Israel’s founders aspired – as proclaimed in Israel’s declaration of independence – to a Jewish ingathering while assuring freedom of religion and conscience to all inhabitants. How would those mostly secular founders regard current efforts of an ultra-religious bloc within the governing coalition to advance religious orthodoxy to the detriment of alternative streams of Jewish identification? Here’s the perspective from the vantage point of a secular, non-observant Israeli citizen who associates with the conservative movement in order to perpetuate Jewish culture and tradition.

Even though Israel’s Jewish socialist founders were mostly not religious practitioners, they did accord a significant status to the orthodox movement. David Ben Gurion in 1948 declared that a religious “status quo” would prevail under which matters of citizens’ personal status (such as marriage, divorce, conversion, and burial) would be controlled by the two chief rabbinates (Ashkenazi and Sephardic) and their associated rabbinical courts. Civil marriage has never been recognized and many Israelis therefore marry abroad to avoid the yoke of the rabbinical courts over divorce and child support.

Roughly 40% of Israeli Jews identify as secular and 35% as masorati (traditional, but non-observant). The ultra-orthodox Haredim and the orthodox nationalists comprise the remainder. But the ultra-orthodox influence has been decidedly disproportionate to its numbers and hostile to the interests of non-orthodox Jews.

One impact of the ultra-orthodox bloc is in the field of education. The State has always........

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