Supporting Israel means both ‘caring and pushing’

Ahead of his address to the Zionist Federation plenary, RABBI DONNIEL HARTMAN talks to ITTAY FLESCHER about the future of liberal Zionism.

Leading liberal Zionist thinker Rabbi Donniel Hartman is visiting Australia at a time when the dominant expression of Zionism coming from the Knesset is anything but liberal.

The president of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem is coming as a guest of the Zionist Federation of Australia and will be speaking to a range of audiences including students, Launchpad change-makers, educators and the general community.

In an interview with The Jewish Independent ahead of his first visit down under, Hartman defined himself as a "Liberal Modern-Orthodox Jew" who believes that the purpose of Judaism is to create moral human beings, facilitate meaning in life while accepting diversity, noting that “these are words of the living God”. In his view, liberal Judaism engages tradition with values of modernity, and sees all humans as being created in the image of God, endowed with inalienable rights and that we have obligations to others because “chosenness is a mission, not a reward”.

Since the election of the most right-wing government in the history of Israel, the dominant voices speaking on behalf of Judaism and Zionism in Israel have been those of ministers Ben Gvir, Smotrich, Goldknopf and Rothman, who all enthusiastically support the judicial overhaul and a future for Israel where Jews will have even more rights and privileges than their Arab neighbours than already exists today.

Hartman sees this as anathema to his Jewish and Zionist identity and believes the majority of Israelis, including religious Zionists, share his view. “From Jerusalem to Tel Aviv and Haifa, Tekoa to Gush Etzion, Efrat and Ra’anana, there are large communities who share the vision of Judaism as a liberal ideology that can bring people together rather than divide.”

He says that while half of the religious Zionists are no longer committed to human rights and democracy, the other half are not giving up the fight.