The Israel Religious Expression Platform (iRep), funded by private foundations and a consortium of Jewish Federations including Jewish Federation of St. Louis, has provided grants to local Israeli groups committed to encouraging Israelis to consider alternative options for marrying outside of the Chief Rabbinate.
The grant recipients are Od Yishama, a collaborative venture of The Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism (IMPJ), the Masorti (Conservative) Movement in Israel, and Israel Hofsheet. Additional allocations were made to Hiddush and Ne’emanei Torah Va’Avodah.
In a joint statement, the grant recipients said, “We would like to thank iRep for allocating funds to our organizations and applaud iRep and its donors for choosing to support an array of organizations that represent a variety of Jewish streams and movements in Israeli society.
These grants will allow us to continue working together as we seek greater pluralism and true freedom of choice of marriage in Israel.”
iRep is a new initiative, representing a consortium of 10 Jewish Federations, which aims to strengthen Israeli civil society and encourage respect for diverse Jewish expressions in Israel. In its first phase of operation, iRep is working with local organizations to engage the Israeli public and ignite a number of small creative programs. In addition matching grants will be available for groups that partner with Israeli philanthropists. Participating Federations are Ann Arbor; Boston; Cincinnati; Greensboro; Kansas City; Los Angeles; Miami; New York; St. Louis; and Washington, D.C., as well as six private foundations.
“These first allocations are a major step forward in the effort to advance a diversity of Jewish practice in Israel,” noted iRep co-chair Susie Gelman. “As these efforts begin to change how Israelis think and talk about marriage options, we are confident that additional communities and individuals will be eager to join us in supporting initiatives that will connect more Israelis to their Jewish identity and will ensure that the religious practices of Jews around the world are recognized and validated in the homeland of the Jewish people.”
The Israeli Reform and Masorti movements, along with Israel Hofsheet, are the leading organizations in Israel in both promoting and implementing marriages outside of the established state framework. The vast majority of these marriages are officiated by rabbis and figures from one of the three organizations. Bringing the wide congregational networks of the Reform and Masorti movements together with the grassroots secular influence of Israel Hofsheet will increase the impact significantly.
Hiddush is the leading advocacy and public educational organization that works to strengthen Israel as a Jewish and democratic state and to realize the promise of Israel’s Declaration of Independence, so that “(t)he State of Israel… will uphold freedom of religion and conscience and ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion.”
Ne’emanei Torah Va’Avodah is a religious-Zionist movement that seeks to return religious Zionism to its roots, working to create a thinking religious culture that is open and self-critical while encouraging a courageous halachic discourse that grapples with the challenges of contemporary times.
