbis should be seen as approachable and caring, and to inspire and to help the community navigate their encounter with religion as a positive experience.
“Tzohar is not an educational organization, we are about taking action and reaching out to Israeli society.” Tzohar assists thousands of secular families throughout their Jewish marriage process and in proving their Jewish ancestry. According to their literature, their “Shorashim Forensic Unit” has helped over 39,725 immigrants from the FSU and South & North America to prove their halachic Jewish roots. They have also helped to marry more than 93,950 secular couples in halachic Jewish ceremonies. Rabbi Stav has recently been appointed as the successor to Rabbi Shlomo Riskin at Ohr Torah Stone in Efrat. While Ohr Torah Stone and Tzohar will not formally merge, they will work together on issues of joint concern and make Modern Orthodoxy a more visible presence in Israel.
By Lisa Matkowsky
