Rabbi Eliezer Melamed responds to Kolekh’s attack on rabbis who forbid helping Arabs take over Jewish cities.
“The coarse attack by Kolekh against the Rabbis’ letter regarding renting to Arabs proves there can be no cooperation between the rabbis and the loyal representatives of the New Israel Fund.” So says Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, a leading religious-Zionist educator and Rabbi of the town of Har Bracha. He was responding to an attack by the left-wing religious women’s organization Kolekh on dozens of rabbis who signed a letter banning renting or selling homes to Arabs.
“Some very important and respected women,” writes Rabbi Melamed in the most recent issue of B’Sheva, “have asked me why the rabbis do not cooperate with Kolekh on matters in consensus, such as preventing violence against women in the religious and hareidi sectors. I answered that I am doubtful that they truly want such cooperation. They would certainly be willing to use the rabbis to advance their own positions - but there would be no mutuality. Their loyalty is directed, first and foremost, to western liberal culture; any time a rabbi presents a position that is opposed to their leftist-democratic conceptions, they will join the chorus of those who condemn him. This is not acceptable behavior between partners.”
“Of late, this has proven to be 100% true. Following the Rabbis’ call not to rent or sell apartments in Jewish areas to Arabs, Kolekh released a very strong response, stating as follows: ‘The fascist “Halakhic ruling” by 50 rabbis is not Torah, and is not Jewish Law, but rather puts the lie to true Torah and incites against it. It is full of desecration of G-d’s Name and harm to people. Rabbis who incite others to fascism in the name of Torah thereby desecrate its sanctity… ‘”
“The women’s group also wrote to the Attorney General with a demand that the rabbis be placed on ‘criminal and disciplinary’ trial. They write that this should be done urgently, because ‘the campaign against renting to various populaces for racist reasons has been expanding of late. Silence on the part of the law enforcement network against these statements is liable to be considered a “certificate of kashrut” for continued incitement via racist, dangerous, extreme and illegal statements… [which] are outside the framework of legitimate freedom of speech in Israel.’ They also call on the Attorney General to dismiss the signatories from their public-service jobs as city and town rabbis.”
The declaration was signed in the name of Kolekh by Attorney Ricki Shapira-Rosenberg, Rabbi Melamed notes.
“These are very harsh words,” he continues. “They are insulting, and provoke disgust and anger. It is not pleasant to even quote them, but there is apparently some benefit in doing so. It is clear that rabbis cannot cooperate with those who call for them to be put on trial for fulfilling their obligation to express the truth of Torah according to their best judgment.”
“The women who write this show that they are truly loyal servants of the New Israel Fund, and that they are interested in assimilating Judaism into liberal Western culture. It is OK to disagree, but those who write such things show that in the cultural war between Jewish and Western values, they have chosen their side - and not the Jewish one.”
(The New Israel Fund is a human rights group committed to “democratic change within Israel” and “social justice and equality for all Israelis.” Grantees of the NIF, the first major Jewish organization to work extensively with Arab citizens of Israel, include Adalah, Breaking the Silence, B'Tselem, Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, Yesh Din, and Physicians for Human Rights.)