In synagogues and on the streets, Israel’s new ‘faithful left’ is making itself felt | CPT PPP Coverage

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TEL AVIV (JTA) — “Everyone who answers, ‘Thank God’ when asked, ‘How are you,’ raise your hand,” Brit Yakobi asked the crowd of 700 people gathered in an Orthodox synagogue in Jerusalem.

The overwhelming majority of hands shot up.

“Everyone who is mortified with our current government, raise your hand,” continued Yakobi, the director of religious freedom and gender at Shatil, an Israeli social justice organization founded by the New Israel Fund.

Once again, almost every hand went up.

The display took place at a Jan. 25 conference billing itself as for Israel’s “faithful left” — a demographic that many consider nonexistent but which is seeking to assert itself in response to the country’s new right-wing government.

Israel’s politics leave little room for left-leaning Orthodox Jews. In the United States, the vast majority of Jewish vote for Democrats, and even in Orthodox communities, where right-wing politics are ascendant, liberal candidates hold appeal for some. But in Israel, the official leadership of religious Jewish of all stripes is firmly entrenched in the right — and their followers tend to vote as a bloc.

The hundreds of Orthodox Jewish at the conference hope to change that dynamic, and have already started doing so by showing up en masse — and to applause — at the anti-government protests that have swept the country since the beginning of the year. But while their list of goals is long, they are also taking time to appreciate the unusual experience of being together.