A while back, I saw the opening to a book review in Haaretz with the following question in large black letters:

Reform Rabbi Meir Azari: “When Jews go into an Arab Village and burn homes on Shabbat, that’s Judaism?”

To a certain ilk of Jews in this country, of course, the answer is “yes.” They won’t quite say that explicitly, but their actions leave no doubt as to what they think. Their rabbis don’t condemn it, while some of those rabbis obviously encourage it. The army does virtually nothing to stop it (as was the case under governments left and center as well) and Israelis mutter under their breath that “this has to stop” but go on, because, well, we think we have bigger fish to fry.

We do, indeed, have many fish to fry, but I’m not sure we have bigger fish to fry. Many of our fish are big, and many require urgent frying. The hostages are the most urgent, but then there are a dozen other issues, all critical to the survival of the Jewish state:

* maintaining some semblance of a liberal democracy here,

* addressing the scourge of government corruption,

* fixing the IDF so it can actually win a war,

* dealing with Iran, the Houthis and all our “cousins” on all our borders,

* trying to stem the hemorrhage of medical and hi-tech professionals leaving,

* restoring some norms of civility in public discourse,

* making housing even close to affordable so young people don’t believe that the only way to buy a home is to do it abroad

* and many, many more.

But restoring / creating / cultivating a form of Judaism that is both religiously and intellectually serious as well as morally and ethically nuanced and thoughtful is, I think, also a very big fish.

So when I read the review of Rabbi Azari’s book, and then the book itself (which has not been published in English, though he hopes that it will be), it seemed like it was time for this series to begin to speak to people from the worlds of faith and religion, to ask them why they believe Israel has not been able to produce a moderate, ethically sensitive and still popular form of Jewish religious expression.

Today is the first of a series of conversations about that, in which we’ll hear Rabbi Meir Azari on his new book, “Lighting the Way: Jewish Leadership Brings Change.”

Then, in the next week or two,

* we will share a conversation with an Orthodox Rabbi, who is both a settler and a peace activist. And we’ll hear whether and to what degree his assessment aligns with that of Rabbi Meir Azari.

* We will hear from a man for whom the murder of his parents on October 7th has sent him on a spiritual journey which is not explicitly religious, but is very spiritual. He has a vision for this place, too, and that vision may well surprise you.

* Then we will head from leaders of what I might call “pathbreaking Orthodox” synagogues.

Then we’ll be able to compare all these different voices, determining which sounds the most convincing to each of us, thus enabling us to form an opinion of what must be done to move things forward as Israel begins its 78th year.

There’s almost no way all of us will agree with all of what we’re going to hear from this multitude of voices, but that’s the point. Even on this issue, Israel is a chorus of voices Orthodox and not, some religious and some more spiritual, some more right and some more left, some more hopeful, some less.

Hearing all those voices—with what they share as well as where they differ—is the only way to begin to understand what’s in the ether here.

Today, we begin with Rabbi Azari.

Rabbi Meir Azari was appointed as the Senior Rabbi of The Beit Daniel Centers for Progressive Judaism in 1991. Under his leadership, the Daniel Centers have grown to include four communities throughout Tel Aviv-Jaffa.

Meir Azair received his undergraduate degree in Jewish History and Political Science from Haifa University and his rabbinical ordination from Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem. He studied at Hebrew University, San Francisco University, and the Graduate Jewish Theological Seminary in Berkeley, CA.

Rabbi Meir Azari served as the Executive Director of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism from 1986-1989. He served twice as the chairperson of the Israeli MARAM (Israeli Council of Reform Rabbis) and served for more than 20 years as a Board Member of the Jewish Agency in Israel.

Rabbi Azari has published three books, the first an in-depth look into Israel Independence Day, its customs and traditions, as they have evolved in Israeli society. The second is an edited collection of articles introducing Reform Judaism to Israelis and Hebrew readers. The third book, recently published in 2024, is entitled Lighting the Way: On Jewish Leadership.

The link at the top of this posting will take you to the full recording of our conversation; below you will find a transcript for those who prefer to read, prepared for our paid subscribers.

A short while back, I had occasion to read in Haaretz, I think I read it in the English version of Haaretz, an absolutely fascinating article by Ronen Tal, who wrote a book about Rabbi Meir Azari's new book. The book is called "Leading the Way: Jewish Leadership Brings Change", it's only out in Hebrew now, we're hoping that it'll come out in English down the but the Haaretz article begins by saying, when Jews enter an Arab village and burns home on Shabbat, is that Judaism? The answer implicitly is obvious from the nature of the way that the question is asked. But as soon as I read the article, I realized that Rabbi Azari is someone whom our listeners absolutely need to become familiar with. Rabbi Azari has been the senior Rabbi of the Bait Daniel centers for progressive Judaism since 1991. For those people who visit Israel and do all the standard things to see, but have not put Bait Daniel on their list of places to take a look at, I urge you, the next time you're here, to go see Bait Daniel, which now has four different centers in the Tel Aviv-Yaffa area, a guest house, a seminar center, and so forth. If I say that, rabbi Azari has single-handedly built this, he will say that, "no, we did it with a lot of people", which is certainly true, but it is his vision, and it is his energy and leadership that have made Beit Daniel really an unbelievable well spring of Jewish activity, inspiration, passion, and so forth in a way that many people are simply just not aware that there are these powerhouses of reform Judaism in Israel. Rabbi Azari received his undergraduate degree in Jewish History and Political Science from Haifa University and his rabbinical ordination from the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem. He studied in the Hebrew University, San Francisco University, The Graduate Jewish Theological Seminary in Berkeley, a whole a list of accomplishments that we will list in the notes and link to his biography on the Beit Daniel Center's website. But I wanted to speak to Rabbi Azari today, first, about the thesis of his book, which is that the Judaism that we often see coming out of Israel in the news, a Judaism that is not always open to women, that can be very hostile in its attitude to Arabs, that can cross the line in to violence and racism, and obviously, a lot of people feel that this government has fomented some of that, but we're going to stay away from politics, mostly, today. I want to speak to Rabbi Azari first about the thesis of his book, and then we want to talk about the whole issue of liberal, moderate, open-minded Judaism in Israel and the challenges that it faces. But first of all, Rabbi Azari, thank you very, very much. I know you're not in Israel much these days. I should actually say that you are married to Anna Azari. Anna Azari has had a long and distinguished career in the Israeli Foreign Ministry. She has been the ambassador to Russia and Ukraine and Poland, I think, in the past, and now is serving in Prague as Israel's ambassador.And in between twice, the deputy director of the Ministry.Deputy director. Okay. She's a very accomplished woman in her own, and is now serving as ambassador to the Czech Republic in Prague. And I know you're quasi on sabbatical spending a lot of time there, and your visits to Israel are fewer than they usually are. So I know your time here is very, very valuable. So I'm particularly grateful that you made your way to Jerusalem, I appreciate this conversation.I appreciate your invitation, Daniel. The fact that my wife is in Prague allow me to spend time and write this book. For so many years, I wanted to write this book. As you describe my career, in '91, I entered to Beit Daniel after a few years in San Francisco. Actually, when I studied in the Hebrew Union College, I never had the feeling that I will serve as the community rabbi. Being in San Francisco, meeting in person, the Jewish life in America, I said, I owe it to myself. I got the opportunity in '91 to open Beit Daniel, which is the first reformed synagogue that was built in Israel as a synagogue. Can you imagine to yourself? 91. That was, wow, that was a treasure. I felt that I need to be there. I took the opportunity and I returned to Israel a year before my family. My wife served in as the Israeli Council in San Francisco. I did a year of commute between San Francisco and Tel Aviv. You can imagine to yourself.

That's a nice flight.I said, Well, Israel needs reform Judaism. I grew up so far from reform Judaism, Daniel.Tell us about your background, It's actually fascinating.When I grew up in...