Rabbis For Human Rights: The Annual Report 2012-2013

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
Portrait of one of our young rabbis/rabbinical students:
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.
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