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An interview with the veteran organizer
of the haredi demonstration.

between man and God." The most
recent ruling by Israel's Supreme Court
— ordering the Orthodox establishment
to let Reform and Conservative represen-
Jerusalem
tatives
sit on local religious councils —
o one was happier with the
was the last straw.
results of Sunday's huge
"Religious councils," he insisted,
haredi demonstration
"handle matters of Shabbat, which the
against Israeli Supreme
Reform are not keeping. They handle
Court rulings on religious matters than
matters of kosher food, which Reform
Menachem Porush, the 83-year-old
are not keeping. Matters of mikvot
Agudat Yisrael (Orthodox religious
[ritual baths], which the Reform don't
political party) rabbi and veteran of the
want to keep.
nation's secular and
"We say the
religious battles.
Reform are not sec-
Rabbi Porush,
ular people. They
with twinkling eyes
are people who
and wispy white
made themselves a
beard, is the ultimate
new kind of reli-
wheeler-dealer. He
gion. Bringing
has been negotiating
them into the reli-
with secular Zionist
gious councils is
politicians since
like bringing the
David Ben-Gurion
Cross into the
half a century ago.
Temple. We have a
After Sunday's
demonstration he
— Rabbi Menachem Porush Torah. They want
to change the
told reporters that
Torah.
We believe
this was "only a
the Torah cannot be changed. That is
beginning." He threatened "war," but
why we are so afraid."
said he prefers leverage and dialogue.
The rabbi offered a hypothesis
He'll talk to anyone; just don't expect
he knows will never be tested: "I wish
compromise with Reform Jews, or
the Reform people would come to
judges who try, as he sees it, to change
Israel in masses. Then we'll see. We are
the state's Jewish character.
finding a way to work with [liberal,
In a 40-minute interview in his
secular] Meretz people. We'll find a
Jerusalem office, Rabbi Porush was
way to live with them. But, sitting
sweetness and light on everything except
over there [in America], using the few
the core issues that are dividing Jews in
Reform Jews here, is unacceptable."
Israel and the Diaspora as never before.
Last week, before the Jerusalem
What had drawn him out of retire-
demonstration, some leading rabbis
ment and back into the thick of the
accused Chief Justice Aharon Barak of
religious-secular battle? After invoking
anti-Semitism, - branding him an
earlier struggles against army service for
enemy of the Jewish people." Rabbi
religious girls and medical autopsies, he
Porush himself talked of war but, he
leaned on the pillars of democracy,
explained, he was not advocating vio-
which some say he has sent wobbling.
lence. "War means a cultural war, not
"We had to find, by democratic
a war with shooting or beating."
means, a possibility to live together," he
He said the government should cre-
said. But in the last few years the court
ate "a committee of jurists, religious
has gone over the border. As long as they
and non-religious, to sit together and
were handling only matters between men
see how we can find a way. I wish
and fellow men, we accepted it. But late-
[Chief] Justice Barak had accepted the
ly, secular judges started going over to
letter I wrote him, before all this
matters between man and God. We
began, asking that we sit together."
accepted the laws of the Knesset between
man and his fellow man, but not

ERIC SILVER

Israel Correspondent

N

"We believe the
Torah cannot
be changed.
That is why we
are so afraid.

