[img]96|left|||no_popup[/img] Dateline Jerusalem — During this time of year, many religions are celebrating their individual religious holidays. Those of us lucky enough to have been born in the United States always have taken for granted the inalienable right of freedom of religion. Those who live in Israel also have been blessed with religious freedom to worship as one chooses. Although Israel is defined as a “Jewish state,” all religions are granted the right to practice the religion of their choice, according to the “Basic Laws of Israel.”
Although Maryland was the first to establish the idea of freedom of religion in America, it was the last to allow freedom of religion for Jews. During the 1600s in America, when there were colonies, not states, the Catholic colony of Maryland was the first colony to be founded on the basis of freedom of religion. By 1649, the Maryland Toleration Act came into effect, but later was repealed by the state's Protestants who barred the Catholics of Maryland from openly practicing their religion. The Act was restored when the Catholics once again were in control. But in 1692 it was repealed once again. Religious toleration was not fully accepted in Maryland until after the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. However, Maryland's definition for religious toleration meant toleration for all religions except Judaism. It wasn't until 1826, 50 years after the establishment of the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights, that Maryland passed the “Jew Bill” (by a mere one vote), finally allowing freedom of religion for Jews in Maryland.
Maryland Had Company
Maryland was not the only state to deny Jews freedom of religion or bar them from holdi office. States such as Delaware, Massachusetts, South Carolina and North Carolina required their residents to take oaths professing faith in the Christian religion. It took North Carolina 81 years after the establishment of the U.S. before it did away with its religious oaths. Virginia, however, was the first state to grant freedom of religion to all religions.
When the modern State of Israel was established in 1948, it immediately granted freedom of religion to all. There are synagogues, churches, mosques and other places of worship throughout Israel. I often have prayed at the Kotel (Western Wall/Wailing Wall) in Jerusalem while hearing church bells ring and loudspeakers calling Muslims to prayer. In Jerusalem, only when Jews were in control of the city did everyone, whether Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Druze, or of the Baha'i faith, have the freedom to practice their own religion.
No one in Israel is prevented from worshiping at holy sites under Jewish control. The same cannot be said of holy sites under Palestinian control. Most of Judaism's holiest sites are lin East Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, otherwise known as the West Bank. Often Jewish holy sites are in Palestinian-controlled areas and Jews either are not permitted to worship there, or the site is desecrated or destroyed. I once had to ride in a bullet-proof bus to pray at Rachel's Tomb where the biblical matriarch Rachel was buried, the third holiest site in Judaism, on a road between Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
During the first 19 years of the State of Israel, Jordan had control of East Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria. Jews were forbidden to worship at the Kotel (Western Wall/Wailing Wall) the last remnant of the Holy Temple, the most sacred site in all of Judaism. Jews were prohibited from other holy sites, including the Tomb of Rachel, the Cave of the Patriarchs, and the tombs of the prophet Samuel and Rabbi Shimon Hatzadik (Simon the Just). Jordanians also destroyed 50,000 headstones at the Mount of Olives cemetery in East Jerusalem where Jews had been buried for over 3,000 years. They used the stones to build a road to a hotel utilizing the headstones in their bathrooms or the headstones were used as latrines for Jordanian soldiers. Even Christians had limited access to their religious sites when Jordan had control. It was not until Israel re-captured the land from Jordan in 1967 that all faiths once again were permitted to pray freely. To return to the pre-1967 “borders” not only would endanger lives of Israelis and the existence of the State of Israel, but it would once again bar Jews from worshiping at their holiest religious sites.
During this holiday season, cherish the fact that you have religious freedom to worship as you please.
L'hitraot. Shachar.