Connie Gordon on the lack of separation between church and state in Israel - Published in the Times/Picayune.

When I sent the following letter to the T-P, I was reacting to an article that appeared on the Religion page on Saturday, April 14, entitled, "Passover Police Raid Restaurants", the opening paragraph of which read, "Alexander Dardikman had unusual visitors at his restaurant Monday, a pair of inspectors sent by Interior Minister Eli Yishai, who is strictly Orthodox. Their mission: to check whether the restaurant served bread and other leavened goods prohibited by Jewish law on Passover, the holiday being observed this week." The article went on to desribe other laws in a country where "religion and state are intertwined" and where many nonobservant Israelis resent attempts to regulate public and private life through religious legislation, most of which is Orthodox.

Here is what I wrote, unedited:

Dear Editor:

I was incensed by the article on Saturday's Religion Page (April 14) which reported that much of Israeli law is imposed under Orthodox rules. Stores may not be open on the Jewish Sabbath, Jewish marriages are recognized only if conducted by Orthodox rabbis, and leavened goods may not be served in restaurants on Passover. These, and other such laws in Israel, seem harsh and single-minded when one considers that theirs is a democratically elected government fashioned much after ours, and that not all Israeli citizens are Jewish much less Orthodox.

Isn't it wonderful that in our own country, when the founding fathers fashioned the Constitution, they had the foresight to see that, although the early colonists were mostly Christian, they were from various sects of Christianity and that ultimately people would come to these shores from many nations, many cultures, and many religions? It was very wise of James Madison and the other framers of the Constitution to produce a set of rules and laws that would be for all the people. They seemd to realize that religous beliefs were highly personal and that there were differences even among the sects of Christianity. They were so wise as to omit God entirely from the Constitution and to guarantee that the government would never be able to impose any form of relgion on the citizenry.

That freedom to have your own personal belief system and to worship or not as you please is in peril. Every day there is another proposal to post the Christian ten commandments on public walls, to impose open Christian prayers in our public schools, and now the federal government would like to give your tax money to faith-based programs. Doesn't it bother you that those in public leadership roles would impose their own religious rules and values on your personal beliefs? It bothers me. I wonder which form of Christianity they would deem the "right" one for you, for me, for each American. Who decides? I say leave the wall of separation of church and state alone; I'll eat leavened bread any time I choose.

Connie Gordon

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