Tremors in Israeli Political Life Emanate From, of All Places, Brooklyn

In a land dotted with religious shrines, the Victorian-style house atop a knoll just off the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway is perhaps the most peculiar.

It is an exact replica of a house at 770 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, N.Y., which is occupied by the Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, leader of the Habad-Lubavitcher sect of Judaism.

The bearded Habad devotees who built the house boast that the copy is perfect in almost every detail. They had searched far and wide to find the red brick to match the original Brooklyn facade. The three-story elevator is in the same place, the stained glass windows of the same design, the details adorning the outside doors carved with the same swirls. The tree in front, however, is not as tall as the one in Brooklyn.

“This house, however, is lacking its soul,” advised Arye (Leon) Kaplan, the head of the Habad organization in Israel. In explanation, he pointed out a locked ground-floor room meant to be Schneerson’s.

“It is waiting for him,” Kaplan said.

As startling as the house may appear in a Mediterranean landscape dominated by orange groves and yellowish stone, it is no more jolting than the impact of Schneerson and his sect on the recent Israeli national elections. Although Schneerson has never set foot in Israel, he has become a sudden force in Israeli politics.

Schneerson, 86, sent videotaped instructions to his followers--and others who venerate his word--to vote for Agudat Israel, a small, ultra-Orthodox Jewish party. Habad spent $1 million in 12 days of campaigning on Agudat’s behalf, followers say. The rabbi’s campaigners promised blessings to voters.

The appeal and money helped to double Agudat’s vote, experts say. The party won five seats in the 120-member Knesset, or Parliament. Although a small number, it still gave Agudat a key role in the ongoing process of forming a new government here.

The biggest vote getter, the Likud Party of Prime Minster Yitzhak Shamir, is courting Agudat and three other religious parties in hopes of building a majority in the Knesset and a ruling partnership.

Deciding Next Government

Altogether, religious parties control 18 seats; in effect, the religious vote is deciding who in the next government will handle questions of war and peace, the economy and foreign policy.

Moreover, the parties’ demand that Jewish conversions be placed under the authority of Orthodox rabbis has opened a bitter conflict with Jews in the United States. The American Jews contend that such a measure would diminish the stature of the Reform and Conservative Jewish movements to which they belong.

For the past week, Jewish groups from the United States have traveled to Israel to issue strong warnings that a split in Jewry could adversely affect U.S. support for Israel.

Such a heady storm of influence was unforeseen, followers of the Habad sect insist. They say that politics is not their business and that their interest in the elections had to do only with narrow religious questions.

“This was a one-shot deal,” Kaplan emphasized.

One-shot or not, even the religious issues could have a broad impact on Israeli life. For instance, in return for its support, Agudat has demanded passage of a series of laws designed to keep public activity minimal on the Jewish Sabbath. The party also wants equal funding for its schools. As news of the demands spreads, many Israelis warn of excess religious interference in secular life.

All of this has set off a debate over whether Israel is becoming a fundamentalist state in which government will enforce holy law on a largely unwilling public. The fears are perhaps enhanced by the archaic dress and otherworldly attitudes of sects such as the Habad, which date from 18th-Century Eastern Europe.

The Habad-Lubavitcher sect--the name Habad comes from Hebrew initials for words that mean “wisdom, understanding and knowledge”--is known as perhaps the most missionary and hospitable of all Hasidic Jewish communities. The word hasid refers to close-knit, pious and exuberant followers of Jewish law whose movement dates from the 18th Century in Poland. Lubavitcher is derived from the name of a hamlet in Byelorussia where the congregation was once centered.

Habad followers visit hospitals and army bases dispensing gifts and comfort and stand on street corners urging Israelis to return to age-old Jewish practices. The movement has about 250,000 members worldwide.

Habad men dress in black coats, black skull caps and homburgs; all have beards. The women don scarfs, modest blouses, skirts and stockings to obscure their heads, arms and legs.

The history of the sect is spiced with miraculous tales, usually revolving around the figure of its spiritual leader, the rebbe-- Yiddish for rabbi.

Israeli newspapers once attributed a miracle to Schneerson himself. According to the reports, he sent a bottle of brandy to a youth hospitalized with wounds received during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The boy, who was in a coma, revived when given a few drops of the liquid, the accounts said.

Pictures in the library at the imitation Brooklyn house suggest that a personality cult has been built around Schneerson, the latest rebbe in the two-century Lubavitcher dynasty. Born in Russia, his unwillingness to visit Israel adds to his tantalizing charisma. He stays in New York because there, his followers assert, he can influence Jewish affairs more broadly. Much of his financial support comes from American Jews eager to back the movement’s good works.

Utopian Atmosphere

Kfar Habad, the Israeli center of the sect, has the look of a Utopian community. It runs its own vocational and religious schools and its own day-care centers for its 450 families. The town also serves as something of a religious Disney World, where Jews from easygoing Tel Aviv can come and taste traditional Judaism, then return to their first-run movies and sidewalk cafes.

“They come here for the real thing,” said Kaplan, who is himself a rabbi.

There are no movie theaters or other forms of secular entertainment in Kfar Habad. Outside newspapers are not sold. Television sets are used only to screen videotapes of Rabbi Schneerson.

“At least, officially they are,” quipped Kaplan.

Schneerson’s intervention in the election was prompted by two factors, Kaplan said. First, a 200-year-old rivalry between the Habad and other Jewish Orthodox groups with origins in Russia and Eastern Europe prompted him to shore up Agudat against its religious competitors that supported the other parties.

The rivalry, remembered dimly if at all by many Jews, centered on the degree of learning necessary to proper religious life.

Secondly, Schneerson is battling what he considers to be trends toward assimilation among Reform and Conservative congregations in the United States. He decided to carry on the struggle in Israel through the “Who Is a Jew” law, Kaplan declared.

“You can buy a conversion for $25 in California,” Kaplan asserted. “If we don’t want to have a split in Judaism, we must make conversions uniform.”

Despite the euphoria among Habadniks over the successful foray into politics, their joy is tempered with worry. For one, association with politics runs against the grain of religious devotion--it’s a secular game.

Moreover, politics interferes with a main goal of Habad, which is to get along with Jews of all stripes and deliver its traditionalist message to them.

“It is a risk. Politics is voluntary. Are we alienating Jews who, say, did not vote for Agudat?” asked Kaplan. “That’s why we had to have the decision of the rebbe before taking a stand.”