Givat Haviva and the Future of the Jewish State
In this world, filled with science and intuition, sometimes the counterintuitive idea is the most important, and frequently the most logical. In some ways, bringing Jews and Arabs together in educational, cultural and social settings would seem to be the last thing you want to do if you want to strengthen the Jewishness of the state of Israel. You might be led to believe that organizations engaged in building a shared society helps with the “democratic” side of Israel being a “Jewish and Democratic” state, but how can it help with the Jewish side? That sounds totally counterintuitive, but I believe it is the right way of understanding what a Jewish state is.
A Jewish state is a place where the Jews can feel completely comfortable and secure with being Jewish – in private and in public – and where they do not feel that any other religion limits their own Jewishness. However, a truly Jewish state should have no reason to fear having Muslims and Christians – Arabs, Druze, Bahai and others – living in the same state as full citizens. Not only not fear, but actually embrace the possibilities about how a diverse population can enhance our self-understanding as Jews and as lovers of the Jewish state.
The vision of the Torah was that there would always be “Geiri Toshav” who would dwell in the land. At a minimum the Torah talks about when the shochet (butcher) would mess up and the meat is “treif,” please find someone who is not Jewish who can benefit from it. However, the Torah goes much further. In Leviticus (25: 35) it states, “Geir veToshav, vaChai imach” – the stranger and the resident shall live with you.” As Nachmanides understands this, it is referring to people you see as fellow “achicha” – even brothers – but they are not Jewish. Still, the mitzvah is that they live with you and you help them be strong and resilient.
Now the Torah wants us, of course, to hold on strong to our Judaism, but at the same time the Torah wants us to have a close relationship with those who live in the land with us. The Torah indeed sees the ideal society at one where Jews and non-Jews live together in the Jewish state.
It is true that the Torah does not want us to keep the ancient Canaanite idolators in Israel, but long ago, in the time of the Mishna, Rabbi Yehoshua established that none of these ancient peoples existed anymore, because “Sanacharib came and mixed up the whole world” (Talmud Bavli, Brachot 28a).
Moreover, about a thousand years later, in Provence, the great Menachem HaMeiri (1249-1316) explained that the “idolators” as defined in the Talmud refers to people without any “nimusim” (manners), without any moral or ethical guidelines. He states that from India to Provence, the peoples of the world in his days had those guidelines and therefore needed to be respected very much like the resident non-Jews that Nachmanides says the Torah is talking about.
Israel is blessed to have a great mix of resident non-Jews. Two million of them are Arab Muslims and Christians who are citizens of the Jewish State of Israel. To them Israel is home as well; it is their state and the society they are committed to building and strengthening.
It is a blessing of the Torah and the rabbis to have residents in the Holy Land who are not Jews. They add a dimension not just because they can eat our non-kosher meat, but because Judaism, in Israel or in the Diaspora, was never meant to be a “circle the wagons,” isolated, only inward facing. We are supposed to be a “light onto the nations” and a great menorah that celebrates the wisdoms from the outside (as the great 19th century commentator Netziv writes) in order to make us better Jews, better carriers of our great tradition.
So how does Israel live up to the Torah’s expectations? How do the Jews of Israel, as the flagship Jews of the world, celebrate the beauty and the glory of a Jewish State which has a great non-Jewish population as well? Two words: Givat Haviva.
Givat Haviva, founded in 1949, the oldest and largest organization advancing relations between Israel’s Jewish and Arab citizens, is building a shared society where Jews and non-Jews, Jews and Arabs and Muslims and Druze and Christians all together celebrate diversity and understand how healthy it is for Jews, and Christians and Muslims and Druze. On its 42-acre campus in central Israel, Givat Haviva’s innovative programs of education at all levels – from families and children, to high schoolers to adults – and culture demonstrate to all the powerful the Torah’s message of Jews and non-Jews living together in society.
It is the secret of Jews being better Jews, of the Jewish State being a better Jewish state and of people becoming better human beings, better “images of God” who carry the message of the Torah and our tradition and enable it to be a shining light for the entire world.