Yehoshua Pfeffer on Israel's Social Schisms and How They Affect the Judicial Reform Debate

The Tikvah Podcast

Tikvah

Judaism, Politics, Religion & Spirituality, News

4.6 • 620 Ratings

🗓️ 23 March 2023

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Part of what animates the two sides in Israel’s current judicial-reform crisis has to do with the specific proposals that the Knesset is currently debating. But the crisis is not only about these concrete constitutional issues. It is also a proxy for a larger cultural and sociological conflict pitting different sectors of Israeli society against one another.

Critics of the proposed reforms tend to be in the political center and the political left, to be more secular or at least critical of Israel’s Orthodox rabbinic establishment, and to be comfortable in the vision of Israel passed down by its largely Ashkenazi founding generation. Supporters of the reforms, meanwhile, tend to be on the political right, to be more religious and more supportive of the rabbinate, and to belong to a coalition of Israelis with roots in the Arab Middle East, North Africa, and, in part, the former Soviet Union.

Yehoshua Pfeffer is uniquely positioned to discuss all sides of the issue. A rabbi and the editor of Tzarich Iyun, a magazine of ḥaredi ideas, Pfeffer also clerked on Israel’s Supreme Court. He recently wrote an essay in Tzarich Iyun called “No Longer a Minority: Behind the Veil of Israel’s Public Unrest.” He joins Mosaic’s editor Jonathan Silver to discuss that essay and the broader schisms in Israeli society today.

Musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The most important story in the Jewish world today is taking place in Israel's public square,
0:13.3	where proponents of reforms to the country's judiciary are working through the legislative
0:18.1	process to change its system of government, and where opponents of those reforms are protesting through the legislative process to change its system of government, and where
0:21.7	opponents of those reforms are protesting in the streets, protesting in the hundreds of thousands,
0:28.2	military officers are electing not to report to reserve duty, and the country is as tense
0:33.6	and tumultuous as it has been in years. Obviously, part of what concerns and animates
0:39.6	the two sides has to do with policies and proposals that the Knesset has had up for debate
0:45.5	and negotiation for months. Readers of Mosaic and regular listeners to this program can read
0:51.7	detailed analysis of the policies and the legal background of the proposed
0:56.1	reforms, including a conversation I had just a few months ago with Simcha Rothman, one of the
1:01.9	reforms parliamentary architects. But just as plainly, the civic debate and demonstrations in Israel
1:08.0	now are not only about the government's proposal to reform the judiciary.
1:12.9	That serious argument is, at the same time, also a proxy for a larger cultural and sociological argument
1:20.7	that pits different Israeli sectors against one another. Now, not in every case, but in general,
1:29.1	by and large, and for the most part, critics of the current reform tend to be in the political center and the political
1:34.5	left, and they tend to be more secular, or if they're not, they are critical of Israel's
1:39.5	Orthodox rabbinic establishment, and they tend to be comfortable in the Israel that had
1:44.1	been governed from
1:45.1	its founding by a Nashganazi elite. Not in every case, but in general, and by and large, and for the
1:52.1	most part, supporters of the current reform tend to be somewhere on the political right. They
1:57.7	tend to be more religious, and if not supportive, then at least accommodating of
2:02.6	Israel's Orthodox rabbinic establishment. They tend to belong to a coalition of Israelis, many of whose
	...

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