But with the massive Haredi protest at the Wall last month, and Sunday’s large showing in Lower Manhattan, the Haredim have begun to mobilize.
The immediate issue which brought thousands to Foley Square on Sunday is the attempt to conscript Haredi Israelis into the army. A parliamentary committee advanced a bill last month that would do just that. But the banner under which the protestors gathered on Sunday surprised me a little, as it’s one that has been largely the domain of religious liberals: freedom of religion.
As one sign carrier told me, his religion requires him to sit and study Torah. Any attempt to draft those like him into the military would be a violation of his religious rights.
It has generally been the liberals who have taken this line (in several cases, to the Israeli Supreme Court), arguing that religious law should not be the law of the land, and that Reform and Conservative Jews also have rights, in particular at the Western Wall. The effort has borne fruit, leading to a court ruling in favor of women’s prayer at the Kotel and an announcement by the Religious Services Ministry that it would institute changes to allow for the funding of non-Orthodox rabbis. The support that such efforts have drawn from the ranks of American Jews shows that the quest for religious equality is a resonant one.[...]
