Criminal weddings
The news (“Protesters pray at Haifa rabbinical court after Conservative rabbi arrest,” July 22) that Masorti Rabbi Dov Hayun faces criminal charges for performing an unregistered wedding strikes at the heart of American support for Israel.
Many Americans, Jewish or not, identify strongly with Israel because of the value it places on freedom. Starting with the Pilgrims, America has been settled by millions of people from all over the world escaping from political or clerical tyranny. Just read the inscription on the Statue of Liberty about the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” or New Hampshire’s license plate: “Live free or die.” People empathize with Israel because they recognize it as an island of freedom in a sea of violent repression and they admire her pluck in resisting the extortionate demands of her neighbors to give in and conform to their way of life.
These sentiments would be significantly harmed if the legal restrictions demanded by the official rabbinate continue to impinge on civil liberties, diminishing Israel’s special status as an outpost of liberty. DAVID KATCOFF Charleston, South Carolina
We are witnessing a new phenomenon – that not everyone has to keep the law. Settlers and haredim must always obey the law, but storekeepers can violate the law and open on Tisha Be’av. Otherwise, we are compared to Iran.
Members of the rabbinate must follow the law, but Rabbi Dov Hayun of Haifa is above the law, as are various rabbis who perform unapproved religious ceremonies. I agree that the police shouldn’t have woken up Hayun at 5:30 a.m., but why is there no outcry when attorney David Shimron and others are woken up at a similar hour?
We have one state, one army, one government, both local and national, and of course one judicial system, yet when it comes to kashrut and the rabbinate in general, we are told that monopolies are no good.
I assume that if the rabbinate did as its critics wished, there would be no such calls. We have to stop all this hypocrisy.
YITZCHOK ELEFANT Chief Rabbi of Dimona