Ritual Baths: Single women and converts stay away
April 28, 2009 by Steve
Posted by Rabbi Andrew Sacks
Imagine the following scenario: A Masorti/Conservative Jew walks into a public library in Tel Aviv to borrow a book. At the entry she is informed by the librarian, a civil servant, that owing to her Masorti affiliation, she would not be permitted to borrow the book. If she truly wanted to read she would have to raise the funds to build her own building, stock it with books, and find the money to staff the facility and pay for its maintenance.
Sounds silly, right? Well of course it is. Our public libraries are built and maintained with tax payer dollars. They are intended to serve all of the public. There is no ideological or theological litmus test to determine who may borrow a book.
Yet this is exactly what happens when Masorti Jews seek to use the public Mikvehs (ritual baths) throughout Israel.
A Mikveh may be most any natural body of water. But most Mikvehs are constructed in keeping with a complicated set of Halachot (Jewish laws). They essentially look like a small indoor swimming pool.
Who goes for immersion in a Mikveh? Some men have the custom to go but most often the Mikvehs are used by women. Jewish law prohibits sexual relations between a man and a woman unless the woman has immersed herself following menstruation. So observant women, who are sexually active and menstruating, generally go to Mikveh each month.
Traditionally, a bride will also go before her wedding. In addition, both male and female would-be converts complete the conversion process by immersion before a Beit Din (a rabbinic court) in a Mikveh.
Most Mikvehs in Israel are publicly funded. They are, in that sense, the equivalent of the public libraries. They ought, by law, be open to all. They are not the personal province of any one group. Yet that is what has become the reality in nearly all of Israel’s Mikvehs.
When I lived in the US there were Mikvehs built by Orthodox shuls. In many cases those shuls barred Conservative and Reform converts from using the Mikveh. I never cared for this slap at Klal Yisrael but since the funding for the Mikveh was private, it was the right of the Mikveh owners to take a parochial approach.
In Israel it is the tax-payers who fund the Mikvehs. They do not belong to the Ultra-Orthodox, though the keys are most often in the hands of those on the payroll of the religious (read: Orthodox) councils.
Not too far back when I joined two other rabbis at a Mikveh in a southern Israeli town (one of the few where the local town council takes a pluralistic approach) for the purposes of conversion, we found the door locked. The key, given to us by the head of the city council, did not work. The local rabbi had changed the locks to keep us out. Yes, a public official (the local rabbi is a paid government worker) violated the law and treated the Mikveh as his own property rather than as the public institution it is.
Our brides have also been turned away as they sought to ready themselves for the wedding. You see, in defiance of the rules as issued by the Ministry of Religions, most "Mikveh Ladies" insist that a prospective bride present a note from the official Orthodox Rabbinate stating that she is about to be married. No note - no Mikveh.
Those being married by Masorti rabbis do not have such notes. Only the official Rabbinate issues the notes. And in any event, our rabbis would rely on the word of the bride that she went to Mikveh - should she decide to do so.
One crazy aside: Israel’s Chief Rabbi recently ordered the Mikvehs closed to single women. He stated that to allow single women to immerse would encourage non-marital sex. He reasoned that if single women could not use the Mikveh they would abstain from sexual relations.
This, of course, is simple poppycock. It is the wishful thinking of a man out of touch with reality. This rabbi seeks to manipulate the use of a public facility, one that is not legally under his authority, to maintain a standard that he holds dear. Non-marital sex without immersion in a Mikveh may be a violation of Torah law. Keeping the doors closed does not prevent non-marital sex. It only creates the potential to force the sex into a category which may be a violation of an even more serious Jewish law.
Some have suggested that the non-Orthodox Movements build their own Mikvehs. This has been done by some communities in North America. But aside from the high costs involved - it is just not necessary. This brings me back to the public library analogy.
I am quite certain that all readers (except, perhaps, for those nut cases, and haters, who revel in abusive talkbacks to anything and everything I write) would agree that as much as they may, or may not, care for our Masorti approach - we must be allowed, as citizens, to use the public libraries. So too we must be granted access to the Mikvehs.
But, sadly, since we are not granted access, we have turned to the judicial system for relief. We await a judicial decision.
[Reprinted with appreciation from the Jerusalem Post Blog website]
American Reform rabbis back Obama’s Afghanistan policy
April 28, 2009 by Steve
April 26, 2009
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Reform rabbinate passed a resolution backing the Obama administration’s Afghanistan policy.
The resolution passed Friday by the Central Conference of American Rabbis, which represents nearly 2,000 rabbis, supports the Obama administration’s efforts to "send the necessary combat and support units to Afghanistan to quell the resurgence of the Taliban," to "find, disrupt and destroy Al Qaeda wherever they may be found," create "the infrastructure necessary for the deployment of American military personnel," and "expand and train the Afghan military so that it can play a greater role in creating security in the nation," among other goals.
The resolution also reaffirms the CCAR’s 2001 statement that "military means alone will not defeat terrorism. A coordination of military, diplomatic, political, economic, religious and cultural means must also be utilized."
The call for a continued troop presence in Afghanistan contrasts with its 2006 call for a "clear exit strategy" with "specific goals for troop withdrawal" in Iraq, following on the heels of a similar Union of Reform Judaism resolution passed in 2005.
[This article was reprinted, with thanks, from the JTA website]
Head of Reform Religious Action Centre arrested in Darfur protest
April 28, 2009 by Steve
April 27, 2009
- Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, is arrested outside the Sudanese Embassy on April 27, 2009 while protesting the deteriorating humanitarian crisis in Darfur. ( Save Darfur Coalition)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — A top Reform Jewish leader and five U.S. Congress members were arrested for civil disobedience outside the Sudanese Embassy in Washington.
Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, joined other Darfur activists and Reps. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), John Lewis (D-Ga.), Donna Edwards (D-Md.), Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) Monday to protest the Sudanese government’s expulsion last month of 13 international aid agencies and the resulting humanitarian crisis in Darfur.
The group spoke on the steps of the embassy, according to a Save Darfur Coalition news release, and then would not leave the scene when they were asked to by police. Also arrested was Save Darfur Coalition president Jerry Fowler and Enough Project co-founder John Prendergast.
The groups say that the Sudanese decision to expel aid groups will leave 1.1 million civilians without food aid, 1.5 million without health care and more than 1 million without potable water.
Sharansky nomination shines light on debate over reforms at Jewish Agency
April 27, 2009 by Steve
By Jacob Berkman · April 21, 2009
-
1 out of 1
- The choice of Natan Sharansky to head the Jewish Agency for Israel has rankled some agency officials. (Kikasso / Creative Commons)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Israel’s prime minister has nominated former Soviet dissident and close political ally Natan Sharansky for the chairmanship of the Jewish Agency for Israel. Once that would have made him a shoo-in for the job, but now some of the organization’s Diaspora-based lay leaders think they should be making the decision.
After several weeks of speculation, Benjamin Netanyahu publicly tapped Sharansky to chair the Jewish Agency’s executive committee. The spot became vacant when Ze’ev Bielski left the organization in November to run for the Israeli parliament.
Following Saturday night’s announcement from the Prime Minister’s Office, the Israeli press lauded Sharansky as the perfect candidate for the job. Jewish Agency officials in Israel hailed him as a Jewish hero who could help attract major donors to an organization that has enacted tens of millions of dollars in budget cuts in recent months as funds from one of its primary backers — the North American network of local Jewish federation — shrunk significantly.
“We’ve always had politicians, but now we could have someone of world stature who is accepted into the White House and is accepted all over the world,” one Israeli-based Jewish Agency insider told JTA Monday. “He’s been a man of stature, a freedom fighter — whatever adjective you want to give. Now the Jewish Agency is catapulted into world news, not only into Jewish news.”
But some of the Jewish Agency’s leaders in North America are quietly voicing concerns that Netanyahu’s announcement could undercut their plan to de-politicize the chairman position and keep this key decision in the hands of the organization.
At stake is control over a storied but struggling organization that served as the prestate Jewish government in Palestine and later played the lead role in facilitating immigration to the new Jewish state.
Though its budget has steadily declined, the Jewish Agency remains the largest recipient of charitable dollars from the federation system, receiving about $140 million per year from the annual campaigns of communities across North America.
Sharansky’s backers see him as a potential rainmaker who could attract new sources of financial support to make up for the cuts from increasingly cash-strapped federations. But several of the key proponents of reform at the Jewish Agency fear that the perception of an overly political selection process will hurt efforts to boost support from federations and raise funds from other Diaspora sources.
Several North American philanthropists — notably Charles Bronfman and Bobby Goldberg — have long complained that in past decades the Israeli prime minister seemed free to reserve the chairmanship for political allies. Jewish Agency officials have acknowledged that the perception has been a stumbling block in terms of attracting new donors and, as a result, are in the end stages of a five-year process of revamping the agency’s governance structure.
A key component of the proposed reforms is making the prime minister more a consultant to a nominating committee comprised of members of the Jewish Agency’s board of governors. That, supporters of reform say, would put the choice of who should run the organization back into the hands of its primary funders, the Jewish federations (through the United Jewish Communities) and Keren Hayesod, which raises money in Canada and Europe.
The plan was formalized at November meetings of the organization’s board of governors and was expected to be ratified at the Jewish Agency Assembly June 21-23 in Jerusalem. Lay leaders have said the process of nominating a new leader had been in “suspended animation” until after the assembly.
Moshe Vigdor, the Jewish Agency’s director general, has been running the organization in the interim.
Now, say some of those on the North American side of the Jewish Agency’s lay leadership team, Netanyahu may have made a pre-emptive move to put in place his long-time political ally.
Netanyahu even may have pressured Sharansky, who heads the Shalem Center’s Adelson Institute for Strategic Studies — a position for which he was hand-picked by its funder, billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson — to take the Jewish Agency job and use it as a stepping-stone to Israel’s presidency, The Jerusalem Post reported earlier this month.
Sharansky had made an attempt to become the Jewish Agency leader in 2005. Shortly after quitting the Knesset in protest of then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank, he ran against Bielski, Sharon’s pick for the job, and lost.
“Netanyahu has read the political tea leaves and he has made a decision,” one U.S.-based high-ranking Jewish Agency lay leader told JTA on the condition of anonymity.
The source insisted that Netanyahu announced his decision without first consulting Richard Pearlstone, the Jewish Agency’s top lay leader. Pearlstone declined comment. Aides to Sharansky and Netanyahu did not return messages.
Jewish Agency officials said that Netanyahu was scheduled to speak with Pearlstone via telephone on Monday — two days after making it official that Sharansky was his choice.
The source acknowledged that Netanyahu’s approach was standard operating procedure for Israeli prime ministers, but said the rules of the game are changing.
“I hope the prime minister will understand and respect the move to change governance rules,” the source said. “Having said that, the government of Israel is really our strongest partner, so we are not interested in confrontation.”
The chairman of the United Jewish Communities, which annually funnels approximately $140 million per year from the annual campaigns of local Jewish federations into the Jewish Agency’s budget, also expressed concern.
“We have been working for quite a while on new governance processes that will strengthen the Jewish Agency and feel that any position should be filled according to those governance processes,” said UJC’s chairman, Joe Kanfer. “Sharansky should be given thoughtful consideration by the nominating committee. We believe this is important work and that [the Jewish Agency] needs to follow procedures.”
After years of seeing the chairmanship go to Israeli politicians, some Jewish Agency lay leaders in North America were hoping to find a professional nonprofit worker to run the organization. Sharansky would seem to fall more on the politician end of the spectrum, having headed his own political party, served as a minister and been widely viewed as a Netanyahu ally.
Jewish Agency professional staffers are downplaying any hints of an internal conflict, saying that either under the old process or the proposed new one, the prime minister would have had a say in who became the next Jewish Agency chairman. Either way, they say, Sharansky would have been a strong candidate as a former minister of Diaspora affairs with international stature.
Steven Nasatir, the head of a federation that is one of the top financial supporters of the Jewish Agency, said he is not concerned.
“Sharansky is a hero of the Jewish people, and as someone who watched as he served on the agency’s board of governors before he went into government, I think it is wonderful that he is willing to sacrifice himself to be considered for the job,” said Nasatir, the president of the JUF/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago. “I am sure we will go through the appropriate processes and that the prime minister’s suggestion will be given serious consideration, and I trust that the process for giving this consideration will end in a happy conclusion.”
[Reproduced from the JTA website]