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Street fights over prayer offer liberal Israelis a chance to define a Judaism they can believe in
(JTA) — Israeli, observant Jews living in the United States, and especially here on the West Coast, are aware of the time difference between them and Israel at the beginnings and endings of holidays. While Israel celebrates — or commemorates — meaningful days, I’m behind, still preparing. So unlike my family and friends in Israel who observe Yom Kippur and found out only after their sundown what transpired on Monday in Tel Aviv, I read reports and watched videos of the clash between secular and religious Jews in Dizengoff Square as it unfolded.
Feeling both devastated by the ruining of Yom Kippur prayers and angry at the provocation and manipulation by those who organized the Tel Aviv services, I entered Judaism’s holiest day with a heavy heart and teary eyes.
And yet, in the days since, I also found some reason for hope that this painful moment was a watershed in Israel’s path, in which secular Israeli liberals may claim Judaism on their own terms, despite a religious establishment that sees Orthodoxy as its only legitimate expression.
In brief, Rosh Yehudi (translated “Jewish head”), an organization whose goal is to spread Orthodox Judaism in secular Israel, received approval from the Tel Aviv municipality to conduct Yom Kippur services in Dizengoff Square. These services have been taking place since the early days of the pandemic, and many people — observant and secular alike — attend them. This year the municipality approved the services so long as they would not include a mechitza, a physical divider separating men and women, a decision that the courts supported. The context of the city’s decision was the ongoing assault by the government and its followers (in the name of religion) on the core values of Israeli liberals — specifically gender equality.
Rosh Yehudi declared it would abide by this condition and many people who just wanted to pray came to its services. Yet right after Yom Kippur started, religious activists — supported by the police on site — created a makeshift divider out of Israeli flags. In response, secular protesters, many of them affiliated with the mass movement to protest the government’s efforts to weaken Israel’s judiciary, interrupted the services by whistling, chanting “Shame!” and removing the makeshift divider, ultimately stopping the services. Similar protests of public Orthodox Yom Kippur services took place at other sites throughout Tel Aviv and other predominantly secular cities within Israel.
For decades, Yom Kippur in Israel has been a unique day. Despite a lack of laws regulating the day, no cars are seen on the roads. Praying, biking, walking and talking, observant and secular Jews mix in the streets and synagogues across Israel. But the events of the last nine months in Israel destroyed that fragile harmony.
Israel is once again caught in a war of narratives. Is it a story of Orthodox activists defying the court’s decision and intentionally causing provocation, forcing gender segregation in the bastion of Israeli secularism? Or is it a story about how Israeli liberals, protesters and the left hate religion and religious Jews?
Setting aside the blame game, the events of Yom Kippur raise two sets of questions for Israel’s future. The first is the nature of the Israeli public square as it relates to Israel’s Jewish character. What should be the boundaries of tolerance to illiberal practices such as gender separation when they are a part of a religious practice? Was the city right to limit the traditional form of Orthodox prayer due to the public nature of the space? Were the protesters wrong in not respecting this tradition? Should attempts at the religionization of the public sphere and political climate be ignored or taken into consideration?
The more profound question — and the one that is much harder to answer — revolves around the nature of Judaism itself. Who claims what in the name of Judaism will have lasting repercussions for the future of Israel long after the particulars of this year’s Yom Kippur are forgotten? And to that end, I want to suggest that a possible change is afoot in how secular Israeli liberals see Judaism.
For decades, Israel has been caught in a social dichotomy: right-wingers are seen as conservative and religious or traditional, whereas left-wingers are seen as liberal and secular. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu embraced this dichotomy as early as 1997 when he claimed that the Israeli left “had forgotten what it means to be Jewish.” He doubled down on this view at the end of Yom Kippur this year when he stated, “The leftists had rioted against Jews.”
This dichotomy is also promoted by the Israeli left. About a week ago, former Meretz leader Zehava Galon shared the following post on X: “The problem with Israeli society is the assumption that there is wisdom in Judaism even though it is a manifest of Orthodox Jewish men who weren’t particularly smart. It’s time for us to realize that … their cart is full of inciting and dangerous nonsense, and it’s time we left it on the side of the road.” Galon represents the view of many in the Israeli liberal camp today who say they are ready to abandon Judaism, which they equate with Orthodoxy interpreted in the most extreme way.
Indeed, for decades haredi and Religious Zionist rabbis and politicians in Israel have sought to dictate only one option for Judaism: an uncompromising religious Orthodoxy. This conception profoundly contradicts the values of Israeli liberals, and therefore many like Galon say they reject Judaism in any form. But in doing this, Israeli liberals also allow the most extreme elements within Israeli Judaism to deepen their grip and shape Judaism as they see fit.
As a result, secular Israeli liberals reduce themselves to a marginalized minority within Israeli society, the majority of whose members seek a connection to tradition and Judaism and distance themselves from values that run counter to it. Surveys show that only a minority of the general Israeli public supports the protesters’ actions on Yom Kippur, regardless of the motivations or provocations of the services’ organizers. If faced with an either/or choice between a discriminatory version of Judaism and universalist liberalism, the Israeli majority will choose the former.
For a long time, only a minority of Israelis actively worked against this dichotomy. Liberal Religious Zionist, Conservative and Reform Jews, as well as Jewish Renewal activists, mostly stood alone in trying to create and defend a liberal Israeli Judaism. But in the aftermath of Yom Kippur, this might be changing.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid shared on X that his neighbor didn’t fast on Yom Kippur for the first time in 30 years to spite the other camp. His response was telling: “You lost. You gave them ownership of your Judaism.” He went on to offer the following observation:
We don’t have anything to prove. And we don’t need anyone’s approval that we are good Jews. We have our own version, no less whole. The version that says that we chose to live in this country because we have roots here. That the Bible is our book, that the Hebrew of Ezekiel and Isaiah is the language of our dreams, that we are part of a community that has memories and commitments. We are the flag bearers of a Judaism that is not messianic, not racist, not arrogant and not violent.
Unlike Galon’s view that implicitly rejects all Judaisms because of how Orthodox Judaism is interpreted today by the government and its followers, Lapid offers an alternative vision by laying claim to a more expansive version of Judaism, whether based on beliefs, culture and/or a shared history.
A nascent but growing chorus of voices in Israel is creating just such an alternative. At nearby HaBima Square in Tel Aviv, a Conservative, egalitarian service took place at the end of Yom Kippur. The Neilah prayer that closes Yom Kippur started with 20 participants and ended with 300. Secular neighborhoods in northern Tel Aviv have plans to build a public secular sukkah and conduct egalitarian Hakafot (dancing with the Torah) on Simchat Torah. And as a response to Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s ultimately abandoned plans for a prayer/provocation on Dizengoff Square, the protest movement offered public, egalitarian prayer on HaBima Square Thursday night, which hundreds attended.
Two days after Yom Kippur, Magi Otsri, a writer and legal scholar and one of the protest movement’s leading online figures, posted a short video that went viral. In it, Otsri notes that Israeli Orthodoxy’s unwillingness to change the halacha of separating men and women during prayer is based on sexist, power-based notions of women created by men. She asserts that in the past biblical rules were easily changed when it suited religious decision-makers. What’s fascinating is that the secular, Tel Aviv-based Otsri uses arguments that were until now only employed by people internal to Orthodoxy (such as religious feminists). Referring to religious mechanisms for bypassing the prohibition on making loans with interest and the religious rules of war, Otsri is not making her argument on strictly liberal grounds but employing the language of Judaism.
Today, more than ever, Israeli liberals are at a crossroads. In the past nine months, they have articulated a Zionism they have embraced and claimed as their own. Will they leave Judaism behind, or will they claim it too?
Given the rate of shocking events in Israel, discerning social trends in Israel from afar can be overwhelming. But amid the conflicting narratives and deafening discourse, I want to encourage those who care about Israel to listen for and encourage the softer and more subtle sounds of Judaism in the words and deeds of Israeli liberals.
The events on Yom Kippur might lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy of a religious war, where Israeli Judaism will be lost to the hands of religious extremists and Israeli liberalism will disconnect entirely from Judaism. Such an outcome is desired by some in both the Orthodox and liberal camps, not to mention the government. But this is not a foregone conclusion, as the words and deeds of Israeli liberals after Yom Kippur reveal. There is an alternative: a more humanistic and pluralist vision of Judaism that Israeli liberals ought to embrace and nurture if they want to win over Israeli society to their vision of the future.
In Jewish tradition, the High Holidays are days of judgment for the past year and a time for resolutions for the coming year. According to tradition, divine judgment starts on Rosh Hashanah, but the verdict is only submitted for enforcement on the last day of Sukkot, or Hoshana Rabbah — to give people every last chance to set a new course.
The events on Yom Kippur were undoubtedly heartbreaking, but we are still only halfway through the High Holidays. There is no better time in the Jewish calendar for Israeli liberals to change the trajectory of Israeli Judaism. As a member of the protest movement posted the day after Yom Kippur, “The protest movement should do for Judaism what it did for the flag. Embrace [it]. Hard.” Instead of blaming the people or groups responsible for the old dichotomy, we just might be witnessing Israeli liberals taking responsibility for a Judaism they believe in.
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Russia, China Maintain Cautious Diplomacy Amid Israel-Iran Conflict, Despite Deepening Ties With Tehran
Smoke billows following missile attack from Iran on Israel, at Tel Aviv, Israel, June 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Gideon Markowicz ISRAEL
Despite deepening their ties with Iran, Russia and China have held back from concrete action amid Israel’s recent attacks, choosing cautious diplomacy over direct support for their supposed partner.
Last week, Israel launched a broad preemptive attack on Iran, targeting military installations and nuclear sites across the country in what officials described as an effort to neutralize an imminent nuclear threat, as nuclear negotiations between the United States and Tehran appear on the brink of collapse.
The Israeli strike killed several of Iran’s top military commanders and dealt a major blow to the country’s retaliatory capabilities by destroying not only much of its ballistic missile stockpiles but also crippling its launch platforms.
According to Janatan Sayeh, a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a Washington, DC-based think tank, Israel’s air superiority, combined with the element of surprise and Iran’s weakened air defenses, has left the Islamic regime incapable of sustaining its nightly missile attacks.
Tehran’s “only path to narrowing the battlefield gap lies in external military support,” Sayeh told The Algemeiner. “Yet Moscow, having previously depended on Iranian drones and missiles for its war in Ukraine, is unlikely to offer more than diplomatic backing.”
“That leaves China — a longtime economic lifeline for Tehran through illicit oil purchases — as the regime’s only potential partner in rebuilding its military infrastructure,” he continued.
So far, as the conflict between Israel and Iran continues to escalate, Beijing and Moscow have offered their so-called ally little more than public condemnation of the Israeli military campaign and formal offers to mediate the conflict.
“China is highly concerned about Israel’s attacks on Iran and deeply worried about the potential serious consequences of these actions,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said in a statement.
“China opposes any violation of Iran’s sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity, and opposes actions that escalate tensions and expand the conflict,” he continued.
The Chinese diplomat also urged both Middle Eastern adversaries to take greater action in promoting regional peace and stability and to avoid further escalating hostilities.
“China is willing to play a constructive role in helping to de-escalate the situation,” Jian said.
According to Jack Burnham, a research analyst at FDD, China’s capacity to offer Tehran support beyond diplomatic channels is limited by the country’s inability to effectively manage rapidly evolving crises.
“Having built the foundations of Iran’s missile program, Beijing can now only watch as it goes up in flames — incapable of projecting power on a scale that could tip the balance of power and wary of committing resources during a period of heightened tensions in its own region,” Burnham told The Algemeiner.
As China seeks to establish itself as a key power in the Middle East and counter Western influence, Beijing sees this conflict as an opportunity to position itself as a peace broker and leverage its partnership with Iran.
China, a key diplomatic and economic backer of Tehran, has moved to deepen ties in recent years — signing a 25-year cooperation agreement, holding joint naval drills, and continuing to purchase Iranian oil despite US sanctions.
Amid US-Iran nuclear talks, Chinese officials have consistently opposed Washington’s sanctions on Tehran and defended the country’s right to enrich uranium.
For its part, Russia also proposed on Monday to mediate the conflict between Israel and Iran, while reiterating that its earlier offer to store Iranian uranium on Russian soil still stands.
According to the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian to discuss the ongoing conflict.
During the conversations, he emphasized “the importance of resuming the negotiations and resolving any issues pertaining to Iran’s nuclear program exclusively via political and diplomatic means.”
After US President Donald Trump suggested that Putin could play a role in mediating efforts between Iran and Israel, the European Union rejected the idea, saying that Russia has “zero credibility” as a potential mediator between the two adversaries.
“There has been a recent Russia-Iran partnership agreement, which signals deepening cooperation across multiple areas, including foreign policy and defense. In light of such, Russia cannot be an objective mediator,” EU spokesman Anouar El Anouni said in a statement.
Similar to China, Russia has expanded its ties with Iran to counter Western influence in the Middle East and mitigate the impact of US sanctions. For example, Russia pledged earlier this year to fund the construction of new nuclear power plants in Iran as part of a broader energy partnership that also includes a major gas deal between the two countries.
The post Russia, China Maintain Cautious Diplomacy Amid Israel-Iran Conflict, Despite Deepening Ties With Tehran first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel to Launch Rescue Flights for Nationals Stranded Abroad Amid Iran War, Over 60,000 Register Immediately
El Al planes are seen on the tarmac at Ben-Gurion International airport, near Tel Aviv, Israel, March 10, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Ronen Zvulun.
Israel will begin by Thursday operating a limited number of one-way flights to Tel Aviv to bring home the tens of thousands of Israelis stranded abroad since the outbreak of the conflict with Iran last week.
Israel’s national airline El Al opened an online registration for flights for the more than 100,000 citizens who have been stuck abroad since the Jewish state closed its airspace to civilian traffic early Friday morning, when hostilities erupted. Within less than two hours of opening the online form, more than 60,000 stranded passengers registered on the airline’s site despite the ongoing conflict, according to El Al.
“At this time, El Al is formulating the list of destinations and the scope of flights that will be allowed to operate under this plan,” the airline said. “The purpose of the registration is to map the location of our customers in the world, and accordingly build a flight schedule.”
On Friday morning around 3 am, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched Operation Rising Lion, a multifaceted campaign involving airstrikes, covert sabotage by Mossad, and other operations targeting Iran’s missile infrastructure, nuclear facilities, and military officials. Israel launched the operation with the goal of dismantling Iran’s nuclear capabilities, which Israeli officials have declared an existential crisis.
Israel has continued its military campaign since then, striking nuclear and military targets.
Iran has responded each night with barrages of ballistic missiles, largely targeting large civilian centers. Most of the projectiles have been intercepted by Israel’s missile defense system.
Despite enduring continuous barrages of Iranian strikes, the effort of tens of thousands of Israelis to return home suggests an effort to stand in solidarity with their families and homeland amid growing national uncertainty but a deepening sense of collective resolve. In highly populated areas like Tel Aviv and Haifa, residents have been observed resuming regular outdoor activities during the day, seemingly trying to maintain a sense of normalcy.
Conversely, Iran has seen a mass exodus of civilians from Tehran following Israeli strikes on key military and nuclear sites. Faced with widespread panic, power outages, and fears of further attacks, over 100,000 Iranians have reportedly fled the capital. The government’s attempt to downplay the situation with censorship and public reassurances has appeared to do little to stem the public’s anxiety.
Observers have noted that Tehran, the Iranian capital, is not equipped with modern bomb shelters, leaving residents to shelter in existing infrastructure such as underground tunnels, building basements, and metro tunnels.
The post Israel to Launch Rescue Flights for Nationals Stranded Abroad Amid Iran War, Over 60,000 Register Immediately first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jewish West Virginia Student Targeted by Dining Hall Employee Over Pro-Israel Views
Illustrative: Pro-Hamas activists gather in Washington Square Park for a rally following a protest march held in response to an NYPD sweep of an anti-Israel encampment at New York University in Manhattan, May 3, 2024. Photo: Matthew Rodier/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) on Monday implored West Virginia University (WVU) to lift a no-contact order imposed on a Jewish pro-Israel student following a bizarre series of events in which he was reported for promoting pro-Israel speech on campus, The Algemeiner has learned.
According to a letter sent by the nonprofit organization, WVU freshmen Eliyahu Itkowitz was distributing copies of attorney Alan Dershowitz’s book The Ten Big Anti-Israel Lies: And How to Refute Them With Truth during the final weeks of fall semester when he was approached by dining hall employee Hannah Harper — who, as uncovered by an Algemeiner investigation, is a white female who recently converted to Islam. Itkowitz offered Harper a copy of the book. She accepted it.
However, Harper, who had been made aware of Itkowitz’s Jewish identity and support for Zionism through her dealings with the campus’ Muslim Students Association (MSA), apparently had ulterior motives for accepting the book. Following the interaction, she delivered the copy of Dershowitz’s book to the university’s Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DDEI) and with it a complaint alleging that the student had handed her an “anti-Muslim book” as a discriminatory act. Itkowitz has denied that he meant Harper any harm.
Harper continued her pursuit of Itkowitz weeks later in the main dining hall after he had returned to school for spring term. Having caught sight of him, she falsely told her manager, Brad Dobson, that the student had been banned from eating there due to the complaint she had filed. The unsuspecting manager accosted the student and demanded that he take lunch somewhere else. Itkowitz refused, choosing instead to record the incident with this smartphone while Harper escalated the situation by calling the police.
“The university launched an investigation, despite the fact that even if all of her allegations against Eli were true, and there is evidence to suggest that they aren’t, all of the described actions constitute protected speech under the First Amendment,” Jessie Appleby, FIRE program counsel for campus advocacy, told The Algemeiner on Monday during an interview. She added that school officials ultimately determined that Harper’s allegations did not merit punishing Itkowitz. However, they did so after an invasive investigation and handing down a no-contact directive, which carries inculpatory implications, ordering Itkowitz to avoid all contact with Harper
The measure should be lifted, Appleby said.
“Because the investigation itself threatened discipline, it chilled free speech. It lasted five months, exhaustive interviews, and the no-contact order even though it never found him guilty of misconduct. Eli should not feel threatened that exercising free speech will incur disciplinary sanctions,” she continued. “One issue with schools investigating complaints investigating protected speech is that it allows students to use the complaint process to cudgel those with whom they disagree into silence, and we’ve seen a lot of that at West Virginia University.”
The case of Itkowitz is not the first time FIRE discovered that a university allegedly incriminated pro-Israel students for expressing their support for Zionism.
In 2023, it partnered with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to publicize a Princeton University incident in which Alexandra Orbuch, a writer for conservative publication The Princeton Tory, was assaulted by a male member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) while filming a protest the group held on campus. The man allegedly followed Orbuch to obstruct her efforts, eventually stepping on her foot and pushing her. When Orbuch complained to a nearby public safety officer, the officer told her that she, not her attacker, had “incited something.”
Despite the gendered nature of the assault — an issue Princeton has dedicated an entire office to dealing with — the university granted the male student a no-contact order against Orbuch, explaining that any reporting she published which alluded to him would be considered a violation of the order and result in disciplinary charges. A similar incident occurred in 2022, when Tory reporter Danielle Shapiro attempted to report on the Princeton Committee on Palestine. After being notified of the order, Shapiro was told refer to a “Sexual Misconduct & Title IX” webpage, according to a guest column she wrote in the Wall Street Journal.
Princeton University later banned the practice of placing no-contact orders on conservative and pro-Israel students. In Monday’s letter, FIRE called on West Virginia University to do the same.
“WVU has a responsibility to prevent discriminatory harassment, but in doing so it must not sacrifice its constitutional obligation to protect free speech,” the group said. “An investigation and no-contact order based on protected expression is likely to chill student speech — even when, like here, the process ultimately concludes in favor of the speaker — because such a process implicitly threatens punishment for that speech.”
The Algemeiner has reached out to WVU for comment.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Jewish West Virginia Student Targeted by Dining Hall Employee Over Pro-Israel Views first appeared on Algemeiner.com.