By Joshua Naftulin and Marisol Fernandez

Leading Israeli public intellectual Ruth Gavison gave a lecture on Monday, November 10 at UCLA on what being a democratic Jewish state means for Israel and its people. Gavison is Haim H. Cohn Professor Emerita of Human Rights Law at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The lecture was co-sponsored by the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies and the UCLA School of Law.

In 2013, Gavison was asked by Israeli Minister of Justice Tzipi Livni to produce a report on the constitutional grounding of Israel’s mission to be Jewish and democratic. The report, which was completed this December, will help lay the framework for Israel’s legislation moving forward on the relationship between religion and state, in addition to issues such as civil marriage, divorce, and limiting business activity on Shabbat.

This past May, Gavison also worked in conjunction with Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky to create and release a separate report sponsored by the Jewish People Policy Institute regarding the expectations of Jews in the diaspora and their impact on the country.

As the only nation in the world which identifies itself as a Jewish state, Israel faces many unique problems and deals with constant criticism in this regard.  Gavison has written extensively on how to make the interests of the Jewish nation and its secular democracy more harmonious. She believes Israel must retain its Jewish status moving forward, and that it is crucial for Israel to live alongside a Palestinian state to guarantee its future Jewishness.

According to Gavison, Israel’s Jewish character derives from the notion of national self-determination. Yet she notes that any theocracy — whether Jewish, Muslim, or Christian — cannot be a true democracy since it is inherently based on religious law.  Gavison discussed how Israel can sustain a successful democratic system while still being founded on core Jewish principles. During her talk at UCLA, Gavison explained:

“The Jewishness of the state of Israel is not theocracy, it is not discrimination against Arabs, it is not anything that is against, it’s the idea that Jews want and are entitled to have a place in the world in which they control their fate."

An experienced jurist, Gavison has played a large role in shaping the landscape of legal institutions and policy decisions within Israel. In addition to founding and serving as both president and chairperson of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, she has received a number of distinctions that include the Jerusalem Toleration Prize (2002), the Emet Prize for Law (2003) and the Israel Prize for Legal Research (2011). She has also served on the Winograd Commission, which was appointed to investigate the 2006 Lebanon War.