Ahead of Simhat Torah, President Isaac Herzog on Friday urged Israelis to set aside their differences for the Jewish holiday, amid heightened societal tensions after recent public prayer services in Tel Aviv were marred by confrontations between worshipers and secular activists.
In a statement released before the Jewish holiday, which begins at sundown, Herzog said the celebrations marking the conclusion of the previous year’s Torah readings and the start of the cycle anew were the “inheritance” of all Jews — whether secular or religious.
“I have always felt that this a deep and unifying part of our personal and national identity,” he said. “This year… we experienced with great pain a number of incidents of worship being prevented; heartrending incidents that were incomprehensible and unacceptable.”
Herzog was apparently referring chiefly to clashes that erupted on Yom Kippur over the insistence of the prayer’s organizers on placing a divider between the sexes, as required by Jewish Orthodox law, and a refusal by the municipality and secularist protesters to accept what they saw as gender-based discrimination on public grounds.
There have since been other incidents of unrest, including on Thursday in Tel Aviv after worshipers placed a divider in defiance of city rules as part of a protest prayer event, adding further fuel to the fierce partisan tensions that have burst forth since the government unveiled its proposals for overhauling the judiciary at the start of the year.
“I appeal to you Israeli citizens, each and every one of you, and call on you to act with consideration, tolerance, respect and love for Israel during the Hakafot and generally, to enable all of us, together, [to enjoy] the holiday and happiness.” Herzog said, referring to traditional celebrations held on Simhat Torah.
“No provocations, disturbances or fights,” the president continued, without mentioning the gender dividers.
“On Simhat Torah we must put the divisions aside and return to the pure happiness of the start of the new year and with it the cycle of weekly Torah readings.”
Activists protest against gender segregation in the public space during a public prayer event in Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv, on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, September 25, 2023. (Itai Ron/ Flash90)
Herzog’s statement came as the High Court of Justice heard an appeal by Rosh Yehudi, the Orthodox group behind the Yom Kippur prayer event in Tel Aviv, against the municipality’s decision to cancel permits for it to hold Simhat Torah celebrations in the city center.
At the hearing, the municipality agreed to let Rosh Yehudi stage the Simhat Torah event without a gender divider.
According to the municipality, Rosh Yehudi violated the terms of the permit that the city had given it ahead of the September 24 event for Yom Kippur. For this reason, the municipality said, it did not have confidence that Rosh Yehudi would respect city regulations at the Simhat Torah event, which had been scheduled to take place on Saturday.
On Yom Kippur, Rosh Yehudi placed a bamboo frame with flags hanging down from the top section and used it as a mechitza, a divider between men and women, which is a requirement of Orthodox Jewish law for prayers.
Rosh Yehudi, Israel Zeira, attends a hearing at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem on his Orthodox group’s petition against the Tel Aviv municipality’s decision to revoke its permits to hold public prayer events there for Sukkot and Simhat Torah, October 6, 2023. (Chaim Goldbergl/Flash90)
Rosh Yehudi, which openly encourages Jews to lead more Orthodox lifestyles, said that the traversable divider did not violate the terms of the permit, which forbade placing barriers between the sexes. Police authorized the divider but the city said it was a violation of its ban on a barrier between the sexes, which the city says is discriminatory.
Local seculars took apart the frame on September 24 and disrupted the prayers, which Rosh Yehudi had been holding annually in Dizengoff Square since 2020. This year was the first time the city introduced the anti-divider stipulation. Seculars disrupted a second prayer on September 25, although it featured no dividers.
