Editor – Joel Katz
By Rabbi Rick Jacobs
As essential as the bond of
Zionism, so, too is the desire for all the Jewish streams to be treated equally
in the homeland of the Jewish people. …
If the President is to meet with any
religious leadership, he should signal his appreciation for the religious
expressions of the majority of the American Jews by meeting as well with the
leaders of the growing Israeli Reform and Conservative Movements.
To do
otherwise would be a deep disappointment to many of his Jewish constituents in
the United States.
A wedding organized by the
Reform Movement in Israel was conducted for a young couple by rabbis from the
movement outside the Knesset Monday morning, ahead of the induction of the new
government, to highlight the lack of recognition for non-Orthodox Jewish
denominations in Israel.
Writing on her Facebook
page, MK Stav Shaffir said that the wedding had presented the government with
its first test: “the test of religious freedom.”
“Will this government free
our religion from the monopolistic forces which dominate it?” Shaffir asked.
“Will it loosen the grasp that these forces have on our daily lives, on the
relationship between us and the regulation of our social and political status?
Or the subjugation of a wide variety of elements of our lives – from the most
intimate places and up to the control of the public space itself?”
According to the Hiddush
organization, which campaigns for religious freedom, the coalition agreement
includes a clause that any legislative changes on matters of religion will
require the consensus of “all members of the coalition”.
That clause gives
Jewish Home veto power over any legislation to advance religious freedom and
pluralism, Hiddush warned.
“The lack of attention to
religious freedom in the coalition agreements is a source of grave concern,”
said Hiddush president Uri Regev.
“It may indicate that Yesh Atid has not fully
resolved its own internal differences of opinion on these subjects. The
public’s great expectations from Yair Lapid’s party to advance religious
freedom may fizzle out.”
According to Hiddush's
analysis, the timetable for the plan is the main weakness of Yesh Atid's
agreement.
Implementation of mandatory service was postponed by four years,
namely, to the end of the new government's term (assuming that it will complete
a full term which is not self-evident) the core curriculum plan was postponed
by two years and it is not clear if Yesh Atid will have the political clout to
enforce the implementation when the time arrives.
Rabbi Uri Regev, Hiddush
President noted that, "the fact that religious freedom is hardly addressed
in the coalition agreements is a source of grave concern and may indicate the
limited value that Yesh Atid actually attaches to this topic, as opposed the
great importance its constituency attached to it.
It may also indicate that
Yesh Atid has not fully resolved its own internal differences of opinion on
these subjects.
The new coalition
agreements between Likud-Beytenu, Yesh Atid and Habayit Hayehudi may result in
sweeping changes on many fronts, ranging from the control of religious
institutions to the very identity of the state.
For the first time, the new
coalition’s agreements did not include a commitment to the “status quo” that
has governed the ties between religion and the state since Israel’s creation.
By Rabbi David Golinkin
Indeed, the Torah belongs
to the entire Jewish people and not just to the minority which defines itself
as "Orthodox" or "ultra-Orthodox".
The mission of the
Schechter non-profits for the past 28 years is to teach Torah throughout the
State of Israel to every Jewish man and woman, boy and girl, in an open and
pluralistic fashion. ...
The total budget of all
four non-profits is less than 8 million dollars per year, but the State of
Israel until now has not funded us because of the mistaken notion that Judaism
only belongs to the "Orthodox" and the "ultra-Orthodox".
Most of our donors live in North America and they ask: Where are the Israelis?
Why don’t they support their own Jewish education? The question is justified
and deserves an answer.
In a show of continued
support of religious diversity in Israel, the Jewish United Fund of
Metropolitan Chicago has made $300,000 in grants for 2013 to fund three new and
12 ongoing programs in the Reform (Progressive), Conservative (Masorti), Modern
Orthodox and Transdenominational religious movements.
Of the total, Progressive
(Reform) movement programs will receive $102,000; Conservative movement
programs - split between the Masorti movement and the Schechter Institute -
will receive $102,000; and Modern Orthodox and Transdenominational programs will
together receive a total of $96,000.
Habayit Hayehudi’s
assumption of the Religious Services Ministry must be viewed in the context of
party chairman Naftali Bennett’s desire to effect a religious Zionist
revolution. Will the ministry receive the radical changes it so desperately
needs, or will it keep on providing jobs for political hacks while
ineffectively serving the public?
According to people in the
negotiating teams, Habayit Hayehudi demanded two areas of authority that have
not been returned to the ministry − responsibility for the rabbinic courts,
which is still with the Justice Ministry, and responsibility for the yeshiva
budgets, currently with the Education Ministry.
Among the changes expected
in the [Religious Affairs] ministry are the establishment of a Jewish identity
administration, the transfer of jurisdiction over the holy sites from the
Tourism Ministry to the Religious Services Ministry, and oversight over the
conversion apparatus. ... The ministry will gain
responsibility for issues relating to shmita ...
By Anat Hoffman
Some converts are
particularly discriminated against. Each year, dozens of African Americans who
converted to Judaism abroad make Aliyah.
When they arrive here they go through
intense scrutiny because of fears that they are connected to the Hebrew
Israelites, a community of African-Americans in Dimona whose members are not
recognized as Jewish. During this process, the converts are not granted a work
visa, or medical benefits, like other olim. Sometimes they are deported
prematurely, like Mr. Maxfield.
Paragraph 16 states, “A
Jewish identity administration shall be established in the Religious Services
Ministry to support various activities dealing with this area.”
It is not clear what these
activities are or what is meant by “Jewish identity.” But we can be quite
certain that the administration will fund all of the agencies established over
the past few years to “spread the doctrine” of religious Zionism.
Bennett also scored a
victory for the religious school system. Over the past two decades, many
private schools have been established for religious-Zionist pupils,
particularly at the high-school level.
Among Yesh Atid's
achievements is the abolition of funding for yeshiva students who are not
residents of Israel. Until now, the state gave non-Israeli students two-thirds
the amount provided to their Israeli peers.
Dormitory discounts for
kollel students – students at yeshivot for married men – will be limited to
five years, beginning this year.
The first provision,
requiring the creation of a core curriculum, is essentially a declaration of war
on Haredi society and they will likely react that way.
As a result, the odds of
the provision being implemented are low, especially given that Netanyahu still
sees the Haredim as eternal political partners.
By Anat Hoffman
We at the Israel Religious
Action Center (IRAC) have made equality in education a key component of our
work for the coming year.
Thanks to a recent petition filed by our attorneys
the Supreme Court has ordered the Ministry of Education to formulate a plan in
the next 100 days for standardized tests in the Haredi school system.
This is
an important first step in leveling the playing field for all Israeli students.
The final version of the
plan to draft Haredim into the Israel Defense Forces, completed two days ago by
members of the new coalition, has the potential to be a historic breakthrough.
For the first time, an ambitious attempt has been made not only to find an
alternative to the Tal Law, which exempted the ultra-Orthodox from military
service, but also to reach a comprehensive agreement to help the Haredim
integrate into the job market.
The plan, to be implemented
by 2017, will set a limit of 1,800 yeshiva students who will be given a
complete exemption each year from national service at the age of 21 and who
will receive a higher stipend than at present.
They will be obligated to
study until 26 and will be subject to personal economic sanctions if they evade
their obligations.
Analysis of data for
deferring military service by age which the State Prosecutor filed with the
High Court of Justice last summer by Hiddush for Religious Freedom and Equality
found that 48,000 yeshiva students will receive a full exemption from military
service under the sharing the burden structure that will be applied by the new
government.
The 1,800 students exempt from
service will receive ongoing state support until age 26, and at a higher rate
than currently granted.
All other yeshiva students will be able to postpone
their national service for three years until the age of 21, but will not be
funded after that age.
A yeshiva student with a
government-granted military exemption will be subject to financial penalties if
he halts his full-time studies before the age of 26.
In August, when this
adjustment period begins yeshiva students over 22 that didn't serve in the
military and were not exempt from service, some 57,000 people will be summoned and
offered an ultimatum between military service and a professional training
program that would give them the tools to enter the workforce.
By Idan Grinbaum
The really big challenge is
to get the ultra-Orthodox out of the rabbinical colleges and into the labor
market.
One battalion more or less is not going to fundamentally change the
security situation, but thousands more professionally trained workers can do
wonders for the Israeli economy, which is crying out nowadays for any extra
boosting it can get.
http://www.al-monitor.com/
By Ronen Zvulun
If the country wants to
draft the ultra-Orthodox, it must first educate them towards their
mobilization.
And since it is clear to all that the draft will promote the
integration of the ultra-Orthodox in the labor market, the government must
insist that they be prepared for army service by studying those subjects that
will connect them to the reality of the 21st century.
Core studies are also
vital in preparing those enlisting in national service: one does not have to be
a great Zionist to understand the problems in Israeli society and the need for
volunteers in the police, the hospitals and welfare system.
“The optimistic assumption
that it will be possible to start obligating hareidi men to serve in 2017 has
no basis in political reality,” the group said.
“In another four years there
will be a new government, and the first thing the hareidi parties will demand
is the cancellation of the [enlistment] law.”
Like the messages on its
digital counterpart, the pashkevils, too, are posted on walls and quickly
devoured by the public. But while pashkevils normally declaim the edicts of
rabbinic leaders, those in this car trunk brazenly challenge their
pronouncements by advocating army service.
http://www.jpost.com/
The presence of the two
clauses in the coalition deal between the Likud and Bayit Yehudi is thought to
be proof positive that the possibility exists that the national-religious party
has agreed to support a second term for Amar, while Shas will support, or at
the very least not oppose, the candidacy of Rabbi David Stav, a leading
national-religious candidate and chairman of the Tzohar rabbinical association.
Freshly appointed Deputy
Religious Services Minister Eli Ben-Dahan of Bayit Yehudi, who will be running
the ministry, will have particular influence on the selection process since he
will appoint 20 members of the selection committee.
In an apparent oversight on
behalf of Bayit Yehudi, the coalition agreement between the national-religious
party and Likud Beytenu may pave the way for the reelection as chief rabbis of
both Rabbi Shlomo Amar and Rabbi Yona Metzger.
The seeming mistake was
likely made out of a desire in Bayit Yehudi to garner support from Shas and
Amar for a national-religious Ashkenazi chief rabbi by allowing Amar himself to
continue as Sephardi chief rabbi.
The terms of the coalition
deal as it was agreed, however, would not prevent Metzger for standing again
for the Ashkenazi post.
One of the new Knesset's
firsts acts was to approve on Tuesday an expedited legislative procedure for a
government bill that extends the term of the chief rabbis by four months.
The bill was approved in
the second and third readings with the support of 62 Knesset members, both from
the coalition and the opposition. Only five United Torah Judaism MKs voted
against the proposal.
http://www.haaretz.com/
Male MKs from Nafatli Bennett's
party Habayit Hayehudi have refused to sign a petition aimed at ensuring that
women be appointed to the selection committee that chooses chief rabbis.
The petition to Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, initiated by Yesh Atid MK Dr. Aliza Lavie, has the
support of over 40 parliamentarians, including two women MKs from Habayit
Hayehudi, Ayalet Shaked and Shuli Mualem. But the party's male MKs refused to
sign the document.
Currently, the 150-member
selection committee that appoints the chief rabbis includes only one woman –
Netanya Mayor Miriam Fierberg.
Restobar, one of the few
restaurants in central Jerusalem that was open on Shabbat, shut its doors Monday
after its landlord refused to renew the lease unless the establishment closed
on the Jewish day of rest.
Shahar and Avigail Levy,
the owners of the eight-year-old restaurant-bar located in Rehavia, announced
the closure on their Facebook page Monday morning.
According to Shahar Levy,
the landlord “said in this messianic fashion, ‘blessing will come to you from
the minute you close on Shabbat; it will do you good.’ Until the last minute we
thought it would work out, but in the end, to our regret, we had to give up the
site.”
Dozens of protesters took
to the street opposite the prime minister’s house in Jerusalem Monday, but it
wasn’t government policy they were demonstrating against. It was the threat of
closure looming over the nearby Restobar café.
"Those who like to
gloat will see poetic justice in the fact that we are closing just before
Passover," said Levy, "because thanks to Restobar businesses are
allowed to sell bread during Passover. We were sued for it and we won in
court."
Ofer Berkowitz, the head of
Jerusalem's Awakening movement, said, "The closure of Restobar, an
important secular Jerusalem institution, requires Awakening to take a stand and
act on the matter. In Jerusalem, there is a true need for more leisure spots to
be open on Shabbat and not the closure of existing spots."
Any real estate developer
would lick his chops at the opportunity to tear down the building and construct
a huge residential tower in its place, with perhaps a kosher restaurant on the
ground floor.
By Rachel Levmore
There is no need to pity
the prisoner. For he holds the key to his own freedom. In a matter of minutes
he can agree to obey the ruling of the Rabbinical Court and free his wife from
the chains in which he has bound her by giving her a get. At that very moment,
he too will literally be set free. Right there in the courtroom, his chains
will be removed and he will be a free man.
(Brandeis Series on Gender,
Culture, Religion, and Law & HBI Series on Jewish Women) [Paperback]
https://sites.google.com/site/centerforwomensjustice/
The book tells the true
stories of six women in the process of divorce in Israeli Rabbinic Courts who
end up “trapped… for reasons they did not understand, in a legal system where
the rules are not clear, run by divine fiat with which there is no
negotiation.”
The authors analyze the
stories through the lens of human rights and call for institution of civil
marriage and divorce in Israel in accordance with proposals introduced by
Professor Pinhas Shifman.
Editor – Joel Katz
Religion
and State in Israel is not affiliated with any
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