Rosh Hashana is also known as yom ha’din, the day of judgement: on the personal level, as individuals pray to be inscribed in the books of life and prosperity, or, as the Talmud tells us, as the day of judgement for the world. The liturgies of this holiest of days are replete with allusions to courts, lawyers, and the scales of justice. This year, these particularly resonate as we contemplate the ongoing crisis over democracy in Israel, which continues as protestors take to the streets for 36 straight weeks, precipitated by the coalition government’s attempts to reform the Israeli legal system. Who would have thought that millions of Israelis and those that love Israel would become so familiar with the intricacies of the Israeli legal system, conversant in the pros and cons of its courts, judges, and parliamentary procedures?
Those fighting for Israeli democracy are pushing to reclaim the value of the flag and of Israeli identity.
But with no clear resolution in sight and further chaos on the horizon, the crisis in Israel is about more than the legal system; it has revealed social tensions that run deeper than this current set of proposed policy shifts. And even as millions of Israelis fight for the values they hold dear and diaspora Jews speak out in solidarity, Jewish philanthropy has been asking what our role is in preserving and fortifying a robust Jewish and democratic state.
We at the Russell Berrie Foundation see this moment as a call to be more explicit about our commitment to a Jewish and democratic Israel and are clarifying and redefining our priorities. We see the task before us as follows: 1) supporting a new discourse on the values and identity that make up the essential Jewish and democratic character of the state of Israel; 2) rebuilding social trust and addressing the toxic polarization that has strained the country; and 3) strengthening Israel’s Jewish and democratic foundations and institutions. We’ve assessed our current portfolio of work and grantees to understand how we best leverage the tools, knowledge, and relationships that we have built and cultivated through the past decades for this moment. And we’ve realized that we need to do more to identify new partners with whom to create coalitions and new grantees with whom to collaborate.
Applying Old Expertise to New Challenges
At the Foundation, we’ve long invested in the human capital of local authorities, recognizing the power of municipalities to improve quality of life for their citizens. With Israelis feeling disconnected from the national government, there’s an urgent opportunity to accelerate government decentralization and shore up local authorities as driving forces for democracy and good governance. In the protests’ wake, we’ve supported new partners like Tzedek Centers – a nationwide grassroots movement to promote democracy, equality, and justice in Israel. Their goal is to establish a national network of local municipal leaders and elected officials to strengthen public discourse on key issues shaping municipal elections. Similarly, a new grantee, HaTnua Yisraelit, the Israeli Movement, is empowering neighborhood committees made up of local leaders and activists to influence their council members and mayors to effect democratic changes. Approaching our local municipality work in new ways has brought us into new coalitions. With UJA-Federation of NY, a long-time collaborator on other projects, we are now co-leading a taskforce through the Israeli Forum of Foundations to mobilize other funders and organizations to respond collectively to Israel’s current democratic crisis through action on the local level.
And even as millions of Israelis fight for the values they hold dear and diaspora Jews speak out in solidarity, Jewish philanthropy has been asking what our role is in preserving and fortifying a robust Jewish and democratic state.
Our commitment to democratic norms can also be seen in how we are pivoting our historic work with the ultra-Orthodox community. Even as we’ve shifted our funding from employment initiatives for Hareidi men and women to those designed to encourage the study of core educational subjects such as English and Math in Hareidi schools, we’ve been forced to recognize the immense challenge of fighting the tailwinds of Israeli government funding, which incentivizes young men to stay in yeshiva by increasing stipends for full-time yeshiva study. However, given demographic trends, it remains critically important to engage those segments of the Hareidi community who want something different. Our team’s efforts are therefore now focusing on supporting those Hareidi leaders and parents who want to strengthen the Hareidi public school system – which is overseen by the government and teaches core studies – and on helping Hareidi men and women reconcile their religious identities with national and civic values.
Tackling Polarization
To address the divides that threaten the vitality of Israeli society, early in 2023 we approved a significant grant for President Herzog’s Time to Talk Initiative. Our support will help create more inclusive educational materials for a new Visitors Center at the Residence of Israel’s President. Throughout this crisis, President Herzog has been a clarion voice for the need for dialogue and compromise, and we are proud to support his efforts to advance the idea that Israel’s diverse tribes must begin to exchange perspectives without combusting. Through this initiative, Israelis from all segments of society will be invited to join meaningful conversations around core issues that are linked to the country’s future so that they can build bridges of understanding and respect.
Israelis at a Fourth Quarter event work toward an updated political and democratic model for the country.
The President’s efforts are important because they set a national tone and example for belonging; but it’s likewise important to engage everyday Israelis at the community level in forging the ties needed to work together for a common, constructive good. The mass mobilization of people opposed to judicial reforms suggests that Israelis want to sustain action beyond transitory street protests. One example that The Russell Berrie Foundation is supporting is the Fourth Quarter, a new organization rallying Israelis to create an updated political and democratic social movement. Its goal is to restore trust between communities by creating broad agreements on common anchors for Israeli society and developing a new discourse of hachnassat orchim – hospitality – that emphasizes shared values and demands that political representatives maintain civility and respect in advancing the common good.
Reclaiming Jewish Values and Identity
Above all, this season of uprising revealed the hunger within Israel for reclamation of values – the value of the flag and of Israeli identity – alongside the commitment to Israeli democracy as expressed in its Declaration of Independence. It challenges us, other philanthropists, and Israel’s civil society institutions to identify ways to harness that energy and those values in constructive ways – not toward increased atomization of diverse identities, but more toward how the diverse atoms can recombine to create a beautiful chemical reaction.
One challenge is how to better articulate the balance between Israel’s Jewish character and its democratic essence – values that have coexisted since the formation of the state, yet sometimes come into conflict. This is starkly evident in the public education system. More than 15 years ago, the Foundation made a grant to the Shalom Hartman Institute to create the Be’eri program, a flagship educational curriculum that transformed the ways that tarbut yisrael, Jewish culture, is taught in secular public schools through a pluralistic, democratic lens. As the crisis has evolved, Hartman has repositioned this curriculum, taking advantage of their networks of principals and educators, to strengthen the democratic elements of the curriculum and argue more persuasively for the compatibility of Judaism and democracy, “bdibur echad,” in one voice.
We will be seeking additional opportunities to pilot ideas, learn what works and, most importantly, to strengthen the networks of leaders and civil society organizations powering this new social movement.
At the Foundation, we have learned about the increased influence of the ultra-nationalist religious parties on even the public school systems through Knesset policy, legislation and budgets. The practice of teaching curricula that emphasize pluralism, tolerance, democracy, and equality, such as that taught by Be’eri, has increasingly been under attack. Rami Hod, executive director of The Berl Katznelson Center, spoke to the ways in which the religious education system has succeeded in inculcating religious values in their youth, while the public schools, with lower allocated budgets, shorter days, and even textbooks written by conservative think-tanks, have been prevented from inculcating democratic and civic values. To help address some of these outcomes, we provided funding to establish the National Taskforce for the Protection of Public Education to promote and preserve a pluralistic, democratic, and equitable public education system.
It is important to acknowledge the antipathy that currently exists in much of the secular public sphere towards all forms of Judaism, partially in reaction to the extremist religious forces in the current government. But for us at the Foundation, that makes it even more urgent to find ways to articulate how Judaism and democracy are reinforcing and not competing values. We believe that moderate religious Zionists – those who are orthodox Jews, yet espouse modern, humanistic values – might be models for how to reintegrate Judaism and democracy and build bridges between opposing aspects of Israeli society. As we learn more about this population and its leaders, we’ve made a grant to Rav Ilay Ofran to work with the leadership of several national-religious high schools to help inculcate these values of tolerance, openness, and equality alongside the values of religious Judaism.
Where do we go from here?
While these steps are needed and valuable, we recognize that Israel confronts immense and complex challenges. As with so much else since the government introduced the first judicial reform bills, the path ahead is uncertain. Even if the bills are shelved for the short-term, the cracks in society they have revealed are not so easily repaired. The democracy field in Israel is nascent, with multiple organizations coexisting and competing for resources. It needs better coordination to advance policy work that will lead to real change and action plans for what to do after key threats recede. Serious questions remain about how best to overcome the toxic polarization that has infected daily interactions. The Russell Berrie Foundation’s areas of focus, and the grants that we’ve made – only a small number of which I’ve referenced here – represent still early steps in our thinking at this volatile time in Israel’s trajectory as a modern democracy. As the situation evolves, we will be seeking additional opportunities to pilot ideas, learn what works and, most importantly, to strengthen the networks of leaders and civil society organizations powering this new social movement.
What we’ve seen in recent months and years is that Israel’s path forward as a vibrant democracy is by no means assured; but there remain millions of reasons for optimism. It will take bold, intentional effort among civil society organizations, philanthropists, the business sector, and government leaders to bolster its democratic values and institutions while ensuring its Jewish essence. I know there are dozens of other funders, both in Israel and abroad, who are similarly inspired to focus their efforts on supporting and strengthening Israel during and beyond this moment of turmoil. It’s the right time for us to step up collectively to safeguard Israeli democracy, and we look forward to working with others to secure Israel’s future as a robust, vibrant, pluralistic, and Jewish center of democratic values.