Ethical debates should be wary of straying into politics - The Jewish Chronicle
There has been quite a lot of thinking recently in the "mainstream" Jewish community about the war in Israel and religious ethics. TheJewish Ethics Projectis an initiative set up by members of Orthodox. . .
There has been quite a lot of thinking recently in the "mainstream" Jewish community about the war in Israel and religious ethics. TheJewish Ethics Projectis an initiative set up by members of Orthodox synagogues in North London and others, among them Daniel Greenberg, the parliamentary commissioner for standards. Although interested in a broad range of ethical issues, a glance at its online resources indicates a healthy preoccupation with the ethics of the Gaza war, with some articles by rabbis drawing on their perspectives on the Torah’s guidance to critique Israeli government policy and conduct in the war. AnOrthodox Jewish conferencein North London last month co-sponsored by the JEP also considered Torah perspectives on, among other issues, tensions between war and the exercise of power. Of course, Israel has for a long-time mixed-up religion and politics, particularly due to the rabbinical sponsorship of Charedi political parties such as Shas and United Torah Judaism. However, it is not at all self-evident that this is a good idea for a democracy. In the UK, political commentary by the rabbinate has, with the notable (and in my view right-thinking) intervention of the Chief Rabbi against Jeremy Corbyn in the 2019 general election campaign, avoided getting involved in party politics. The Chief Rabbi’s intervention was shocking due to its unprecedented nature, and certainly the rabbinate has largely (with some exceptions) steered clear of pronouncements about Israeli government policy. To get more from judaism,click hereto sign up for our freedaily newsletter.