Israel

Israel is often portrayed by its detractors as excessively dominated by its fundamentalist extremes. Of course this ignores the fact that most Israelis are more secular than most Americans. But it also ignores the fact that even among the more orthodox Jews, practical considerations can trump ideology. Some time back I wrote about a program on TLC called "Shalom in the Home," where an orthodox Rabbi, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, goes around the country doing family counseling, often with considerable success, even among the goyim (non-Jews).

One of the last episodes aired was a very daring one where the Rabbi counseled a lesbian couple in my own neighborhood (Park Slope). I reviewed that episode here. The couple had adopted a child and were having problems. Rabbi Shmuley Boteach used the program to advocate for tolerance, insisting that whatever his personal views were regarding gays, the family he was counseling WAS a family and deserved just as much consideration as a family whose lifestyle he might be more approving of. Love and the needs of the child were the primary concern, not ideology.

But that is one Rabbi and an American one at that. Yet Israel, despite the influence of ultra-Orthodox political parties, in many ways remains more secular than America has ever been.

Today the Israeli Supreme Court has ruled that the Interior Ministry must recognise both members of a lesbian couple as the mothers of a baby.