Q&A: Separation of Religion and State
Separation of Religion and State
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I’ve seen in quite a few of the lectures and interviews conducted with you that you support separating religion from the state (including shutting down the Chief Rabbinate, etc.), and I wanted to ask: does such a scenario of separating religion and state necessarily mean that the State of Israel would no longer have a Jewish character, and in practice would no longer be a Jewish state at all? Or is there really no connection between those two issues?
In addition, I wanted to ask whether in your opinion there is a contradiction in the fact that the state is defined as a Jewish and democratic state (that is, whether these concepts in themselves contradict one another), and whether the State of Israel ought to have a Jewish character?
Answer
The question is what you mean by a Jewish state. Judaism, and the closeness of the state’s residents to it, would only benefit from separation.
Discussion on Answer
Indeed, the American separation is constructed in an absurd way. But it is possible to teach these things without preaching them, and to present the different views about them. On the philosophical level, there is no way to define this clearly. Isn’t education for tolerance also an ideology?
A. The proposal to teach things without preaching them is not practically workable. Most people have difficulty presenting two views equally when they themselves are clearly on one side, especially on ideologically charged issues.
B. Most people also do not agree to have their children taught different views equally when they themselves hold a firm position on the matter. Supporters of science do not agree to have “unscientific” theories taught (like the creation story), even as an option, and religious people do not agree to have heretical theories taught.
Education for tolerance is indeed an ideology, and as such there are many disputes about when and how it should be applied. We are discussing that too.
Beyond education, separation of religion and state is relevant to setting public policy. You can’t set policy without some worldview behind it, and there are countless disagreements about that. So how exactly do we separate ideology from policy?
I’ve been wrestling with this question for a long time. On the one hand, logic says that religion should be separated from the state, both for the good of the state and for the good of religion. Some say this separation is one of the main reasons for the continuity of religion in the U.S. more than in Europe.
On the other hand, it’s not clear to me how this concept is possible, not only in Israel but anywhere. Since the principle of separating religion is relevant to every ideology as such, because no one wants an ideology of any kind forced on him, not only a religious one, it follows that you can’t mix any ideology into public policy and public institutions—which is obviously not practical.
(You can see this built-in contradiction in the American education system, where it is forbidden to teach Christianity but mandatory to teach progressive ideas under the guise of gender education and African-American history, even though both are matters of broad public controversy.)
In Israel there is another problem: the very definition of who is a Jew for the purpose of the Law of Return is a thoroughly religious matter. But perhaps this issue alone can be made an exception to the general separation.
What do you think?