The rock that bruised Rabbi Dov Lipman's leg nearly a decade ago also went straight to his heart.

A few months after he moved with his wife and four children from Silver Spring, Maryland, to Beit Shemesh, Israel, Lipman heard a commotion outside his new home. An extremist ultra-Orthodox group was protesting a construction site, which they claimed was desecrating a Jewish graveyard. Police arrived to both protect the group's right to demonstrate and ensure that traffic was not disrupted, but protesters interpreted the police presence as a threat and began to hurl rocks. During the chaos, Lipman was hit.

“A switch went off inside my head when that happened,” Lipman related. “I realized that I moved to Israel prepared for all kinds of sacrifices, such as my children serving in the military, and even terror attacks. But I wasn't prepared for a rock to be thrown at me by another Jew. I realized we had a deep societal problem if that could happen.”

He became involved in activities to encourage mutual respect between Israelis of different backgrounds, but in time, he realized that the best way for him to reach his goals was by running for the Knesset. He joined the Yesh Atid party, and this year became the first American-born representative to be elected to the Israeli parliament in nearly 30 years.

Meanwhile, the rock that hit him on that fateful day now sits on his desk in the Knesset. “I see it there every day,” Lipman noted. “It guides me and reminds me that the ultimate goal is to not let that kind of thing happen again.”

We spoke with Knesset Member (MK) Lipman about the struggle to create unity in Israel's Jewish communities.

BABA: Shalom, MK Lipman. Why are there so many tensions between religious and secular communities in Israel?

LIPMAN: First you have to remember that we, the Jewish people, were away from Israel for over 2,000 years, and we've been living all over the world. All of a sudden, 64 years ago, the State of Israel was established, an amazing miracle, and people started coming back to Israel from all these places.

Israel is a small country; it's roughly equal in size to the smallest state in the United States, Rhode Island. So we're all living in this very close area together, coming from all these different backgrounds and perspectives, and when that happens, people want to live their way. Sometimes the more religious people would rather have things be more religious, and sometimes people who are less religious would like things to be less religious. And when you're living so close together, these tensions can escalate, and the key is not to let the tensions take over, but to try to find a way to work things out. That's what we're trying to do now.

BABA: What do you think religious and secular Israelis have in common?

LIPMAN: First of all, we share Israel as our homeland. In Israel, people who are secular still believe that God gave this land to us, and that we're all in this together in terms of making things work in the country.

But it goes deeper than that. There are values that all of us share in terms of respecting other people, in terms of what we call in Hebrew, bain adam l'chavero, between one person and another, and derekh eretz, in terms of how we act towards other people. These are core values that we all share. What's amazing is that in Israel, despite all the tensions, there's love that exists between secular and religious Jews. Even though we argue about the issues or might have very strong tensions about the issues, when it's all said and done we call each other "achi"—brother, and there's a certain love and bond which everybody feels.

BABA: How do you plan to lessen the conflicts between the religious and secular Jews in Israel?

LIPMAN: My approach, both in my hometown in Beit Shemesh and in Israel in general, is to focus on respect. We can't force people to be more religious, and we can't force religious people to be less religious. We have to find ways for everyone to respect each other. That's the biggest challenge: Religious people must recognize that many people are not as religious as they are, and as long as nobody is being hurt, they have to let them be. Less religious people must respect that there are people who are very religious in Israel, and they live a certain way, and as long as it's not hurting them, they should be able to continue that way as well.

BABA: Can you be more specific about what the tensions are like and what you are doing to alleviate them?

LIPMAN: For many decades in Israel, Orthodox rabbis were solely responsible for performing marriages. For people who are not Orthodox, that's something that has become very complicated and difficult, and people sometimes feel less proud to be Jewish and less connected because of it. But there are less demanding ways for people to marry that would not require everything that the Orthodox community would want to have.

Another area of tension is Shabbat. Even though I personally am Orthodox, and I don't drive a car or ride buses on Shabbat, there are people in Israel who do. If people would like to ride buses in areas where religious people don't live, and it won't disturb anybody else, and it will not require religious bus drivers to work, then we feel that people should be permitted to have public buses on Saturdays. Meanwhile, in the less religious circles, we want to have more Jewish studies, so people will learn more about Judaism and understand why people in Israel are as religious as they are.

I'm in a political party that has religious and not religious people working together, and that's something which is very beautiful, and I'm honored to be a part of that. It's really a question of everyone trying to understand each other. There are ways to address these tensions in a way that everyone feels respected, and we feel that will ultimately strengthen Judaism.

BABA: Do you think that your American background has shaped your viewpoints about the conflicts between religious and secular Jews in Israel?

LIPMAN: Very much so. I think that in America, religious people tend to be more open minded and more accepting. I have people in my family who are not religious, and that has helped me be more tolerant and more respectful. I think that, in general, on the religious side in America, even though some people may be religious, they're still not as extreme and not as closed a community as they are in Israel. In America, religious Jews are very much a part of the business world and other areas. I went to an ultra-Orthodox yeshiva in America and I also went to university and have a master's degree. I think that I bring that perspective here to Israel.

BABA: Does American history also affect your views? For example, when you see buses in Israel with women seated in the back, do you think of Rosa Parks?

LIPMAN: The answer is yes. When I heard of separating men and women on the buses in some communities and having women go to the back, it definitely conjured up images of the civil rights movement in America and of things that are part of our American past which we're not proud of. And I think that learning from how people stood up to it in America definitely led to our being part of standing up to it here in Israel, and demanding that every human being be treated with respect and given the dignity that he or she deserves.

BABA: Israeli law required you to renounce your American citizenship to serve in the Knesset, and you said you were sorry to do that. Why?

LIPMAN: The reason is very straightforward: The United States of America provided a place for my father's side of the family when they were running away from pogroms in Russia, and for my mother's side of the family after the Holocaust. It was a wonderful place to flourish as Jews. I grew up in a religious family and taught in a religious school, and I really felt that renouncing my American citizenship was a very strong step, and that it shouldn't in any way be conceived as if I was slapping the country in the face, a country which did so much for my family. Also, there are a lot of values that I have that I gained from growing up in the United States.

I thought I was just going to be signing a paper, but I found out that I had to say it, and I actually started crying as I was saying it. I just didn't want it to be interpreted as a lack of gratitude. It just felt like I was taking a part of me and saying that this is no longer a part of me. It was hard to do.

On the other hand, it certainly feels special to now be purely Israeli. There's something very wonderful about that.

BABA: Todah rabbah, MK Lipman, and good luck in the Knesset!

Article and interview by Yaffa Klugerman