Supreme Court of the United States

Several Jewish groups are urging the Supreme Court to reverse a lower court decision upholding a Maine law limiting religious schools’ ability to receive public funding, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Background: The case, Carson v. Makin, involves a Maine law providing tuition assistance for children in private schools — excluding “sectarian” schools — for residents of areas without a public school district. Three Jewish groups filed separate amicus briefs on Friday urging the Supreme Court to overturn the lower court decision: the Orthodox Union; National Jewish Commission on Law and Public Affairs (COLPA), joined by Agudath Israel of America and other groups; and the Jewish Coalition of Religious Liberty (JCRL).

Next in line: “This is a very important case, the latest in a series of cases that we’ve been involved in over the years to really advance the view in the Court that religious liberty stands for the proposition that the government cannot discriminate against religious organizations or religious people in government programs,” Nathan Diament, executive director of the OU Advocacy Center, told Jewish Insider. “We’ve had success in the Court with this argument in recent years.” Other recent cases on related issues include Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenueand Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer. In both cases, the Court struck down state laws that were found to discriminate against religious schools.

First Amendment: Nathan Lewin, a constitutional lawyer who helped write the COLPA brief, called the Maine law a “flagrant violation of the Free Exercise Clause.” He added, “It provides a disincentive for anybody following their religion… Instead of just simply saying, ‘We’re going to pay for your secular education while you pay for your religious education,’ [they said,] ‘We’re going to disqualify you from your secular education — which you have to have — because you do it in a religious way.’”

Going further: The COLPA brief goes further than the OU and JCRL briefs, calling for the high court to not only overturn the Maine law but also overturn the 1971 decision in Lemon v. Kurtzman, in which the Court established a three-pronged test to determine whether laws concerning religion are discriminatory. Some religious liberty advocates argue the “Lemon test” allows for discrimination. It would seem to be logical to formally bury Lemon v. Kurtzman, which would put an end to… cases like this one where the lower courts aren’t clear what they’re supposed to do,” Mordechai Biser, general counsel for Agudath Israel, told JI.

Read more here.

Bonus: On Monday, Agudath Israel filed a brief calling for the Supreme Court to hear the case of Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission v. Matthew Woods. In that case, attorney Matthew Woods is suing the Union Gospel Mission for discrimination because it refused to hire him for its legal aid clinic, citing its religious beliefs, after he disclosed he was in a same-sex relationship. The Washington State Supreme Court ruled previously in Woods’s favor.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. and U.N. Ambassadors Lana Nusseibeh of the UAE, Jamal Alrowaiei of Bahrain, Omar Hilale of Morocco and U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield

United Nations ambassadors from the U.S., Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Bahrain gathered at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Lower Manhattan in New York City on Monday for an event commemorating the first anniversary of the signing of the Abraham Accords, reports Jewish Insider’s Melissa Weiss. The event is one of several this week marking the signing of the normalization agreements by Israel, Bahrain and the UAE in September 2020, and the largest in New York. In the months following the Accords’ signing last fall, Morocco and Sudan also reached normalization agreements with Israel.

‘A fundamentally new region’: Addressing the roughly 70 attendees, mostly U.N. ambassadors and Jewish communal leaders, Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Gilad Erdan called the agreement “the best representation of practicing tolerance and living in peace with our neighbors.” Erdan, who hosted and organized the event, added that “both Jews and Arabs will grow up in a fundamentally new region, an atmosphere in which peace and friendship between Israel and its neighbors will feel inevitable, in which tolerance and coexistence are not just ideas, but the reality they experience every day.”

Making progress: U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said she was hopeful that relationships formed through the Abraham Accords would be reflected in Turtle Bay. “I’m also determined to explore how we can translate these agreements into progress within the U.N. system,” she said. “Events like this point us in that right direction.” Speakers highlighted the speed with which the agreements spurred economic and cultural advancements. Citing the opening of Israeli embassies in Bahrain and the UAE, and the appointment of ambassadors from those countries to Israel, Thomas-Greenfield noted that “what is most remarkable is that in the past year, we’ve gone from ink on the page to concrete improvements between countries.”

Peace process: “Our region is tired of war,” Moroccan Ambassador to the U.N. Omar Hilale said, garnering the loudest applause of the afternoon. “Our region suffered a lot from all kinds of extremism, terrorism and rejection of ‘the other.’ Our region is in need of real peace… We need peace in hearts. We need peace in minds.”

Read the full story here.

Bonus: UAE Economy Minister Abdulla Bin Touq said on Monday that the UAE is hoping to grow business ties with Israel to more than $1 trillion over the next decade.

Asher Fredman

For Asher Fredman, the historic signing of the Abraham Accords between Israel, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) one year ago enabled him to put to the test a long-held belief of his: that peace would rise from the ground up, from bringing people together. Having worked as chief of staff and international affairs advisor to then-Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan from 2017-2019, Fredman, 37, told Jewish Insider’s Tamara Zieve how they often discussed the importance of people-to-people peace when meeting with heads of state around the world.

Aha moment: Until August 2020, when the Abraham Accords were announced, Fredman never had a conversation with anyone from the Gulf. That was when Fredman, an American-Israeli, thought: “We have an incredible opportunity here to realize this idea we’ve been talking about, this vision that we’ve been discussing for years.”

People-to-people peace: It all began with a Zoom meeting held on the heels of the August announcement. “The response was overwhelming from both sides,” Fredman recalled in an interview with JI. A simple tweet was enough to get the word out and people started reaching out to him and telling their friends about it. The next step was the formation of a Whatsapp group, which has been active ever since. Additional meetings and forums grew out of the initial call, and from there, Fredman founded the Israeli-Emirati Forum, which gives individuals the opportunity to ask questions about each other’s society and culture, women’s rights, religion, economy and day-to-day life.

Green bridges: In January this year, Fredman founded Gulf-Israel Green Ventures. The venture connects between Israeli and Gulf green technologies, entrepreneurs, businesses and investors, aiming to build business relationships that can lead to a more sustainable future. “We face similar challenges in these areas with our environments and water scarcity. Our governments —  the Israeli government, Bahraini government and Emirati government —  have set ambitious goals for improving renewable energy, for decreasing their emissions, and it’s an issue that’s becoming increasingly important on the global agenda. So it’s important for us to be working together, combining our capabilities, our innovation and our strengths in order to produce solutions in this area,” Fredman said.

Business partners: The UAE-Israel Business Council was established in June 2020 —  even before the Abraham Accords were announced. Following the announcement, the platform, which conducts online events, really took off, and Fredman says it has been helpful for helping the two sides get to know one another.“There is still a lot that needs to be learned on both sides in terms of business culture, business regulations, business opportunities,” he said.

A true and lasting peace? The Abraham Accords has been criticized by Palestinians and their supporters who argue that Arab countries should refrain from normalizing relations with Israel until the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is solved. They see the parties to the Accords as betraying the Palestinian cause. But Fredman believes more and more Arab countries will develop their relations with Israel in the coming years. “I think that the model of mutually beneficial cooperation… without making that progress dependent on the Palestinians is the key to peace.”

Read the full interview here.