Rabbis For Human Rights: The Annual Report 2012-2013

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.
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