I recently returned from a wonderful two weeks in Israel, one of which was spent with friends.
My first Erev Shabbat, I was blessed with the chance to celebrate the bat mitzvah of Amit Barkin, daughter of Anat and Nir Barkin, on the beautiful grounds of Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem. Nir is the former Israel emissary to Milwaukee and is now a rabbinical student at HUC.
It was thrilling to participate in prayers led by Nir and a woman I believed to be a Reform rabbi overlooking the walls of the Old City, with a congregation of many secular sabras (native born Israelis).
Slowly the notion that the wealth of Judaism and prayer can be accessible to Israeli Jews through non-Orthodox means — should they choose such a path — is sinking in.
One week later at the Sheinkin promenade near Shuk HaCarmel, I overheard an artisan joyfully praising her son’s Reform marriage ceremony — albeit on Cyprus, as marriages performed in Israel by Reform, Conservative or Reconstructionist rabbis are not recognized by Israeli religious courts.
This prompted a wider conversation among several artisans, all of whom expressed the opinion that allowing such non-Orthodox services and approaches to Judaism are important for Israel’s future.
‘Luxurious’ cells
I spent the second week on a five-person mission through Fordham University Law School in conjunction with Israel’s Justice Ministry. The joint colloquium that Fordham sponsored this year for the ministry was on restorative justice, leading to my invitation.
We met with various court and criminal justice officials, including Chief Justice Aharon Barak. But perhaps the most telling part of the trip came during a short tour of the holding cells under the Tel Aviv District Court.
Our guides were two bright and dedicated members of the Israel’s Public Defender Office and the chief jailer, an Israeli police veteran of some 25 years, who told us about the lack of resources facing this system.
They took us to the basement detention cells, where prisoners are held pending prosecutor’s making a decision on their cases.
The first group cell we passed held four young men, who were clearly part of the anti-disengagement crowd engaging in civil disobedience planned to disrupt the country in an attempt to overturn the government’s decision to withdraw Israeli soldiers and settlers from the Gaza Strip.
One of their tactics is to not give their names, thereby preventing the criminal justice system from processing them, and causing an overload on the system.
One of the public defenders began to speak with the young men, who motioned they did not want to speak with him. When our host explained that this was nothing but a tour of some Americans, one of the young men in custody told him to tell us that they were in the “luxurious” cell and that the others cells were really terrible. (There are many advantages to knowing a language when others do not know that you understand them.)
Moving on, we came to the area containing the three main group cells — one for women, one for men, and one for juveniles. Ten older teens (17 or younger) were being held in connection to a homicide pending further investigation.
While we were there, two Ethiopian teens were brought into the same cell. Some alarms began to go off in my head: ten possible “gang” type kids now having easy prey of two very different kids in the same cell. Sure the guards are right outside, but how long would it take for the guard to get in to break up a rumble?
Wait — am I seeing this through my American “lens” of race? But some or all of these ten guys are here for possible murder charges.
On top of this came the next thought. We as Zionists, American Jews, applaud, work for, give money for the in-gathering of the exiles; yet here, before me, are two young representatives of the latest immigration wave, and instead of them being successfully in-gathered, they are being put into a group cell with a ten other young men some or all of whom are wanted for homicide.
And, just five minutes earlier, I had heard four young men state that they — in custody for protesting a political decision — were in the “luxurious” cell. How ironic.
Just as the continued settlement activity in the West Bank and Gaza has soaked up millions of dollars over the past decades — to the detriment of Israel’s education and social service system (along with other sectors), so too do these four young men receive the “luxurious” cell that could have easily been used for the two Ethiopian Jewish detainees.
Of course, some of the millions of dollars funneled to the settlements would have gone a long way in rehabilitating the Tel Aviv court complex. That’s why, as I’ve previously written on these pages, the bumper sticker on my car reads: “Get out of the territories for Israel’s sake.”
David Lerman is a Milwaukee attorney and a member of Americans for Peace Now-Wisconsin Chapter.
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