Rabbi gives lesson on democracy, Israeli-style

Rabbi Benjamin Segal used a clever gambit to illustrate the sclerotic nature of the Israeli political system.

Speaking Sunday, March 18 at San Francisco's Congregation Sherith Israel, the president of the Melitz Centers for Jewish-Zionist Education in Jerusalem demonstrated how Israeli democracy works — and made his audience unwitting participants in the performance.

Using a large chalkboard, Segal used adhesive strips containing the names of Israeli political parties, such as Likkud, Meretz and Shas, and arranged them according to a spectrum of issues, including security, religious character and the economy.

No sooner had he placed the first strip down, than a crescendo of comments engulfed the room.

"You placed Likkud too far to the right. They are much more moderate these days."

"No, they are extremists. They belong on the far right."

"The strips are too small to represent the number of people in Likkud."

"The colors are all wrong."

It took Segal nearly a half-hour to conclude his exercise, which neatly underscored his point: Israeli democracy is the product of many different parties that rarely reach a consensus. And that, according to Segal, is ultimately a good thing.

There is, for example, the status of minority rights in Israel, a situation Segal termed "woefully inadequate." How to ameliorate that situation, however, is even more problematic.

Segal attempted to tackle the issue by addressing "individual" rights versus "group rights." For example, noting that Arabs constitute 20 percent of the Israeli population, Segal said that they must be given the full benefits of citizenship, including voting rights. Conversely, he offered that fellowships for the arts, for example, shouldn't be cleaved at a precise 80/20 split merely because those numbers reflected the population.

"Israel is a Jewish state, and its essential character is Jewish," he said. "I think that government policy should reflect that."

His talk was on contemporary issues in Israel was co-sponsored the Israel Center of San Francisco and the San Francisco Jewish Community Federation.

Besides looking at minority rights in Israel, Segal took umbrage with those who would consider a Jewish democratic state to be an oxymoron. "It is not a difficult leap from Jewish values to democratic values," he said, adding that democracy is the system most "compatible" with traditional Judaism.

"Judaism is a religion that places the utmost importance on individual rights, personal choice and responsibility, and equality. Those qualities also happen to be the hallmarks of democracies."

The vitality of the broad spectrum of national voices is mitigated somewhat by the lack of representation at the local level, he said.

"Here is America, if there's a congressperson from an ultra-Orthodox community in Munsey, New York, you better believe that person is going to represent the community's interest — otherwise they'll be out of a job.

"Similarly, if there's an elected official from a Latino community in California, that person will also be compelled to represent their constituency. Israel doesn't have a system with direct local representation. That's a situation that certainly could be improved."

Even given all the warts of the fledgling democracy, Segal still contends that it trumps any alternatives.

"I was a kid during the dark days of McCarthyism," said the Philadelphia-born rabbi. "All you had to do to get investigated by the House Un-American Activities (HUAC) was say 'boo.'

"In Israel, people can and do get up on the floor of the Knesset and say some of the most vile, critical things. There's not many countries that would allow that type of dissent."