Court rules state must fund non-Orthodox conversion courses

May 21, 2009 - 8:49 AM by David · 8 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Israeliness, Politics, Religion, coexistence 

UTJ's Moshe Gafni is not happy with neither the court decision nor with Reform Jews.

UTJ's Moshe Gafni is not happy with neither the court decision nor with Reform Jews.

In one of those I-can’t-believe-Israel-needs-a-court-to-decide-this decisions, the High Court this week ordered the state to fund non-Orthodox conversion institutions along with Orthodox ones.

The ruling was the result of a petition filed by the Reform Movement in Israel demanding equal funding for its conversion classes vis-à-vis those run by private Orthodox institutions.

While the ruling may not have any impact on the status of the conversions themselves in the eyes of the state. it may influence the religious status quo and future court rulings on other questions of funding for religious services, where the Orthodox stranglehold on funding has frozen out other strains of Judaism.

Until now, non-Orthodox conversion programs have not been eligible for funding, which is provided by the Immigration Absorption Ministry to Orthodox schools.

Rabbi Gilad Kariv, director-general of the Reform Movement, said the decision was “very important and constituted one more step in the process of ending the Orthodox monopoly in Israel.”

He added that the ruling “was the harbinger of a series of High Court decisions to come which will eventually lead to a strategic agreement between the state and the Reform and Conservative movements regarding their status in Israel.” But Kariv cautioned that the process would still take many years.

One indication of that was the reaction to the ruling by haredi Knesset Finance Committee chairman Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) who holds the purse strings of the budget for religious funding. He said that he’ll block any attempt to transfer state funds to non-Orthodox institutions involved in preparing converts to Judaism.

“The Reform Movement is not a legitimate form of Judaism,” Gafni told The Jerusalem Post. “The Reform are a bunch of treacherous backstabbers to Judaism. They are jokers who operate without hierarchy and without rules.”

He added that the court’s decision to compel the state to fund non-Orthodox conversion institutes was a slippery slope that was liable to undermine the Jewish character of the state.

“Gafni should know that he, like all other Israeli citizens, must adhere to the law. He is probably just showing off to his friends and supporters in Brooklyn,” Kariv responded.

It looks like this is just the beginning, and not the end of the battle between the Orthodox and the Reform in Israel. Strap your seatbelts.

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Yoga puts religious Israelis in an uncomfortable position

April 16, 2009 - 9:42 PM by Harry · 3 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Religion, Sports 

Israelis doing yogaToday’s Western societies are into all kinds of Eastern recreational and spiritual pursuits. There are also scores of Israelis from multiple generations returning home from backpacking jaunts to India and elsewhere in the East on an ongoing basis. Combine the two phenomena, and the booming popularity of yoga in Israel seems like an obvious eventuality.

For Israelis who are interested in spirituality avenues that are new to them, regardless of potential conflict with their Jewish roots, yoga is hardly a problem. But for the increasing numbers of Israeli Orthodox Jews who are experimenting with flavors from other faiths and integrating them into their own traditional frameworks, yoga isn’t always a straightforward pursuit.

Other spiritual paths might be less problematic for religious Jews looking to pepper things up: Buddhism, for example, is often justified on the grounds that it is essentially a code of ethics with possibly nothing to teach in terms of deities. And other religions have their own potential beefs (pardon the apropos expression) with yoga. However, some Jewish theologians, including a well-publicized responsum by Chabad Rabbi Tzvi Freeman, have justified yoga practice among Jews on the grounds that one ought not throw the baby out with the bathwater – in other words, just because many yoga practitioners include chants dedicated to multiple deities in their practices, that doesn’t mean that the spirit-calming and body-stretching advantages of yoga ought to be avoided.

Another complication to the situation is that it might not be so straightforward that yoga’s Hindu chants to more than one god represent idolatry. Many other theologians have posited that since they all essentially represent manifestations of the one primary godhead, Brahman, the additional Hindu gods can be seen as analogous to Jewish mysticism’s concept of the sephirot, the kabalistic manifestations of the Jewish God’s various components of holiness.

Regardless, there are thousands of religious Israelis who are simply scared of yoga’s spiritual elements and prefer to focus on its exercise-based advantages. Case in point is Californian immigrant yogi Aviva Schmidt, whose yoga studio in Jerusalem, “Power Flow,” has been christened by Ha’aretz as “Israel’s first kosher power yoga studio.”

Located in Jerusalem’s posh Rehavia neighborhood, “Power Flow” specializes in power yoga, which is different from conventional yoga in that the exercises are quicker and more exhausting. “They call it yoga for athletes,” Schmidt said. “It’s not your slow, meditative and gentle yoga, it’s a workout.”

As Schmidt explains her approach to the conundrum….

“Yoga is based on Eastern tradition and focuses a lot on meditation. Different positions are worshipping different idols, which goes against Judaism. So I keep it very pareve: for example, I don’t say the names of the positions, there is no chanting, no ohming. I do focus on the breathing, as this is very important in yoga, but any kind of eastern philosophy stays outside.”

Hey, whatever floats your boat. We’ve heard of kosher cell phones and kosher sex, so kosher yoga? Why not.

Image of Israelis doing yoga courtesy zivpu from Flickr under a Creative Commons license.

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Would-be women of the IDF busted shirking and snogging

March 20, 2009 - 10:54 AM by Harry · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Religion, War 

Religious teen women of IsraelThe way the Israeli army interfaces with religion is not so straightforward, which makes sense in a land where the separation between synagogue and state is still being sorted out. The IDF’s Rabbinate came under scrutiny this winter for attempting to boost soldiers’ morale on shaky theological grounds.

And the Rabbinate is notorious for being stingy when it comes to handing out shaving exemption papers for soldiers looking to be able to wear beards based on their interpretation of Biblical commandments, sometimes telling soldiers that they’re “not religious enough” to qualify for the exemption. But if it’s a rabbi’s goal to foster observance, he ought to embrace the individual’s interests, regardless of that individual’s flaws or hypocrisies.

In a society where we are constantly being pigeonholed due to what we’re wearing on our heads and elsewhere on our bodies, I don’t know about you, but my inclination is to say, “Please don’t put me in a box. I’m a real person, not a tidy category.”

Of course, embracing the religious grey area gets trickier when we’re talking about exemption from serving in the army altogether. Ditching the draft is relatively common among Israel’s Orthodox, for better or for worse, and the mechanisms for obtaining exemptions on religious grounds are relatively straightforward, making pleading religious a tempting option even for those who might not necessarily truly have theological qualms with the experience of being a soldier.

After years of turning a blind eye, more or less, to this phenomenon, the IDF is getting smart and trying to crack down on young women who “lie” and plead religious. Sure, it’s possible that a young woman who is too observant to serve, whatever that means, might experience a lapse in faith, but in general, if the army’s detectives catch you making out with someone, you should probably suit up.

“We need those girls, Lt. Col. Gil Ben Shaoul, deputy commander of Israel’s military recruitment center,” told The Associated Press.

The Israel Defense Forces says the surveillance program began last year and has caught 520 young women, many who admitted they did not deserve the religious exemption and signed up for military service.

….Catching the draft-dodgers is fairly straightforward: It takes one weekend, said Ben Shaoul. The young women are usually caught driving on Saturday, drinking or smoking.

Many who attempt to shirk the draft justify doing so on the grounds that women aren’t given “real” opportunities in the IDF.

“I served for two years doing nothing. All the girls do nothing,” said Shiran Cohen, 24, a university student. She said she was assigned to check on ammunition stockpiles during her service, but was frequently sidelined by men in her unit.

Although being a woman in the army can’t be easy, this excuse simply doesn’t hold water. I have fond memories of my days serving in the IDF’s Shiryon (armored corps) unit, where everything I learned about tanks was taught to me by women.

On the first day of tank training, the training officers took me and my fellow conscripts out to the open field and gave us a powerful demonstration of tank maneuvering and weaponry. The audience loved it. When the demo was over, the tanks pulled around and parked by the bleachers where we sat. The hatches opened, and out came four women from each vehicle. Surprise surprise. The bleachers shook with hooting, extra applause and jumping up and down as a special reaction for the ladies. It was a bit embarrassing, and it might serve to highlight how rough it must be to get respect as a woman soldier, but the point is that the opportunities are there for those who are motivated to go after them.

Image of Israeli modern Orthodox teenage women courtesy sethfrantzman from Flickr under a Creative Commons license.

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