Judaism and equality - or lack thereof

The days of Passover command us to remember the story of the Exodus. One of the most fundamental messages of the Exodus is the idea that a nation has decided that "freedom" can take precedence over life itself. In fact, halakha tells us that maintaining our freedom to remain Jews is one of the very few cases in which we must be willing to give up our lives.

In the past, the freedom of religion, in the sense of conducting rituals, was left to a small, elite group and the role of the religious leadership was crucial - that was the reality when man entered the modern age.

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Judaism is not racism

Approximately seven years ago at the World Conference against Racism held in Durban, South Africa in 2001, Rabbis for Human rights faced one of its most difficult moments. As a human rights organization, we are undoubtedly against racism, and feel strongly about efforts to stop the phenomenon. But, this particular conference became a platform for Israel-bashing in which Israel was blamed and Zionism for racism and to avoid dealing with this cross-continent phenomena. Eight years later when the second conference is about to take place, there is great hesitation in the organization about joining the conference; hesitation that is followed by a petition against having it hijacked by anti-Semitism.

For many years now I have been facing this dilemma. As a rabbi and educator I promote sincere and deep learning of the Jewish culture for every member of the Jewish nation, I think that this is essential in order to develop one's full identity. On the other hand, as a human rights activist, it is clear to me that emphasizing the belonging of a person to a community essentially leads him/her to differentiate between the way he sees members of his community from the rest of mankind. I think this is even clearer once dealing with a monotheistic culture that holds within it the concept of the right way and the concept of wrong doers. Because of that, I find it crucial to emphasize the voice within our tradition that points out our obligation to every human being and the texts that are for the basic equality for all mankind, irrespective of religion, gender or race. So what does that mean about the Jewish tradition?

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