Moderation and Gay Pride

HATRED IS my enemy. Religious, straight, and I love all of you.” This was the message printed on the t-shirt of a kippahwearing participant in the Jerusalem Gay Pride parade a few weeks ago. He was not alone. A good-sized group of religious Zionists were there as well, demonstrating their solidarity. All of this might seem strange, given the Orthodox halacha regarding homosexuality.

So what explains this conundrum? For a start, this was clearly not an expression of the stereotypical religious-secular divide in Israeli society. In fact, it was more an expression of an intra-religious divide. Prior to the parade, a leading religious Zionist rabbi, Yigal Levinstein, referred publicly and repeatedly to gays as “perverts”. Around 300 rabbis signed a petition supporting him. This, just one year after a Charedi Israeli murdered 16- year-old Shira Banki, a participant in last year’s parade.

The unprecedented increase in the number of religious people at the 2016 parade, including the religious MK, Aliza Lavie, was primarily a response to the gauntlet thrown down by Levinstein. In contrast, the secular mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, stayed away, apparently out of concern for the potential political fallout.

Other leaders who did not attend also spoke out against Levinstein, including Naftali Bennett, head of the right-wing Jewish Home party and leading religious Zionist rabbis such as Benny Lau.

In a video uploaded to Facebook, Rabbi Lau rebuked Levinstein: “Who gave you permission to insult them? In the name of which Torah do you act like this?” Moreover, according to a survey of public opinion conducted by Kamocha, an organisation representing Orthodox gays in Israel, a majority of the religious Zionist community opposed Levinstein’s campaign.

Among religious Zionists opposed to Levinstein, there are two groups. The first are liberally minded, myself included. They accept LGBT rights in principle. Indeed, just under 20 per cent of self-identified religious Zionists do not seek to deny homosexuals the right to express their sexuality (Kamocha survey).

Then there is the second much larger group, including rabbis and religious leaders who came out against Levinstein. They do not approach the issue from the perspective of liberal rights or challenge the halachic prohibitions on the subject. Nonetheless, they seek to be inclusive and respectful.

In response to Levinstein, they strongly condemned the demonisation of homosexuals and clearly opposed the attempt to marginalize them. They related to the issue as they would to other ritual aspects of Judaism which most Israelis do not observe, such as the laws of Shabbat. Just as one respects straight non-observant Jews, so one respects LGBT non-observant Jews or LGBT and otherwise observant, Jews. According to the Kamocha survey, this is supported by nearly 50 per cent of religious Zionists, with about 25 per cent opposed.

Behind this approach lies a shift in social reality. Thirty years ago, few religious Zionists knew anyone gay. Now many have gay colleagues, friends and relatives. Indeed, it was noteworthy that some of these rabbis referred to the empathy they felt for religious family members and students. They have also become aware of the heavy price of intolerance within the religious community. In his video, Rabbi Lau spoke of an incident two years ago when Levinstein spoke at a religious high school and mocked gay people. He recalled that “there was a student there at the back who ran out of the hall at that moment... He intended to kill himself… [In this case] it was prevented.”

To some, the approach of religious moderates might be dismissed as at best, apologetic condescension, or at worst a tactical concession masking a fundamentalist agenda. But this would be a huge mistake. No doubt for the secular LGBT community the message of religious moderation falls short. However, within the religious community, the language of religious extremism can only be successfully countered by the language of religious moderation. Moreover, the position of religious Zionist moderates represents support for one of the foundations of democracy: the practical acceptance of other people’s right to live life as they wish, so long as they do not harm others, even when that contradicts the position of one’s own religion.

Given the increasing size of the religious population in Israel, such religious moderates could turn out to be very important to the well-being of Israeli democracy.

Now many have gay colleagues, friends and relatives

Jonathan Rynhold is a Professor of Political Studies at Bar-Ilan University