A HOME HAUNTED BY STRANGERStion of the divine through the voice of prophets. This is not a contingent human necessity
but rather an instrument that God has used in Jewish history to keep His people from
becoming too settled in the ways of a sovereign community. Although the historical role
of Jewish prophets has not been an easy one, as they have generally been ‘‘disturbing’’
figures for the powers of the day, RHR identifies its work on behalf of human rights with
this role, particularly since this work requires precisely the liberty of religious interpreta-
tion and of political criticism that past prophets exercised. In the next section, I will
address the significance of the prophetic theme for the group, both as a complement to
human rights discourse and as a potentiallypoliticallanguage of resistance to the state,
particularly in its role of supreme incarnation of the Jewish people as a testimonial com-
munity in the wake of collective trauma.
Rabbis for Human Rights as the Prophetic Conscience of Today’s Israel
RHR’s reading of the Jewish tradition and of its place in it centers on a prophetic call for
justice that periodically surfaces in the history of Judaism as a necessary corrective to its
‘‘ontological’’ tendencies (in a way echoing the ‘‘work’’ constantly performed by Levina-
sian ‘‘infinity’’ in the midst of ‘‘being’’^38 ), notably at times when a Jewish polity exists.
According to Rabbi David Forman, American-born founder and former Chairman of the
organization, RHR was established ‘‘to give a voice to a Jewish tradition, which speaks of
a prophetic vision of social justice, equality and humanity.’’^39 As noted by current RHR
chairman Rabbi Zvi Weinberg, this call stands today in contrast to an official Israeli Juda-
ism that seems more preoccupied with questions of ritual than with moral command-
ments. Beyond the circle of RHR, however, others have articulated this contrast in sharper
tones, referring to the Israeli religious establishment as an example of ‘‘Constantinian
Judaism.’’ This term has been used by American scholar Marc Ellis to indicate ‘‘complic-
ity’’ between right-wing secular nationalism and mainstream Jewish institutions, whose
present key objective seems to him to be to mark out the space of what/who is untaintedly
Jewish rather than to uphold the ethical content of Judaism.^40 As for the precise form
taken by such complicity, Ellis and others hint at a ‘‘state of emergency’’ Judaism that
lends itself to be used to justify rights violations for the sake of a pure Jewish space, where
state and citizens may bear witness in isolation to their exceptional fate of trauma and
redemption.
Violations of Palestinian rights are disregarded or even justified by some religious
authorities in Israel for the sake of realizing God’s promise ofEretz Israel(the Land of
Israel). This happens especially with settlement policies, whether within or beyond the
confines of political consensus and the law (as in the extremist fringes of the settlers’
movement). In mainstream religious discourse, however, the argument for ignoring or
even justifying human rights violations is usually articulated at least in part in defensive
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