New Generation of Jewish Sect Takes Up Struggle to Protect Place in Modern Israel
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Version 0 of 1. RAMLA, Israel — The men and boys offered their prayers in a full-throated chant, raising their arms in supplication and prostrating themselves, barefoot, on the plush red carpet lining the synagogue floor. Many of the women did the same in a balcony above. Outside in the yard, Shuki Cohen, the local butcher, was barbecuing mounds of chicken skewers and aromatic lamb kebabs for a communal feast at long tables laid out in the adjacent hall. At the headquarters of Karaite Judaism in this city southeast of Tel Aviv, the recent festivities were in full swing for the new moon and what the movement’s calender says is the start of the Hebrew month of Elul. The problem, according to Israel’s official Hebrew calendar, is the celebration was two nights late. That means that while most Israelis began celebrating Rosh Hashana at sundown on Wednesday, Karaite Jews are not set to start the Jewish New Year until Saturday — another example of the challenge this ancient sect has in holding on to its traditions in a state where Judaism is dominated by the Orthodox. For the Karaites, who split from rabbinical Judaism more than 1,000 years ago, being a couple of days out of sync is a mark of otherness. While most Israelis know little about them, other than to say that they pray “like Muslims,” the Karaites say that the Orthodox authorities — their centuries-old nemesis — have tried to wear them down in an effort to subsume them into the rabbinical mainstream. But a new generation of Karaite leaders has taken up the struggle to anchor their place in modern Israel. “I see a community determined to preserve its customs, as opposed to other communities,” said Neria Haroeh, 30, a lawyer who is the president of the Karaite community. “We have a long history of loyalty to our tradition, and we don’t want to change it.” He added, “We see the Rabbinates as the ones who diverted the Jews from the right path,” referring to the rabbinical Jews in charge of the state’s religious bodies, like the chief rabbinate. The Karaites derive their laws from the written scriptures of the Hebrew Bible, rejecting the binding nature of the oral law of the Talmud, the rabbinical interpretations that came later and guide mainstream Judaism. The schism is said to have originated among the Jews of Baghdad about 1,200 years ago. Some trace the origins further back to the early sects of the Second Temple period, like the Sadducees. The Karaites and Orthodox disagree on many issues, including what holidays to celebrate. Karaite women also have a more equal status than in rabbinical Orthodoxy. Like Reform and Conservative Jews, Karaites do not adhere to the strictly Orthodox prohibition against hearing a woman sing. Karaite couples both sign a religious marriage contract, and a woman can be granted a divorce even against her husband’s will. But as opposed to the advent of the more egalitarian Reform and Conservative strains popular with American Jews, Mr. Haroeh said, “We were always like that.” The number of Karaite Jews in Israel is hard to gauge because no census has been held. The Karaites say it is forbidden to count Jews, citing a verse from Genesis 32: “I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.” Generally, though, the community is estimated at 30,000 to 50,000, out of Israel’s population of eight million. There are also smaller communities in the United States, Turkey and Europe. Most came to Israel from Egypt in three waves starting in 1948, when the state was founded, and 1970. Many live in Ramla or the Mediterranean port city of Ashdod. Others are in smaller concentrations around the country. The community is undergoing a revival. Dozens of Karaite children attended a summer camp here in August. Eli Eltachan, the deputy chairman of the community and a manager at Ericsson, said that the young, educated professionals now in leadership roles had brought “a new spirit.” Shoshanna Eliahu, from the town of Rehovot, was attending the Elul feast. She was born in 1956 as her parents made their way from Egypt to Israel. Her son, Elior, 18, with a diamond stud in his ear, had come for a blessing from the rabbi because he was soon to be drafted into the military. The deputy rabbi of Ramla, Maor Dabbah, 25, gave a sermon on the importance of happiness. Sporting a fashionable buzz cut, he urged people to buy a newly published illustrated collection of songs and blessings for the family, which includes a disc by the Karaite choir. But amid this new energy, some rabbis have questioned the Jewishness of the Karaites. In Karaite Judaism there is no Hanukkah, because that festival is not mentioned in the Bible. The Hebrew months go strictly according to the lunar cycle and cannot be altered, as in rabbinical Judaism, for the sake of convenience. Karaite dietary laws differ from those of the mainstream, and while the matriarchal line of descent usually determines who is a Jew, the Karaite line is patriarchal. “It is written in the Torah that Abraham begat Isaac,” said Ovadiah Murad, the rabbi of the ancient Karaite synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem. The Karaites run their own religious court and perform their own marriages and divorces, which are registered at the Interior Ministry. The community receives a state budget and employs its own rabbis, ritual slaughterers and providers of other services like burial. But because the community’s status has never been formalized in Israeli law, it remains vulnerable. Two years ago inspectors from the chief rabbinate visited Mr. Cohen’s butcher shop and fined him for displaying a sign declaring his meat “kosher.” They said it was misleading, even though the sign specified that the store was under Karaite supervision. The community took the case to the Ramla Magistrates Court and won. The judge said that fining the store would have constituted an abrupt change in policy. More recently, when the chief rabbinate stopped issuing documents that Karaite couples needed to confirm their marriages and divorces abroad, the community petitioned the Supreme Court. Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan, the deputy minister of religious services, said in an interview that the issue of marriage documents had since been resolved but that recognizing Karaite divorces was more complicated. Legal recognition as a separate religious community, he said, is problematic. “They say they are Jews, and according to our religious law they are Jews,” he said. “But they cannot be special Jews.” David Yefet Yerushalmi, 58, a Karaite who retired from a military career and lives in the village of Mazliach, near Ramla, said the rabbinical authorities could never fully sanction Karaite Judaism. “That,” he said, “would mean they were wrong.” |