!®_ Friday, April 13, 1.984 104 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Religious dove: choosing life over and Avi Ravitsky, a founder of Israel's Orthodox peace movement, bases his dovish political beliefs on the Torah BY GARY ROSENBLATT Editor small but growing number of Orthodox Jews in Israel favor giving up Biblical territory for peace. Avi Ravitsky, a founder of Israel's Or- thodox peace movement, bases his dovish political beliefs on the Torah. A professor of modern Jewish thought at Hebrew University, he says that his organization and the secular peace movement embodied by Peace Now are impelled by opposite motives. "I told A.B. Yehoshua (the noted Israeli author) that he and I attend the same demonstrations for entirely different reasons," Ravitsky ex- plained. "Yehoshua wants a 'nor- malized' state and comes to protest be- cause he's influenced by the anti- Vietnam and Western peace protests. I come because I want to see a unique society emerge in Israel based on Jewish values." Ravitsky is in the United States this year as a visiting-professor at Brown University. During an interview with The Jewish News, he explained that the Orthodox peace movement is "a third alternative" to those who believe either in secular humanism or fulfil- ling the Biblical prophecy of possess- ing all of Eretz Yisrael. "Our struggle is not just concerned with present-day politics but really much more," he said. "Our movement is for a Jewish approach to Judaism." The movement Ravitsky refers to was founded in 1975 as Oz v'Shalom (Strength and Peace) by he and a small group of Orthodox intellectuals as a response to Peace Now. But Oz v'Shalom remained a small and mar- ginal group perceived as professorial and politically controversial. Then came the Yamit episode, where hundreds of Gush. Emunim fol- lowers and other right-wing Orthodox individuals fought off the govern- ment's efforts to evacuate the Sinai settlement as part of the peace agree- ment with Egypt. This was a shock — that people were determined to undermine the peace treaty. There was an air of false messianism, a belief among some that God would not let it happen, returning the land. I felt it was a tragedy that we had to give back the land but it was necessary for peace and that is why I spoke out in favor of the government's position." It was not until the Lebanon war and the Beirut massacre, though, that dissenters emerged from the mainstream of religious Zionism in Is- rael. Ray Yehudah Amital, the head of a Hesder yeshiva (one in which the IA. • 4 t 3 • / Ravitsky: choosing between life and land. students also serve in the army), spoke out and questioned the refusal to con- sider giving back land in Judea and Samaria in return for peace. More startling was the political change in Zevulun Hammer, the Minister of Education who is also a leader of the youth arm of the National Religious Party and a founder of Gush Emunim. Soon after the Beirut mas- sacre, Hammer said that the unity of the Jewish people takes precedence over the unity of Eretz Yisrael. His statement did not go unnoticed. When he toured settlements in the West Bank, his former power base, he was heckled, denied entry from one set- tlement and called a traitor. Shortly afterwards, the leaders of Oz v'Shalom met and decided to form a more broad-based coalition called Netivot Shalom (Paths of Peace). To their surprise, a thousand people turned out for the group's first major public meeting, an address by Rav Amital and Rav Aharon Lichtenstein, the head of Yeshivat Gush Etzion. The two rabbis have not been active in the organization but their participation helped remove the stigma for some Or- thodox sympathizers and since then Netivot Shalom has attracted a number of younger religious Zionists, particularly from the B'nai Akiva movement. Of course, events were a factor as well. "Many people were upset when Gush Emunim defended (Gen. Ariel) Sharon and opposed the government investigation into the Beirut mas- sacre," Ravitsky said. Basically, he doesn't want people to think that if you are a religious Zionist, you have to accept the views of Gush Emunim that holding on to the holy land of Eretz Yisrael is not only a mitzvah, but paramount. "The Land of Israel is a principal value of Judaism but it is not the principal value," ac- cording to Ravitsky, who believes that when faced with contradiction of val- ues between "life and peace on the one hand, and holding on to every inch of the Land of Israel on the other hand," we must chooselife and peace. , , "I don't say it easily," he ex- plained. We must feel the pain of loss and recognize that it is tragic to give up a part of Israel, just as I felt when we gave up Yamit. But given the choices, it is necessary." Citing Biblical and Talmudic sources for his views, he noted that at the time of Ezra and Nechemia and the building of the Second Temple, Jews did not settle everywhere in Israel. "The prophets urged the people to fol- low the mitzvot, to observe the laws and the ethics, rather than to conquer more land," said Ravitsky, and it would be wise for us to follow our prophets of old." He added that for me, to build — metaphorically — the Third Temple, we have to choose between the often- contradictory values. It is never easy but it must be done. In history you have to compromise." Netivot Shalom attempts to fulfill a prophetic duty, which Ravitsky de- fines as redressing a spiritual imbal- ance. "If most religious Jews in Israel thought like Netivot Shalom, then I would welcome a Gush Emunim voice — I might even help it — to remind us of the holiness of the land. But of course that isn't our problem today, when some major religious leaders say that the most important value is hold- ing on to the Land of Israel. A prophet's job is to restore what's mis- sing in a people's value." Ravitsky believes that the poten- tial for the Orthodox peace movement "Our struggle is not just concerned with present-day politics but really much more. Our movement is for a Jewish approach to Judaism." is very large in Israel, though its num- bers are still small and difficult to gauge now. "Politically we are not so important," he said, but spiritually and culturally we are a success. "And more than that," he adds quietly, "even if no one else belonged, it is good for me because it is what I believe and feel."