The challenges and dilemmas of local translators of human rights: The case of disability rights among Jewish ultra-Orthodox communities

Abstract

Translators of global liberal human rights ideas into religious conservative communities are intermediaries who occupy a liminal position. They are located at a complex crossroad of incompatible values and norms. This article examines the translators’ challenges and dilemmas that stem from this position. The article focuses on translators of human rights of people with disabilities in Jewish ultra-Orthodox communities in Israel as a case study. The article analyzes the translators’ questions of identity and belonging, as well as their dilemmas and difficulties when there is a contradiction between the human rights discourse and the ultra-Orthodox discourse. It also illuminates the dilemmas that result from the tension between the state authorities’ perspective and the ultra-Orthodox perspective. These dilemmas differ from those discussed in the literature, which are usually related to choosing activist strategies. Furthermore, the findings suggest that, unlike previous studies that have portrayed human rights translators as actors with “double subjectivity” who can flexibly move between the global and the local moral worlds, the translators in this case are deeply entrenched in the local religious world. For them, localization is not merely an instrumental means to legitimize the global human rights principles but, rather, an essential way to settle their conflicting identities and beliefs.