I have a friend, David. He is a secular Jew who believes that the Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people. He wants to live in a Jewish country, and his children to get a Jewish education. In the last elections he voted for the National Religious Party because he was impressed with the ideas of these people with the crocheted yarmulkes. Two weeks ago the National Religious Party after many years opened a registration drive. David wants to help elect the representatives to central committee of the party for which he intends to vote in the next elections. David wants to become a member of the party. He is even willing to pay thirty Shekels for the privilege. But he cannot. The party won’t let him. In section D of the registration form he is asked to declare that leads a religious way of life. But he doesn’t. So David cannot register to the National Religious Party and influence its policies, although Avrom Burg, for example, can, because he is orthodox. So can Yitzhak Frankenthal of the “Netivot Shalom” movement, who wished Arafat a quick recovery. He can because he is orthodox (By the way, what does it mean, “a religious way of life”? Is the sacristan who runs my synagogue during weekdays religious or not? He runs it with great devotion, but on weekdays does not cover his head. Is he religious or not?). It would appear that for the National Religious Party secular Jews are good only at the ballot box, but not for playing the democratic game inside their party (something which happens there about once every twelve years). I know quite a few people for whom the yarmulke on their heads is about as meaningful as the watch on their wrist, and I just cannot understand why such people may vote for and be elected to the party’s institutions, but a secular Jew with conservative views may not. That section D in the registration form really makes me mad, because it shows how narrow-minded the party, that I love but do not always understand, really is. It shows the kind of attitude that whoever aspires to lead the party must relinquish. On this point (but on this point only!) the National Religious Party can learn something from the “Jewish Leadership” movement inside the Likud party. In “Jewish Leadership” you can vote and be elected as long as you agree with its principles and goals, and no one checks to see exactly which commandments you obey and which you don’t. The narrative of “Jewish Leadership” would appear to provide more space than the National Religious Party’s narrow and limited one. If the National Religious Party wants to advance and adopt the vocabulary of serious adults, it must first of all open its doors wide and invited in a greater variety of people who believe in its message. What’s under the yarmulke is much more important than the yarmulke itself.

Translated by: S. Michael Guggenheimer