When Religious Freedom becomes Religious Tyranny

Posted by Jewish Israel

In its annual International Religious Freedoms Report on Israel and the “Occupied Territories”, The U.S. State Department accused Israel of “governmental and legal discrimination against non-Jews and non-Orthodox streams of Judaism”.

A disproportionate amount of the report is dedicated to depicting Torah traditions and Orthodox Judaism as oppressive, and to reporting on Israel’s “growing” but “harassed” community of apostate Jews and Christian missionaries.

The report cited that, “government allocations of state resources favored Orthodox (including Modern and National Religious streams of Orthodoxy) and ultra-Orthodox (sometimes referred to as "Haredi") Jewish religious groups and institutions, discriminating against non-Jews and non-Orthodox streams of Judaism.”

The State Department was hypercritical of everything from Shabbat observance to Jewish marriage counseling, divorce law, and burial rights in Israel. Jewish Israel wonders if censuring circumcision is next?

The report clearly bears the biased mark of Calev Myers, the Orthodox-bashing evangelical attorney from the Jerusalem Institute of Justice (JIJ). Indeed JIJ is cited in an especially lengthy rant on behalf of “messianic Jews” and against the counter-missionary organization Yad L’Achim.

Jewish Israel wonders if the State Department has nothing better to do than issue a protracted denunciation against Israel’s Jewish character. We’ve highlighted several pertinent points of interest and insanity from the report. So if you’re Goldstone-fatigued, and in need of a change in your choice of poison, read how Israel’s number one ally and friend brandishes their right to discredit the Jewish state and Jewish tradition in the name of religious freedom. Read our full take on the report at Jewish Israel

Also, later today, as a follow-up to our report on the halachic ruling against taking funds from Yechiel Eckstein's IFCJ, Jewish Israel will begin to post a list of those organizations who have written to us declaring that they do not solicit or take funds from IFCJ or Evangelical organizations.