In The Media
Women's groups outraged by all-male rabbinical c'te
israel Bar Association fails to select a woman to serve on the Appointments Committee for Rabbinical Judges.
11/23/2011
The committee, which is headed by Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman and holds the power to elect judges to the country’s 12 regional rabbinical courts, voted instead to elect attorneys Asher Axelrod and Mordechai Eisenberg.
One of the principle powers of the rabbinical courts is jurisdiction over matters of divorce, something that progressive groups see as prejudicial to the rights of women, who are at a disadvantage in divorce proceedings due to certain stipulations of Jewish law.
Rabbi Uri Regev, director of the religious equality organization Hiddush, denounced the result as “a victory of political deals over the values and principles of equality and civil liberties” – a reference to a deal struck between internal factions of the Bar Association, which eliminated the chance that a woman would be elected.
“To have an all-male committee might have been acceptable several decades ago, but in 2011, this is no longer the case,” he told The Jerusalem Post.
“I would have expected the Bar Association to be guided, formally or informally, by the notion of advancing the status of women in Israel, especially in light of the tremendous impact the selection of dayanim [judges] has on the plight of women who fall into hands of the rabbinic courts,” he went on.
“Their freedom, dignity and property are all impacted directly by the identity of the dayanim who will be appointed.”
Hiddush and similar organizations regard the appointment of women to the committee as a vital goal in influencing the makeup of rabbinical courts across the country. The 10-member committee consists of the two chief rabbis, two rabbinical judges from the Rabbinical Court of Appeals, two government ministers, two Knesset members, and two attorneys selected by the Bar Association.
There has been at least one woman on the committee for the past 12 years.
A source within the Bar Association described the panel’s new composition as a 20-year setback in the pursuit of reform on critical issues such as divorce and mamzerut (the status of children born out of wedlock to a married woman). According to the source, the once-in-a-generation opportunity to fill empty seats on the Rabbinic Court of Appeals with progressive rabbinical judges will be lost.
Two months ago, Yuri Geiron, the head of the Bar Association’s largest internal faction, pledged to the International Coalition for Agunah Rights (ICAR) to support the candidacy of a woman. According to sources within the bar, however, due to a deal with Eisenberg – the head of the association’s haredi (ultra- Orthodox) faction – Geiron shifted his support to him, and in return, Eisenberg pledged support for Geiron in the elections for the bar chairmanship – which he nevertheless lost.
“It is a black day for the Bar Association, that they had to sell out women for the ultra-Orthodox, and everyone will pay the price in the future,” said Robyn Shames, ICAR’s executive director.
Among those who lost out in the election, which took place on Tuesday evening, were two unaffiliated candidates running on a liberal, religious Zionist platform.
“I understand the position of the women’s rights organizations,” Geiron told the Post in response, “and I also believe that it is the right one, and for 12 years I personally implemented this stance, voting for women to represent the Bar Association on the committee for appointing rabbinical judges. Unfortunately, due to certain circumstances that arose and the storm engulfing the legal world in Israel, and specifically the Bar Association, I had to give up this principle, which until now was a guiding light for me.”
He stated that his faction had been a leader in promoting and electing women to public office in a number of legal realms, such as the selection committee for Qadis of the state Sharia courts.
“No other faction or grouping in the Bar Association office has done as much as has my faction, ‘Lishka Aheret,’” he said. “This time it was not feasible, but it is possible that in light of this, it will oblige me to double my commitment in the future.”
ICAR announced on Monday that in light of the (then-expected) selection of Axelrod and Eisenberg, it had prepared a draft bill for the Knesset to reserve two slots on the committee for women. The law was proposed on Monday by MKs Uri Orbach (Habayit Hayehudi), Tzipi Hotovely (Likud), Einat Wilf (Labor), Orit Zuaretz (Kadima) and Zehava Gal-On (Meretz).
Batya Kehane, director of women’s divorce rights organization Mavoi Satum, called the failure to appoint even one female representative to the committee “a badge of shame” for society and the legal system.
“The lack of female representation deepens the outrageous [religious and gender] imbalance that exists on the committee, which also includes only three non-haredi members,” she said. “The rabbinical courts are a state institution which are supposed to serve the general public.”
Religious Zionist parties also weighed in on the issue, including the Ne’emanei Torah Ve’avodah group, which deplored “the takeover of the courts system by extreme haredi, anti-Zionist [elements].”
It also criticized the lack of female representation. “The fact that the committee is responsible for the fate of many women, but that there is no room for even one woman, proves once again the extent to which the committee is completely detached from the people.”
Election of city rabbis is fair, says religion ministry
http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=241105
10/10/2011
Religious Services Ministry rejects claims process of appointing city chief rabbis is unrepresentative, open to manipulation or unequal.
Peres: Mosque arson brings great shame upon Israel
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=240437
10/04/2011
President speaks out against apparent "price tag" attack while visiting scene of crime with chief rabbis in Galilee village.
United Torah Judaism chairman slams Trajtenberg report
http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=239771
09/27/2011
MK Yisrael Eichler criticizes recommendations regarding integration of haredim into labor market and education in haredi schools.
Treasury agrees to dramatic hike in city rabbis' wages
http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=221860
05/23/2011
A new city rabbi will earn about 80%of what the city's director general's salary is, treasury wage chief tells Knesset Finance C'tee.
The Treasury has agreed to a dramatic increase in the salaries of new city rabbis, a senior Finance Ministry official announced Monday during a meeting of the Knesset's Finance Committee.
Group petitions court to halt vote on Jerusalem chief rabbi
http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=214363
Ne'emanei Torah Ve'avoda file petition asking the court to basically reduce the weight of the religious services minister in the process.
03/30/2011
Rabbi Dichovsky appointed director of rabbinic courts
http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=210409
Dichovsky is a haredi rabbinic judge who is considered relatively open-minded and progressive.
03/02/2011
Goodbye Chicago, Hello Negev!
January 28, 2011
Who said that Zionism is over? Quietly, far from the media, American Jews have moved to the Negev and are in the process of establishing the core of an interesting community. Take for example Ravit Greenberg, who grew up in upstate New York but fell in love with Israel several years ago as a child when she arrived in Israel while her father was on sabbatical. After completing her undergraduate studies in the United States, she decided as a Zionist student activist on campus, to immigrate to Israel. She first lived in Jerusalem, but after two years decided that for her to be an Israeli she had to leave the center of the country. "I felt that to live in Jerusalem with so many immigrants was like a little America in Israel. Although there was something comfortable about it, I wanted to get out of the bubble." Greenberg decided to study towards a master's degree at Ben-Gurion University in Be'er Sheva and lived in the city for two years. During her stay in Israel she met Gabe who came from Chicago to Israel to do volunteer service for the Israeli military. The two decided to marry, but because there was pressure on Gabe to return to the U.S. after his military service. The two decided to move to Chicago for a few years.
Rabbi's wife: Arabs are the enemy
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4006332,00.html
Woman who signed letter urging Jewish girls not to date Arabs says 'separatism is what sustained the Jewish people throughout time.' Meanwhile, Masorti Movement rabbi slams letter, says 'our faith is strong enough in order to treat non-Jews with respect and equality'
Yair Altman Published: 12.29.10, 17:46 / Israel Jewish Scene
Eight haredi, four Zionist rabbinical judges chosen
http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=196098
Rabbi Shlomo Dichovsky to head rabbinical courts for three more months as panel fails to reach agreement on successor to Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan.
11/21/2010
Debate over Kollel-student stipends goes to 'the sources'
MK Gafni: "I totally disagree with what your letter states regarding income assurance, historically but primarily halachically."
As the debate over funding for Torah study in the draft 2011/12 state budget intensifies, members of the Knesset's Economic Affairs Committee received a lesson on the Jewish sources regarding that issue, courtesy of the liberal modern- Orthodox Ne'emanei Torah Ve'avodah (The Faithful of Torah and Labor) group.
Rabbis to convene after police summons
,18/08/2010 ; http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=185116
Prominent rabbis called over controversial "Torat Hamelech" endorsements.
A convention "in honor of the Torah and its independence" will be taking place in Jerusalem on Wednesday, following the summoning of two prominent national-religious rabbis for police questioning over their endorsement of a controversial Halacha book.
Gov't committee to appoint nine new rabbinical judges
06/11/2010 02:41
Replacement of court director to top agenda.
A government committee is convening Friday morning at the Justice Ministry in Jerusalem to select and appoint nine new rabbinical judges (dayanim) to serve in regional rabbinical courts and two for the High Rabbinical Court.
The Future of Modern Orthodoxy... and me
While I'm not a fan of the term "Orthodox," as it was originally coined as a derogatory term, Modern Orthodoxy is a movement that seeks to combine traditional Judaism with the world at large, thus formalizing the relationship between halachically observant Judaism and the modern world.
Orthodoxies
"Is Modern Orthodoxy an Endangered Species?" This was the question posed at a conference yesterday in Jerusalem. Some speakers suggested that the very term "Modern Orthodoxy" doesn't fit the Israeli context or even accurately describe this slice of Jewish life. But what, indeed, is it?
?Why Do Men's Voices Lend Credibility to Jewish Women's Issues
Why Do Men's Voices Lend Credibility to Jewish Women's Issues?
As a woman, I sometimes feel like I'm in a catch-22. I want to bring attention to issues concerning women, but I also want men to pay attention. When women are doing all the talking, we run the risk of marginalizing ourselves, of turning our ideas into "women's stuff." By inviting men to speak about women's issues, we may gain credibility and breadth, but we contribute to the problem by having men speak on our behalf, muting our voices once again.
Close-knit community?
By SARAH NADAV
25/03/2010 19:36 THE JERUSALEM POST
Religious Affairs: The battle in Religious Zionism
Matthew Wagner , THE JERUSALEM POST
Jul. 16, 2009
In the latest salvo in the ongoing war between two vying camps over the future of religious Zionism, haredi-leaning rabbis this week torpedoed the appointment of a liberal-minded professor as president of a popular teachers college.To protest the move, hundreds of more liberal-minded rabbis - many affiliated with the religious kibbutz movement - as well as religious Zionist youths and educators held a collective learning session/demonstration across the street from the Ramat Gan Hesder Yeshiva Wednesday night.
The venue was chosen as protest against the head of the yeshiva, Rabbi Yehoshua Shapira, who recently labeled some more liberal-minded religious Zionist leaders as "neo-reformers."
The liberals earned the name, said Shapira, because they favored coed education in the Bnei Akiva youth movement and supported a greater role for women in religious leadership, including as rabbis. Shapira also lamented the willingness of some religious Zionist rabbis to allow older single women, whose biological clock for baby bearing was running down, to use artificial insemination.
Can we prevent the Haredization of Modern Orthodox Jewry?
In the last generation, the Israeli Orthodoxy Jewry has increasingly become more extreme, and has isolated itself from mainstream Israeli society. There is a continued distance and alienation of the Orthodox population from the secular community, and a seeming lack of interest in integrating Halacha and Torah with the concerns and circumstances of modern life. A similar tendency can be seen in the American Modern Orthodox Jewry, having shifted in the past years towards the right (both religiously and politically). This phenomenon is known as the Haredization of Orthodox Jewry.
This article introduces an Israeli organization that strives to promote an alternative route for Israeli Orthodoxy, mainly by returning to the core values of "Torah" with "Derech Eretz".[1]Ne'emanei Torah vaAvodah (NTA)
Dispelling an 'optical illusion'
By Yair Sheleg /21/12/08
Anyone who is accustomed to thinking of religious Zionism as a public that is totally extremist - both with respect to politics and religion - should have been in Givat Shmuel last Tuesday. At the initiative of Ne'emanei Torah Va'avodah, one of the liberal religious-Zionist organizations, a stormy discussion was held there about the path of the Bnei Akiva youth movement.
Rabbis call for revival of traditional schooling
Religious leaders criticize state-religious education for being unable to prevent students from leaving. Rabbi Benny Lau: System created divisive network since it did not accept diversity of strengthening orthodoxy
Kobi Nahshoni
"Ethnic segregation is a tragedy, a bone of contention; the system isolating itself is an embarrassment," Rabbi Dr. Benny Lau said Wednesday as he addressed growing amount of private religious schools and the weakening of state-religious education.
Courts to perform secular conversions which bypass rabbinate
By Shahar Ilan
The Knesset caucus for secular Judaism and organizations from all streams of Judaism have created a coalition of conversion courts independent from the Chief Rabbinate. The coalition, which was approved last week, is being coordinated by PANIM for Jewish Renaissance, an advocacy group for pluralistic Judaism.
Orthodoxy at a crossroads
By URIEL HEILMAN
When the liberal wing of American Orthodoxy gathered this past Sunday at a Reform temple in Manhattan for its biennial Edah conference, the message on the state of the union was mixed.
On the one hand, the conference's main presenters noted, the state of American Orthodoxy is good.
The great divide
By Yair Sheleg
There are some doctoral dissertations that clearly articulate the writer's personal agenda. This is true for Ora Cohen, of the settlement of Elkana in the northern West Bank. As a Jewish feminist and former head of the liberal religious organization Ne'emanei Torah Ve'avoda, Cohen says that many questions that trouble Jewish women like herself never receive answers. "They tell us: This is what halakha [Jewish law] says, like it or not. So I decided to probe deeper and find out what the halakha really does say, and how these things evolved."
Conversion focus heats up ahead of Shavuot
By MATTHEW WAGNER
Religious Israelis are more concerned than their secular counterparts about the potential danger of assimilation presented by the influx of non-Jewish immigrants from the Former Soviet Union to Israel, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Immigration and Absorption Ministry.
Voice of (a Handful of) the People
I went to a rally last night! It was organized by Ne'emanei Torah vaAvodah to protest the Supreme Rabbinical Court's ruling from the end of April, which invalidated thousands of conversions carried out in Israel over the past few years by Rabbi Haim Druckman, head of the Israeli Conversion Court. Some background:
Religious Israelis
Religious Israelis are more concerned than their secular counterparts about the potential danger of assimilation presented by the influx of non-Jewish immigrants from the Former Soviet Union to Israel, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Immigration and Absorption Ministry.
Some 87 percent of religious Israelis said they were concerned about intermarriage and assimilation in the wake of the arrival of approximately 300,000 non-Jewish FSU immigrants, who came to Israel under the Law of Return.
Rabbis, intellectuals against private schools
Dozens of rabbis, educators, academicians and public figures sign petition calling on government to strengthen state-religious education, urging religious public to protest 'privatization and elitism'
Kobi Nahshoni
Published: 05.30.08, 13:02 / Israel Jewish Scene
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