A (c)hair raising experience

March 17, 2010 - 10:43 PM by · 2 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, General, Israeliness, Life, Religion, Social Justice 

Praying in the Jewish tradition can be hazardous to your health – at least if you’re a woman at the Kotel.

On every Rosh Hodesh – the Women of the Wall - a coalition of Conservative, Orthodox and Reform women – gather on the women’s side of the Wall for the morning Shaharit service. And on every Rosh Hodesh, there violent attempts by seemingly religious men to stop them.

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On Tuesday, chair throwing was the violent act of choice. Rena Magen, one of the participants in the service described it like this:

I thought you would like to see this video of our “c-hair raising” experience at the Kotel this past Tuesday when I went to daven with the Women at the Wall.. it was not even 7:00 am yet (the starting time of the minyan) and we were simply standing around waiting, not even 10 of us.

All of a sudden, chairs started flying at us from the men’s side of the mechitzah, with great force. About 10 total, one after the other, very quickly. It was so outrageous that we hardly had time to be afraid. I am amazed that whoever shot this clip had the presence of mind to do so.

The police came quite quickly after it was all over and from that moment on there were MANY police guarding us on either side of the mechitzah. We had a nice service after that, complete with the requisite angry incessant shouting from the men and the nasty comments and curses from the women.

The group’s next minyan is Thursday, April 15, Rosh Chodesh Iyar. Let’s make it a big one…

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When’s the right time for a rite of passage?

October 15, 2009 - 12:32 PM by · 3 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, General, health, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Religion, Travel 

It’s generally accepted that the Israeli perspective on the bar/bat mitzvah ceremony is different from its counterpart in the US.
I remember when Susie and three of her closest friends decided to celebrate their bat mitzvahs together – they were all around 40-years-old at the time.
They had been studying Torah as a group in Jerusalem for a year and a half. It all started when Boston-born Susie, who had already been in Israel for more than 20 years, started to feel that while her Jewish identity was her primary identity, which is why she had moved here, it was time for her to confront her “awe of the Torah.”
Sally, Ruti and Janet had also been in Israel for a couple of decades and for various reasons, none of the four had had a bat mitzvah back in the States. In fact, the first bat mitzvah was held by American rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan, a major figure in Jewish thought and the founder of the Reconstructionist movement, for his daughter Judith in 1922.
So the culmination of 18 months of study and learning to read from the holy book was a ceremony at Jerusalem’s Kol Haneshama .
Now the idea didn’t resonate with everybody, but at that June ceremony 12 years ago no one could fail to be moved by the four women’s obvious quiet joy and pride in their achievements.
The bat mitzvahs of those forty-somethings inevitably came to mind when I received an e-mail recently, telling me about another group of delayed bar/bat mitzvah celebrants, en route to Israel.
Some of the participants at the upcoming celebration will be using walkers. Oxygen and wheelchairs will be available for emergencies. Five nurses will be traveling with the group. The average age of the participants in this particular version of the Jewish coming-of-age ceremony? Eighty-five.
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Court rules state must fund non-Orthodox conversion courses

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

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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