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Religious ruptures

With Jerusalem debating the efficacies and realities of the city’s haredim rioting against the opening of the Intel factory on Shabbat, talk at the water cooler on this first day of the work week revolved around this latest turn in the Shabbat riots.

The riots were reportedly peaceful, but as one coworker of mine commented, “How peaceful is it to head to a riot after shul on Shabbat?”

Can’t argue with that. I personally like to head home for some whisky and olives on Shabbat afternoon.

According to a survey taken by Hiddush, an NGO promoting religious freedom and equality in Israel (and headed by Rabbi/lawyer Uri Regev, who used to head the Reform movement in Israel), 76 percent of Jewish Israelis – and 93% of secular Israelis – believe haredi rabbis are spearheading religion-inspired conflicts in an effort to advance partisan haredi interests, and only 24% of the 500 polled believe that recent riots are inspired by love of Israel and the wellbeing of society.

This isn’t the first time that an Intel factory in Israel is working on Shabbat, but it is a newly revamped Jerusalem Intel plant that is manufacturing a certain kind of chip, which requires non-stop production. Given that Jerusalem is a city lacking jobs and industry, the presence of Intel is a boon, and one that clearly, no one wants to lose. At the same time, it’s not too pleasant dealing with religious hatred on a regular basis.

And so, against this background, I happened to end up at the Haredim photography exhibit in Beit Avi Chai, originally shown at the Eretz Israel Museum, with photos by Menahem Kahana of Haredim in all walks and situations of life, from synagogue rituals and family gatherings to celebrations, funerals and yes, demonstrations, from over the last ten years.

The curator is Alex Levac, winner of the Israel Prize for photography. Worth seeing and thinking about.

Rioting in Jerusalem? All is normal

Summer’s here and the time is right for fighting in the streets. Apologies to Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, but the streets of Jerusalem on these last few weekends have not seen much joyous dancing.

The fight between the haredim of Jerusalem and its secular residents (and secular mayor Nir Barkat) is over whether a parking lot near the Old City can be opened on Shabbat to accomodate the throngs of visiting tourists, both local and international.

A compromise involving using a private parking lot instead of a municipal lot was offered, and supposedly accepted, but someone forgot to tell the haredim. There have been clashes the last few Saturdays between haredi protestors and the police, with the protestors demanding that the private parking lot be closed on Shabbat, stating it’s a violation of the status quo in the city – the delicate fine line in the power struggle between the secular and observant Jews of Jerusalem.

However, according to Matt Rees, one of my favorite authors and a good friend, the action on the street is actually a good thing.
Writing in the Global Post, Rees states that if the big item on Israelis’ agenda is an open parking lot on Shabbat, then maybe things aren’t so bad here.

Ultra-orthodox Jews have been rioting the last few weeks against a parking lot the municipality wants to leave open during the Jewish Sabbath, leading to dozens of arrests and quite a few moderate to serious injuries. Secular activists have held protests in favor of free garaging for those who defy God by driving on Saturday.

All of which is a sign of good times in Israel.

Here’s why: It shows that Israelis think there’s nothing worse to worry about.
When I first came to Jerusalem in 1996, the ultra-Orthodox, or “Haredim” as they’re known here (it means “those who quake,” as in quaking before the wrathful God of the Jewish Bible) used to riot over a major thoroughfare that ran through one of their neighborhoods. They wanted Bar-Ilan Street closed between sundown Friday and the onset of Saturday night.

And then, Rees continued, the Intifada started. Since then it’s been one Intifada after the other, with terror, suicide bombings and security fences to be built. Who had time to protest?

But in comparison to the intifada, these are easy times for Israel. Long may the Sabbath be a time for rioting.

One of the proverbs I learned when first coming to Israel was one that said – it’s a good thing there’s an Israeli-Arab conflict. Otherwise, we Jews would be at each other’s throat. These days, it seems like we have the worst of both worlds.

Foto Friday – Menachem Kahana lifts the haredi veil

The haredi world is one that secular Israelis find alternately fascinating and disturbing, filled with rituals and mystery. Photographer Menahem Kahana, who works for French news agency AFP, has been documenting the ultra-Orthodox community for years.

In a new exhibit, now on at Tel Aviv’s Eretz Israel Museum, Kahana presents a body of work begun in 1995, when he happened upon a spring where some young haredi men were swimming.

Over the years, as he continued his documentation, the community opened up to him: synagogues, celebrations, and rituals both usual, such as weddings…

… and unusual, such as the pidyon ha-ben in which first-born sons are redeemed by their families from service to the High Priests of the Temple…

…and the peter hamor, which which first born donkeys are as well.

And everyday life, too.

Click on this link to learn more about Kahana’s work.

Watch out for the secular guy

If there’s one thing Israelis like to do, it’s categorizing people. Not that we’re prejudiced, but it’s second nature when describing someone that’s not like you to use a term like ‘haredim’ (Ultra-Orthodox), “Roosim’ (Russian), or ‘Aravim’ (Arab).

And it’s not only religion or nationality, it can also describe behavior or cultural bents – someone can be a ‘freche’ (Israeli version of a Jewish American Princess), an ‘Arse’ (a male JAP), or a Tzfon Tel Avivi (beourgouise, Left-wing Tel Aviv resident).

But did you ever think that those same people you’re labelling with the greatest of ease are also stereotyping you?

I was walking to work yesterday afternoon through a Jerusalem neighborhood inhabited mostly by devoutly religious Jews who generally dress in black and sport peyot around their ears. There, how’s that for political correctness?

Three boys, around nine or 10 years old, were playing in the street when a car drove by slowing down by them. After passing the first two boys, the driver stopped at the last one and appeared to be asking him a question.

The first two boys looked on excitedly. “Hey, he’s talking to Yediya,” one of them said.

“Who is he, an Arab?” asked the second boy.

“No, I don’t think so. He looks hiloni (secular),” was the first boy’s response.

I cracked up. To them, this perfectly normal looking guy, who I would describe as a middle-aged white male, was to these haredi youth, a non-religious outsider. To them, he was as exotic and foreign as an Arab or an Ethiopian is to a white, Ashkenazi, secular Israeli.

No moral to the story here, it’s just interesting to once in a while look at things from the other guy’s point of view. And maybe if we stopped labelling everyone we saw, we might all be a little better off.

Foto Friday – Yuval Nadel

The world of haredi observant Jews is one that most secular Israelis never get a chance to see – and if they do, they find it alien, even threatening. Photographer Yuval Nadel, an Israeli-born Jew with a secular up-bringing, became familiar with and learned to appreciate and respect the people who lead a religious lifestyle.

In a collection of photographs called “Custom, Prayer and Ceremony – The Jews of the Land of Israel”, he documents that meeting between secular and religious without trying to explain the lifestyle or Jewish customs. “As a photographer, it was important for me to show the religious experiences of Israeli Jews from my personal point of view,” he says.

The photographs presented in Nadel’s book were taken over four cycles of holidays and intermittent days between 2004 and 2008. Nadel writes that his journey began at the annual festive Lag B’Omer commemoration at Mount Meron. “I was captivated. Over the next four years, I traveled around the country to the various outposts and locations where Jews perform their mitzvot (commandments), ceremonies and prayers… I arrived to these places as a photographer, as a bystander observer and yet as someone participating in the experience. It was so, because that’s how I was received…”

While most such books “fall prey to the sin of anthropology… based, at worst, on patronizing voyeurism and at best, on intellectual curiosity,” writes Israeli journalist Kobi Arieli, an observant Jew, “Yuval Nadel’s approach arises out of a positive attitude that is nurtured and grows with each image… This book is a story about love and light, which is why it is both good and enjoyable.”

For his part, Nadel says, “If these photographs can contribute even slightly to help unite Jews through exposing a beautiful side of the world of observant Jews in Israel, I will have reaped my reward.”

Juuuust behind the times

Israel’s Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community values tradition over progress, believing that anything new is inherently suspect. With the community’s impoverished state, the internet age has opened many avenues of telecommuting income for Haredi families, so the rabbinical leadership has treated computers and telecommunications with kid gloves. The result is a grey area for a sector of Israel’s population not known for being allowed much room for individual thought.

Sure, many Haredim have secret TVs behind closed doors (even if they decide for themselves that it’s okay, their neighbors might not understand), and even more watch moving images on their computers. There’s a mega-earning Haredi film industry, with CD-ROMs containing movies that have zero actresses and Torah-friendly messages:

The plots are usually convoluted melodramas, most of them tear-jerkers that are loaded with edifying messages and Haredi cliches: There will always be a goy (or a secular Jew) who discovers his Judaism; and twins separated at birth, one of whom grew up with goyim (or secular Jews) and returns to his origins. And an ancient copy of Psalms will always find its way to its owner.

But even this scene is banned by many rabbis, its key players operating semi-secretly – even though it’s known that families often own computers just to watch these productions.

During a recent visit to a used cellphone retailer near Jerusalem’s Davidka Square, a corner that’s situated on the border between the super-black Makor Baruch neighborhood and the spaghetti-strapped downtown, I overheard a Haredi man asking the salesman which of the phones he offers are “kosher.” Puzzled, I asked him if he intended to eat his phone, whereupon it was explained to me that some phones allow for streaming video (which might be lewd) and some do not (rendering them kosher).

Video is clearly a point of contention. A recent Haredi ban differentiates between mp3 players (good, because they can be used for Torah study) and mp4 players (evil, because, they are capable of displaying video, which may lead to sin):

Even though MP4s are sold at several stores in Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox Geula neighborhood, the anger was directed at this particular store because it dared advertise its wares in a Haredi newspaper. Unsigned posters reading “Prepare for the great campaign to stop the corruption” have appeared throughout the neighborhood in recent weeks, denouncing the store for openly advertising “reviled devices that drag all who touch them toward danger.”

These types of verdicts are strangely almost keeping up with the times, only confirming their reactive grounding – simply not based on any guiding doctrines, but rather trying to maintain control over the ever-elusive buffer zone between mankind and our temptations.

The old adage that “guns don’t kill people; people do” comes to mind: Technology doesn’t unto itself cause people to enjoy sinful modes of entertainment, but it makes it a whole lot easier. In these parts of Israeli society, morality isn’t meant to be a matter of individual but rather what’s pronounced from above – in public anyway.

Flickr photo by whodisan215.

 

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