Rabbis For Human Rights: The Annual Report 2012-2013

RABBIS FOR 

HUMAN RIGHTS 

لجا نم ينماخاح 

ناسنلاا قوقح 

- טפשמ ירמוש 

םדא תויוכז ןעמל םינבר 

Annual Activity Report 

2012- 2013

As 

As many of our North 

American friends 

and supporters 

already know, it was 

announced in January 2013 that 

RHR and RHR-NA were severing 

their fiscal relationship, and that 

RHR-NA would now be known as 

“Tru’ah.” We are therefore taking 

the opportunity to “reintroduce 

ourselves” in this report, as well 

as highlighting our achievements, 

challenges, plans and goals. 

The section for each department 

begins with a summary of what 

the department does and who 

is involved. In these opening 

remarks, I would like to summarize 

the history and mandate of RHR. I 

and other staff and board members 

are making a special effort this year 

to visit communities around the 

world. Please contact us if you 

are interested in inviting us. We 

also make every effort to provide 

presentations, text study and/ 

or tours to visiting groups and 

individuals. Please contact us about 

our own Jewish Leadership Human 

Rights Tour October 1st – 8th, timed 

so that you can be in the courtroom 

with us for a crucial High Court 

session on October 3rd. 

RHR is “Israel’s rabbinic voice of 

conscience.” In successes deemed 

impossible, we have in very 

concrete ways changed Israeli 

policy, improving the lives of both 

Israelis and Palestinians. An equally 

important mandate is to expose our 

fellow Israelis to an understanding 

of Torah and our Israeli Declaration 

of Independence that challenge 

the nationalistic/particularistic 

Opening Word-President and Senior Rabbi 

Opening Word 

Rabbi Rabbi Arik Arik Ascherman 

understanding dominant in Israel 

today both among religious and 

secular Jews. In our work with 

Palestinians, we help to break 

down stereotypes and restore hope 

in the possibility of a better future. 

RHR was founded in 1988 by a 

group of Orthodox, Reform and 

Conservative rabbis, led by Rabbi 

David Forman z”l. Today we are 

approximately 120 Israeli rabbis, 

also including Reconstructionist, 

Renewal and Humanistic rabbis. 

In the challenging days of the 

First Intifada, Rabbi Forman wrote 

an open letter to Israel’s Chief 

Rabbinate, asking why the religious 

establishment focused almost solely 

on Shabbat observance and Kashrut. 

As important as these things are, he 

asked where were rabbis like Rabbi 

Abraham Joshua Heschel addressing 

the burning moral issues our society 

faced from a religious Jewish 

perspective. While not ignoring the 

very real physical dangers that we 

faced, he argued that these threats 

could not be used as an excuse to 

behave immorally ourselves. In 

the words of Hillel the Elder, “If I 

am not for myself, who will be for 

me? If I am only for myself, what 

am I? And if not now, when?” He 

loved to remind us that, according 

the Midrash, even justice must be 

pursued through just means. 

In those early days, we saw ourselves 

primarily as a “Shofar,” who by our 

very presence visiting the scene of a 

human rights abuse sent the message 

that this was an issue of the highest 

Jewish, religious and moral concern. 

However, in 1992 we won our first 

precedent-setting High Court victory. 

Appealing along with Muslim and 

Christian religious leaders, the Court 

ignored closed door testimony from 

the security forces, and revoked 

a curfew in Ramallah that was 

preventing Christians from preparing 

for Christmas. 

Quickly we were endorsed in North 

America by the rabbinic bodies 

of the Reform and Conservative 

movements, and in 1993 received 

the Speaker of the Knesset’s Prize 

for our contributions to Israeli 

society. Rabbi Forman was invited 

to deliver a keynote address at the 

Nobel Institute conference parallel 

to the awarding of the Nobel Peace 

Prize to Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon 

Peres and Yasser Arafat. Through 

the years, we have received 

additional endorsements from the 

Reconstructionist and Renewal 

rabbinic bodies in North America, 

as well as the Liberal Movement 

in Great Britain, the prestigious 

Niwano Peace Prize, and numerous 

additional recognitions. While the 

North American organization we 

helped found in 2002 has now 

become independent, we continue 

to be grateful to British Friends of 

RHR, Montreal Friends of RHR 

(Soon to be called Canadian 

Friends of RHR), Trees of Hope in 

the San Francisco Bay Area, and 

the thousands of rabbis and lay 

people who organize, contribute 

and advocate for our shared vision 

of an Israel living up to our highest 

Jewish values. We are grateful for 

our broad interfaith support. What 

unites us as people of faith can 

transcend our differences. 

In 1995, Rabbi Jeremy Milgrom and 

I succeeded Rabbi Ehud Bandel 

as co-directors. We developed 

a grassroots component to our 

work, succeeding in changing 

national policy by having one foot 

on the ground and the other in the 

corridors of power. 

In 1995, 95 percent of our work 

concerned Palestinians. Based 

on the Torah’s teaching that all 

human beings are created in God’s 

Image, RHR’s general assembly 

resolved that we must always be 

advocating for the human rights 

of both Jews and non-Jews. Today, 

the OT remains our largest single 

commitment, but it now represents 

less than 50 percent of our time 

and resources. While we wish we 

could put ourselves out of business 

by ending human rights violations, 

your increased support allowed 

us to grow our educational and 

internal Israeli socioeconomic 

justice work without backtracking 

on our commitment to Palestinian 

human rights. When I began, the 

entire budget was under $30,000. 

Today our projected 2013 budget 

is over $1,300,000. 

RHR is not affiliated with any 

political party. We have no position 

on borders or final status solutions. 

We state clearly that the Occupation 

leads to human rights violations, but 

leave it to others to determine just 

what ending the Occupation will 

look like. In terms of socioeconomic 

justice inside Israel, we struggle 

against the changes in our society 

created by the move from a social 

welfare economy towards a neoliberal 

economy. 

We achieve change through 

direct field work, the Israeli legal 

system, lobbying our Knesset and 

government, public campaigns 

and working with the international 

community. As a last resort, we 

have occasionally engaged in acts 

of civil disobedience. 

The following report will give 

you a good picture of RHR’s 

current project areas and future 

plans. I reflected after leaving the 

directorship in the capable hands of 

Ayala Levy in 2010 that it is clearer 

than ever that we are not “Rabbi 

for Human Rights,” but “Rabbis 

for Human Rights.” The fact is that, 

while our organization is clearly a 

rabbinic organization, our staff is 

also interfaith. I was almost moved 

to tears at a recent meeting with 

an outside evaluator listening to 

their passion, commitment and 

dedication. There are certain things 

that money cannot buy, and are 

difficult to define, but they make 

all the difference when the chips 

are down and the call comes in 

after hours. 

Finally, I have been reflecting a great 

deal lately about what is the essence 

of Jewish-based human rights work. 

Clearly our first goal is to create a 

society which acts according to 

our belief that all human beings are 

created in God’s Image. We must 

develop the “Spiritual vision” that 

can see through all that divides 

us, including real conflicts, and 

sometimes justified anger and fear. 

The breastplate the High Priest’s 

wore when he entered the Holy 

of Holies contained 12 different 

stones representing the 12 tribes. 

We must go even further. We 

achieve holiness when there is a 

place for all humanity in our hearts 

because we recognize the essential 

sameness that unites us in our 

diversity. We must be aware of how 

unequal power relationships lead 

to human rights violations. Ibn Ezra 

warns us that when we wrong the 

widow, the orphan or the resident 

alien, they are all too often voiceless 

and powerless to protest. Rabbi 

Samson Raphael Hirsch taught that, 

even with the best of intentions, 

it “Borders on criminality” when 

those with property and power 

take on the “White man’s burden” 

of deciding how to be just towards 

those who do not sit at the table. 

Rather than saying that they are 

powerless, some versions of Ibn 

Ezra say that the widow, orphan 

and alien have nobody to stand by 

their side. We must be those who 

stand by their side. But we must do 

so as partners, empowering them 

to find their own voice. 

I look forward to better explaining 

what I mean when I have the 

opportunity to visit your community, 

or to welcome you here in Israel. 

B’Vrakha (In Blessing), 

Arik 

RHR 2013 2 

3 RHR 2013

RHR Annual Report – Chair’s Letter 

Opening Word 

Rabbi Rabbi Arik Barry Ascherman Leff 

As you will see from reading this report, 

2012 was a year of notable successes for 

Rabbis for Human Rights. However, for every 

success we also have ongoing challenges. 

For example: 

After a decade of working and advocating for 

the right of Palestinian farmers to access their 

lands, the Israeli security forces are doing a 

better job of guaranteeing this safe access. 

But destruction of olive trees by radical 

settlers continues. 

We saved the tires and mud school of the 

Jahalin Bedouin in Khan El Akhmar from 

demolition. But the Jahalin Bedouin near 

Mishor Adumim are still threatened with 

relocation closer to the garbage dump. 

Our letter writing campaign convinced 

the Jewish National Fund not to evict the 

Sumarin family in Silwan. But the JNF has 

only said they are not evicting the family “for 

now.” 

A building tender that would have resulted in 

the eviction Kurdish immigrants in the former 

Arab village of Lifta was cancelled, allowing 

the residents to remain in their homes. But 

the state and the developers have not given 

up. 

Our legal department secured a victory that 

allowed the residents of Bir El ‘Id to return to 

additional caves. But the Israeli government 

continues to threaten the expulsion of 

hundreds of Palestinians from their homes to 

create a new “Firing Zone.” 

Our Rights Center in Hadera provided 

hundreds of Jewish and Arab residents of the 

area with advice and legal help regarding 

their socio-economic rights. But the situation 

of many remains desperate, as shown by the 

tragic suicide of Moshe Silman, one of the 

many people we helped. 

There are many more examples. Is the 

“glass half-full” or is it “half-empty?” Both. 

Our successes and our on-going challenges 

represent the reality of the human rights 

situation in Israel and the Occupied 

Territories. 

Organizationally, the end of 2012 brought 

with it a major change: the ending of our 

formal affiliation with Rabbis for Human 

Rights – North America. RHR-NA has a new 

name, T’ruah – the rabbinic call for human 

rights. Over the past several years RHR- 

NA has grown, and its focus has changed. 

We welcome them as a new member of the 

Jewish human rights scene. In the meanwhile, 

Rabbis for Human Rights is now conducting 

its own fundraising and advocacy campaigns 

in North America. 

It is the generous support of our members and 

donors that allows us to continue our mission 

to help insure that Israel as a nation and a 

community lives up to the highest ethical 

ideals of the Jewish tradition. The Jewish 

people have been called “compassionate 

children of a compassionate God.” There 

is no greater expression of compassion than 

taking action to protect those whose basic 

human rights are being violated. 

Occupied Territories 

RHR’s Occupied Territories Field Department, led by Rabbi Yehiel Grenimann, works to protect the rights of 

Palestinian farmers in the West Bank to safely access and work their lands throughout the year. An annual 

highlight is our Fall “Olive Harvest Campaign,” during which we bring hundreds of volunteers to work side 

by side with Palestinian farmers. After ten years, we now see a marked improvement in the willingness of 

the Israeli security forces to accept their responsibility (established in a court ruling in 2006) to ensure 

that farmers can reach olive trees in even the most dangerous locations. However, the scourge of olive tree 

destruction continues. Every year, RHR plants thousands of trees to replace those destroyed or damaged by 

settlers, or in areas in danger of takeover. We also advocate on behalf of the rights of the Jahalin Bedouin 

near Ma’aleh Adumim to remain on their lands, and run language courses and summer camps for children. 

This year, RHR and our coalition partners orchestrated international pressure forcing the Israeli security 

forces to commit not to forcibly move the Jahalin without an agreed upon plan for their welfare, but the 

intent is still to expel them. We also work in cooperation with other organizations to defend the rights of 

Palestinians to remain in their homes in East Jerusalem. 

“It is inspiring to work with so many good, devoted 

and idealistic people whose vision of peace and justice 

remains steady despite everything that happens. It is 

heartening to receive constant feedback emphasizing 

the importance of our presence as a religious Israeli 

group for human rights and to hear that we inspire 

hope in others, save Judaism (and humanism) for them, 

and break down stereotypes of both Israelis 

and Palestinians. 



I often like to tell a Talmudic story to our staff and 

volunteers regarding the nature of our work in 

the territories and the appropriate attitude for 

this work. The story is about the famous Rabbi Akiva, 

an illiterate shepherd who came to Torah study 

relatively late in life. He fell in love with Rachel, a 

young woman from a rich and educated family. She 

agreed to marry him if he studied Torah but he found 

learning to read and write very hard. Once while 

sitting by a river in a moment of despair, he noticed 

water flowing through a rock in the river.He said to 

himself: “If water can penetrate and overcome such a 

hard rock, I too can succeed.” He went on to become 

a great scholar of Torah. 

This year RHR marked a decade of 

accompanying Palestinian farmers 

in their olive groves located near 

settlements, unauthorized outposts, 

or near the Separation Barrier. Over 

the past 10 years, we have ensured 

the rights of thousands of Palestinians 

to plant, harvest and prune their olive 

trees in areas where settlers and/or 

the Israeli security forces previously 

denied that right. This year we saw 

a marked improvement in how the 

Israeli security forces protected 

that right. In the past decade, RHR, 

together with the Harvest Coalition, 

has also brought thousands of 

Israelis and internationals to meet 

with Palestinians in their olive 

groves, where they learn about 

harsh realities on the ground as they 

pick side by side with one another 

in solidarity and friendship. 

Our work is not complete. Farmers 

still have great difficulty obtaining 

permits to access their land between 

the separation barrier and the Green 

Line. Despite the vast improvements 

resulting from our 2006 Supreme 

Court ruling, requiring that the army 

allow Palestinians to safely access 

their olive trees, RHR still must play a 

crucial role in coordinating with the 

army and ensuring that Palestinian 

villages be given a sufficient number 

of days to finish the harvest. There 

are areas near settlements where 

all the trees have been poisoned, 

chopped down or uprooted. This 

year, over 450 destroyed or damaged 

trees were discovered at the outset 

of the olive harvest alone. RHR and 

our coalition partners are searching 

for ways to get the security forces 

to keep their court obligation to 

protect trees and property. While 

senior army officials told us they 

could do nothing more to stop the 

wave of harvest destruction, the US 

ambassador mentioned the problem 

in the UN Security Council, and 

the remainder of the season was 

relatively quiet. 

A key focus of our work this year 

was maintaining and expanding our 

contacts with Palestinian farmers 

from 50 villages in the Occupied 

Territories. RHR’s commitment 

to these villages does not end 

with agricultural access. Field 

Coordinator Zakaria Sadeh regularly 

visited the villages and responded 

to diverse problems, including 

settler violence, IDF inaction, illegal 

detentions, problems at checkpoints, 

IDF confiscation of equipment or 

vehicles, and ensuring transport to 

hospital for several patients. Among 

the Palestinians whom we help, a 

real trust in RHR has been created. 

The peak of our work with these 

villages is during the olive harvest, 

My lesson from this story is that just as the water 

was able to overcome the rock, so we can overcome 

the evils of the Israeli Occupation through our 

determination, however hard (and rock-hearted) it 

might seem to us. Water penetrates where there are 

cracks and openings in the rock and we too must 

penetrate in such a way until the system caves in and 

is replaced by something more humane. That is wiser 

than confrontational tactics that lead to sparks but no 

real change or improvement.” 

Rabbi Yehiel Grenimann, 

Director, Occupied Territories Field Department 

The Olive Tree Campaign – Agricultural Access 

which lasts for about one month 

beginning in mid-October. This past 

year we coordinated with the IDF 

to ensure army protection and safe 

access for farmers in at least seven 

villages during the harvest. As in past 

years, we also arranged for several 

hundred Israeli and international 

volunteers, including members of 

RHR, to work in the olive groves 

in 11 villages. Our presence in the 

field alongside Palestinian farmers 

provides protection against possible 

settler intimidation, enables farmers 

to pick within the limited number 

of days that they can safely do so, 

and has also become an act of 

solidarity between Israeli Jews and 

Palestinians. The sharing of lunches 

and eating together, Israelis and 

Palestinians, is usually the highlight 

of the day! By bringing together 

Israeli Jews and Palestinians under 

the shade of the olive tree, we 

believe that we are helping to 

change the minds and attitudes of 

Israeli Jews and Palestinians towards 

one another. We continue this work 

because we believe that it helps to 

change the face of the State of Israel 

into a more humane one. 

The ability of Palestinians to 

access their lands has improved 

immeasurably since our 2006 High 

Court victory, and in many cases 

we no longer need to maintain a 

physical presence or intervene in 

order to ensure that farmers can 

harvest their olives. In the areas 

where Palestinians cannot go without 

prior coordination (either because of 

closure orders, fear, or because the 

army has convinced the Palestinians 

that they cannot or should not go on 

their own), the number of days that 

the army allocates to the harvest is 

still inadequate. Unlike last year, this 

year all villages we were in touch 

with succeeded in completing their 

harvest in areas next to settlements. 

However, four villages were not 

able to complete their harvesting 

on their lands trapped between the 

Separation Barrier and the 1967 

border; the army did not allow them 

enough days to reach these areas, 

or any at all. In this coming year, 

we intend to continue working with 

the army to increase the number of 

harvest days so that so that farmers 

can reach all of their olive groves. 

Although the presence of the army 

as well as our presence in the fields 

give Palestinian farmers an increasing 

sense of security while harvesting 

their olives, 2012 witnessed a 

sharp increase in damage to trees 

and property, particularly before 

the olive harvest even started. In 

just one week, for example, 450 

trees were damaged, destroyed, 

or stripped of their fruit in Yanun, 

Krayut, Ein Abbus and Meghayer. 

The economic cost of the damaged 

trees is immense, and the emotional 

cost is also great. As in previous 

years, RHR acted on several fronts 

to request army protection of trees 

and property. Our ongoing presence 

in the field and immediate response 

to violations continues to be the 

most effective way to address the 

challenges on the ground. 

This report covers both the 2012 and 

2013 planting seasons. Each year, 

RHR provides approximately 3,000 

olive trees to be planted in areas in 

danger of takeover, or where settlers 

have cut, uprooted and/or burned 

Our ongoing presence 

in the field and 

immediate response 

to violations continues 

to be the most 

effective way to 

address the challenges 

on the ground. 

trees in acts of vandalism and arson. 

We have reduced the number of 

places where we bring Israelis to 

plant together with farmers because, 

in some cases, the farmers prefer 

not to attract attention. However, Tu 

B’Shvat, the Jewish new year for trees, 

continues to be the day in which we 

organize a major pubic planting, 

with many volunteers. In doing so, 

RHR presents a different Jewish face 

than that of the extremists who carry 

out the “price tag” attacks. In 2012, 

despite army attempts to block our 

arrival, 22 people joined RHR in 

planting in El-Jenia village in the 

Northern West Bank, where a “Price 

Tag” attack had taken place days 

before. The army left after forcing us to 

leave, and the Palestinians were able 

to quietly resume work. Nineteen 

volunteers and staff members 

joined us in planting 50 trees at the 

kindergarten in the Jabal, in solidarity 

with the Jahalin Bedouin, who were 

threatened with being relocated 

to the garbage dump of Abu Dis in 

early 2012 (see below). 

In December 2012, trees were cut 

down on lands belonging to farmers 

from A-Asawiya. Two days later, 

RHR volunteers joined Palestinians 

in replanting. In January 2013, we 

planted trees in Kusra, an increasingly 

tense area. Less than a week later, 

on the very day we were helping 

Fawzi Ibrahim in nearby Jalud (see 

below), we discovered that some of 

our trees had been uprooted in the 

middle of the night. The windows 

of a tractor were shattered, and 

hundreds of rocks were thrown at 

the home of an elderly couple living 

on the outskirts of the village. We 

therefore returned on Tu B’Shvat 

with several busloads of volunteers, 

and the Palestinians indicated that 

they would set up a system to keep 

watch over the trees even at night. 



Renovating Water Cisterns in South Hebron Hills 

In 2012, Israel destroyed at least 35 rainwater cisterns used by Palestinian communities, 20 of them in the area 

of Hebron and the southern Hebron Hills. Usually, the communities whose cisterns were destroyed are a short 

distance from settlements and unauthorized outposts that enjoy a regular water supply. While these outposts have 

no permits the Civil Administration almost always destroys Palestinian tents, animal pens and food storage facilities 

for the lack of permit. Drying up the water supply of Palestinians is an affront to our basic religious and human 

morals. 

In the summer of 2012, in response to this critical situation, Rabbis for Human Rights began assisting Palestinians 

in renovating destroyed water cisterns in the South Hebron Hills. We coordinated with both Ta’ayush and the 

Palestinian NGO “EWASH,” which specializes in water rights. Twelve student volunteers from the Canadian 

organization “Operations Groundswell” participated in this program. The group and some of our staff members 

spent a week renovating a cistern at Bir El Id, near Mitzpe Yair, one of the more radical outposts. The group dug out 

the cistern and transformed it from an unusable source of water to one that could start operating again. A week later 

after we had dug out this cistern, we learned that Hajj Ismail, upon whose land the cistern is located, was severely 

attacked with a knife by four masked settlers. It is possible that this attack was a response to our work there. 

Advocating on behalf of the Jahalin Bedouin 

The Jahalin tribe were uprooted from 

their lands in Tel Arad in the Negev 

in the early 1950s and resettled 

in the West Bank. Until 1967 the 

Jahalin preserved their traditional 

Bedouin lifestyle of thousands of 

years, supporting themselves mainly 

through herding. With the onset of 

the Israeli occupation, the Israeli 

army took control of large swaths 

of the Jahalin tribe’s grazing areas 

in the Jordan Valley, closing them 

off to Palestinians. The Jahalin were 

consequently squeezed into the area 

of the Jerusalem-Jericho highway and 

forced to abandon their traditional 

way of life. Since the establishment 

of Ma’aleh Adumim in 1975, the 

expanding settlement has repeatedly 

displaced Jahalin encampments. 

Rabbis for Human Rights has been 

advocating on behalf of the rights of 

the Jahalin Bedouin since 1997 when 

an encampment was demolished, 

and the Jahalin were given shipping 

containers to live in on an exposed 

hilltop near the Abu Dis garbage 

dump. 

In November 2011 we learned that 

the Civil Administration had reached 

an advanced stage of planning for 

the forced relocation of 600 Jahalin 

living near Mishor Adumim to a 

landfill site even closer to the dump. 

Such a plan, if implemented, would 

seriously endanger the health of the 

Jahalin. 

To help change the face of Israel, and 

to encourage the Israeli government 

to act on behalf of our Jewish 

values, we quickly launched both 

international and local campaigns 

and protests, with the help of the 

Catholic Comboni Sisters and the 

Jahalin Association. 

We asked our supporters to send 

letters protesting the plan to move 

the Jahalin to the garbage dump, and 

many of you responded. We also 

initiated a campaign appealing to 

Jewish leaders abroad, while B’Tselem 

organized tours for journalists and 

international diplomats. 

Although the 18th Knesset was 

reluctant to intervene on behalf 

of Palestinians in the Occupied 

Territories, even in cases of gross 

violations of human rights, in this 

case the details of the developments 

and an outpouring of international 

concern permitted us to request a 

session to discuss the matter in a 

joint meeting of the Environment 

and Health Committees, headed 

by MK Dov Khenin. We asked 

the committee to direct the Civil 

Administration to reverse its decision 

to adopt the plan to move the Jahalin 

to the dump in Abu Dis. 

Despite the positions of MKs Arye 

Eldad and Uri Ariel of the National 

Union Party, and of Uri Maklev of 

United Torah Judaism, and despite 

the claims by the representative 

of the Ministry of Environment 

that the site was scheduled to 

close, in the end the Ministry of 

Defense representative announced 

that its ministry would conduct a 

comprehensive risk assessment to 

cover the environmental risks in the 

area slated to absorb the Jahalin; 

only afterwards would any plans 

be crystallized regarding the actual 

relocation – and then only through 

dialogue with the residents. 

In addition to promising to relocate 

the Jahalin only in dialogue with the 

Jahalin, the Bedouin community of 

Khan El Akhmar was also promised 

that its school, built of tires and 

mud, would be allowed to continue 

until an alternative location was 

agreed. This effectively cancelled 

the demolition order against the 

school until an alternative location is 

finalized, much to the delight of the 

85 children who attend the school 

and their parents. RHR believes 

that the right to education is a basic 

human right, as well as one rooted 

within our Jewish tradition. 

RHR welcomed these decisions, 

but the Israeli authorities still plan 

to demolish the school and to 

To help change the face of Israel, 

and to encourage the Israeli government 

to act on behalf of our Jewish values, we 

quickly launched both international and 

local campaigns and protests 

displace all the Bedouin in the area, 

including those in the adjacent E1 

corridor. Having finished their study 

of health and other Bedouin issues, 

the Civil Administration has suggested 

two options to the Jahalin, both of 

which would entail displacing other 

Palestinians. The Jahalin reject this, 

but are willing to consider options in 

the Jerusalem-Dead Sea corridor on 

land that does not belong to others. 

This past summer, RHR again 

organized English and Hebrew 

lessons for the children in Khan El 

Akhmar and al-Jabal. Together with 

the Catholic Comboni Sisters, three 

RHR volunteers, and Ibtisam Hirsh, a 

local Bedouin woman, we organized 

a summer camp for 70 children, 

during which we even took the kids 

to the beach in Tel Aviv for a day. For 

most of the children this was the first 

time they had ever seen the sea. 



East Jerusalem 

The Campaign against the Eviction of the 

Sumarin Family in Silwan 

In last year’s annual report, we mentioned an emerging campaign to prevent the eviction of the Sumarin family 

from their home in Silwan by Himnuta, a subsidiary of the Jewish National Fund. The home had originally been 

seized through the subsequently discredited and discontinued practice of declaring properties as abandoned, 

even when family members were living in them. The Custodian for Absentee Property transferred the Sumarin 

home to the Jewish National Fund. We knew that in similar cases the JNF transferred the properties to settler 

groups such as Elad as part of the broader plan to Judaize Silwan. Using lawyers who often work for Elad, the JNF 

had a court order that the family could be expelled as of November 28th, 2011. 

RHR, RHR-NA and additional 

partners launched a public letter 

writing campaign against the 

eviction, organized by Shatil 

Fellow Moriel Rothman and our 

Communications Department. Our 

campaign urged the JNF, as a group 

concerned with the well-being of the 

State of Israel, to stop this injustice. 

In parallel, we also ran an effective 

media campaign with dozens of 

media reports appearing in Ha’aretz 

and the American Jewish press. 

Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity held vigils 

and demonstrations in Silwan. As a 

result, thousands of people 

in the US, Israel and around 

the world responded, and 

 

an American board member of the 

JNF even resigned in protest. 

As Moriel Rothman recalls, 

“Thousands and thousands of 

letters were sent, dozens of op-eds 

and media articles were written, 

a number of protests, tours and 

solidarity vigils were held and 

when the December 18th eviction 

date was again delayed, and then 

the next date was delayed again, 

it began to become clear that the 

JNF did not intend to evict the 

Sumarin family in this round of the 

battle. Although the victory was 

not complete and the possibility 

of eviction still remains a reality to 

this day, it was a victory. 

We had won. The Sumarin family, 

the Palestinian and Israeli and 

international activists, the NGOs 

and Human Rights organizations, 

and RHR’s voice of a Judaism that 

puts justice first: we had won.” 

While the JNF has only said that it 

is not evicting the family ”for now,” 

Campaigning against the Slopes 

of Mount Scopus National Park 

RHR has joined with five other 

Israeli organizations and the 

Palestinian Popular Committees 

from A-Tur and Issawiya to 

oppose the proposed “Slopes of 

Mount Scopus” plan in which the 

Municipality of Jerusalem and 

the National Parks Authority are 

planning to build a “national park” 

Victory in Lifta 

RHR was also part of a small victory 

in the village of Lifta, just outside 

Jerusalem, whose Palestinian 

residents fled/were expelled in 1948. 

Afterwards, Kurdish immigrants 

were dumped in the neighborhood. 

we can proudly report over a year 

later that the Sumarin family is 

still in their home and the process 

remains frozen. 

The Ruweidi family was in a similar 

position, but decided to take 

proactive action and sue to register 

their land in their name. Again, RHR 

was part of a coalition to spread the 

word about the case. However, this 

time the Court ruled in the family’s 

favor, enabling them to register their 

property. 

Currently RHR is also following the 

cases of several families in Sheikh 

in this area. There is no reason 

to create a national park in this 

location, other than to seize the 

last remaining land from the two 

adjacent villages/neighborhoods. 

East Jerusalem has an extremely 

disproportionate percentage of 

land designated as “parks.” There 

are also threatened homes in the 

Jarrah. The family in the most 

imminent danger is the Shamasneh 

family, where settler agent Arieh 

King has apparently succeeded 

in locating and obtaining the 

cooperation of a woman claiming 

pre-1948 ownership. The family 

acknowledges that they have been 

renting the property, but have 

" We had won. The Sumarin family, the 

Palestinian and Israeli and international 

activists, the NGOs and Human Rights 

organizations, and RHR’s voice of a Judaism 

that puts justice first: we had won." 

The Kurdish immigrants are now 

being threatened with eviction, and 

a tender was granted to demolish 

the village in order to construct 

high-end homes. RHR was the 

only NGO willing to join activists 

claimed protected tenant status. 

RHR acknowledges that Jews can 

legitimately own property in East 

Jerusalem, but protests the “eifa 

v’eifa” double standards that allow 

Jews to avail themselves of the 

courts to claim property, but not 

Palestinians. 

endangered area. Recently RHR 

helped to stop the demolition of 

three homes that actually had a 

restraining order preventing the 

demolitions. 

in successfully getting the tender 

cancelled because of the historical 

nature of the buildings to be 

destroyed. However, the State and 

the developers have not necessarily 

given up. 



Some memories from RHR’s work this year by Yonatan Shefa 

Rabbinical Student Assistant in the Department of Human Rights in the Occupied Territories 

My favorite RHR moment this 

year was early one morning in 

the South Hebron Hills, just after 

sunrise. We brought a group out 

to dig a reservoir for a Palestinian 

farmer. Earlier, RHR had helped 

him confirm ownership of his land 

in the courts. The spot where we 

were working is surrounded by 

Israeli settlements on the nearby 

hilltops. As I was getting ready to 

pray Shacharit beside a nearby 

well, a Palestinian shepherd 

arrived to water his flock. There I 

stood, kippah on my head, tzitzit 

swaying with my movements. I 

could have been anyone from 

the nearby settlements. He eyed 

me nervously. When he opened 

the well to discover that the rope 

had been cut and there was no 

bucket to draw water, he turned to 

leave. “Wait,” I said in a mixture 

of Hebrew and broken Arabic, 

“we’ve got a rope and bucket.” I 

ran back to our worksite, got what 

we needed, and ran back to him. 

Then together we drew water and 

poured it out for the sheep. We 

talked about his home, how long 

his family had been living in the 

area and relations with the nearby 

settlements. Just that simple act, of 

being openly Jewish and helping 

a Palestinian who didn’t know 

me from Adam to water his flock, 

helping him to be economically 

viable in his own homeland, felt 

like the essence of our work to 

me. 

So many of my cherished moments 

involve being openly Jewish in a 

context where the association 

with Jews is fearful, hateful, or 

both. Sitting in a room of about 

forty Arab men visiting their father 

and relative who had been beaten 

up by Jews… Going to assess the 

damage to a Palestinian farmer’s 

Just that simple act, 

of being openly 

Jewish and helping 

a Palestinian who 

didn’t know me from 

Adam to water his 

flock, helping him 

to be economically 

viable in his own 

homeland, felt like 

the essence of our 

work to me. 

trees after nearly a hundred and 

fifty had been cut down. So many 

instances of this… 

Taking a group of Israeli and 

Palestinian religious leaders on 

an expedition into the wilderness 

to break down barriers and build 

mutual understanding. Getting 

caught in the rain, finding shelter, 

and ending up wearing one another’s 

clothes. Then, after sunset, davening 

Aravit in a tiny room surrounded by 

Palestinians, followed by bearing 

intimate witness to their own 

evening prayers. 

Countless visits to the Jahalin 

Bedouin, countless cups of tea 

and coffee, even though I don’t 

drink coffee. Having a heart-toheart 

talk with a Palestinian pastor 

about the possibility for peace and 

co-existence, discovering how 

much we see things the same, and 

how much we feel differently. One 

of the most difficult and rewarding 

conversations I’ve had this year. 

Yonatan’s position with RHR is one 

of four in various RHR departments 

made possible by a generous grant 

from the Asia Tan Foundation to 

introduce rabbinic students and 

young rabbis to the possibility of 

human rights work as a part of 

their rabbinical functions. 

OT Legal Department 

RHR’s OT legal department, led by Adv. Quamar Mishirqi-Assad, comprises four full-time attorneys, two field 

workers and a legal advisor. The primary focus of our work is preventing or reversing the takeover of Palestinian 

lands and ensuring that Palestinian farmers can safely access those lands, Currently, two dormant or simmering 

issues are coming to a head and the coming year will largely determine whether the cave dwellers of the South 

Hebron Hills hold on to their lands. The first is a renewed attempt to expel the residents of eight Palestinian villages 

to create “Live Firing Zone 918,“ and the renewed attempt to wipe Susya off the map. Stemming from our longstanding 

goal to end administrative home demolitions, we have a twice postponed High Court appeal to return 

planning for Palestinian communities in Area C to Palestinian hands. Much of RHR’s work centers on the South 

Hebron Hills and Shilo Valley, and we have had several important successes this year returning land, winning 

compensation, and renewing long-denied access. Our growth plan is to find the resources allowing us to build 

on our experience and apply it throughout the Occupied Territories. In the past year we have begun to expand, 

particularly into the Bethlehem region. We work closely with Kerem Navot, which employs aerial photographs 

to understand the history of land takeovers. In the South Hebron Hills we enjoy a strategic partnership with 

Ta’ayush, whose activists accompany Palestinians accessing their lands, and with Breaking the Silence, which 

engages in advocacy, media work and alternative tourism. We work also with additional Israeli, Palestinian and 

international organizations, including Comet, JLAC, Bimkom and B’Tselem. 

Over the past year, RHR has 

steadily increased its resources 

and capacity to take on an 

unprecedented number of legal 

cases and to raise awareness 

of the plight of Palestinian land 

owners in the South Hebron 

Hills, both among Israelis and the 

international community. Together 

with our partner organizations 

Ta’ayush and Breaking the Silence, 

RHR has been able to elevate our 

work in the South Hebron Hills to 

new levels. There and elsewhere 

in the Occupied Territories, we 

have achieved important and 

sometimes extraordinary reversals 

of the ongoing Israeli annexation 

of land. 

In this past year, RHR has had 



several major achievements. 

The most notable include: 

Returning the residents of Bir El 

‘Id to additional caves. Even after 

RHR returned the residents of Bir 

El ‘Id in 2009 to their village, from 

which they had been expelled 

for almost ten years because of 

army backed settler intimidation, 

the army has continued to issue 

demolition orders on everything 

they attempt to build, and say that 

even some of the original caves 

remained off limits. RHR therefore 

celebrated as we returned villagers 

to five additional caves, a water 

cistern and two animal pens RHR 

argued that these lands were part 

and parcel of the lands we had 

already agreed on in 2009. 

Palestinians resumed farming 

in areas where they had long 

been denied access due to army- 

backed settler intimidation in the 

Shilo Valley. This success means 

that for now the unauthorized 

hilltop outposts of Esh Kodesh and 

Akhia will again be surrounded 

by Palestinian worked fields. RHR 

submitted a High Court appeal on 

behalf of a land owner in Jalud 

to return 256 dunams of land 

surrounding Esh Kodesh. Not only 

had settlers enforced an expanding 

“forbidden zone” year after year, 

but in 2011 they actually planted 

a vineyard on some of these 

lands. Most of the human rights 

violations RHR deals with in the 

Occupied Territories take place 

in Area C (the areas still under 

full Israeli control, accounting for 

some 60 percent of the total area 

of the West Bank). Incredibly the 

settlers even blocked access to 

lands in Area B (under Palestinian 

civil control, but Israeli military 

control). Under pressure from 

the pending appeal the Legal 

Advisor closed the area to Israelis 

and ordered that the Palestinian 

land owner could access his land 

in coordination with the Israeli 

army. RHR again 

RHR 2013 

14 

had to pressure the army when 

its procrastination almost made 

Fawzi Ibrahim miss the planting 

season for winter wheat and lose 

his investment in seeds. On the first 

day the reluctant security forces 

were not adequately prepared 

to deal with settler opposition, 

and ordered the Palestinians out 

of the fields. On the second day, 

despite primarily female settlers 

with babies doing everything they 

could to block the tractors, Fawzi 

finally plowed most of his land 

and sowed his wheat. He has not 

yet been allowed into the vineyard 

because of a settler appeal, and on 

the day he plowed, he discovered 

an additional vineyard. An indepth 

Channel 2 Television expose 

broke the story to the Israeli public, 

including the connection with 

the ongoing attacks on Kusra (see 

above in the OT Field Department 

report). 

Settlers are increasingly filing 

appeals against decisions by 

the OT Legal Advisor in order to 

delay justice; and accordingly 

the failure of such an appeal this 

year is particularly significant. In 

2006 RHR took on the case of 

five families (300 people) who 

had been forced off their own 

land after their livestock had been 

poisoned and after they could 

no longer endure the harassment 

and physical threats posed by the 

radical settler Yaakov Talia, who 

set up the unauthorized outpost 

he named “Lucifer’s Farm.” In 

early 2012 the army closed the 

area and announced that the 

Palestinian families could return 

to working their lands. Talia 

appealed the High Court decision 

but this year requested to cancel 

his claim because he understood 

that the law was not on his side. 

However, he reserved the right to 

appeal again, pointing out that if 

the State adopts the Edmund Levi 

Committee recommendations, the 

law will be on his side. Former 

High Court justice Edmund Levi 

was appointed by Prime Minister 

Netanyahu to head a commission 

searching to legalize the building 

of settlements on land which the 

Israeli government recognizes as 

privately-owned Palestinian land. 

Noting the fact that there were no 

Palestinians on this commission 

and wondering whether the 

effect on Palestinians was at all a 

consideration in the deliberations, 

RHR submitted a position paper 

documenting village by village the 

many ways, beyond the obvious 

theft of land, in which the existence 

of outposts leads to human rights 

violations in the villages where 

we work. We also submitted an 

extensive section based on Jewish 

sources dealing with the image of 

God, double standards, property 

rights of non-Jews in the Land of 

Israel, and the inevitable injustice 

created when a group holding 

power appropriates for itself the 

“burden“ of determining how to 

be just towards the powerless and 

voiceless. 

Last year, we reported that we 

had managed to temporarily 

freeze the demolition of solar 

power installations at Imneizel 

village in the South Hebron Hills 

following our legal work and 

immense international pressure. 

Recently, the Israeli authorities 

requested that we withdraw our 

legal appeal as they decided that 

the demolitions were not going to 

take place at all. 

In response to an RHR petition 

demanding that the Israeli army 

protect Palestinian property 

and possessions, the army was 

ordered to pay compensation to 

elderly Palestinian land owners 

directly underneath the Bat 

Ayin settlement, who suffer 

repeated attacks and damage to 

their 60 year old olive trees in 

“Price Tag” attacks. However, 

the army made it clear 

that the compensation 

was not an admission of 

responsibility, and refused to take 

any additional steps to protect 

the farmers and their trees. With 

all of the positive improvements 

in safe agricultural access after 

RHR’s 2006 High Court victory, 

this is but one of example of 

how authorities have not fulfilled 

additional stipulations of the 

decision ordering security forces 

to protect Palestinian farmers 

and to bring people to justice. 

RHR therefore took this case to 

the Israeli High Court, which in 

February 2013 gave the security 

forces 60 days to explain why they 

were not doing more to protect the 

landowners. 

The Assad family from the village 

of El-Khader (between Alon Shvut 

and Elazar), has been plagued by 

constant settler harassment and 

land encroachment. The extremist 

settler organization Women in 

With our intervention, the family now is able 

to access lands that had been inaccessible for 

more than a decade. 

Green repeatedly has trespassed 

on these lands where they have 

planted saplings, olive trees and 

even erected several benches with 

plaques in honor of the donors. 

The Civil Administration in Beit 

El heeded our request that the 

area be closed to Israelis in order 

to prevent further incursions into 

the lands and ordered the army to 

remove the trees planted. 

Since the Second Intifada, the 

Hajaja-Jabarin family, whose 

lands are adjacent to Tekoa, has 

been subjected to constant land 

closures by the army, attacks by 

neighboring settlers on both person 

and property, and attempts to 

appropriate land by planting trees. 

RHR submitted several requests to 

the Civil Administration that it take 

action against the settlers and the 

army. With our intervention, the 

family now is able to access lands 

that had been inaccessible for 

more than a decade. 

RHR is appealing the decision to 

allow the family to access their 

lands only by prior coordination 

with the Civil Administration and 

is demanding free access to these 

lands. 



THE GRANDPARENT TEST 

Quamar Misirqi-Asad, who directs RHR’s OT Legal Department, says that she needs to go the extra 

mile on behalf of Abu-Jabar Sleibi because she looks in his eyes and sees her own grandfather. We in 

RHR often speak of the need to see God’s image in every human being, and the truth is that Quamar 

and the rest of our staff go the extra mile for everybody whom we seek to defend. However, it 

would be a great start if we could all look in the eyes of human rights victims, or potential victims, 

and see our own grandparents, parents, siblings, partners and children. 

Pending Cases 

Defending Palestinian village of Susya against Demolition 

In October 2011, the army commander in the South Hebron Hills declared sections of land in the area 

of Susya “closed to Israelis” in response to an appeal submitted by Palestinian families requesting that 

they be able to reach their lands where Israeli settlers have been taking over land. This was just one of a 

string of successes returning lands to their rightful owners. We know that the settlers in the region held 

emergency meetings regarding our successes. The lands closed in 2011 represented approximately 20 

percent of the lands covered in a petition we submitted on army procrastination on many additional 

cases of settler land takeovers, denial of access, and lack of protection for Palestinians. Altogether, the 

petition deals with some 2,500 dunams of land. We believe that this is the reason the extreme right-wing 

Israeli NGO Regavim and the adjacent settlement, also called Susya, submitted a High Court Appeal in 

February 2012 challenging the “slow“ pace of demolitions in the area and requesting that Palestinian 

Susya be demolished. In June 2012, probably due to pressure from Regavim, demolition notices were 

distributed, with 70 structures or 80 percent of the homes in the village targeted for demolition. The 

remaining 20 percent of structures already had demolition orders on them. The entire village therefore is 

under threat of demolition, and the future of the residents, comprising 120 people (including 25 women 

and 70 children), is unclear. In February 2013, the Court heard together both the Regavim petition and 

RHR’s petition. The Court accepted the State’s position that it could not demolish the homes before 

processing an alternative building plan submitted by RHR, and gave us an additional 90 days to submit 

an additional plan for some homes in the adjacent village of Wadi Khesheish, not included in the original 

plan because a second organization is representing them. The Court did not accept the State’s excuses for 

its procrastination on the cases listed in our petition and requested a progress report within 90 days. 

This appeal has finally given us the opportunity to go head-to-head with Regavim, who have submitted 

many similar appeals in the past, using misleading statistics to claim reverse discrimination against settlers. 

While they lose almost every time, they actually win. The Court has always accepted the State’s position 

that its actions are proper since it is executing demolition orders at its own pace. RHR’s goal is not only 

to prevent the demolition of Susya and restore Palestinian access, but also to challenge the legitimacy of 

demolitions when discriminatory planning makes it almost impossible for Palestinians to build legally. 

The case of Susya is particularly poignant because the residents were reduced to living in caves in their 

fields after being expelled from their nearby village. The village was declared an archeological site after 

the discovery of an ancient synagogue. In 2001, the army expelled the Palestinians from their caves and 

destroyed most of them. Israel’s High Court returned them, but the inability to get building permits meant 

that anything they built to replace the demolished caves was illegal. 

16 

Firing Zone 918 

For over a decade, the 1,800 residents of 12 Palestinian villages in the area of Masafer-Yatta in the 

South Hebron Hills have lived under the threat of demolition, evacuation and dispossession. In 1999, 

the Israel security forces declared the area a firing zone and expelled 700 men, women and children. 

An interim injunction issued by the Israeli High Court enabled them to return to their homes in March 

2000. The State postponed the case time after time, until the new president of the High Court, Justice 

Asher Grunis, urged the State to either drop the case or pursue it. The Ministry of Defense intensified 

military exercises in the area and declared that it still wanted to expel the residents of eight villages. 

They also demanded stringent limitations on development for the remaining four villages. RHR is 

not legally representing the threatened villages against the expulsions themselves, but is part of 

a broad coalition seeking to organize Israeli public and international opposition to the planned 

expulsions. Our legal department is demanding planning for two of the threatened cave communities, 

Sfai’i and Majaz, as part of our opposition to planned demolitions of British development projects in 

these villages. The victory of March 2000 has become an albatross around the necks of the residents 

because of the aforementioned draconian interpretation of the status quo mandated in the interim 

injunction that makes development even more impossible than in the rest of the Occupied Territories. 

It is therefore not sufficient to merely prevent expulsion. 

Zoning in Area C 

Susya and Firing Zone 918 are but two of the many examples of how discriminatory planning by 

army committees without Palestinian representation lead to home demolitions and the inability of 

Palestinian communities in Area C to develop. RHR’s High Court petition demanding that planning 

in Area C be returned to Palestinian hands was twice postponed in 2012, and is now scheduled to 

be heard on October 3rd, 2013. When requesting the latest postponement in November, the State 

claimed that the army’s Civil Administration was working hard to make changes to the planning system 

and needed more time. 


Socioeconomic 

Justice Department 

RHR’s Socioeconomic Justice Department, led by Rabbi Idit Lev, administers our Rights Center in Hadera, 

which helps around 200 unemployed and under-employed Israelis from Hadera and Wadi Ara to demand their 

socioeconomic rights. RHR also operates an empowerment group of Jewish and Arab women from Hadera 

and Wadi Ara, who have begun to work on promoting better conditions for single parents, the majority of 

whom are women. Rabbi Idit Lev also represents RHR in several coalitions concerning poverty, the state 

budget, and the groups that were formed following the social justice protests during the summer of 2011. We 

are beginning to focus on a common denominator linking many of the people we work with: the inability of 

working people to support their families. 

Inga, a woman whom we are helping to get disability 

benefit, said after the last time her application was 

rejected: “In another few months we will reapply. You 

will help me, right? If you help me, I won’t give up.” 

We promised that we will continue to help her. 

When Aaron, a 24 year-old student, entered RHR’s 

Rights Center for the first time he was scared, as he 

didn’t know how he could cope with a debt of 2,000 

shekels that he claimed he didn’t owe. After less than 

a week, the debt was reduced to only 181 shekels, 

and Aaron (who looked much better) said to us: “I also 

don’t owe this. I don’t intend to pay them. I am going to 

argue with them!” The change from a person who was 

broken when he came to our office a few days earlier to 

a person who could stand on his own was amazing. 

The past year was a significant one for RHR’s 

Socioeconomic Justice Department. The tent protest 

movement which began in the summer of 2011 

captured the headlines in Israel and thrust social justice 

issues into the national spotlight. As a result of the 

momentum of the protest movement, our economic 

and social justice work was reenergized. 

Rights Center 

RHR’s Rights Center provides Jewish 

and Arab residents of the Hadera 

and Wadi Ara region with advice 

and legal help regarding their 

socioeconomic rights. In 2012, the 

Center served about 200 people, 

many of whom had first turned to 

RHR because of the subsequently 

defeated Wisconsin Plan. In 

addition, RHR began going doorto-door 

in selected neighborhoods 

in Hadera, informing people about 

the Rights Center. As a result 

of this proactive approach, the 

Rights Center received numerous 

additional requests for help. We 

deal with an average of 24 new 

cases per month. During 2012, 

Rabbi Sigal Asher joined us at the 

Rights Center, as one of the four 

young rabbis/rabbinical students 

added to on our staff through 

a special grant, replacing Nico 

Socolovsky, who left to complete 

his rabbinical training in the US. 

The major focus of the center 

is to assist the unemployed and 

Composed of 20 Arab and Jewish women from 

Hadera and Wadi Ara, the majority of whom are 

single mothers, the group is currently addressing the 

socioeconomic rights of single parents. This year, 

they began working on extending annual subsidy 

given at the beginning of each school year to single 

parents to include high-school children. RHR hopes 

to create additional empowerment groups focused 

on other issues in other parts of the country where 

we already have a presence. 

Dorit explains the influence of RHR’s empowerment 

group: "To be able to express yourself is important; 

suddenly I see that I can speak without fear and 

without hesitating out of worry that I am saying 

something wrong.” 

Kulthum, an Arab woman fighting for the right of 

her daughter Ismi’ye to ride the district school bus 

underemployed with issues 

relating to rights available from 

the National Insurance Institute. 

This includes ensuring access 

to unemployment benefits and 

ensuring that employees have 

access to benefits such as paid 

leave, sick days, and assisting lowwage 

earners to pull themselves 

out of the cycle of poverty. 

While helping the unemployed 

and underemployed in Hadera 

and Wadi Ara to secure their 

social and economic rights, RHR 

will also identify issues requiring 

policy change on the national 

level. Helping to improve people’s 

lives locally is an essential part of 

our strategy to change the face of 

Israel nationally. 

Currently, RHR is launching a 

campaign based on a common 

denominator uniting many of the 

cases we are dealing with both in 

Hadera and elsewhere. Statistics 

indicate that at least one family 

Jewish-Arab Women’s Empowerment Group 

member is working in 52.9 percent 

of families living below the poverty 

line. Behind the statistics are real 

human tragedies caused by the 

combined effect of inadequate 

wages, an unresponsive system, 

and the growing holes in Israel’s 

social security net during our 

transition from a welfare state to a 

neo-liberal economy. 

RHR’s Rights Center found itself in 

the spotlight following the tragic 

suicide of the late Moshe Silman, 

who sought help from our Rights 

Center after meeting Rabbi Idit 

Lev at the social justice protests 

in Haifa (see below for Rabbi Idit 

Lev’s moving eulogy for Moshe 

Silman). Moshe’s story was a 

particularly tragic example of a 

much broader reality. With Rabbi 

Lev being quoted and interviewed 

in the Israeli media after Moshe’s 

death, we found ourselves 

inundated with calls from people 

in similar situations to that of 

Moshe Silman. 

said, "Suddenly, I said that I wanted to be strong 

like Ayesha [RHR social economic justice facilitator 

and field worker] and to request the right for my 

daughter [to bus transportation] in a loud, clear 

and confident voice, and to make it clear that I am 

requesting a right, not charity". 



Portrait of one of our young rabbis/rabbinical students: 

Nico Sokolovsky 

For the past two years, Nico Sokolovsky managed our Rights Center in Hadera. In June 2012 he left in order 

to complete his rabbinical studies in the US. Nico offers the following thoughts on the center and on his 

experience in the field: 

“The center in Hadera is our opportunity to be present in the place where we are needed – it is no coincidence 

that Makom [place, in Hebrew] is one of the names of God. The center is an expression of our support for 

a population that does not get a hearing owing to its position and location… Indeed in this place we get an 

opportunity to be present! “Being present,” after two years in this position, is in my understanding a mitzvah of 

the highest importance – maybe it should be included in the Ten Commandments. “I am the Lord your God” is 

interpreted by the Rambam as a command to know God; I interpret it as an invitation to be present. 

My job gave me the chance to visit and to accompany the sick; to care for the poor, the widow, the orphan, 

the weak, and those beaten by the system; and to try to improve on the experiment of realizing the dream of 

a Jewish state; to feel that I am engaged in the Jewish-Zionist enterprise; to raise my voice and shout against 

the loss of direction that our country suffers from…To leave (if only for a minute) the small closed reality that I 

live in and to meet the “other” (in terms of economic status, social grouping, religion, etc.) and – through this 

meeting with him or her – to widen my knowledge of my God. As a result of my work for this organization, 

my understanding of justice has deepened. Thank you!” 

Special Projects 

Under the direction of Rabbi Arik Ascherman, RHR has developed a number of special projects. These 

projects include our work with public housing tenants to ameliorate public housing; to support the African 

asylum seekers; and to advocate for the struggle of the unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev. 

Public Housing 

The initiatives described in last 

year’s report have blossomed into 

a major program area for RHR. 

While affordable housing was 

one of the main rallying cries of 

the 2011 protest movement, most 

of the demands have since been 

“buried” in committees. The need 

is great. Over 40,000 Israelis are 

on the official waiting list for public 

housing, many waiting for six years 

or more. However, the list does not 

reflect the actual need. Inappropriate 

criteria leave many like the late 

Moshe Silman ineligible for support. 

Many of those in need repeatedly 

rent apartments they cannot afford 

until they are evicted, while others 

sleep in cars, on friends’ sofas or on 

park benches. The trauma suffered 

by children is particularly tragic. 

Nothing is done to replenish the 

public housing stock, let alone to 

increase it. Many existing apartments 

are in need of serious repair and 

some suffer from potentially lifethreatening 

problems. Thousands of 

other government owned buildings 

are left empty. Money intended 

for public housing is diverted to 

other uses, while those in need 

face an often obtuse and insensitive 

bureaucracy. 

Last year we described how we 

first encountered this issue in Beit 

Shean and began to develop our 

policy recommendations together 

with public housing residents 

in the city. At the time, the local 

branch of Amidar, one of Israel’s 

semi-governmental public housing 

companies, seemed utterly 

unresponsive and sometimes even 

hostile. With the guidance of Rabbi 

Arik Ascherman, Rabbi Kobi Weiss 

has reversed this situation. Realizing 

that the root of the problems in 

Beit Shean is the difficulty 

that individuals face when 

standing alone against a 

powerful bureaucracy, Rabbi Weiss 

opened lines of communication 

with Amidar. Students from RHR’s 

Jezreel Valley College Human 

Rights Yeshiva, and area volunteers, 

including some who live in public 

housing, he has helped resolve 

debts, avoid eviction, obtain repairs, 

find appropriate apartments, etc. 

This past June, Jezreel Valley College 

chose the work of human services 

student Rivka Yones with RHR’s 

public housing advocacy program 

in Beit Shean as one of the two 

outstanding projects of the year, out 

of 130 competing projects. Since 

September of 2011, we have helped 

85 tenants, successfully resolving 25 

cases and assisting in the resolution 

of an additional 20 cases. We are 

continuing to work on most of the 

open cases. Our challenge is that most 

of the tenants with open cases have 

problems related to policies decided 

at the regional or national level; 

we are drawing on the issues these 

cases raise as we move forward with 

efforts to change national policy (see 

below). It is not our goal to remain in 

Beit Shean indefinitely: this year we 

are focusing on empowering tenants 

and local volunteers to support each 

other and to resolve problems on 

their own. 

While in Beit Shean we work mainly 

with public housing tenants, RHR 

works in Jerusalem with those who are 

not even deemed eligible for public 

housing due to unrealistic criteria. 

The protest encampment initially 

sponsored and sustained by RHR 

in 2011 has become a collective of 

activists and those in need of public 

housing called “the Ma’abarah” 

(echoing the name given to transit 

camps for new immigrants to Israel 

in the 1950’s). Long after the middle 

class protestors folded up their tents 

in the fall of 2011, the Ma’abarah 

was one of a handful of low income 

groups that continued the struggle. 

With many members literally having 

nowhere to live, the collective 

broke into abandoned buildings (an 

activity not sanctioned by RHR), set 

up new encampment sites or lived 

in donated office space, until the 

Municipality eventually provided 

supplementary funds allowing those 

in need to rent. However, these 

funds have now run out, and some 

members of the Ma’abarah are again 

in danger of eviction. 

The Ma’abarah has been one of 

the groups continuing with high 

profile protests highlighting the 

unresponsiveness of municipal 

and national officials. For example, 

during the Sukkot holiday the 

Ma’abarah built a “Sukkah on 

Wheels” representing needed 

homes, and paraded from Jerusalem 

Mayor Nir Barkat’s public Sukkah 

to the home of Prime Minister 

Netanyahu to a large public gathering 

of Kurdish Jewry in Sacher Park. 

These protests elicited a defensive 

reaction from outgoing Housing 

Minister Ariel Atias. While he didn’t 

change the problematic way his 

Ministry operated, Atias made some 

proposals to replenish the supply 

of public housing. The proposals 

constituted an insufficient step in 

the right direction, but they were 

not adopted by the government. In 

some cases demonstrations were 

met with police brutality and arrests. 

The Ma’abarah has waged several 

campaigns on behalf of individuals 

faced with eviction, most notably 

waging a successful campaign 

against Amidar to prevent the 

eviction of Ovadia and Miriam Ben 

Avraham. In a very powerful Tisha 

B’Av Mincha service and program, 

RHR and the Ma’abarah drew links 

between the loss of our national 

home mourned on Tisha B’Av and 

the housing insecurity facing many 

Israelis. We also built on the theme of 

emerging hope which characterizes 

the Tisha B’Av Mincha. 

In May 2012, the Ma’abarah entered 

a former kindergarten abandoned 

for three years in the low income 

Katamonim neighborhood, where 

the need for public housing 

is particularly acute. It 

turned out that this property 

 



was owned by Na’amat, 

the women’s organization 

affiliated with the Histadrut, 

Israel’s largest labor organization. 

Rather than evict the Ma’abarah, 

Na’amat recognized that we had 

common goals and began negotiating 

with the Ma’abarah to allow them to 

use the building as a neighborhood 

community center and a base for 

education and advocacy. 

Because the Ma’abarah is not a 

legal entity, RHR agreed to sign a 

contract on its behalf. However, 

around Rosh Hashana, Na’amat 

broke off negotiations and initiated 

court action to evict the Ma’abarah. 

We suspect that Mayor Barkat and 

others applied financial pressure on 

Na’amat. Just as we were waiting 

for a court ruling, Na’amat agreed 

to mediation. Noting their deep 

awareness of campaigns such 

as RHR’s request that overseas 

supporters contact their local 

Na’amat affiliates, Na’amat agreed 

to rent the premises to the Ma’abarah 


22 

through the end of 2013, giving 

us an important base to galvanize 

support for public housing policy 

change. We ask all those who 

contacted Na’amat on this issue to 

thank the organization for resisting 

financial extortion and staying true 

to its own values. 

With the help of Attorney Becky 

Cohen-Keshet, RHR has successfully 

defended several other families 

facing eviction around the country. 

In the case of Rachel Levy from 

Yavneh, who was evicted from 

her apartment, we are working to 

reestablish her and her daughter’s 

right to public housing. 

RHR’s initiated the Public Housing 

Forum to translate the lessons 

learned at the grass roots level into 

policy change. The forum unites 

veteran policy groups and grass roots 

organizations. As part of the Public 

Housing Forum, together with the 

organizations Community Advocacy, 

the Eastern Democratic Rainbow, 

Shatil, Tarabut, the Periphery Forum, 

and the Social Welfare Department 

of the Jerusalem Municipality, RHR 

developed a position paper focusing 

on such issues as: Investment in 

public housing; Revising criteria to 

ensure that all those who are in need 

are deemed eligible; Transparency; 

Changing the often demeaning 

treatment of tenants by public 

housing officials; A total freeze on 

evictions. 

As reported last year, the Forum 

created a broad-based Knesset 

Public Housing Caucus to 

translate the passion of the protest 

movement into concrete public 

housing gains. In 2012, the 

caucus hosted a public hearing in 

the Knesset and a Public Housing 

Day, including another Knesset 

hearing and discussions in several 

Knesset committees. The Forum 

has prepared proposed legislation 

to address each of our policy 

demands, and will be introducing 

this into the Knesset in 2013. 

The shocking and tragic selfimmolation 

of the late Moshe Silman 

(see Rabbi Idit Lev’s moving eulogy 

below) during a demonstration in 

June 2012 powerfully highlighted 

the closed doors many Israelis face 

in dealing with the public housing 

bureaucracy. Moshe Silman’s state 

of desperation was expressed in a 

note he left blaming the government 

and welfare authorities for bringing 

him to the brink of homelessness. 

While Silman’s act reflected a 

personal state of severe depression, 

it also served as a warning call 

regarding the human toll resulting 

Moshe, we met last year at the tent 

encampment, where we took part in 

many late-night discussions. Only after 

we had dismantled our tents did I learn 

that you needed help in exercising your 

rights. At a meeting about the future of 

the social protest movement, you told 

me, in between cigarettes, that you 

were not hopeful about your future. 

You added that you would not live on 

the street. I do not recall my answer 

at that moment, but I remember that 

I was optimistic, as I am with every 

person who enters through the door of 

our Rights Center, with the hope that 

this time we will win. I knew that we 

had ten months to prevent you from 

being thrown out on the street. We 

immediately set to work. 

As the months passed and doors were 

slammed in our faces, your despair 

grew. In May, RHR’s Rights Center, with 

assistance from other friends in Haifa, 

succeeded in reinstating your disability 

benefit, but not in obtaining any rental 

assistance. Neither letters nor lawyers 

nor the appeal of Knesset member Orly 

Levy-Abekasis helped. We tried every 

approach, and in the last weeks of your 

life, we tried to change your fate, but 

from Israel’s move from a social 

welfare system to a neo-liberal 

philosophy. It was also a sobering 

reminder of our own limitations. 

For almost a year, several RHR staff 

members dealt with this case. 

Rabbi Idit Lev accompanied him 

on a daily basis, while Rabbi Arik 

Ascherman also helped when Rabbi 

Idit Lev was not available. Attorney 

Becky Cohen-Keshet dealt with the 

legal aspects of his situation. In 

cooperation with RHR, MK Orly 

Levy-Abekasis, chairperson of the 

Knesset Lobby for Public Housing, 

also tried to negotiate with the 

A Eulogy for Moshe Silman z”l 

by Rabbi Idit Lev 

Ministry of Housing on Moshe’s 

behalf, but all was in vain. The 

Amidar official made it clear to 

Moshe that he was not entitled to 

rental assistance because he did 

not meet the strict criteria. Moshe 

appealed again and again, and 

refused to accept the decision that a 

man in his condition was not entitled 

to the state assistance he required in 

order to live with dignity. In June, 

the Housing Ministry rejected his 

appeal. With a little more time, we 

believe that we had a decent chance 

to at least obtain a rent subsidy. 

Sadly, in his depressed state, Moshe 

had lost all hope. 

were unable to. At the beginning of June, 

I told friends at RHR’s Rights Center that 

your case was our greatest failure in 

realizing rights, as you were deserving 

of them, but we could not manage to 

make the authorities understand this. 

On Friday, Moshe, you said to me: 

“I shall make my protest alone,” and 

you did, carrying us all away in the 

whirlpool. 

You presented Israeli society with a 

mirror, and an ugly image of poverty in 

the State of Israel 2012; a poverty that is 

shaming and humiliating; a poverty that 

cannot navigate an unbelievable maze 

of bureaucracy; a poverty that in even 

after receiving state assistance forces a 

person to collect handouts in order to 

survive. 

Every day since we established RHR’s 

Rights Center in Hadera, where I 

encounter daily stories of people like 

you, I am reminded of a sentence from 

the Jewish prayer after meals: 

“May the Lord, our Father, tend and 

nourish us, sustain and maintain us, 

and speedily grant us relief from 

all our troubles. Make the Lord 

make us dependent not on the 

 


handouts or loans of others, but 

rather on God’s full, open and 

generous hand, so that we may 

never be humiliated or put to shame.” 

How wise our rabbis once were, because 

now, in the State of Israel, matnat basar 

vedam (receiving help) involves shame 

and humiliation. 

Today in Israel more than 20,000 families 

and individuals live in Kafkaesque 

situations similar to that of Moshe 

Silman, a step away from living on the 

street, hungry, with not enough money 

to go to the doctor or to buy medicines, 

unable to cover expenses of the 

deteriorating educational system, and 

without any right to receive sufficient 

assistance from the State. 

Moshe, the mirror you set before us 

says “Enough!” You told us it was time 

to demand from the State to solve this 

national crisis. Contrary to what the 

Prime Minister of Israel said, this is 

not a personal tragedy – it is a national 

tragedy. 

The time has come for the citizens of 

the State of Israel to have suitable public 

housing, a good public healthcare 

system, an excellent public education 

system, and a welfare system which 

helps those who need assistance. 

Rabbi Heschel said: “In a democratic 

society, some are guilty, all are 

responsible.” We, as longtime social 

activists and the multitudes who have 

joined the social protest movement 

in the last year, have assumed our 

democratic responsibility of changing 

the State in which we live, of turning 

it into a place where the Rambam’s 

highest level of justice prevails: 

“You shall thou uphold him: he live 

with you as a resident alien” (Leviticus, 

25:35). That is, strengthen him so that 

he does not fall and be in need. 

The government of Israel does not take 

responsibility for its actions, and it is at 

fault that Moshe died in vain. 

To the ministers in the Israeli 

government– you are happy to be 

given the honor of being a minister, 

but you flagrantly ignore the grave 

responsibility that comes with the post, 

the responsibility for all the citizens of 

the State of Israel. We will not let you 

forget your role, and we will not let you 

continue to conduct a greedy economic 

policy on our backs. You are guilty of 

Moshe’s death. You are responsible for 

the plight of the homeless and those 

sleeping on sofas in Israel, for the hungry 

and the sick and those struggling with 

poverty. 

We demand that you listen to the words 

of the Supreme Court: “Personal dignity 

includes… Guaranteeing the minimum 

required for human sustenance…A 

man living on the street who has no 

home, is a man whose dignity has been 

compromised; a man who is hungry 

is a man whose dignity has been 

compromised; a man who has no access 

to basic medical care is a man whose 

dignity has been compromised; a man 

forced to live in humiliating material 

conditions is a man whose dignity has 

been compromised.” 

We demand that Moshe be the last 

victim. We demand that you will never 

again compromise anybody’s dignity, 

and that you will never endanger 

anyone’s the life. 

I pray that Moshe will be the last 

victim. 

In these days, bayn hametzarim (the 

3 weeks between the fast day of 17 

Tammuz, marking the breach of the 

walls of Jerusalem, and Tisha’ B’Av, the 

fast day commemorating the destruction 

of the Second Temple) are difficult days, 

I ask all those who are in terrible need, 

please look after your souls and bodies. 

“Guard your souls well” 

(Deuteronomy, 4:15). 

Israel’s Unrecognized Bedouin Villages of the Negev 

As we write this report, Israel has 

intensified its efforts to eliminate 

the “unrecognized” Bedouin 

villages in the Negev, which either 

existed before Israel was founded 

or were created in locations to 

which the Israeli army itself moved 

Bedouin in the early years of the 

State. Being unrecognized, they 

receive no services, their homes are 

automatically “illegal” and subject 

to demolition, and their crops are 

sprayed and killed. RHR and our 

coalition partners are working to 

prevent the forceful transfer of some 

40,000 additional Bedouin into 

artificially created cities, and the 

theft of their land. 

Throughout 2012, RHR continued 

to take action to publicize the 

plight of El-Arakib, which has been 

demolished over 40 times since the 

first and most traumatic demolition 

in July 2010. Rabbi Ascherman has 

been the driving force in RHR behind 

the support of this community. RHR, 

along with RHR-NA (now T’ruah) 

and the Jewish Alliance for Change, 

successfully pressured the JNF-KKL 

to agree to freeze the planting of 

forests closing in and threatening to 

erase the memory of El-Arakib. They 

have agreed to do so on four plots 

until the court rules on competing 

state and Bedouin land ownership 

claims. We asked the JNF to focus 

on their admirable work in the 

fields of forestry and ecology, and 

to leave behind that part of their 

history which has been complicit in 

unjustly creating facts on the ground 

and discriminating against Israel’s 

Arab citizens. In December, the 

High Court ordered that the District 

Court hear these claims, despite 

state contentions that all Bedouin 

proof of ownership is irrelevant 

because the state expropriated the 

lands in 1953. RHR is now urging 

the JNF to freeze the forestation on 

all of the El-Arakib lands, which will 

be discussed before the Court, and 

not just the four plots. 

El-Arakib is but one poignant 

reminder of the forced evictions 

that some 30,000-45,000 Bedouin 

in the Negev may face. Ignoring 

the government-sponsored 

recommendation of the Goldberg 

Committee to legalize most of 

the “unrecognized” villages, the 

government sought to implement the 

Prawer recommendations, calling 

for additional mass expulsions and 

forced relocation into seven artificial 

cities, which have become magnets 

for crime, poverty, drugs and despair 

and threaten the Bedouin way of 

life. In January 2013, the outgoing 

government adopted Minister Benny 

Begin’s report, which combined the 

understanding language of Goldberg 

with the cruel recommendations 

of Prawer. Because right-wing 

extremists have expressed that 

the planned expulsions and land 

theft don’t go far enough, Begin 

apparently felt that this is the best 

deal the Bedouin could get. 

RHR now faces the very difficult 

task of ensuring justice for the 

Bedouin in light of the Begin report. 

As a part of the Coexistence Forum, 

and along with the Negev Bedouin 

leadership, RHR will continue with 

a public campaign and lobbying 

strategy to prevent the passage of 

legislation implementing the Begin 

report. The JNF-KKL also shares 

some of the responsibility for the 

Prawer/Begin plan. The CEO of 

JNF-USA proudly proclaimed in a 

meeting with Rabbi Ascherman that 

he lobbied the Knesset to adopt the 

Negev Development Plan, which 

the Prawer/Begin plan serves. The 

JNF-KKL will be asked to create a 

green belt on much of the land. 



African Asylum Seekers in Israel 

RHR has been increasingly active 

regarding the plight of African asylum 

seekers fleeing from the killing 

fields of Sudan and Eritrea. Sadly, 

we are ignoring our own history by 

closing our borders. A new law now 

theoretically makes it a crime to 

help the some 60,000 refugees and 

asylum seekers in Israel, and we have 

one of the lowest rates in the world 

for granting refugee status. Current 

policy pits disadvantaged veteran 

residents of South Tel Aviv against 

the asylum seekers. Attacks and 

other manifestations of hatred and 

anger have become more frequent. 

In addition to our longstanding 

participation in High Court appeals 

seeking to allow them to work, 

prevent geographical restrictions 

on where they are allowed to live, 

etc., we did our best to publicize 

the plight of the South Sudanese 

who were ultimately deported 

in 2012 after losing the group 

protection still given to Eritreans 

and those from North Sudan. Our 

Education Department now brings 

Israeli young people to South Tel 

Aviv, and during the “Aseret Yamei 

Teshuvah” between Rosh Hashanah 

and Yom Kippur, RHR co-sponsored 

a series of vigils outside the homes 

of Interior Minister Yishai, Prime 

Minister Netanyahu and Defense 

Minister Barak. RHR recently asked 

our supporters around the world 

to write letters to the Ministry of 

Interior because refugees were 

being told they either face at least 

three years of detention or must 

“voluntarily” leave. That policy 

has been cancelled, but growing 

numbers of asylum seekers are 

being incarcerated. We have been 

working increasingly closely with 

the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society 

(HIAS), and hope to: 1. Ensure that 

Israel implements fair policies for 

granting refugee status and accepts 

our fair share. 2. Look for creative 

solutions such as getting third 

countries to allow Israel to act as 

a way station, and ask Jewish and 

other communities in host countries 

to make this easier by sponsoring 

refugee families. We need your 

help to make this happen. In 

December, at the invitation of HIAS, 

Education Director Rabbi Nava 

Hefetz addressed a U.N interfaith 

conference on the plight of refugees 

around the world. Her remarks 

can be found on RHR’s website. 

Since the conference, Rabbi Hefetz 

has been working with Rabbis 

Ascherman and Yehudai to help 

establish international interfaith 

standards on this issue. 


Rabbi Kobi Weiss 

Kobi comes from an ultra-Orthodox background, and was ordained within that world. He later 

left religion entirely, but did not find himself in the secular hi-tech world. Judaism was in his 

soul, and he began to teach in pre-army academies and to lead worship services for secular 

Israelis. Although he would put on a kippah and serve as an army rabbi when called up for 

reserve duty, he still had difficulty calling himself a rabbi. 

Working with RHR has reconnected Kobi with the purpose of Judaism. He says that it has 

helped him define what it truly means to be a rabbi, “The work has sharpened my philosophy of social justice 

from a Jewish perspective – what are goals are. Working for human rights is an integral part of the responsibility 

of the Jewish people in our generation, each from his/her own place. This realization doesn’t just impact on my 

work for RHR, but everything else I teach, how I teach, how I structure my day…It isn’t about politics and it hasn’t 

changed how I vote. It is much deeper than that. It is about what it means to be called ‘rabbi.’… My work in Beit 

Shean has crystallized my thoughts about poverty and work. I have been teaching for two years in a program for 

discharged soldiers. I teach them that the essence of being a leader is not averting one’s eyes and turning away.” 

Kobi’s community work in Beit Shean has led him to understand and to teach that you can’t simply talk about issues 

such as poverty via theory and statistics. You need to experience them at the grassroots level. He learned that we 

must be careful not to patronize those with whom we work. Our goal must be to help people overcome all of the 

forces that lead us not to take action to help ourselves or others. 

Kobi writes, “This work challenges me. RHR is a reference group. I am not Reform, Conservative or Orthodox. I 

come home and my family doesn’t fully understand that I am not in any particular movement. But I never had a 

support group. Now I have people around me whom I can speak with.” 

Education Department 

HR’s Education Department, directed by Rabbi Nava Hefetz, teaches 

the connection between Judaism and human rights to young people 

in 13 pre-military academies. We engage university students at our 

Human Rights Yeshiva at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and have 

opened a new yeshiva at Jezreel Valley College. In addition to study, 

the yeshiva students also participate in a human rights project with 

RHR or another human rights organization. RHR works with Jewish 

and Bedouin women students at Sapir College, who learn about 

each other and about our faith traditions regarding human rights 

and the status of women. We give the women tools to be activists 

and they conduct shared social change projects. In partnership with 

the San Francisco Jewish Learning Initiative (formerly the Bureau 

of Jewish Education) we have produced an English version of RHR’s 

Tractate Independence, and developed a middle school curriculum 

for American Jews. 

“We’re ending the year not only more aware of our 

rights, but also more involved in the whole issue of 

the rights of everyone in Israel. You’ve shown us the 

meaning of tolerance and pluralism, the importance 

of looking deeper into things, conveying criticism and 

reinterpretation of things on the spot instead of taking 

what’s written as the only correct interpretation.” 

Nachshon Junior College, Metzudat Yoav 



Teaching Human Rights in Israel’s Pre-Military Academies 

RHR’s Education Department was particularly busy 

this past year. In October 2012, we increased the 

number of pre-military academies in which we work 

from 11 to 13, and we hope to continue to meet 

the growing demand for this program in the coming 

years. Some 600 young people, the majority of whom 

will become army officers, are exposed to our human 

rights teachings in these 13 pre-military academies. 

The students all use the same text, “Tractate 

Independence” – RHR’s rabbinical interpretation of 

the Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel. 

We encourage the students to engage with the values 

in the Declaration and to compare them to Jewish 

worldviews found in the Jewish tradition through the 

generations. 

The goal of this course is to educate the participants 

and to encourage them to ask questions and challenge 

their views and prejudices, exploring the concept of 

“the other” in Israeli society. We examine the roots of 

the approach to “the other” in Jewish sources and using 

different philosophical approaches. As future soldiers, 

commanders and leaders, it is our hope that when 

fulfilling their duties at checkpoints or commanding 

groups of soldiers, these young people will be influenced 

and deeply affected by the rights of the “other.” 

Students in RHR’s Human Rights courses in the 

pre-military academies are also exposed to human 

rights issues outside the classroom. In the 2011- 

2012 academic year, all the academies participated 

in a tour of the Separation Barrier in Jerusalem, and 

several took pilot tours examining the situation of 

African refugees and asylum seekers in South Tel Aviv 

and the unrecognized Bedouin villages of the Negev. 

In the 2012-2013 academic year, our goal is that each 

academy will take four tours: the Separation Barrier, 

South Tel Aviv, the unrecognized villages, and the 

South Hebron Hills. 

Last year, several groups of students joined RHR staff 

and members at meetings with Sudanese and Eritrean 

refugees in South Tel Aviv, hearing firsthand about 

their experiences in Israel. We also met with a Jewish 

resident of the Shapira neighborhood, as well as with 

the director of the Levinsky Garden Library. 

One student who participated in the tour commented: 

“The refugee problem is a humanitarian one; the 

situation is in flux and it is difficult to deport them back 

to their original countries. They feel like citizens of the 

land, joining youth groups such as the Scouts, and they 

learn Hebrew.” Upon meeting with Margaret, one of 

the social activists from the Shapira neighborhood, 

the student wrote that, “The situation is insane. 

There is a lack of preschools, a lack of space, a lack 

of solutions to the distress of the foreign workers’ 

children. Educationally, the problem is even more 

severe – there are not enough schools, and there is no 

capacity to absorb such a large population. There is 

no investment in infrastructure, in lighting, and there 

is no secular elementary school – parents are forced 

to send their children farther away. Margaret lives 

on a relatively middle-class street. She contends that 

the boundary between the building and the street has 

blurred, and the situation is chaotic and untenable. 

There are alcohol and drugs everywhere, to the point 

of public nuisance. The Shapira neighborhood is a 

microcosm of the whole migration issue. The place 

feels like a garbage dump.” 

We also took each pre-military academy on a tour of 

the Separation Barrier in Jerusalem, contrasting Israeli 

security concerns with the challenge of upholding the 

Human Rights Yeshivas 

rights of Palestinians residents of East Jerusalem. The 

tour includes meetings with local Palestinian residents 

who tell the students first-hand about the challenges 

that they face; for many young Israelis, this is their first 

time meeting Palestinians. Students from the Ami-Chai 

Junior College wrote to Rabbi Nava Hefetz, “We the 

students at the Ami-Chai Junior College wish to thank 

you for the tour along the separation barrier in Jerusalem. 

The junior college students were not familiar with the 

reality of the fence. The tour enriched our knowledge 

and opinions. The way in which the content was given 

over was inspiring. Most people are too closed off to 

others’ opinions and speak rudely. You conveyed things 

pleasantly and calmly, and in a very positive way.” 

In addition to the tours, many of the pre-military 

academies engage in human rights projects with 

marginalized communities within Israel. By working 

within these pre-military academies, Rabbis for 

Human Rights is helping the next generation of Israeli 

leaders to change the face of Israel. 

We have high hopes for these young people, many 

of whom were involved in the social protests of the 

Summer of 2011 and continue to work for social 

change within Israel. We see our former students 

involved in many organizations and initiatives, and 

sometimes in key positions as Knesset aides, in the 

prosecutor’s office, etc. We need many more initiatives 

like this, because others who do not share our values 

also have been investing in education for many years 

quietly and out of the spotlight. 

RHR’s Human Rights Yeshivas also continued to flourish this past year. In 2011-12, we ran two Human Rights Batei 

Midrash: one at Hebrew University, operating since 2003, and the other at the Open University in Ra’anana. At 

the end of the academic year, we decided to close the program in Ra’anana, as the university tends to attract older, 

more mature students who are returning to study after being in the workforce, while we seek to reach out to Israel’s 

young generation. In October 2012, we again launched the Human Rights Yeshiva at Hebrew University for 20 

students, with Debbie Shoua-Haim, one of RHR’s four rabbinical students/young rabbis/prospective next generation 

rabbis, appointed as coordinator. Our new program at Jezreel Valley College in the North, run by Rabbi Kobi Weiss 

and Rabbi Tlalit Shavit, attracted 80 applicants for just 20 places! Students who participate in the Human Rights 

Yeshivas receive a stipend and are expected to intern in a human rights or social change organization. While Jezreel 

Valley College has agreed to pay the stipends for the students, RHR covers this cost at the Hebrew University. In 

the coming year, we hope that rabbis around the world will help support our Human Rights Yeshivas, including the 

sponsorship of students. 

Over the past year, RHR also worked on the English version of our Tractate Independence (RHR’s commentary on 

Israel’s Declaration of Independence, teaching democracy and human rights as Jewish values in a Talmudic style). 

For the past year, Debbie Shoua-Haim and long-standing board member Rabbi Amy Klein have worked toward 

completing this task, focusing on creating a middle school curriculum suitable for Jewish day schools, supplementary 

schools and youth groups. Several Bay Area Jewish schools have committed to running pilot programs in the 2013- 

2014 academic year, and we would be happy to conduct pilots in additional cities. 



Citizens for Equality 

This year marks the third and final year of the first cohort of RHR’s Citizens for Equality program, engaging Jewish 

and Bedouin women students at Sapir College. The three-year program has been demanding and difficult. At the 

beginning, the participants had difficulties finding common ground, as they came from vastly different social and 

religious backgrounds. Students also faced difficulties in continuing the program, with some revolting against the 

traditions of their own societies, and standing by their resolve to participate in the program, and to improve their 

own lives and those of their communities. Coordinators Amal El-Sanah and Leah Shakdiel worked hard to create 

cohesion amongst the participants. 

At the beginning of 2012, Citizens for Equality participants held a study day in Jaffa, touring the city in order to 

understand the often opposing Jewish and Arab narratives. We met the rabbi of the Torah-centered settlement group 

in Jaffa and with Tel Aviv-Jaffa City Councilor Sami Abu Shehadeh. We also toured South Tel Aviv in order to learn 

more about the plight of the African refugees and their Jewish neighbors. 

In this third and final year, the students are embarking on small, community-based projects devoted to human 

rights and social change. The aim of these projects is to encourage leadership skills and create social change in 

communities in the Negev area. Projects planned include building a park in the presently neglected area of Tel 

Sheva; using music as a tool for communication between different ethnic and religious groups; and running an 

advisory center for women who lack the knowledge to apply for social benefits. Although these projects are small 

in scale, they enable the students to apply their knowledge gained throughout the past two years, and in doing so, 

empower themselves as they help others. 

Interfaith 


Debbie Shoua-Haim 

I was born and raised in Jerusalem. I’m married to Alon and I live in Jerusalem. Prior 

to working at RHR, I was trained as a Jewish studies teacher and taught in various 

Jerusalem high schools. I’m finishing my MA in Bible Studies and am planning to 

study for the rabbinate over the coming years. 

My work at RHR (in the Education Department) has opened up my eyes to see more 

and more wrongs in our society and has opened my heart to feel the suffering of others. I learn from 

RHR’s more experienced rabbis and employees about justice, morality and fighting for worthy causes. 

In my work I truly feel that I have a chance to make a difference in the way that young people, high 

school and university students perceive the importance of human rights, their connection to the Jewish 

tradition, and the duty we all have to fight for them. 

RHR’s Interfaith work is mainly led by Rabbi Yehiel Grenimann, and we work in a variety of interfaith 

capacities. We are part of the “Tag Meir” (light tag) coalition of organizations (see below), and we also 

have several interfaith projects involving young religious students and leaders. 

Tag Meir 

RHR organized and participated in several 

activities of "Tag Meir" (light tag), a coalition 

of organizations that respond to so-called “Tag 

Mekhir” (price tag) Jewish terror and violence 

against Palestinians, refugees and migrants, 

and others in Israel and the West Bank. In June 

2012, we participated in a Tag Meir event at 

Neve Shalom, at which RHR board member 

Rabbi Gil Nativ spoke. In September 2012, 

in response to the desecration and attempted 

arson of Latrun Monastery, we joined in an 

interfaith prayer held at the monastery. Earlier, 

at the end of 2011, RHR organized solidarity visits to the villages of Asira al-Qibliya and al-Burka. In 

Asira al-Qibliya we visited with a family who had been subjected to many violent attacks by settlers from 

the nearby outpost of Yitzhar. In addition to words of support and commitment to peace and justice, 

we donated a barbed-wire fence to help protect them from the ongoing violence from their neighbors. 

In al-Burka we visited the mosque, which had been subject to arson only a week before. We brought 

them new books of the Qur’an, replacing those destroyed in the fire and again both sides spoke of their 

commitment to peace and coexistence. It was most heartening to see many young people participating 

and the warm reception from our Palestinian hosts. 



Seminary Students Environment Project 

Yonatan Shefa, who holds one of our four rabbinical student/young rabbi positions, devoted part of his 

time in the second half of 2012 to facilitating groups of Jewish, Christian and Muslim seminary students 

who engaged in joint study about the overlap between human rights and the environment. This project 

comprises a series of intensive seminars that to date have focused on the subjects of water, the desert, and 

olive trees. The project is being run in partnership with the Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development 

and will continue through 2013. 

Emerging Religious Leaders Project 

In May 2012, Yonatan Shefa also began co-facilitating a project that brings together emerging Palestinian 

and Israeli religious leadership to develop mutual understanding and trust, with the aim of creating 

collaborative projects promoting peace and human rights. This yearlong project is sponsored by Search 

for Common Ground and the Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land. 

RHR in the News 

During 2012, RHR continued to implement the strategic decision taken during 2010 to promote our unique 

voice to the Israeli public. After Yariv Mohar began to work as our spokesperson during 2011, RHR began to 

enjoy increased exposure in the Israeli media and diversified coverage in the internet media as well as in the 

more traditional print media, television, and radio during 2012. 

In 2012, RHR was mentioned in 149 media items, including three items on Channel 2, the leading and most 

selective television station in Israel; 17 items on Kol Israel, the leading Israeli radio network; 11 items on 

YNET, the country’s most popular internet news site and nine on MAKO, the internet site of Channel 2; as 

well as 30 items in Ha’aretz, which appeals to Israel’s elite and decision makers. In addition, we were cited 

numerous times in both the general and Jewish press abroad. RHR also contributed hundreds of op-eds to 

local newspapers and internet news sites. 

With the dedication and knowledge of Matti Shmueloff, our Social Media Director, our online presence has 

also increased. Our near daily posts on Facebook in English and Hebrew are widely and increasingly read 

and reposted. In the beginning of 2012 alone, 46,688 unique visitors accessed RHR’s Hebrew and English 

language websites; 30 percent are regular readers and follow our activities on an ongoing basis. 

During 2012, our Communications Department also completed a video diary presenting the daily life and 

hardships of a 13-year-old Palestinian girl from the South Hebron Hills. The first two clips of this diary were 

launched at the end of December in an internet-based campaign designed to raise awareness of human rights 

abuses in this area. The diary seeks to reach the generally apathetic Israeli public: most Israelis are unaware of 

the existence of and hardships faced by the people of the South Hebron Hills. The story of this young woman 

will lend a human element to the issues in this area. 

Staff and Board 

RHR would like to thank Nico Sokolovsky, who left RHR’s staff after serving as the director of our Hadera 

office. Nico was one of the four rabbinical students/young rabbis whom we hired with a special grant. 

We wish him good luck in his rabbinical studies in the US. We also thank Shatil/New Israel Social Justice 

Fellow Moriel Rothberg for his contribution to RHR over the past year, as well as the outgoing Human 

Rights Yeshiva director, Rabbi Gideon Sylvester. 

In 2012, RHR welcomed Advocate Miya Keren to RHR’s Legal Department; Rabbi Sigal Asher, as our 

new manager of the Hadera office; Rabbi Tlalit Shavit as co-coordinator of the Human Rights Beit 

Midrash in Jezreel Valley College; civilian service intern Aviv Nesher; Everett Fellow for Social Justice, 

Vicky Liderman; and volunteers Ilana Sabu, Maria Gavrilova and Katie Deutsch. 

Rabbis Susan Silverman and Michael Klein-Katz, Rabbi Professor Yehoyada Amir and rabbinical student 

Josh Weinberg all joined our Board in 2012. Stepping down from our board this year were Rabbis 

Gil Nativ, Miri Gold, Galia Sadan, Yehoshua Engelman and Ehud Bandel, who has joined our Audit 

Committee. We welcome Rabbi Amy Klein back to our board. 

Contributors 

RHR’s work would not be possible without you. We value each and every one of you, regardless of the 

amount of your contribution. We are blessed with far more contributors than we can possibly list here. The list 

that follows acknowledges contributions of $360 or more received between November 2011 and December 

2012 If we have inadvertently omitted your name, please let us know and we will correct it in future copies 

of the report. 

Osei Tesdakha, 

$5,000 + 

The Ada G. and Stanley I. 

Halbreich Foundation 

AECID 

Alan Sussman 

Alexander S. Preker 

Alfred Bader 

Anonymous 

Caritus Belgium 

Church of Sweden 

European Commission 

Firedoll Foundation 

Foundation for Middle East 

Peace 

George and Bella Savran 

Google Matching Gifts Program 

Human Rights Defenders Fund 

Iris O’Brien Foundation 

The Social Justice Fund 

Karl Kahane Foundation 

Kerk in Actie 

Liberal Judaism- The Montagu 

Center 

Lois Q. Whitman 

Lois and Richard England 

Foundation 

Luis Lainer 

Michael J. Hirschhorn 

Michael Ratner 

Misereor 

The Moriah Fund 

New Israel Fund 

NGO Development Center 

Norwegian Church 

Overseas Resources 

Foundation Ltd. 

Quail Roost Foundation 

Robert L and Edith Zinn 

The Samuels Foundation 

Topol Family Fund 

Sparkplug Foundation 

Stein Sharpe Family Fund 

Tal Pritzker 

Tom and Gail Kaneb 

Trocaire 

Vivian and Paul Olum 

Charitable Foundation 

Winograd-Hunter Fund 

Shomrei Mishpat, 

$1,000-$4,999 

Almoney Fund 

Amcha For Tsedakah 

Rabbi Amy E. Eilberg 

Rabbi Amy Schwartzman 

Rabbi Andrea C. London 

Asia Connection, Inc. 

Barbara Dobkin 

Rabbi Barbara J. Zacky 

Susan & Benjamin Baxt 

Beth El Synagogue, St. Louis 

Park, MN 

Bureau of Jewish Education 

Catherine S. England 

Rabbi Charles M. Feinberg 

Coggeshall Restoration, Inc 

Congregation Beth El of Sudbury, 

MA 

Craig M. Oettinger 

Daniel Bogard 

David Smiley 

David Berkal 

Rabbi David Stern 

Rabbi David A. Teutsch 

David and Rabbi Jacqueline 

Koch Ellenson 

Edward Witten 

Eleanor Friedman 

Elizabeth Lehman and Ruben 

Kraiem 

Ellen Grobman 

Rabbi Ellen Lippmann 

Rabbi Elliott Tepperman 

Rabbi Elyse D. Frishman 

Enid Shapiro 

Evely L. Shlensky 

Freeman Family Foundation 

Gail Tomberg 

Glickenhaus Foundation 

Google Matching Gifts 

Program 

Rabbi Gordon Tucker 

Harriet & Richard Orkand 

Family Educational & 

Charitable Fdn 

Howard J. Wial 

Daniel Rice and Ilise S. 

Cohen 

Rabbi Isaac D. Serotta 

Jeanne Blaustein 

Jeffrey Justin 

Dr. Jeremiah P. and Alicia 

Ostriker 

Joan M. Karlin 

Rabbi Joel Sisenwine 

Rabbi Jonathan Kligler 

Rabbi John L. Rosove 

Rabbi Jonathan P. Slater 

Rabbi Joseph Wolf 

Joshua Newman 

Judith A. Jarashow 

Judith Orloff 

Judith Scheuer & Joseph 

Mellicker 

Jules Bernstein 

Rabbi Kenneth M. Chasen 

Kit Colbert 



Larry Buck 

Larry K. Keefer 

Laurel E. Friedman 

Rabbi Lester Bronstein 

Louise D. & Morton J. Macks Family 

Foundation, Inc. 

Rabbi Marcia Prager 

Marianne Udow-Phillips 

Marion Fredman 

Rabbi Mark H. Levin 

Marlene Booth 

Marvin Naiman and Margery Goldman 

Family 

Maxine A. Goldblum 

Michael J. Skloff & Marta Kaufman 

Michael Kieschnick 

Michael Radwin 

Michael Schecter 

Rabbi Michael Strassfeld 

Michael J. Zigmond 

Michelle H. Green 

Michelle A. Ores Schorin 

Microsoft Matching Gifts Program 

Milton Viorst 

Nancy Bernstein 

Rabbi Nancy Flam and Neil Kudler 

Nancy Meyer 

Rabbi Nancy H. Wiener 

Oz Benamram & Gali Freedman 

Paul S. Grobman 

Rabbi Paula F. Marcus 

Rabbi Peter J. Rubinstein 

Rabbi Rachel Goldenberg 

Rachel B. Tiven 

Rachel S. Bearman 

Rabbi Richard J. Jacobs 

Richard Tavan 

Robert L. Zinn 

Rabbi Rolando J. Matalon 

Ronnie Williams 

Rubin Family Foundation 

Russell Pearce 

Rabbi Sally J. Priesand 

Sameer Y. Merchant 

Sarah Perman 

Scott & Jasmine Roseman 

Rabbi Sheila P. Weinberg 

Stephanie Barbe Hammer 

Stephen Marglin 

Rabbi Steven C. Reuben 

Stanley Eisenberg 

Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell 

Rabbi Susan A. Talve 

Suzanne J. Marks 

Sybil and Steve Wolin 

Temple Beth Emeth, Ann Arbor, MI 

Vivian and Paul Olum Charitable 

Foundation 

William Resnick 

William E. Rose 

Dorshei Mishpat 

$360 to $999 

Rabbi Aaron B. Bisno 

Rabbi Aaron Spiegel 

Rabbi Adam Zeff 

Adas Israel Congregation, Washington 

DC 

Alan Altschuler 

Alan Green 

Alexandra Wall 

Alfred E. Marks Charitable Trust 

Allen H. Mushinsky 

Amy L. Lansky 

Amy R. Harrington 

Rabbi Andrea C. London 

Andrea L. Turner 

Andrew Shugerman 

Rabbi Andrew Vogel 

Cantor Angela Buchdahl 

Ann Sprayregen 

Anne E. Belford 

Rabbi Ariel Stone 

Arlene Alpert 

Rabbi Arthur O. Waskow and Rabbi 

Phyllis Berman 

Aryeh Cohen 

Avi M. Schulman 

Rabbi Avi Winokur 

Barrett S. Litt 

Benita Kaimowitz 

Rabbi Bernard Barsky 

Rabbi Bernard H. Mehlman 

Beth E. Burrows 

Beth Israel Congregation, Ann Arbor, MI 

Bettyruth Walter 

Bill Harford 

Bonni Schiff 

Boris Kofman 

Rabbi Bruce Elder 

Carol J. and Sidney Hurlburt 

Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller 

Rabbi Charles K. Briskin 

Claudia Little 

Community Health Charities of New 

England, Inc. 

Community House Church, Washington 

DC 

Community Synagogue, Port 

Washington, NY 

Craig M. Oettinger 

Cynthia McClintock 

Daniel Goldrich 

Daniel G. Zemel 

Rabbi Daniel J. Isaak 

Rabbi Daniel Levin 

Rabbi Daniel M. Bronstein 

Rabbi David A. Teutsch 

Rabbi David Adelson 

David Grubin 

Rabbi David Posner 

Rabbi David Mersky 

David Weiser 

Deana Katz 

Deanna Love Rutman 

Rabbi Deborah Bronstein 

Deborah D. Moore 

Deborah H. Warden 

Rabbi Debra L. Rappaport 

Diana R. Engel 

Diane R. Baer 

Rabbi Douglas Heifetz 

Douglas S. Kerr 

Rabbi Edwin Harris 

Elaine Reuben 

Elinor Sashse 

Ellen Farmer 

Rabbi Elliot Strom 

Elsbeth Reisen 

Enid Shapiro 

Ephraim Pelcovits 

Eric M. Meyers 

Ernestine S. Elster 

Eve M. Wider 

Ezra A. Amsterdam 

Evelyn Hutt 

Rabbi Felicia L. Sol 

Rabbi Floyd L. Herman 

Francis Schrag 

Frank Bamberger 

Frederick A. Horowitz 

Rabbi Frederick H. Reeves 

Rabbi Geoffrey A. Mitelman 

George Kennedy 

Rabbi Gilah Lagner 

Gregory Rapp 

Rabbi Gregory Wolfe 

Rabbi Haim D. Beliak 

Harriet A. Feinberg 

Harriet J. Korim 

Rabbi Hector Epelbaum 

Rabbi Herbert Brockman 

Howard J. Wial 

Ilana R. Schatz 

Irwin Tauben 

Rabbi Irwin Zeplowitz 

Jacques L. Zakin 

Janet Kolodner 

Janet R. Newman 

Rabbi Jeffrey Brown 

Rabbi Jeffrey S. Saxe 

Jeffry S. Abrams 

Jennie E. Roitman 

Joan Blum 

Rabbi Joel Schwab 

John Washburn 

Rabbi John S. Friedman 

Jonathan W. Malino 

Rabbi Joshua Davidson 

Rabbi Joshua Lesser 

Joshua M. Levin 

Judith Kunofsky 

Judith Plaskow and Martha 

Ackelsberg 

Judith Ruderman 

Judith L. Tharp 

Rabbi Julie L. Roth 

June H. Nadle 

Katz-Lapides Family Fund 

Kehilla Community Synagogue, 

Piedmont, CA 

Key Foundation 

Rabbi Laura J. Geller 

Laurence Zuckerman 

Leola Lapides 

Les Rothschild 

Leslie Lomas 

Lili Perski 

Rabbi Linda J. Holtzman 

Linda Novick 

Liza Shtromberg 

Lois Fingerhut 

Lori Koffman 

Lucile Rosenberg 

Madeline Hirschland 

Rabbi Marc J. Margolius 

Marc Waldor 

Rabbi Marc Soloway 

Mark C. Levy 

Marsha D. Perman 

Mary K. Losman 

Max Samson 

Rabbi Melissa Klein 

Mervin N. Cherrin 

Mia Buckwald Gelles 

Rabbi Michael Goldman 

Michael Lezack 

Michael Marcus 

Michael Schechter 

Rabbi Michael Weinberg 

Rabbi Michael A. White 

Mira Wasserman 

Miriam J. Foss 

Mitchell Silverman 

Mitchell Udell 

Rabbi Mordechai E. Liebling 

Rabbi Nancy Wiener 

Rabbi Nancy F. Fuchs Kreimer 

Nancy Sherman 

Nathan Cogan 

Norbert Goldfield 

Paul Fitzpatrick 

Rabbi Paul J. Golomb 

Paula M. Jacobs 

Peter R. Olson 

Rabbi Peter Rigler 

Rabbi Peter S. Berg 

Rachel Evnine 

Richard Rosen 

Richard Soble 

Rabbi Richard S. Ugelow 

Robert B. Lifton 

Robert Factor 

Rabbi Robert H. Loewy 

Robert J. Schloss 

Rabbi Robert M. Dobrusin 

Rabbi Rosalind A. Gold 

Professors Ruth Anna and Hilary 

Putnam 

Rabbi Ruth H. Sohn 

Ruth L. Kraut 

Rabbi Ruth Zlotnick 

Sabina Harris 

Samuel Fleischacker 

Rabbi Samuel Gordon 

Samuel H. Neff 

Sander Mendelson 

Sandra C. Savett 

Rabbi Sara O’Donnell Adler 

Rabbi Sheldon J. Lewis 

Rabbi Sidney Schwarz 

Stefan F. Tucker 

Stephen O. Lesser 

Sterling Clarren 

Steven M. Cohen 

Steven Marcus 

Susan Swartz 

Rabbi Suzanne Griffel 

Rabbi Suzanne Singer 

Temple Israel, Minneapolis, MN 

Rabbi Terry Bookman 

Rabbi Toba E. Spitzer 

Todd Chanko 

Tom Schwab 

Rabbi Wendi Geffen 

Rabbi Yocheved Mintz 

Rabbi Yoel H. Kahn 

Victor A. Kovner 

Victor Honig 

William O. Sweeney 

Yossi Zaira 



Board: Chairperson: Rabbi Barry Leff; Treasurer: Rabbi Ma’ayan Turner; Steering Committee: Rabbis Yehoyada Amir, Yonatan 

Chipman, Yehoshua Engelman, Shaul Feinberg, Miri Gold, Amy Klein, Michael Klein-Katz, Uri Regev, Galia Sadan, Ofer 

Shabbat-Bet Halachmi, Susan Silverman, Anita Steiner, Levi Weiman-Kelman, Zvi Weinberg, Moshe Yehudai. Student 

Representative: Josh Weinberg 

Staff: Executive Director: Ayala Levy President and Senior Rabbi and Special Projects: Rabbi Arik W. Ascherman; Special 

Projects Assistant: Rabbi Kobi Weiss; Educational Department Director: Rabbi Nava Hefetz; Educational Assistant: Debi 

Shoua-Haim; Economic Justice Department Director: Rabbi Idit Lev; Rights Center in Hadera: Adv. Becky Keshet, Aisha 

Sidawi, Rabbi Sigal Asher; Lobbyist: Nitzan Tenami; Legal Department Director: Adv. Quamar Mishirqi-Asaad; Lawyers: 

Avital Sharon, Keren Knafo, Miya Keren; Legal Assistant: Muhammad Abu-Sneineh; Legal Advisor: Adv. Netta Amar; Field 

Coordinator: Guy Butavia; Legal Secretary: Tiferet Kedmi; Occupied Territories Department Director: Rabbi Yehiel Grenimann 

Field Researcher: Zacharia Sadeh; Occupied Territories Assistant: Jonathan Shefa, Director of Resource Development: Ela 

Greenberg; Grants Director: Adena Ben-Reuven Spokesperson: Yariv Mohar; New Media Director: Mati Shemoelof; Office 

Secretary: Rivka Shochat 

Visiting Israel/Palestine: If you are organizing a group tour to Israel/Palestine or traveling on your own, Rabbis for Human 

Rights would be happy to meet with you! If you are bringing a group to Israel/Palestine, please contact info@rhr.israel.net to 

arrange for a staff or board member to meet your tour group while you are here. In addition to meeting with your group, we 

also offer tours of East Jerusalem to learn about human rights issues and the Separation Wall; South Tel Aviv to learn about 

African refugees in Israel; to the unrecognized Bedouin villages in the Negev, and to South Hebron Hills, where Palestinian 

villages are being threatened by displacement 

Graphic Design: Rachel Ramon-Nofech [racheli.nf@gmail.com] 

YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE! HELP US CONTINUE AND EXPAND OUR WORK! 

Online: We are pleased to accept online donations in U.S. dollars, Euros, pound sterling, and Israeli shekels, made possible 

through our partnership with Israel Gives, an Israeli non-profit organization committed to furthering Israeli philanthropy. 

Israel Gives has partnered with American Support for Israel, Inc., an American 501(c)(3) public charity, and UK Toremet in 

the UK, so that donations from the U.S. and U.K. are tax deductible. 

To make an online donation, go to https://israelgives.org/custom/rhr/cart 

By check: We accept U.S. tax-deductible donations through American Support for Israel, a 501(c)(3) public charity that 

encourages philanthropy to Israel. 

Please make the donation out to “American Support for Israel” and write: 

“Rabbis for Human Rights, ID # 580151967” in the “For” or “Memo” column of the check. 

You are also invited to attach a letter to your contribution in which you indicate the organization you recommend the 

donation be used for. 

Please mail your contribution to: 

American Support for Israel 

PO Box 3263 

Washington, DC 20010 

We accept U.S. tax-deductible donations through the New Israel Fund. 

Checks (minimum $100), made out to the New Israel Fund, and marked as “donor advised to Rabbis for Human Rights” 

in the memo line, may be sent to: 

New Israel Fund 

2100 M Street NW 

Suite 619 

Washington DC 20037 

Please let us know that you sent a donation to us via American Support for Israel or via the New Israel Fund by sending 

an email to Adena Ben-Reuven, Grants Director, at adena@rhr.israel.net 

Direct deposits in any currency: 

Bank HaPoalim| Branch 782| 38 Aza St. | Jerusalem, 92384, ISRAEL| Account No. 153380 

Please let us know if you have made a direct deposit: adena@rhr.israel.net | +972-2-648 2757 

Canadian Donors: 

Please contact us directly about tax-deductible donations: ela@rhr.israel.net 

Please note: After many years of fruitful partnership since RHR helped create RHR-North America in 2002, our organizations 

announced on January 15th, 2013 that RHR-NA was changing its name to T’ruah, and will no longer be receiving donations 

on behalf of RHR. We wish T’ruah well in its work. 

RHR contact details: www.rhr.org.co.il 

9 Harechavim St. Jerusalem Israel 93462 Tel. 972-2-648-2757 info@rhr.israel.net

Rabbis For Human Rights: The Annual Report 2012-2013

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