It’s a very strange period in Israel. In the last few days, the news has been dominated by the story of the collapse of Hadassah hospital, the saga of corruption among rabbis and police, and finally, we have the actual push to get the Haredi world to serve in the army. Mixed in with these challenges, every once in the while, the issue of the Palestinians or John Kerry surfaces. None of the individual stories above have managed to take me away from a project that I have been working on. However, as they mount and meld together, it's time to try to make sense of it all.
So let's start with what is actually the hottest news item: I just go an alert on my iPhone that the State Prosecutor’s office has decided to indict Rabbi Pinto. Rabbi Pinto, one of a group of "semi-mystic" rabbis, who divides his time between Israel and abroad will be charged – minimally with trying to bribe a police officer, and possibly much more. This is one day after it was announced that the police have recommended prosecuting former Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger for siphoning off very large sums of money for his own use. Keep in mind that the former Sephardic Chief Rabbi is currently being tried for a similar crime. Well, Herzl wanted us to be "like all other nations", with thieves, prostitutes and who knows what else. Though did he imagine a country in which a President would be convicted of rape; a Minister of Finance indicted for embezzlement; a Prime Minister tried in a number of corruption cases, and two Chief Rabbis accused of serious crimes? Are our public officials worse than other Western countries or, for that matter, are our police better? Without having real hard data, I will say the former. Why are so many of our public officials worse? I have no idea, maybe in some ways we are still a third world country?
Which brings me to the sad case of Hadassah– and I say this with a very heavy heart. My grandmother worked for Hadassah to the last week of her life (although I could never get her on an airplane to visit Israel). My great aunt left all of her money to Hadassah. My wife grew up in Young Judea (which was funded by Hadassah), and worked in their building; and my oldest daughter is even a life-time member. Decades ago I also worked with several of the leaders of Hadassah – and let me tell you, some of them, like the legendary Charlotte Jacobsen, were very formidable individuals. For the last two decades (at least), I have thought that Hadassah needed to change radically. First and foremost, because Hadassah was the last Zionist organization still standing. Z.O.A. (which has always been co-ed ) is barely a mere shadow of the organization that brought us Abba Hillel Silver, (and in which my parents met.)
Years ago I tried to convince the leadership of Hadassah that they were doing a disservice to what was left of Zionism by excluding half of the illegible participants. Sadly, they were still stuck in the past and felt that one of their primary roles was to empower women. Today, now that they no longer fund Young Judaea, it is not clear what makes them truly Zionist. Unfortunately, the financial disaster that is Hadassah hospital today, makes clear just how unprepared for the world and Israel of the 21st century they truly are. Hadassah owns the most important hospital in Israel and they outsourced the leadership of that hospital to a group of Israeli businessmen and other pubic figures. Instead of putting together a world-class board of professionals with experience administering hospitals, the leadership of Hadassah was happy to leave matters in the hands of a group of what we refer to in this country as "Mechubarim" (people who are connected). This is not Israel of the 1950’s and 60’s (returning to my first point). I am certainly not suggesting that any of these "connected individuals" embezzled or misused funds. However, as a group they certainly did, and Hadassah simply does not have and never had the tools to prevent it.
Lastly, tonight Israelis had the pleasure of being embarrassed, when the Head of the European parliament spoke at the Knesset and said a few words that were somewhat critical of Israel. He probably exaggerated slightly when he compared the amount of water allocated to a Palestinian family and an Israeli settler family– but anyone who knows what goes on in the West Bank knows that – big picture– he was probably at least partially right. Instead of sitting quietly and politely accepting the criticism, right-wing Knesset members from HaBayit Hayehudi had to interrupt him, and make a public scene of leaving the hall (One MK saying something like "God gave us this land and its our water" as he left.) Our right wing really does not know when to just shut up. Unfortunately, from my perspective, it looks like the Palestinians are not going to be able to say yes to Kerry. Yet, instead of sitting quietly, some members of our government have to take every opportunity that arises to attack anybody who disagrees with them, be it Secretary of State Kerry, or the President of European Parliament, P. Martin Schultz.
