ARZA Newsletter May 21 2010
May 20, 2010 by nicola
The Chief Rabbinate versus the Jewish People: Isn’t it time?
By Rabbi Meir Azari
I would like to take this opportunity to turn to the Orthodox rabbis who understand what is happening in the world. Isn’t it time we amended this situation? Hasn’t the time come for a real dialogue between you and the non-Orthodox denominations of Judaism? Meir Azari, the rabbi of the Reform Beit Daniel synagogue in Tel Aviv, is demanding that the Orthodox community start dealing with the decidedly non-Orthodox reality of the vast majority of today’s Jewry
Rabbi Nahman of Braslav recounted that Satan found it difficult to corrupt the world all on his own, and consequently appointed respected rabbis from various regions to help him do the job. Clearly, many would say that the work of Satan is far easier today and that quite a few respected rabbis have done an “outstanding” job. I am sure that many of you are certain, just as I am, that were our prophets Amos or Isaiah - who were so impassioned about justice and fixing the world, and who sought to hear the voice of the living God - to contend for the position of chief rabbi today, they would not know how to wrap up a political deal that would get them elected to the position, or even a seat on the rabbinical council, the way it looks today.
The truth is that when Bambi Sheleg asked me to write a few words and thoughts about the chief rabbinate in Israel, I considered turning down her request; I was also tempted to perhaps leave a blank page to symbolize the achievements and future of the rabbinate as I see it. The chief rabbinate - as it is viewed by many in the Jewish world, both by secular Jews and many religious Jews, including the majority of those from the Reform and Conservative denominations - is an irrelevant institution whose role boils down to issuing kashrut certificates and dominating by force all matters related to marriage, divorce, conversion and burial. In the eyes of many, the chief rabbinate has no commitment to the Jewish people as a whole, because its only commitment is to a fossilized, obsolete institution.
Nevertheless, I have decided to write on the subject. I do not intend to discuss the question of the chief rabbinate and its failures in dealing with issues of conversion and kashrut, marriage and divorce. Every member of Israeli society with eyes in his head has already formed his or her own views regarding the behavior of the chief rabbinate and its leaders. My words are directed at those among you, both ultra-Orthodox and Orthodox Jews, to whom the future of Judaism is dear: Can a chief rabbinate headed by Rabbi Metzger and Rabbi Amar serve as a source of hope and inspiration, a voice of compassion and sanity for the majority of Israeli and Diaspora Jews? Is it capable of seeing the broader picture of the complexity of Jewish existence in the land of Israel and the Diaspora?
Rabbi Prof. Eliezer Berkovits, among the most important Orthodox philosophers in American Jewry, who immigrated to Israel towards the end of his life, wrote the following in an article entitled, “A state-appointed rabbinate - A disaster for Torah Judaism”: The ‘official rabbis’ are entrenched in a citadel that the law of the state built for them. We are facing a number of completely new challenges today, challenges the like of which we have never encountered in all our history. Clearly, the new roles and new problems in the area of Jewish law, morality, society and Jewish philosophy call for innovation in Judaism. However, we do not hear the voice of the ‘official rabbinate’ on any of these subjects.”
For many of us, the chief rabbinate is the modern version of the alienated and occasionally corrupt priesthood of the Second Temple period. For others, it is little more than a printing house to churn out kashrut certificates and a coerced debate on questions of marriage and divorce. As a believing Reform Jew, perhaps contrary to the prevalent view, I envision a unifying and sharing chief rabbinate, one that is able to reach out to millions of Jews, men and women, united throughout the world in different, not necessarily Orthodox frameworks. If the State of Israel wants a chief rabbinate, one that is a unifying, harmonizing Jewish institution, it must realize that the rabbinate and its heads must be attentive to all the different and multifold Jewish voices of our generation.
Up until the time of the Turks, who appointed the first chief rabbi, which they called the Hakham Bashi, there was no chief rabbinate or chief rabbi as we know them today. Over the generations, Jews understood the importance of a having a plurality of views, and although there were some that found it difficult to understand this, it is the very nature of Judaism, with its numerous approaches and worldviews, that in most cases prevented the establishment of a Jewish popery.
However, it is perhaps possible that there is room today for a single, unifying institution. But it must be one that can lend an ear to the voices of millions of secular and non-Orthodox religious Jews throughout the world. As it stands today, the chief rabbinate lacks any ability to genuinely communicate with the majority of the Jewish world. In Israel, all Jewish Israeli citizens are subject to the authority of the rabbinate by virtue of secular law; in the Diaspora, however, most Jews feel no affinity whatsoever for the Israeli rabbinical establishment. Clearly, I am not advocating that that an Orthodox or ultra-Orthodox rabbi subscribe to a secular, Reform or Conservative worldview. But if they want a system that all can share, they need to be open to the different voices of world Jewry. And as it says of the Lulav, “And God said: They shall be all tied together as one, and each shall atone for the other.” And there is also the well-known commentary by the sages on the prayer of Moses, who was looking for a leader with the right leadership qualities to succeed him after he was gone: “Master of the Universe, You know the views of each and everyone, and your children’s views are different from one another… Please, let this leader be tolerant of each in accordance with his views…”
Especially now, when a sane and unifying rabbinical voice that can appeal to all levels of society is needed, few in Israeli society heed the spiritual and ethical voice as represented by the chief rabbinate. And why should they? The chief rabbinate has failed at the challenge of absorbing the million immigrants from the former Soviet Union and of drawing them closer to Judaism; it humiliated the immigrants from Ethiopia regarding their Jewishness and has failed to cause secular Israelis to see Jewish spirituality in a favorable light. The rabbinical establishment does not propose any meaningful ideas where egalitarian (i.e. fair and healthy) relationships between men and women at this time are concerned, do not deal with the desire of homosexuals to identify themselves as such while still seeing themselves as an inseparable part of Judaism, and is generally irrelevant to the struggle over the moral character of the State of Israel.
And Rabbi Prof. Eliezer Berkowitz added in his article: “The late Rabbi Abraham Isaac Hacohen Kook believed that in the Land of Israel, the old would be renewed and the new would become sanctified. To our chagrin, the old has become even older, and the Torah has never been more Diaspora-like than it is today in the State of Israel. We must make way for a new generation of rabbis, teachers, intellectuals, spiritual leaders. They will arise, with God’s help, out of a spiritual-Torah struggle with the problems of our time. The old will yet be renewed, and the new will yet be sanctified. This is crucial to the Jewish people and its Torah and the Jewish future of the State of Israel.”
I would like to take this opportunity to turn to the Orthodox rabbis who understand what is happening in the world: Isn’t it time we amended this situation? Hasn’t the time come for a real dialogue between you and the non-Orthodox denominations of Judaism?
It is now, at this time of such spiritual distress, with the rise of globalization and the difficulties it poses to us - in the face of the tremendous challenges posed to the Jewish community that has gathered in Zion, and in face of the challenges to Jewish life in the Diaspora in the modern age: intermarriage, assimilation and loss of identity - in the face of these challenges and difficulties, that you should be initiating a dialogue with the millions of your brothers and sisters. You, the Orthodox rabbis who are also familiar with those that lie outside the Orthodox camp, must send out a clear, loud message calling for a frank Jewish dialogue, one that understands the changes in the times and the challenges facing Judaism in the modern world.
I am not asking you to agree with the path of Progressive or Conservative Judaism, but you must make it clear that the voice of the non-Orthodox movements is a legitimate one in the State of Israel and the Diaspora today. It is interesting to note that a great outcry was heard from your camp when the chief rabbinate sabotaged the shmitta year and undermined and humiliated Rabbi Druckman on the matter of conversion. But you have been lending a hand for years to the ongoing boycott of the non-Orthodox denominations of Judaism. If we want a Jewish establishment that is unifying and draws people closer to Judaism, we must hold a shared Jewish dialogue. It is absurd that the leaders of the chief rabbinate hold regular dialogues with Christians and Muslims, but none with the leaders of millions of Jews.
Yet another important voice that must be part of the search for a different rabbinate is that of women. In an age when women are enjoying increasing equality, and their voice is heard in all areas of life and activity, it is not heard at all in the corridors of the chief rabbinate. It is difficult to envision a chief rabbinate, with all its institutions and courts, that will be acceptable in the long term to Israeli society as a whole without representation of women on the judicial body. And in any case, what sense does it make to force secular, non-believing Jews to use the services of the chief rabbinate and its courts?
We should bear in mind that the rabbinate started out as a challenge to the institution of the priesthood, which headed Jewish religious and spiritual leadership for hundreds of years. The priesthood was an aristocracy; in other words, all its members belonged to one of the branches of the family of Aaron, Moses’ brother.
The moral failure of the priesthood led to the democratization of the world of Judaism. The rabbis, who succeeded the priests in leading the people in the late Second Temple period and during the period of the Mishna and Talmud, faced a central task: the education of the people and the establishment of a decision-making process based on knowledge and on the democratic process inside the study halls. The rabbinical establishment of those times was imbued with knowledge, values and leadership skills, and in the face of a corrupt priestly leadership established on inherited rights, the rabbinate succeeded in bringing about a major reform in the leadership of the Jewish community.
The encounter with the modern age posed new challenges for the rabbi. The rabbi, who was a teacher, spiritual leader, halachic authority, counselor, judge and preacher, was forced to deal with administrative matters and fundraising. He had to contend with the fact that professionals were starting to encroach on some of his traditional roles. Legal experts, community workers, psychiatrists, psychologists, doctors, politicians, teachers and members of the academia began to invade the rabbi’s traditional territory. Moreover, the Jewish communities and rabbis failed to develop suitable professional training methods and professional and moral codes of ethics as required of a rabbi in the modern age.
Prof. Shaul Baron, one of the most prominent researchers of contemporary Judaism, once noted, “The rabbi is the central figure in the drama of Jewish survival. Do either Rabbi Metzger or Rabbi Amar fall into that category? The world of Judaism poses the rabbi with terrible dilemmas, except that during these times, he must face them without the proper tools to carry out his task. The rabbis of our generation must set new standards of training, standards more relevant to the current reality of life. They must learn to collaborate with other professionals and to make use of community workers, psychologists and legal experts in their work. Every rabbi should have another rabbi to mentor him, who will support him in his community and public activities, especially in the early years of his work. Rabbis must set norms that relate to the issue of receiving benefits from their jobs. Guidelines regarding the frequent meetings rabbis hold to help individuals and families in a state of crisis should be determined. The traditional Jewish sources are replete with rules that can help the rabbi in setting those standards, but rabbis must always be attentive to the spirit of the times, public sentiment and the professional standards expected today.
In his laws of the Sanhedrin, Maimonides describes the ideal public figure. He says that he should have seven qualities, as follows: “Wisdom and modesty and fear and the hatred of money and the love of truth and love of his fellow men and a good name.” This is of course a very high standard, but shouldn’t we strive to create leaders worthy of Jewish communities? If we had a chief rabbinate that was open and sharing, headed by leaders that conform to Maimonides’ ideal, we might be able to find a way to agree. But as things appear today, we are not going to see a leadership of this kind developing in our time. All we can do is to pray together that the chief rabbinate disappears - for good.
Conversion Bill
by Anat Hoffman
Dear Friends of IRAC,
We thought we’d killed the conversion bill, but post-Pesach, it’s back, and with a new bite. But thanks to so many of you who spoke out against the bill, MK David Rotem and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Daniel Ayalon knew they could not pass this bill if Diaspora Jewry opposed it. And so, last week a determined Rotem and Ayalon made a special trip to New York to persuade Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist leaders to accept the bill - to assuage them it’s really not as bad as they thought.
If you’ll remember, the conversion bill is a tricky piece of legislation that no lover of religious pluralism should tolerate or support. While we support its original intention to make conversion easier for many Russian olim in Israel, the proposed law would do more harm than good. Among other things, it would distinguish between Jews by birth and Jews by choice, favoring the former, discriminating against the latter. The new law would also give full authority over conversions to the ultra-Orthodox Rabbinate, eliminating any hope for recognition of Reform and Conservative conversions in Israel, and potentially undoing over twenty years of our hard-won victories on behalf of Reform and Conservative rights.
Our congregations and communities are filled with people who are Jews by choice as well as birth; and as we learn from the story of Ruth, perhaps the most famous convert, to undergo conversion signifies a no less profound spiritual commitment to Judaism. There is no halachic distinction between Jews by birth and Jews by choice - and it has always been as such.
Rotem and Ayalon tell us that a clause in the conversion bill which would prevent converts who have visited Israel before their conversion from automatically gaining citizenship is targeted “only against foreign workers and refugees” and not against Reform and Conservative converts from the Diaspora.
Wait a second. This is pure racism. And we have on record that the Minister of the Interior (who would review citizenship bids of new converts) has stated that foreigners - Filipinos and Thais and Indians and others who do not fit a traditional definition of who is a Jew - should be prevented from obtaining Israeli citizenship, even if they have undergone a strict Orthodox conversion in Israel.
While we certainly agree that those whose intentions are not sincere should not be allowed to participate in a conversion process, we do not believe that Judaism can be delineated or applied only to people of a certain race, ethnicity, or geographical origin. IRAC and the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism (IMPJ) strongly support the rights of converts precisely because we do not think Judaism is something transferred by blood or limited to people from certain countries. There is a Jewish spirit, and the Jewish people are joined by this spirit, their belief in Torah, and their connection to the Hebrew language in the land of Israel.
If the conversion bill is passed into law, it will be a disaster for the Jewish spirit and a divisive blow to Klal Yisrael.
L’shalom,
Anat Hoffman
Proposed Israeli conversion bill is deeply flawed
by Uri Regev
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, head of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, dispatched his deputy minister, Danny Ayalon, and Knesset member David Rotem to the United States this week to pacify the Jewish leadership agitating over the conversion bill his party is trying to push through the Knesset.
Their mantra is clear: You simply don’t understand. You have nothing to worry about. Conversions taking place overseas will not be affected.
However, under the guise of helping immigrants from the former Soviet Union get converted to Judaism, the law in reality strengthens the power of the Chief Rabbinate, jeopardizing the achievements of the non-Orthodox movements and creating a wedge between born Jews and Jews by choice.
Rather than draw the logical and necessary conclusion supported by the clear majority of Israel and world Jewry — namely, removing the monopoly over conversion and marriage in Israel from the Orthodox Rabbinate altogether — Yisrael Beiteinu and Rotem went the opposite way.
Several months ago they pushed through the Knesset a shameful Registered Union law, which offers quasi-marriage only to one “religionless” individual to enter into a “union” with another “religionless” individual of the opposite sex. While some 400,000 Israeli citizens — including non-Orthodox converts to Judaism who live in Israel and many immigrants from the former Soviet Union — are barred from marrying in Israel, this new law would apply to only approximately 200 couples a year who must be willing to be branded publicly as “goyim.”
The bill as it stands betrays the principles of “freedom of religion and conscience” promised in Israel’s Declaration of Independence, betrays the will of the people and betrays Yisrael Beiteinu’s own constituents, most of whom are said to be immigrants from the former Soviet Union.
A growing number of rabbinic judges are now voiding lenient Orthodox conversions. Similarly, some chief rabbis of Israeli cities refuse to marry such converts if they deem them insufficiently observant.
Rotem presents the bill as providing protection against nullification of conversions, but the bill does nothing of the sort.
The most recent draft mandates that the ultimate authority in deciding whether a conversion would be nullified rests in the hands of a special panel of the Rabbinic Court of Appeals appointed by its president — currently Rabbi Shlomo Amar — and requiring his explicit consent.
Given the pattern of growing extremism in the rabbinic establishment and the dominance of the ultra-Orthodox, or Charedim, in the selection of chief rabbis, there is a real danger that the Jewish status of converts is becoming conditional and temporary. This law does not provide safety measures other than entrusting the decision to a chief rabbi who may not live up to Rotem’s hopes for moderation.
Made aware of this problem, Rotem now reportedly is saying that he will change the draft so that the ultimate authority over each conversion will remain in the hands of the court that conducted the conversion. He is honest, though, to admit that he has no idea if the Charedi parties will agree to this. I predict they won’t.
In landmark Israeli Supreme Court decisions in the past decade, two chief justices, Meir Shamgar and Aharon Barak, ruled that the Rabbinate should not be given any special authority in deciding who is a Jew for civil issues, such as the Law of Return and being registered as a Jew in the Population Registry. Rather, they said, a civil state authority should oversee recognizing conversions in Israel. They strongly rejected the state’s claim that this was a matter to be decided by the Chief Rabbinate.
Rotem’s bill instead increases the power of the Chief Rabbinate over conversion. Just as bad, the bill would limit recognition of Jewish status under the Law of Return by denying converts who spent time in Israel prior to their conversion the right to automatic citizenship under the Law of Return. This would establish for the first time a highly objectionable wedge between Jews by birth and converts to Judaism.
Rotem and Ayalon should be hearing unequivocal and strong criticism from American Jewish leaders, who ought to resent the attempt to divide and conquer by drawing a distinction between American non-Orthodox movements and their Israeli counterparts, and by a bill that would treat converts as second-class Jews.
It is time that Israel be guided by its own founding vision for equality and freedom of religion. This is the desire of the majority of Israelis and world Jews: pluralism rather than constantly giving in to the Charedim. This will not only strengthen Israel as a democracy but also will enhance Israel’s Jewish character.
Freedom of religion will bring Jews back, in creative ways, to their rich Jewish heritage. Religious coercion will only drive them further away. Both Israel’s well-being and its future relationship with the Jewish people will depend on ending the anti-pluralistic monopoly of the haredim. The Rotem bill in its current formulation is a move in the wrong direction.
Two Petitions Challenge Haredi Education Policies
May 18, 2010 by Steve
By Dan Izenberg, The Jerusalem Post, May 14th, 2010
Two new and separate petitions challenging the refusal of the haredi educational system to teach core curriculum subjects essential for the modern workforce are currently afoot in the High Court of Justice.
One was filed last week by the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC). The other, due to be submitted in the next day or two, was prepared by Uriel Reichmann, president of the Interdisciplinary Center – Herzliya, former Education Minister Amnon Rubinstein, and four men who left the haredi community into which they were born.
The latest initiatives are part of an ongoing effort to force haredi schools to teach at least the key subjects of the core curriculum, including mathematics, a foreign language and Hebrew studies; or, if they refuse, to cancel the state budgets they currently receive.
The full core curriculum includes Bible, expression in Hebrew, Hebrew literature, history, the history of the Jewish people, citizenship, mathematics and one foreign language.
In 2002, IRAC and the High School, Seminar and College Teachers’ Association petitioned the High Court with the same demands.
At that time, there were two haredi school systems. The larger one consisted of schools that were recognized by the state but were not official state schools. They received 75 percent of the state funding (state schools receive 100 percent) and, in return, were expected to teach 75 percent of the core curriculum. Another stream, known as the “exempt” schools, comprised mainly talmudei torah which received 55 percent of the state funding and were expected to teach 55 percent of the core curriculum.
The recognized but unofficial school system includes primary and secondary schools (little yeshivot) for boys, and primary and secondary schools for girls.
The primary and secondary girls’ schools have been teaching “modern” subjects. But the boys’ schools, particularly the “little yeshivot” have not.
In 2004, the High Court ruled that the haredi boys’ schools should teach the core curriculum, but gave them three years to introduce the courses.
In 2007, after the haredi schools failed to introduce the core curriculum, the petitioners returned to the High Court and demanded a final ruling on the case.
Four days before the ruling was due to be handed down, the Knesset approved a haredi-initiated law establishing a new type of secondary school, described as “special cultural” educational institutions. According to the definition included in the law, these schools were “educational institutions in which a systematic education was given in accordance with the special characteristics of the special cultural group that studied in each.” The law exempted these schools from studying the core curriculum (since it allegedly clashed with the “special culture” of the various communities that studied in each school). According to the law, these schools were to receive 60 percent state funding.
Four days later, the court handed down its ruling. It sharply criticized the Knesset for passing the law on the eve of the ruling, but said that it could not order boys’ secondary schools that were recognized by the Ministry of Education as “special cultural” schools to teach the core curriculum.
Now, some four years later, the battle is being joined once again.
Reichmann told The Jerusalem Post that he is calling for the rescinding of the law allowing haredi high schools not to teach the core curriculum on the grounds that it violates the Basic Law: Human Freedom and Dignity, and the Basic Law: Freedom of Occupation.
“The law causes human and national damage,” said Reichmann. The human damage was represented by the four petitioners who had left the haredi community.
“They did not know a word of English,” he told the Post. “In fact, some of them did not know there was an English language. Some did not know how to multiply.”
One of the petitioners began to study when he was 23 years old, Reichmann continued. After beginning law school at the Interdisciplinary Center, he got bogged down for almost two years because he had trouble learning English. Earlier, he had had serious problems when he joined the army, but ended up as an officer in the Golani Brigade.
“They are wonderful people who have suffered terribly,” said Reichmann.
The petition filed by IRAC charged that the state had failed to keep its promise to increase the supervision of the haredi schools regarding not only the core curriculum – which still applies to recognized but unofficial primary and secondary schools and “exempted” schools – but also other standards, such as the minimum number of visits by school supervisors each year, the number of teaching hours, the schoolbooks in the curriculum, levels of learning achievement, and so on.
The petitioners quoted from the state’s response to its petition in 2007, in which it admitted that the supervision in the haredi schools was insufficient and must be “significantly” reinforced.
Since then, wrote IRAC’s attorney, Ricki Shapira Rosenberg, a total of two supervisors has been added to the recognized but unofficial school system, and none to the “exempted” schools.
Thus in 2007, there was one supervisor for every 101,901 students in the recognized but unofficial school system, none for the estimated 40,000 students in the “exempted” schools, one for every 5,328 students in the state secular schools and one for every 3,941 in the state religious schools.
With the addition of the two haredi supervisors, there is now one supervisor for 50,950 students in the recognized but unofficial school system – and that is the extent of the promised improvement.
To read the original article in The Jerusalem Post, click here
2008 @All rights reserved.Israel Religious Action Center
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Woman attacked for tefillin imprint
May 14, 2010 by Steve
May 13, 2010
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A Jewish woman was attacked in Beersheba reportedly for having the imprints of tefillin lines visible on her arms.
Noa Raz was physically assaulted Tuesday morning by an ultra-Orthodox man in Beersheba’s Central Bus Station, where she was waiting for a bus to her job in Tel Aviv, according to a news release issued Wednesday by the Israel Religious Action Center.
According to the release, the man asked Raz twice if the imprints were from tefillin. When she told him they were, he began to kick and strangle her while screaming “women are an abomination.” Raz, who practices Conservative Judaism, reportedly broke free from the man and boarded her bus.
Raz is a member of Women of the Wall, which holds a monthly Rosh Chodesh women’s prayer service at the Western Wall. In March, haredi men threw chairs at the women as they prepared to pray at the Wall.
Raz filed a police report Wednesday on the incident. The Israel Religious Action Center has called on the Beersheba police to treat Raz’s assault as a hate crime.
Anat Hoffman, the center’s executive director, said the assault on Raz for wrapping tefillin “should not be seen as an isolated incident but as taking place within an atmosphere of growing violence toward and intimidation of women who seek to pray freely and equally."
"Too often these acts of violence are tolerated. The fact that this man thought it acceptable to attack a woman for performing a religious act in private is an example of the escalation of violence targeted against women and against religious pluralists in Israel."
ARZA Newsletter May 5 2010
May 5, 2010 by nicola
Women’s restrooms at the Kotel - take a hike!
by Rabbi Andrew Sacks
First the Mechiza (the barrier that separates men from women during prayer) at the Kotel was raised. Then it was raised again. Then the prayer sections were extended further back into the public Western Wall Plaza without any public zoning hearings.
This was followed by modesty squads pushing shmatez at women who were deemed to be in less than modest attire.
Next came a new passage, for men only, along the back section of the Kotel Plaza that would allow the ever-so-pious male worshipers to access the men’s section without having to be tempted by the lascivious women in the mixed public plaza.
Next we saw the detention of members of the group Women of the Wall, by the police, for the heinous crime of wishing to pray with a Tallit and a Sefer Torah.
Next it was chair-throwing at these women, along with vicious verbal assaults.
But rather than condemn the men for their violent outburst, Rav Ovadia Yosef, Israel’s leading Sephardi rabbinic authority, said during a weekly sermon that the women in the feminist world were “stupid” and acted the way they did out of a selfish desire for equality, not “for heavens’ sake.”
He also remarked that they “should be condemned.” He said that these “are stupid women who come to the Wall to put on a Tallit.”
Now I can’t vouch for the intelligence of every woman in the Women of the Wall group - but I can say that my own contacts have led me to believe that this group is far from stupid. I would go so far as to assert that having failed to meet with the WOW, Rav Ovadia’s words reek of ignorance and intolerance.
But then, just when you though it could not get much worse… it does.
New temporary (I hope) Mehizot have been erected in most of the remaining Plaza area. OK - maybe this is to accommodate the Pesach and Shavuot crowds. But the restrooms, that have been available along the side to the Kotel Plaza (by the entry to the Temple Tunnels) for many years have now been closed to women. That’s right!
A sign has been erected atop the restroom doorways directing women to go elsewhere. No longer may women cross the Kotel Plaza (which, as I pointed out, has a male-only passageway) to use the facilities.
Instead, a jimmy-rigged facility for women, looking more like something one would expect to find in the camps in Haiti, has been set up by the stairs leading down from the Jewish Quarter. The sinks come complete with no soap.
I am still hopeful that this arrangement may be temporary.
Time to wake up
by Yizhar Hess
We’ve let Charedim take over everything about Judaism in public sphere. Anyone who used public transportation to get to the Western Wall during Pesach was confronted with a new phenomenon. Attendants were on duty at all the bus stations. As each bus pulled in, one of them would approach and, using a megaphone, instruct the driver: “Driver, open the back door.” The drivers obeyed. The attendants continued relaying instructions to the crowd: “Men in front. Women in back.”
The women left the line of people waiting to exit through the front door and made their way to the back door. The orders continued - “Men in front. Women in back” - until the lines were rearranged. The attendants, wearing bright yellow vests, stood beside the policemen who are routinely posted to guard the bus stations in the area of the Kotel, so they appeared to be part of the security forces entrusted with keeping the peace.
Who was paying these attendants? On whose behalf and on whose authority were they there? No one knew the answer to these questions. The Egged bus company said that they had no idea who was responsible. The police were surprised at the question, as if it had nothing to do with them. The attendants themselves refused to respond. Their yellow vests bore no insignia of any kind, and there were no identifying markings on the small, state-of-the-art megaphones they held in their hands.
They worked for a security company, which had simply been hired them to be there. We can, unfortunately, reasonably assume that we are the ones who are paying the bill, in one way or another and that public funds were involved. It was a well-organized, trained force - a militia, the revolutionary guard, if you will.
If you had been watching a scene like this on a world news program, and the language emanating from the megaphones was Farsi, the language of Iran, rather than Hebrew, it would have been possible to gloss over this incident. But it happened in the capital of Israel, on the festival of freedom.
Without being aware of it, this has become the reality of our lives. We have let the Charedim take over everything that has to do with Judaism in the public sphere. The Western Wall has become a Charedi synagogue; the entrances to it - not the plaza itself, but the entrance gates - are segregated, with huge signs separating men and women; the mehadrin (segregated) bus lines are already plying more than 100 routes, and not just in Bnei Brak and Jerusalem; in many cemeteries around the country, women, including the daughters of the deceased, are not permitted to follow the biers as they are moved toward the graves. Only men are allowed. Women must walk behind.
This harassment has become the background noise of life here. Let’s take the past year, for example and look at all the points where we have been shown the Charedi interpretation of “what Judaism is all about”: revoking of conversions; the decision of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv that Charedim are not permitted to donate organs essential for saving the life of another person, but they may receive such organs from others; “the Nahari bill,” which obligated all local authorities to fund private, Charedi educational institutions (and I wonder if any mayor would dare to defy this law and refrain from funding such local institutions given that the Interior Ministry is headed by Eli Yishai, the head of Shas); and of course the issue of the potentially enormous cost of relocating the new secure emergency room at Ashkelon’s Barzilai Medical Center because of some unidentified ancient bones. Link all these points together and you will get the picture of our lives. Sad, but true
But, just a minute, let’s consider the Barzilai incident as an example. Public pressure helped. The decision is being overturned. Anyone aware of the undercurrents that move the steaming lava of politics here has already noticed that something has changed. The public is waking up. The political party that succeeds in leveraging this trend of change right now will spearhead the courageous step of changing the electoral systems so that the power of the Charedim returns to its true dimensions and position itself appropriately ahead of the next elections. It might even turn out to be a new political party.
But caution must be exercised. The Zionist vision of the Jewish state, a vision that was able to combine nationalism and humanism, is slipping away from us like sand through our fingers. It is no longer Herzl who is turning over in his grave, it’s Menahem Begin. Israel is changing. Like a stone tossed in the air, which imagines that it decides the path of its trajectory, we still believe that everything is under control. But it isn’t. Our hearing has become dulled, but the music is deafening.
Rabbinate torn between state, halacha: conversion dispute has Rabbis struggling between dual loyalties
by Jonah Mandel
The High Court of Justice is due to decide on Monday whether to give the Chief Rabbinate more time to respond to a petition against city rabbis who have seemingly rejected official conversions, or whether to simply rule on the petition.
The Chief Rabbinate, which was supposed to respond to the petition on Sunday, has asked for a postponement. It was apparently unable to formulate a response, as it is torn between its capacity as the State of Israel’s official body in charge of religious matters, and the actions of its more zealous representatives, who are not accepting the validity of some conversions approved by that same body’s official organs.
The petition was filed against the rabbinate and four city rabbis who have repeatedly refused to grant marriage licenses to Israelis who converted to Judaism in Orthodox religious courts recognized by the state. The petition was filed by Alina and Maxim Sardiyokov, a convert to Judaism, and her husband; ITIM - The Jewish Life Information Center; and three other public petitioners, including Maj.-Gen. (Res.) Elazar Stern, former commander of the IDF’s Manpower Directorate.
Named in the petition besides the Chief Rabbinate are Rabbi Haim Blau of Ashkelon, Rabbi Simcha Hacohen Kook of Rehovot, Rabbi Yehuda Dov Volpe of Rishon Lezion and Rabbi Yosef Sheinin of Ashdod. The petitioners object to the postponement of even a single day, as it is “not in the interest of the state or the converts for this absurd situation to go on any longer,” Rabbi Seth Farber of ITIM told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.
“When the phenomenon of marriage registrars not recognizing state-approved conversions came to light, a Knesset committee requested of Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger to resolve the issue, and Metzger suggested appointing marriage registrars in the stead of those who don’t abide with the decision of the original courts that approved the conversions,” Metzger’s spokesman explained to the Post on Sunday.
“However, Charedi residents of the cities in which those very stringent rabbis reside objected to the notion, as it would cause their rabbis to appear as rubber stamps to a decision upon which they find reason to cast doubt.”
The state recognizes conversions conducted by the rabbinical courts, the special conversion courts administered by the Prime Minister’s Office and the IDF Rabbinate. “The rabbis who cast doubt on the conversions do so following reasonable doubts that arise when discussing the conversion process with the marriage applicants, and see themselves obliged to correct an erroneous decision made by the conversion court, which might have been misled by the converts, who could have been prompted by the conversion ulpanim to mislead the rabbis in their answers,” the spokesman continued.
“On the other hand, the Rabbinical Council is aware of the absurd situation in which a state-approved conversion is not accepted by another state-appointed body, the city’s rabbis and marriage registrars. The council is still contemplating its answer to the court petition, and has requested that the court grant it more time to that end. “The problem lies in the fact that there are no clear-cut procedures on conversion, unlike other state-regulated fields pertaining to religion, such as kashrut,” the spokesman added. “That is what we are hoping to amend now.”
We’re cleaning up Jerusalem - one case at a time
Dear Friends of IRAC,
Last week, on the eve of Yom Ha’atzmaut, IRAC won a major case in the Jerusalem District Court. We put an end to the Jerusalem municipality’s practice of providing exclusive additional funds to religious schools controlled by ultra-Orthodox political parties.
The Jerusalem municipality’s allocation of millions and millions of shekels to Charedi (ultra-Orthodox) schools - at the expense of all other Jerusalem schools, especially when there are so many in dire need of financial support - was yet another example of how the Charedim use political power to secure government resources and win disproportionate benefits for their own communities.
We argued that such funding was undeniably discriminatory, violated the principle of equality, and was designed to appease a narrow interest group. The Jerusalem municipality disregarded the legitimate needs of hundreds of schools around the city, and instead gave preference to two religious political parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, who are influential both within the Jerusalem city council and the national government coalition.
The misuse of city funds was also - and we argued as such - a blatantly illegal move, so much so that the city council’s own legal advisor refused to represent the case; instead, Mayor Nir Barkat’s council had to hire a private lawyer.
As Tali Aviv, a lawyer on IRAC’s excellent legal team, put it, “while other schools suffer from under-funding, the Charedi schools get extra. And in a city like Jerusalem, where there is so much diversity, it’s even worse for the city council to favour only one kind of school - there’s no pluralism in that.”
IRAC’s victory is an important one. It will narrow the gap between privileged and underprivileged schools; other municipalities across Israel will use the Jerusalem District Court’s decision for guidance with similar cases of their own - and it is now more difficult for other authorities to set discriminatory criteria that favour ultra-Orthodox schools.
L’Shalom,
Anat Hoffman
We’re cleaning up Jerusalem – one case at a time.
May 4, 2010 by Steve
Dear Friends of IRAC,
Last week, on the eve of Yom Ha’atzmaut, IRAC won a major case in the Jerusalem District Court. We put an end to the Jerusalem municipality’s practice of providing exclusive additional funds to religious schools controlled by ultra-Orthodox political parties.
The Jerusalem municipality’s allocation of millions and millions of shekels to Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) schools – at the expense of all other Jerusalem schools, especially when there are so many in dire need of financial support – was yet another example of how the Haredim use political power to secure government resources and win disproportionate benefits for their own communities.
We argued that such funding was undeniably discriminatory, violated the principle of equality, and was designed to appease a narrow interest group. The Jerusalem municipality disregarded the legitimate needs of hundreds of schools around the city, and instead gave preference to two religious political parties, Shas and United Torah Judaism, who are influential both within the Jerusalem city council and the national government coalition.
The misuse of city funds was also – and we argued as such – a blatantly illegal move, so much so that the city council’s own legal advisor refused to represent the case; instead, Mayor Nir Barkat’s council had to hire a private lawyer.
As Tali Aviv, a lawyer on IRAC’s excellent legal team, put it, “while other schools suffer from under-funding, the Haredi schools get extra. And in a city like Jerusalem, where there is so much diversity, it’s even worse for the city council to favor only one kind of school – there’s no pluralism in that.”
IRAC’s victory is an important one. It will narrow the gap between privileged and underprivileged schools; other municipalities across Israel will use the Jerusalem District Court’s decision for guidance with similar cases of their own – and it is now more difficult for other authorities to set discriminatory criteria that favor ultra-Orthodox schools.
L’Shalom,
Anat Hoffman
Time to wake up
May 4, 2010 by Steve
By YIZHAR HESS
We’ve let haredim take over everything about Judaism in public sphere
Anyone who used public transportation to get to the Western Wall during Pessah was confronted with a new phenomenon. Attendants were on duty at all the bus stations. As each bus pulled in, one of them would approach and, using a megaphone, instruct the driver: “Driver, open the back door.” The drivers obeyed. The attendants continued relaying instructions to the crowd: “Men in front. Women in back.”
The women left the line of people waiting to exit through the front door and made their way to the back door. The orders continued – “Men in front. Women in back” – until the lines were rearranged. The attendants, wearing bright yellow vests, stood beside the policemen who are routinely posted to guard the bus stations in the area of the Kotel, so they appeared to be part of the security forces entrusted with keeping the peace.
Who was paying these attendants? On whose behalf and on whose authority were they there? No one knew the answer to these questions. The Egged bus company said that they had no idea who was responsible. The police were surprised at the question, as if it had nothing to do with them. The attendants themselves refused to respond. Their yellow vests bore no insignia of any kind, and there were no identifying markings on the small, state-of-the-art megaphones they held in their hands.
They worked for a security company, which had simply been hired them to be there. We can, unfortunately, reasonably assume that we are the ones who are paying the bill, in one way or another and that public funds were involved. It was a well-organized, trained force. A militia. The revolutionary guard, if you will.
If you had been watching a scene like this on a world news program, and the language emanating from the megaphones was Farsi, the language of Iran, rather than Hebrew, it would have been possible to gloss over this incident. But it happened in the capital of Israel, on the festival of freedom.
Without being aware of it, this has become the reality of our lives. We have let the haredim take over everything that has to do with Judaism in the public sphere. The Western Wall has become a haredi synagogue; the entrances to it – not the plaza itself, but the entrance gates – are segregated, with huge signs separating men and women; the mehadrin (segregated) bus lines are already plying more than 100 routes, and not just in Bnei Brak and Jerusalem; in many cemeteries around the country, women, including the daughters of the deceased, are not permitted to follow the biers as they are moved toward the graves. Only men are allowed. Women must walk behind.
This harassment has become the background noise of life here. Let’s take the past year, for example and look at all the points where we have been shown the haredi interpretation of “what Judaism is all about”: revoking of conversions; the decision of Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv that haredim are not permitted to donate organs essential for saving the life of another person, but they may receive such organs from others; “the Nahari bill,” which obligated all local authorities to fund private, haredi educational institutions (and I wonder if any mayor would dare to defy this law and refrain from funding such local institutions given that the Interior Ministry is headed by Eli Yishai, the head of Shas); and of course the issue of the potentially enormous cost of relocating the new secure emergency room at Ashkelon’s Barzilai Medical Center because of some unidentified ancient bones. Link all these points together and you will get the picture of our lives. Sad, but true
But, just a minute, let’s consider the Barzilai incident as an example. Public pressure
helped. The decision is being overturned. Anyone aware of the undercurrents that move the steaming lava of politics here has already noticed that something has changed. The public is waking up. The political party that succeeds in leveraging this trend of change right now will spearhead the courageous step of changing the electoral systems so that the power of the haredim returns to its true dimensions and position itself appropriately ahead of the next elections. It might even turn out to be a new political party.
But caution must be exercised. The Zionist vision of the Jewish state, a vision that was able to combine nationalism and humanism, is slipping away from us like sand through our fingers. It is no longer Herzl who is turning over in his grave, it’s Menahem Begin. Israel is changing. Like a stone tossed in the air, which imagines that it decides the path of its trajectory, we still believe that everything is under control. But it isn’t. Our hearing has become dulled, but the music is deafening.
Rabbinate torn between state, halacha
May 4, 2010 by Steve
By JONAH MANDEL
26/04/2010 01:53
Conversion dispute has Rabbis struggling between dual loyalties.
The High Court of Justice is due to decide on Monday whether to give the Chief Rabbinate more time to respond to a petition against city rabbis who have seemingly rejected official conversions, or whether to simply rule on the petition.
The Chief Rabbinate, which was supposed to respond to the petition on Sunday, has asked for a postponement. It was apparently unable to formulate a response, as it is torn between its capacity as the State of Israel’s official body in charge of religious matters, and the actions of its more zealous representatives, who are not accepting the validity of some conversions approved by that same body’s official organs.
The petition was filed against the rabbinate and four city rabbis who have repeatedly refused to grant marriage licenses to Israelis who converted to Judaism in Orthodox religious courts recognized by the state. The petition was filed by Alina and Maxim Sardiyokov, a convert to Judaism, and her husband; ITIM – The Jewish Life Information Center; and three other public petitioners, including Maj.-Gen. (Res.) Elazar Stern, former commander of the IDF’s Manpower Directorate.
Named in the petition besides the Chief Rabbinate are Rabbi Haim Blau of Ashkelon, Rabbi Simcha Hacohen Kook of Rehovot, Rabbi Yehuda Dov Volpe of Rishon Lezion and Rabbi Yosef Sheinin of Ashdod. The petitioners object to the postponement of even a single day, as it is “not in the interest of the state or the converts for this absurd situation to go on any longer,” Rabbi Seth Farber of ITIM told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.
“When the phenomenon of marriage registrars not recognizing state-approved conversions came to light, a Knesset committee requested of Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger to resolve the issue, and Metzger suggested appointing marriage registrars in the stead of those who don’t abide with the decision of the original courts that approved the conversions,” Metzger’s spokesman explained to the Post on Sunday.
“However, haredi residents of the cities in which those very stringent rabbis reside objected to the notion, as it would cause their rabbis to appear as rubber stamps to a decision upon which they find reason to cast doubt.”
The state recognizes conversions conducted by the rabbinical courts, the special conversion courts administered by the Prime Minister’s Office and the IDF Rabbinate. “The rabbis who cast doubt on the conversions do so following reasonable doubts that arise when discussing the conversion process with the marriage applicants, and see themselves obliged to correct an erroneous decision made by the conversion court, which might have been misled by the converts, who could have been prompted by the conversion ulpanim to mislead the rabbis in their answers,” the spokesman continued.
“On the other hand, the Rabbinical Council is aware of the absurd situation in which a state-approved conversion is not accepted by another state-appointed body, the city’s rabbis and marriage registrars. The council is still contemplating its answer to the court petition, and has requested that the court grant it more time to that end. “The problem lies in the fact that there are no clear-cut procedures on conversion, unlike other state-regulated fields pertaining to religion, such as kashrut,” the spokesman added. “That is what we are hoping to amend now.”
Conversion bill re-emerges
May 4, 2010 by Steve
3 May 2010
Dear Friends of IRAC,
We thought we’d killed the conversion bill, but post-Pesach, it’s back, and with a new bite. But thanks to so many of you who spoke out against the bill, MK David Rotem and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Daniel Ayalon knew they could not pass this bill if Diaspora Jewry opposed it. And so, last week a determined Rotem and Ayalon made a special trip to New York to persuade Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist leaders to accept the bill – to assuage them it’s really not as bad as they thought.
If you’ll remember, the conversion bill is a tricky piece of legislation that no lover of religious pluralism should tolerate or support. While we support its original intention to make conversion easier for many Russian olim in Israel, the proposed law would do more harm than good. Among other things, it would distinguish between Jews by birth and Jews by choice, favoring the former, discriminating against the latter. The new law would also give full authority over conversions to the ultra-Orthodox Rabbinate, eliminating any hope for recognition of Reform and Conservative conversions in Israel, and potentially undoing over twenty years of our hard-won victories on behalf of Reform and Conservative rights.
Our congregations and communities are filled with people who are Jews by choice as well as birth; and as we learn from the story of Ruth, perhaps the most famous convert, to undergo conversion signifies a no less profound spiritual commitment to Judaism. There is no halachic distinction between Jews by birth and Jews by choice – and it has always been as such.
Rotem and Ayalon tell us that a clause in the conversion bill which would prevent converts who have visited Israel before their conversion from automatically gaining citizenship is targeted “only against foreign workers and refugees” and not against Reform and Conservative converts from the Diaspora.
Wait a second. This is pure racism. And we have on record that the Minister of the Interior (who would review citizenship bids of new converts) has stated that foreigners – Filipinos and Thais and Indians and others who do not fit a traditional definition of who is a Jew – should be prevented from obtaining Israeli citizenship, even if they have undergone a strict Orthodox conversion in Israel.
While we certainly agree that those whose intentions are not sincere should not be allowed to participate in a conversion process, we do not believe that Judaism can be delineated or applied only to people of a certain race, ethnicity, or geographical origin. IRAC and the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism (IMPJ) strongly support the rights of converts precisely because we do not think Judaism is something transferred by blood or limited to people from certain countries. There is a Jewish spirit, and the Jewish people are joined by this spirit, their belief in Torah, and their connection to the Hebrew language in the land of Israel.
If the conversion bill is passed into law, it will be a disaster for the Jewish spirit and a divisive blow to Klal Yisrael.
L’shalom,
Anat Hoffman
P.S. Click here to read a translation of the conversion bill as well as explanatory notes. And click here to read the press release “American Jewish Leaders Jointly Oppose Conversion Bill.”
Jewish Leaders Oppose Conversion Bill
By E. B. Solomont, The Jerusalem Post, May 2nd, 2010
NEW YORK – North American Jewish leaders remained firm in their opposition to a conversion law.
Proposed Israeli Conversion Bill Is Deeply Flawed
By Uri Regev, JTA, April 29th, 2010
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, head of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, dispatched his deputy minister
Conservative, Reform Oppose Israeli Conversion Bill
By JTA Services, JTA, April 30th, 2010
NEW YORK (JTA) – The U.S. Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist movements are warning that a p
Rabbinate Torn between State, Halacha
By Jonah Mandel, The Jerusalem Post, April 26th, 2010
The High Court of Justice is due to decide on Monday whether to give the Chief Rabbinate m
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