Editor –
Joel Katz
*Special edition
on Women of the Wall & Anat Hoffman's arrest coming soon
By Yizhar
Hess
A well-known dictum cultivated by
generations of politicians and Orthodox party functionaries argued that the
synagogues which secular Israelis do not attend are Orthodox – that is,
seculars do not go to synagogue, yet if they did, it would be to a “real” and
“authentic” synagogue, that is, an Orthodox one.
This was convenient and made
it possible to create the impression that non-Orthodox Jewish streams are
irrelevant to Israeli reality; as though they are an import, a foreign element.
It was a patronizing
statement, replete with authoritarianism, provinciality, and sectarian
chauvinism, yet it mostly absolved the heads of the Orthodox sector - the
haredim and religious Zionists – from coping with the pluralistic Jewish
doctrine, which characterized and still typifies most Jews living outside of
Israel.
However, this era has come to an end.
"The ultra-Orthodox enjoyed the fact that the fights were
over the opening of a parking lot on Shabbat, because then the secular people's
spiritual truth is the opening of a parking lot," El Ami says. "Desecrating
the Sabbath isn't the issue, and whether we have to use an amp isn't
interesting - the main thing is that Shabbat becomes meaningful."
Coalition activists
plan for this kind of Shabbat to become a regular event once a month. They
don't expect strong opposition from the ultra-Orthodox community because most
events will take place in public spaces and in synagogues. They won't require
the opening of businesses on Shabbat.
"They're not
involved," says Ayalon, referring to the ultra-Orthodox. "I'm not
doing it because of them or against them, but for our own lives. The secular
public is living other people's lives. We have to stop thinking constantly
about what the ultra-Orthodox will say."
A grassroots effort in Jerusalem that is identifying restaurants
that describe themselves as being kosher but do not pay the Rabbinate for
certification will host an inaugural event on Friday called “The Mashgiah
[kashrut supervisor] isn’t Coming.”
The party, a riff on the popular Shalom Hanoch song “The
Moshiach [Messiah] isn’t Coming,” is the first public effort by the city’s
Yerushalmim Party to draw attention to the issue and publicize a
community-based volunteer kashrut supervision program that is currently in the
planning stages.
Labor
Party leader Shelly Yachimovich said that in her view, one of the most positive
developments in Israeli-Diaspora relations this past year was the decision to
allow Reform and Conservative rabbis in Israel to receive salaries from their
respective municipalities.
"I
have a great deal of respect for Orthodoxy," she said, "but we must
allow for free religious expression for other streams of Judaism as well. This
decision was a victory for freedom of religion."
“According
to the ultra-Orthodox, anyone not trained and deemed kosher by them is not a
rabbi.
They are accusing me of doing the same thing as if I put up a shingle as
a physician — Dr. Miri Gold — without any training. For them, JTS and HUC do
not exist,” she said, referring to the Conservative Jewish Theological Seminary
and the Reform Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, from which
she received ordination.
Prof.
Suzanne Last Stone, academic counsel to JPPI, said the conference was designed
to approach challenges to the Jewish people in a more holistic fashion.
One of the
overarching challenges, she said, was the importance of building “mutual
understanding” to develop and improve Israel-Diaspora relations.
One focus
of misunderstanding between the two communities was the lack of understanding
among US Jewry regarding the matter of religion and state in Israel.
“The
Israeli way of arranging religion and state is strange and troubling for US
Jews, and part of a larger set of differences between Israel and the Diaspora,”
Last Stone said.
“There are
no easy and immediate solutions, but the goal of this conference is to put the
issues on the table and bring both communities to understand each other’s
positions.”
Deputy Health
Minister Yaakov Litzman, UTJ: "Nowhere is it written that males need to
work. It's good enough if the wife works."
And when it comes to Haredi
adult males who engage in religious studies rather than
working, Litzman said: "There is an ironclad rule that says someone who
wishes to study must study." It's impossible to change that world view, he
explained.
Many state-funded ultra-Orthodox
schools don't teach the state's core curriculum - something that is seen as a
threat to the economic future of the country.
When asked about this, Litzman said:
"Really? So take myself as an example. I didn't study core subjects. So
what? Is that bad? Did [Knesset Finance Committee Chairman Moshe] Gafni [UTJ]
study core subjects?"
If the haredi “utopia” brings hunger for its members and
bankruptcy for those who unwillingly bankroll it, how did it come into
existence?
Most Israelis would answer that the haredi community is what’s left
of traditional eastern European Jewish society from before modernity intruded.
That’s a fallacy. Ultra-Orthodoxy is a modern creation, and the Israeli haredi
lifestyle, with its lifetime students, is an innovation formed in the Jewish
state, largely a result of the short-sighted decisions of secular politicians.
The
political landscape is being changed by the arrival of new Haredi players, who
are threatening the old order.
In our engagement
with the modern world, each of us must decide how fine is to be the filter we
place for ourselves and for our children.
Despite
the official rationale for the policy – overcrowding in the park – the
municipality’s actions raise suspicion that its true purpose is to exclude
ultra-Orthodox Jews from the neighboring city of Modi’in Illit.
See also: ACRI letter
(Hebrew)
Secular
Israelis are snapping up apartments in Harish at bargain prices before the
Haredim move in.
IDF says it expects number of exemptions for
ultra-Orthodox to continue rising, unless government decides to draft them; in
2011, a quarter of all draft-eligible Israeli males received exemptions from
military service for various reasons.
The elite
company would be attached to an armored brigade and composed of outstanding
members of the already existing Nahal Haredi battalion.
New
station is expected to go on air at the end of 2012, and will feature
programming in line with religious Zionist outlooks.
The
ultra-Orthodox film industry is flourishing and is set to receive state funds
to further its ambitions, much to the chagrin of mainstream filmmakers.
But the
Puah Institute, an infertility support center in Jerusalem that provides
counseling to Jewish women and Jewish families around the world, refuses to
counsel unmarried women about fertility treatments. Instead, Puah recommends
that they freeze their eggs to buy themselves more time.
“Our
guidance tells us to only help married people because a child should be a
product of a husband and wife,” said Rabbi Gideon Weitzman, director of Puah’s
English-speaking Department for Fertility and Medicine.
So, what bothered me about it? If I were
secular, and picked up a brochure meant for women in my town providing a
listing the local women's health services, I would be bothered by the religious
content.
In fact, I am NOT secular and am bothered by it. Women's health
services should be provided to all women, without the advertisement for
religious practice.
My mikve idea remained dormant until this month, when I
learned that academic women in Jerusalem who had never heard about my idea had
launched two years ago a small and much-less-comprehensive but expanding
voluntary project for making mikve visits more pleasant and “providing a
platform for the interface of Jewish law and women’s health.”
Called The Eden Center the project has built
coalitions of voluntary and public bodies and gives free health education
courses to bath attendants, including how to identify problems and refer women
for help.
Efrat, which
receives a large share of its funding from organizations and donors overseas,
last year launched a rather controversial publicity campaign, featuring TV and
radio ads, as well as huge billboards around the country that play up Israelis'
fears when it comes to demographics. The billboard read: “Ultimately, the birth
rate will determine our existence as a Jewish state.”
The
Supreme Court in Israel recently delivered a decision which strikes a blow to
unfettered jurisdiction by the Beit Din –the Rabbinical Court – and to the
notion that any document entitled “divorce agreement” does in fact lay within
the parameters of what is to be considered a divorce agreement.
By Anshel Pfeffer
Still, it is
intriguing to think what a real plan for better use of Jewish resources would
look like if it was being drawn up with no axes ground, no bread buttered, no
kosher pork barrels cast upon the waters and no metaphors mixed.
Celebration
of the Taglit-Birthright Israel program’s “bar mitzvah year” is a propitious
moment to consider whether Taglit participants have chosen to make their Jewish
identities a central part of their lives.
As the
founder of educational tour company Roots of Faith,
Joel Rosenfeld provides a challenging experience to trip participants.
Anglo
rabbi and political activist Dov Lipman, of Beit Shemesh, refused to confirm or
deny rumors that he will be running for the Knesset on the Yesh Atid list.
"I
have announced my support for Yair Lapid and his party," Lipman told
Haaretz . "When I have any further news to report I will do so."
Lipman,
educator, author and community activist is head of Yesh Atid's branch in Beit
Shemesh, where he lives with his wife and four children.
Members of
Israel, Overseas Committee of UJA Federation of Greater Toronto greet 240 new
immigrants at Ben-Gurion Airport
Members of
the Bnei Akiva national-religious youth movement have hit out at the
organization’s secretary general Danny Hershberg for agreeing to attend and
speak at the October 27 ceremony for Rabin.
By David
Newman
The writer is dean of the faculty of humanities and social
sciences at Ben-Gurion University and editor of the International Journal of
Geopolitics. The views expressed are his alone.
The
Rabin remembrance has become no less a religious ritual than are the prayers
which are recited at Rachel’s tomb.
By Nadav
Shragai
Israeli
police and Muslim officials say the prayers at the Temple Mount-Al Aqsa mosque
site are a provocation. Others call them a basic human right.
By Yisrael
Medad
By Daniel
Seidemann & Lara Friedman
Editor –
Joel Katz
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