Editor – Joel Katz
Religion
and State in Israel is not affiliated with any
organization or movement.
Leading
national-religious personality Rabbi Yuval Cherlow has called for state
recognition of non-Orthodox Jewish denominations as a means of preventing their
alienation from the Jewish state.
Cherlow added, however,
that this recognition should be political in nature and not on the basis of
Jewish law.
Leading
national-religious personality Rabbi Yuval Cherlow has called for state
recognition of non-Orthodox Jewish denominations as a means of preventing their
alienation from the Jewish state.
Cherlow added,
however, that this recognition should be political in nature and not on the
basis of Jewish law.
Cherlow
proposes creating separation between the position of rabbinical law and the
policy of the state of Israel.
On the part of the state, he talks about “a
willingness to recognize” the non-Orthodox streams including their conversions
and including funding for them in accordance with their size and more.
He
brings up a proposal – which has also been raised during the past two years
both by the movement in Israel and by the Orthodox Ne'emanei Torah Va'Avodah
movement – to fund the provision of religious services by the method of the
free market and competition among the steams for the hearts of believers in
Israel.
Tzohar
released a statement saying it "opposes any official recognition of Reform
Judaism by the State of Israel, in terms of conversions or its general
way."
The organization added: "It should be noted that the topic was
addressed in an internal discussion in the yeshiva, and does not necessarily
reflect Cherlow's views or interpretation of halakha."
By Shmuel Rosner
The rabbi's reasons for wanting to
change the way religion and state affairs are handled in Israel are mixed, and
not always cohesive.
Cherlow’s position is the right one –
it is his reasoning that is wrong.
By Rabbi Uri Youdovin
End
government approved discrimination against the non-Orthodox religious streams.
I never cease to be amazed by how many Reform, Conservative and
Reconstructionists remain fiercely loyal to an Israel that rejects the
legitimacy of the Judaism they practice. […]
My
suggestion is that the Knesset enact laws ordering the Interior Ministry to
enter into the official registry marriages and conversions conducted in Israel
under non-Orthodox auspices; enact measures to establish per capita funding
parity between the Orthodox and liberal streams; and put an end to abominations
such as denying women the right to pray and wear tallitot at the Kotel.
Uri Regev,
a Reform Israeli rabbi who heads Hiddush, which calls for religious freedom and
equality in the Jewish state, said that while the Tzohar rabbis are “more
enlightened and moderate,” they also oppose non-Orthodox forms of Judaism in
Israel and should not be in a position of authority.
Elana
Sztokman, the new executive director of the Jewish
Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA),
said that “gender is the elephant in the room” and charged that the Chief
Rabbinate “has total control” of the Jewish lives of women, who have “no exit
power in marriage” and whose “bodies are watched, guarded and nitpicked.”
She said
that “Orthodoxy” should include Orthodox women, not just men, and cautioned
that the days of “the polite revolution” among Orthodox feminists may be
ending.
In order
to balance the inherent inequality of the Committee to Appoint Rabbinic Judges,
Weiss continued, it is not enough to settle for one female representative.
“Symbolic representation is not enough,” she insists. “There must be at least
four women on the committee. This situation is a disgrace to justice in Israel
and demands immediate change.”
http://www.ynetnews.com/ (November 27, 2012)
High Court
extends freeze in permanent appointments of rabbinical judges by five months,
urges Knesset to advance legislation promoting proper representation of women
on committee appointing judges
An alternate model of
a Chief Rabbinate may be its transformation into a largely ceremonial and
ritualistic office embodying the Jewish nature of the State of Israel
resembling the British model of an Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Archbishop
possesses no tangible political power. Precisely given that the Archbishop does
not invoke the coercive power of the state, his office may serve as moral
conscience of the state.
Transforming the office of the Chief Rabbinate from
state actor to the moral teacher it should be does alter the “religious status
quo” agreed to in 1948 by religious and secular bodies alike.
Yet, in the 21st
century, a coercive Chief Rabbinate has become, at best, an anachronism, and,
at worst, a force dividing the Jewish people and corroding Israel’s international
standing.
The polarization of
religious life in Israel, and the growing power of Haredi ultra-Orthodoxy,
undoubtedly has complex origins, and can surely not be laid to the existence of
state religious courts alone.
But the religious court
system, and the autonomous power of the religious establishment” in Israel,
have certainly not stopped the drift towards religious extremism in the
Orthodox rabbinic world, nor prevented the estrangement of Jews of various
religious tendencies from one another, both in Israel and abroad.
By Rabbi Andrew Sacks
Lee studied at a
religious high school in Israel for four years. He prepared for conversion
during this period. But he was not converted in the end. None of the students
from Kaifeng were converted. Our Rabbinate does not, in the overwhelming
majority of cases, convert people of color. [...]
But time is running
out for Lee. He may soon be forced to return to China. His file, with the recommendation
of the Jewish Agency that he be granted a visa to make Aliyah, is sitting on a
pile of files in the Interior Ministry. Each week we are told that maybe there
will be an answer next week. But no answer seems imminent.
A Jew wishing to
fulfill the Mitzvah of Aliyah. The Jewish State is the obstacle. Just absurd.
Michael
Freund, who created Jerusalem-based Shavei Israel to aid anousim
descendants seeking to reclaim their religious identity, initially praised the
offer as a symbol of “modern day Spain’s efforts to make amends.”
But when
he learned more about the criteria, gratitude turned to gloom about limiting
the decree to Sephardic Jews while excluding bnei anousim.
It’s “as
if to say that there is no need to right the historical wrong that was done to
forcibly converted Spanish Jews,” he said.
“This is
an outrage, and it goes against the spirit of reconciliation which the Spanish
government claims to cherish. How sad that instead of utilizing this
opportunity to send an unequivocal message of contrition, Spain is choosing to
heap further insult on injury.”
So the triumph of this week's ruling
was side-stepping the Rabbinate altogether and getting the civil courts to
settle the issue.
Practically speaking, this means that gay divorce has
preceded gay marriage in Israel, which is kind of comically ironic.
The question now is whether this case
can be applied to matters of marriage for all couples, regardless of religion
or sexuality.
Now that a precedent has been set, some legal experts are saying,
it may open the door for a heterosexual couple to do the same. And once civil
divorce has been achieved, as backwards as it seems, then maybe civil marriage
will follow.
“It was basically
fight or flight,” Rachel Azaria says in the summer interview. “We either know
where we’re going and we’re leaving or that we’re staying and we’re fighting.
What’s been happening lately is that people in Jerusalem aren’t willing to give
up anymore.”
See also: התנועה הירושלמית - משגיח
לא בא: VIDEO
Rabbi Dr. Rachel Sabath Beit-Halachmi: While I have been critical of Women of the Wall in the past, because I believe we have many more important issues to confront, I now better understand why it has captured the minds and souls of Jews worldwide: Because it symbolizes the sacred desire of the entire Jewish people to be equally at home in the Jewish State. It is but one example of the refusal to accept the silencing of non-Orthodox voices.
Yossi Klein Halevi: There is no chance whatsoever that the area that is now considered the “main” Kotel will be shared in any fashion with non-Orthodox prayer. But Robinson’s Arch is no less “the Kotel” than the area controlled by the Orthodox.
By Naomi Lakritz
Menachem Rosensaft, vice-president of
the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants,
questioned the silence of Israeli politicians about Hoffman’s arrest.
“But why has there not ... been a
massive outpouring of indignation on the part of Israeli public figures, in
particular those political and moral leaders who purport to promote civil and
political rights for all of Israel’s citizens?” Rosensaft asked.
Under the
tradition of oppression, segregation between men and women in the public sphere
is becoming more and more common. No! We will not tolerate this!
Under the
tradition of oppression, when a woman asks for a Jewish divorce, rabbis and
dayanim decide her fate, and mostly side with the man - even if he was violent.
No! We must break free of this twisted, disgraceful law.
The expiration of the
Tal Law last August was meant to change the situation on the ground, however
since, no alternative law has yet been put into legislation.
In light of this
legislative vacuum, the IDF's Manpower Directorate has put on hold both the
widespread enlistment of haredim and the dispatch of letters to 16 and
17-year-old ultra-Orthodox teens , inviting them to begin their screening
process. The actualization of either scenario seems very unlikely.
MK Tzipi Hotovely (Likud)
was quoted by Maariv on Sunday saying she believed the next coalition could be
built without including the ultra-Orthodox Shas party (currently 11 seats
strong and expected to maintain approximately that number in the next
government) hinting that a coalition sans Shas could push forward universal
draft legislation without fear.
“A certain elite should be
allowed to continue their Torah study” but a universal draft for the remainder
of the ultra-Orthodox is necessary, she said. “There is only one way to achieve
that: Don’t give Shas any power.”
By Esty Shushan
Haredi political parties would do well for
themselves if they would understand that their sector is experiencing a mood
shift and that the issue of women's status is becoming more relevant than ever.
[...]
This demand can only come from haredi women
themselves, with the consciousness that it will only emerge if it is talked
about publicly.
As Israel contemplates the prospect of
a war against Iran or a renewed conflict in Gaza, the country faces an equally
troubling conflict from within.
Tensions are growing between secular Jews and
the ultra-Orthodox, who believe life should be based on the Torah and the
ancient texts of the Talmud.
Today, Achiya provides educational and
developmental intervention for learning-challenged children in the Haredi
community who study in mainstream classrooms.
A
careful reading of the ministry's detailed presentation of the test results
shows that not all is rosy, however.
Consider the implication of the following
sentence: "The sampling framework [for the exam] is parallel to that of
previous research cycles (without the ultra-Orthodox and without special
education schools)."
That's apparently the only ministry comment on the
question of who gets tested - and who doesn't.
… Given
the forecasts regarding the continued growth of the Haredi educational system,
it could be that celebrating the improved achievement of Israeli pupils is
somewhat self-delusional.
The ultra-Orthodox Shas party issued a campaign
poster on Monday depicting Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who has
championed many causes that counter the ultra-Orthodox platform, wearing a
traditional ultra-Orthodox black kippah.
Another poster in the Shas campaign depicts Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with the slogan: "Only a strong Shas will
protect the weak."
But ironically, the party was forced to remove the
posters from buses, due to their modesty demands.
A sign ordering women to "wait
for their husbands in a concealed area" has caused a stir among activists
working against the exclusion of women from the public sphere in Israel.
The latest sign, one of a series of
similar billboards in ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem neighborhoods, was placed
opposite a synagogue and reads: "A request and demand."
"Wait for your husband behind
the white van and such places so that you won't serve as an obstacle to those
praying," the sign says, according to a picture of the sign published by
Channel 2 News.
Lev Malka officials
believe that the reason for the increase in blood donation was the separation
between ultra-Orthodox men and women arriving to donate blood.
After a decade away from
politics, Aryeh Deri is back as a leader in the ultra-Orthodox Shas Party. But
will he help the Israeli peace camp?
Dr.
Jeffrey Woolf, a senior lecturer in Talmud at Bar Ilan University and an expert
in halakha and modernity, sees the Festigal phenomenon as part of a deliberate
move on the part of “certain elements in academia and the Ministry of Education
to dejudaize the school curriculum and Israel’s public spaces.”
Woolf
explains that while the secular Zionists who built the country seized on
Hanukkah as a role model to fight for freedom and found the historical Hanukkah
story inspiring and a way to link Jews to their ideological roots, today the
historical and religious significance of the holiday has diminished.
“Part of
the reason for that is the failure of the religious community to establish a
common language with secular Israelis,” he charges.
Another group
getting into the Hanukka spirit is the national-religious association of
“religious start-up communities” that have sprung up across Israel.
The startup
community in Lod, the biggest in the country, with 500 families, will be
conducting a series of activities in the city during the festival.
Women say that while
waiting in transit camps in Ethiopia they were coaxed into agreeing to
injections of long-acting birth control drugs.
David Yaso, director
of the Immigration Ministry’s Ethiopian Department, flatly denied that women
were told that in Israel they were forbidden to have large families and coerced
to take contraceptive shots against their will.
MK Ilan Gilon (Meretz), for
one, does care. Following the airing of Gabai’s report, he submitted an official
request to Israel’s attorney general Yehuda Weinstein for the
launching of a criminal investigation.
Gilon emphasized that the women were
exposed to drug and hormone related side effects, of which they were not made
aware.
“It cannot be that the serious news of this invasive interference with
the rights of Ethiopian immigrant women’s control over their own bodies will go
without redress,” he wrote.
We should note one
surprising point that the pollsters have found. In recent years, the steady
decline in attachment to Israel — the percentage of non-Orthodox respondents
saying they feel “very close” to Israel — shows signs of reversing itself in
the youngest age group.
That is, Jews between ages
55 and 65 are less attached than those over 65, those between 45 and 55 still less
so and those aged 35 to 45 even less. But Jews under 35 are markedly more
attached. They look more like the 55-year-olds.
By Prof. Shaul Magid
The three
instances mentioned at the outset may or may not point to a definitive shift in
the way American Jews understand the complex relationship between their
commitment to Zionism and the policies of a Jewish State they love but often
disagree with.
The “pro-Israel” camp would like to collapse the two, arguing
that one’s Zionist credentials are determined exclusively by one’s uncritical
support of Israeli policies (and often basing that support on a “historic
right” that ignores the equally valid “historic right” of the Palestinian
people), but the American Jewish community may well be considering
alternatives.
“This is how we change the game, by
doing what’s never been done before,” commented Lisa Barkan.
“It’s a different
way to do Shabbat if you’re not religious, but it doesn’t feel overly religious
for those who don’t usually do Shabbat. It’s allowing you a way out of your
bubble, but in an atmosphere that offers a certain comfort level for all.”
In keeping with its annual
tradition, KKL-JNF will once again be distributing Christmas trees to local
churches, monasteries, convents, embassies, foreign journalists and the general
public as the holiday approaches.
Finally, it took a
meeting between Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, and
Israeli President Shimon Peres to get the water company to waive the 9 million
shekels and the church to promise to start paying for water.
By Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz
While the
insensitivity of missionaries [calling themselves “Messianic Jews”] needs to be
addressed seriously, this situation should be handled by the police, and book
burning is never appropriate.
Rabbi Nissim Karelitz,
a hareidi-religious authority on Jewish law has ruled that it is forbidden to
say Shema' Yisrael for the last breath of a child who is being removed from
life-support systems at the request of his family, although the doctors did not
suggest doing so.
The ruling came last week in response to the query of a
family of a child who was suffering from cancer.
New Web portal allows
public to receive real-time data on cases heard by regional rabbinical courts
without having to visit courthouse.
This year, the Schechter
Institutes provided pluralistic Jewish education to over 45,000 Israelis- men,
women and children throughout the country, as well as Jewish communities in
Ukraine; connecting them to their Jewish heritage.
VIDEO: Israeli musician
Yonatan Razel
Editor – Joel Katz
Religion
and State in Israel is not affiliated with any
organization or movement.
