Manhigut Yehudit
Encyclopedia
Manhigut Yehudit is a movement started by Moshe Feiglin
and Shmuel Sackett
to lead the State of Israel
with, in their words, "authentic Jewish values." This has been widely interpreted, both by Manhigut supporters and outside observers, as closer to Orthodox Judaism
but without a Galut
or Exile Mentality. The movement opposes religious coercion, and wants Jewish identity as prescribed by the Torah
or Bible
and authentic Jewish teachings to become Israel's official culture.
In 2005, Manhigut Yehudit became the largest faction within the Likud Central Committee, the body that decides Likud
Party policy.
as Israeli law that states that a person convicted of a crime of "moral turpitude" within the last seven years may not be elected to the Knesset (Feiglin was convicted of blocking Israeli roads in acts of civil disobedience
to protest the Oslo Accords
in the early 1990s as a co-leader of the Zo Artzeinu
movement). Otherwise, he would have taken 38th place on Likud's list and been elected to the Knesset
. There was considerable controversy regarding whether blocking roads in political protest could be considered "moral turpitude".
Manhigut has received much media attention and has been the subject of controversy: it has been criticized by the Israeli left and center for its close ties to the radical Israeli right of Religious Zionism
. Conversely, the same radical right has characterized the Manhigut project as "naive" in thinking that it can re-shape Israeli politics by "infiltrating" the largely secular (and debatably, pragmatic) right-wing Likud
party. Some critics also say that Manhigut diverts valuable resources and supporters that could otherwise be going into other right-wing organizations. Another complaint has been that the Israeli public is significantly more likely to vote for a secular right-Likud than a national-religious one.
Despite all this, Manhigut has a devoted following, both in Israel and abroad, many of whom see Feiglin's "moderate" and long-term approach to work within the parliamentary system
(and specifically, to slowly and eventually gain control of the Likud as a powerful bloc) as refreshingly innovative, if not ingenious. They also praise the movement's commitment to Israeli democracy
and non-violence (although some detractors note, ironically, that the ultimate goal of Manhigut seems to be to use democracy to replace Israeli law with Halakha
).
or Humanistic Judaism
, Feiglin still stresses full adherence to Orthodox law. Furthermore, this is no major novelty in Orthodox Judaism; a casual perusal of Rabbinic literature will leave no doubt that the Jewish nation is just that - a nation created to demonstrate G-d's mastery and involvement in the world. The only question has been, in galut, are Jews to themselves attempt to restore practical Jewish statehood or not. Only since the Enlightenment era has the notion arisen, through Reform Judaism, that Jews are "Germans of the Mosaic persuasion", i.e. only a religion and not a people.) In an interview, Feiglin strongly criticized the "modern" tendency to view Judaism through the prism of "only" being a religion, going so far as to link the practice with one of the biggest villains in Jewish tradition, Haman
:
Manhigut's mission statement, as expressed by co-founder Shmuel Sackett is "Turning the state of the Jews into the Jewish State." http://www.jewishisrael.org/views/sackett/66/sackett_6604.htm
Its ultimate vision and goal is to, in the words of the daily Aleinu
prayer, "perfect the world in the Kingdom of the Almighty". All of the organization's newsletters end with this statement.
's 2005 split from the Likud resulted in a power vacuum among the leadership of his former party. In December 2005, the top three favorites running for Likud Party Chairman were Binyamin Netanyahu and Silvan Shalom
, with Moshe Feiglin
running a distant third.
While Feiglin and his supporters remained optimistic about his chances of winning the position, in the last weeks before the primary there were calls from both the center-right and the Religious Zionist
movement for him to withdraw from the race. The present Yesha Council Chairman, Bentzi Lieberman, who endorsed Netanyahu, went so far as to characterize Feiglin's plan to co-opt the Likud as a "moral failure" http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/659355.html. In response, Feiglin compared his detractors with "a battered woman who covers the bruises on her face with make-up and keeps going back to her husband."http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=94999
In mid-December, Netanyahu won the election for Chairman with 47% of the vote. Shalom came in second with 32%. Feiglin won 12.5% of the votes, up from 3% the first time he ran in 2003. Two years later, in 2007, he came in second behind Netanyahu with 24% of the vote.
Many left-wing and centrist politicians, as well as some journalists, agreed with Feiglin's assessment, asserting that while he did not come close to winning, the comparatively large number of votes cast for him indicated a radical shift among Likud voters, which could possibly result in changing both its vision and image in the future. Several prominent Likud members also denounced Feiglin's gains as indicative of a serious problem in the party, although others attempted to de-emphasize Feiglin's influence within the Likud. Feiglin responded by accusing his Likud critics of "anti-Semitism
".
Moshe Feiglin
Moshe Zalman Feiglin is an Israeli politician, head of the Manhigut Yehudit faction of the Likud party in Israel...
and Shmuel Sackett
Shmuel Sackett
Shmuel Sackett is a religious Zionist leader. He co-founded both the Zo Artzeinu and Manhigut Yehudit political movements in Israel.During the 1990s Zo Artzeinu opposed the Oslo Accords through civil disobedience....
to lead the State of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
with, in their words, "authentic Jewish values." This has been widely interpreted, both by Manhigut supporters and outside observers, as closer to Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
but without a Galut
Galut
Galut or Golus , means literally exile. Galut or Golus classically refers to the exile of the Jewish people from the Land of Israel . There were altogether four such exiles...
or Exile Mentality. The movement opposes religious coercion, and wants Jewish identity as prescribed by the Torah
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
or Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
and authentic Jewish teachings to become Israel's official culture.
In 2005, Manhigut Yehudit became the largest faction within the Likud Central Committee, the body that decides Likud
Likud
Likud is the major center-right political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin in an alliance with several right-wing and liberal parties. Likud's victory in the 1977 elections was a major turning point in the country's political history, marking the first time the left had...
Party policy.
Background
Manhigut Yehudit was founded in 1998. It applied to run in the 1999 elections as an independent party, but pulled out before election day. In the 2003 elections Feiglin was refused permission to run on the Likud list by the Central Elections CommitteeIsraeli Central Elections Committee
The Israeli Central Elections Committee is the body charged under the Knesset Elections Law of 1969 to carry out the elections for the upcoming Knesset. The committee is composed of Knesset members representating various parliamentary groups and is chaired by a Supreme Court Justice...
as Israeli law that states that a person convicted of a crime of "moral turpitude" within the last seven years may not be elected to the Knesset (Feiglin was convicted of blocking Israeli roads in acts of civil disobedience
Civil disobedience
Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is commonly, though not always, defined as being nonviolent resistance. It is one form of civil resistance...
to protest the Oslo Accords
Oslo Accords
The Oslo Accords, officially called the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements or Declaration of Principles , was an attempt to resolve the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict...
in the early 1990s as a co-leader of the Zo Artzeinu
Zo Artzeinu
Zo Artzeinu was a political protest movement created and led by Moshe Feiglin and Shmuel Sackett in Israel to block Israeli land concessions to the Arabs in the early 1990s, especially the Oslo Accords...
movement). Otherwise, he would have taken 38th place on Likud's list and been elected to the Knesset
Knesset
The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...
. There was considerable controversy regarding whether blocking roads in political protest could be considered "moral turpitude".
Manhigut has received much media attention and has been the subject of controversy: it has been criticized by the Israeli left and center for its close ties to the radical Israeli right of Religious Zionism
Religious Zionism
Religious Zionism is an ideology that combines Zionism and Jewish religious faith...
. Conversely, the same radical right has characterized the Manhigut project as "naive" in thinking that it can re-shape Israeli politics by "infiltrating" the largely secular (and debatably, pragmatic) right-wing Likud
Likud
Likud is the major center-right political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin in an alliance with several right-wing and liberal parties. Likud's victory in the 1977 elections was a major turning point in the country's political history, marking the first time the left had...
party. Some critics also say that Manhigut diverts valuable resources and supporters that could otherwise be going into other right-wing organizations. Another complaint has been that the Israeli public is significantly more likely to vote for a secular right-Likud than a national-religious one.
Despite all this, Manhigut has a devoted following, both in Israel and abroad, many of whom see Feiglin's "moderate" and long-term approach to work within the parliamentary system
Parliamentary system
A parliamentary system is a system of government in which the ministers of the executive branch get their democratic legitimacy from the legislature and are accountable to that body, such that the executive and legislative branches are intertwined....
(and specifically, to slowly and eventually gain control of the Likud as a powerful bloc) as refreshingly innovative, if not ingenious. They also praise the movement's commitment to Israeli democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
and non-violence (although some detractors note, ironically, that the ultimate goal of Manhigut seems to be to use democracy to replace Israeli law with Halakha
Halakha
Halakha — also transliterated Halocho , or Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions.Judaism classically draws no distinction in its laws between religious and ostensibly non-religious life; Jewish...
).
Jewish Philosophy
Moshe Feiglin has defined Jewishness as primarily being a culture and people, not merely a "religion", citing that the Torah refers to Jews as "Am Yisrael" or "The Nation of Israel". (It should be noted, however, that unlike other proponents of similar philosophies, such as Reconstructionist JudaismReconstructionist Judaism
Reconstructionist Judaism is a modern American-based Jewish movement based on the ideas of Mordecai Kaplan . The movement views Judaism as a progressively evolving civilization. It originated as a branch of Conservative Judaism, before it splintered...
or Humanistic Judaism
Humanistic Judaism
Humanistic Judaism is a movement in Judaism that offers a nontheistic alternative in contemporary Jewish life. It defines Judaism as the cultural and historical experience of the Jewish people and encourages humanistic and secular Jews to celebrate their Jewish identity by participating in Jewish...
, Feiglin still stresses full adherence to Orthodox law. Furthermore, this is no major novelty in Orthodox Judaism; a casual perusal of Rabbinic literature will leave no doubt that the Jewish nation is just that - a nation created to demonstrate G-d's mastery and involvement in the world. The only question has been, in galut, are Jews to themselves attempt to restore practical Jewish statehood or not. Only since the Enlightenment era has the notion arisen, through Reform Judaism, that Jews are "Germans of the Mosaic persuasion", i.e. only a religion and not a people.) In an interview, Feiglin strongly criticized the "modern" tendency to view Judaism through the prism of "only" being a religion, going so far as to link the practice with one of the biggest villains in Jewish tradition, Haman
Haman (Bible)
Haman is the main antagonist in the Book of Esther, who, according to Old Testament tradition, was a 5th Century BC noble and vizier of the Persian empire under King Ahasuerus, traditionally identified as Artaxerxes II...
:
- ...But in fact the concept "religious" is one taken from other cultures – mainly Christianity – and is totally unsuited to Jewish culture. The first person to use this concept was Haman the Wicked. '…and they do not observe the King's religion,' Haman said to Ahashverosh, in order to justify his version of the Final Solution. Christianity, which separated religion from life, created the concept of religion in its Western connotation, with which we are familiar. But Judaism isn't a religion. Judaism is a culture, a nation, a country, the Torah. It is a complete way of life, an important part of which is the observance of Mitzvot." http://www.jewishindy.com/print.php?sid=2912
Manhigut's mission statement, as expressed by co-founder Shmuel Sackett is "Turning the state of the Jews into the Jewish State." http://www.jewishisrael.org/views/sackett/66/sackett_6604.htm
Its ultimate vision and goal is to, in the words of the daily Aleinu
Aleinu
Aleinu or Aleinu leshabei'ach , meaning "it is upon us or it is our obligation or duty to praise God," is a Jewish prayer found in the siddur, the classical Jewish prayerbook. It is recited at the end of each of the three daily Jewish services...
prayer, "perfect the world in the Kingdom of the Almighty". All of the organization's newsletters end with this statement.
Manhigut post-Kadima
Ariel SharonAriel Sharon
Ariel Sharon is an Israeli statesman and retired general, who served as Israel’s 11th Prime Minister. He has been in a permanent vegetative state since suffering a stroke on 4 January 2006....
's 2005 split from the Likud resulted in a power vacuum among the leadership of his former party. In December 2005, the top three favorites running for Likud Party Chairman were Binyamin Netanyahu and Silvan Shalom
Silvan Shalom
' , born 4 October 1958) is an Israeli politician, member of the Knesset for Likud and the country's Vice Prime Minister and Minister for Regional Development. He previously served as the country's Foreign Minister and Finance Minister.-Biography:...
, with Moshe Feiglin
Moshe Feiglin
Moshe Zalman Feiglin is an Israeli politician, head of the Manhigut Yehudit faction of the Likud party in Israel...
running a distant third.
While Feiglin and his supporters remained optimistic about his chances of winning the position, in the last weeks before the primary there were calls from both the center-right and the Religious Zionist
Religious Zionism
Religious Zionism is an ideology that combines Zionism and Jewish religious faith...
movement for him to withdraw from the race. The present Yesha Council Chairman, Bentzi Lieberman, who endorsed Netanyahu, went so far as to characterize Feiglin's plan to co-opt the Likud as a "moral failure" http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/659355.html. In response, Feiglin compared his detractors with "a battered woman who covers the bruises on her face with make-up and keeps going back to her husband."http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=94999
In mid-December, Netanyahu won the election for Chairman with 47% of the vote. Shalom came in second with 32%. Feiglin won 12.5% of the votes, up from 3% the first time he ran in 2003. Two years later, in 2007, he came in second behind Netanyahu with 24% of the vote.
Many left-wing and centrist politicians, as well as some journalists, agreed with Feiglin's assessment, asserting that while he did not come close to winning, the comparatively large number of votes cast for him indicated a radical shift among Likud voters, which could possibly result in changing both its vision and image in the future. Several prominent Likud members also denounced Feiglin's gains as indicative of a serious problem in the party, although others attempted to de-emphasize Feiglin's influence within the Likud. Feiglin responded by accusing his Likud critics of "anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
".
- With all due respect, I also think that there is a certain small element of anti-Semitism here. I have been in the Likud for eight years already, and I haven't seen any such demonization efforts directed at any other element. We are all loyal members of the Likud, and renew our membership every year. Let's put the cards on the table: I believe that if I didn't have a kippa and beard, this demonization would not exist, and it's about time to put an end to this nonsense.