Forgive me dear readers, I’ve been so busy with no time to blog. And since today is my day off this isn’t really a blog post. Just an apology and a suggestion to read this article. More soon (I hope!)
This important op-ed was in the New York Times yesterday. It explains the danger of the Rotem bill concisely and clearly so we can all do a better job of explaining the situation to our families and friends. Then of course, everyone should sign this petition!
The Diaspora Need Not Apply
By ALANA NEWHOUSE
Published: July 15, 2010
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WHO is a Jew? It’s an age-old inquiry, one that has for decades (if not centuries) provoked debate, discussion and too many punch lines to count — all inspired by what many assumed was the question’s essential unanswerability. But if developments this week are any indication, the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, might soon offer an official, surprising answer: almost no one
On Monday, a Knesset committee approved a bill sponsored by David Rotem, a member of the nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party, that would give the Orthodox rabbinate control of all conversions in Israel. If passed, this legislation would place authority over all Jewish births, marriages and deaths — and, through them, the fundamental questions of Jewish identity — in the hands of a small group of ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, rabbis.
The move has set in motion a sectarian battle that is not only dividing Israeli society but threatening to sever the vital connection between Israel and the American Jewish diaspora.
The problem is not simply that some of these rabbinical functionaries, who are paid by the state and courted by politicians, are demonstrably corrupt. (To take the most salacious of a slew of examples, an American Haredi rabbi who had become one of the most powerful authorities on the question of conversion resigned from his organization in December after accusations that he solicited phone sex from a hopeful female convert.) Rather, it is that the beliefs of a tiny minority of the world’s Jews are on the verge of becoming the Israeli government’s definition of Judaism, for all Jews.
It is hard to exaggerate the possible ramifications, first and foremost for Jewish Israelis. Rivkah Lubitch, an Orthodox woman who is a lawyer in Israel’s rabbinic court system, painted a harrowing picture of the future in a recent column on the Israeli Web site Ynet.
“Even if you didn’t go to register for marriage, and even if you didn’t go to a rabbinic court for any reason, and even if you didn’t pass by a rabbinic court when you walked down the street — the rabbinic court can summon you, conduct a hearing about your Jewishness and revoke it,” she wrote. “In effect, the entire nation of Israel is presumed to be Not-Jewish — until proven otherwise.”
Why are the rabbis doing this? The process is not being driven, as some say, by a suspicion of new converts — they’re simply a wedge issue. Nor is it, as others argue, a reaction to the influx of Russian Jews, who when they seek permission to wed in Israel are often asked for evidence that their families were registered as Jews in the old Soviet Union.
No, what is driving this process is the desire of a small group of rabbis to expand their authority from narrow questions of conversion to larger questions of Jewish identity. Since what goes for conversion also goes for all other clerical acts, only a few anointed rabbis will be able to determine the authenticity of one’s marriage, divorce, birth, death — and every rite in between.
And lest one imagine that this is just another battle between the more progressive Reform and Conservative denominations and the more observant Orthodox, it must be noted that the criteria used by the rabbinate are driven by internal Haredi politics, not observance. According to the Jewish Week, at one point the number of American rabbis who were officially authorized by the Israeli rabbinate to perform conversions was down to a few dozen. Even if you are Orthodox — and especially if you are Modern Orthodox — your rabbi probably doesn’t make the cut. (Don’t believe it? Go ask him.)
Given that the conversion bill is the latest in a series of similarly motivated efforts, it seems almost useless to note that the stringent approach to Jewish law that the Israeli rabbinate promotes bears little connection to the historical experience and religious practice of the majority of Jewish people over the past two millenniums. It will do little good, too, to point out that it is well outside the consensus established by Hillel — arguably the greatest rabbi in all of rabbinic Judaism and whom, as Joseph Telushkin argues in a forthcoming book, was willing to convert a pagan on the spot, simply because he’d asked.
And it doesn’t help to argue that giving the ultra-Orthodox rabbinate total control over Jewish practice will destroy religious life in Israel just as surely as clerical control hurt the Church of England and the Catholic Church in Spain and France. Or that the Zionist founders, from Herzl to Jabotinsky to Ben-Gurion, all believed passionately in the unity of the Jewish people and the need for a secular state.
But perhaps a more practical rallying cry will work: If this bill passes, future historians will inevitably wonder why, at a critical moment in its history, Israel chose to tell 85 percent of the Jewish diaspora that their rabbis weren’t rabbis and their religious practices were a sham, the conversions of their parents and spouses were invalid, their marriages weren’t legal under Jewish law, and their progeny were a tribe of bastards unfit to marry other Jews.
Why, they will wonder, as Iran raced to build a nuclear bomb to wipe the Jewish state off the map, did the custodians of the 2,000-year-old national dream of the Jewish people choose such a perverse definition of Jewish peoplehood, seemingly calculated to alienate supporters outside its own borders?
And, they will also wonder, what of the quiescence of diaspora Jewry? Many American Jews understandably see Israel as under siege and have not wanted to make things worse; they imagined that internal politicking over conversions and marriages was ephemeral, and would change. But the conversion bill is a sign that this silence was a mistake, for it has been interpreted by Israeli politicians as a green light to throw basic questions of Jewish identity into the pot of coalition politics.
The redemptive history of the Jewish people since the Holocaust has rested on the twin pillars of a strong Israel and a strong diaspora, which have spoken to each other politically and culturally, and whose successes have mutually reinforced the confidence and capacities of the other. Neither the Jewish diaspora nor Israel can afford a split between the two communities — a dystopian possibility that, if this bill passes, could materialize frightfully soon.
Alana Newhouse is the editor in chief of Tablet Magazine, which covers Jewish life and culture.
Do you remember your first trip to Israel? I went on an eight-week high school program and fell in love with the country. In particular I remember going to the Western Wall, the Kotel, on the 9th of Av and the maze of people gathered there. The 9th of Av commemorates the destruction of the first and second Temples in Jerusalem. Looking into our past as a people there is much to mourn, however it is our present that is of imminent concern.
On Monday, Anat Hoffman, the director of the Israel Religious Action Center was arrested for carrying a Torah scroll at the Kotel plaza. Hoffman, one of the founders of Women of the Wall was supposedly in violation of a high court ruling that forbids women from reading Torah at the Western Wall. As the video from You Tube shows, Hoffman never intended to violate this court order. She simply removed the Torah scroll and was leading a procession to Robinson’s Arch where Torah reading by women is permitted.
Anat Hoffman was released from police custody the same day and is forbidden from approaching the Western Wall plaza for 30 days.
Fortunately for us, Temple Sinai is hosting Anat Hoffman as our pulpit guest this Shabbat morning, July 17 at 10 am where she will report on recent events.
I hope that you will join me in welcoming Anat to our community and learning what we can do to make a difference.
There is a significant confusion when I describe what I do to a Hebrew speaker. I use the word ‘rav’ rabbi and they tell me that isn’t possible because I’m a woman (as if I didn’t know). (Rav u’morah is what it says on my smicha). Sometimes a Hebrew speaker uses the word ‘rabanit’ which is a term of honor for a rabbi’s wife, the rebbetzin. Nope, not one of those either.
There is no word in the Hebrew language for a female rabbi. Some of my colleagues like to use the term, ‘rabbah.’ I’m not one of them.
Interestingly though, Rabbi Avi Weiss recently ordained the first female rabbi. There is a fascinating article from New York magazine that is worth the read both for its profile of Rabbi Weiss who is an important figure in our day, and of the notion of the ordination of women in the modern Orthodox movement.
I’d love to know your thoughts on this. Feel free to comment.
Oh and in case it wasn’t clear, you can still call me rabbi.
This is from ARZACanada. They’ve made it really easy to do something very important. If you’re not in Canada, please follow this link.
Take Action – Send a Letter to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Please cut and paste the following text in an e-mail to Prime Minister Netanyahu, with a copy to Israeli Ambassador to Canada Miriam Ziv, and Consul General Amir Gissin.
Anat Hoffman clutches the Torah scroll
And real life hero, Anat Hoffman. That’s right. The Jerusalem police force arrested Anat Hoffman on Rosh Chodesh Av, Monday, July 12, for carrying a Torah scroll at the Kotel plaza.
You can read about it from many different perspectives here, here, and here. My classmate and colleague, Leah Berkowitz also took this video.
Anat has been banned from the Kotel for 30 days. Fortunately for all of us, she is coming to Toronto and will be speaking from the bima at Temple Sinai on Shabbat morning at 10am.
Please go to the Women of the Wall website. On the bottom left there are a number of actions that can be taken, that must be taken.
As if all of this wasn’t enough. The Rotem conversion bill went before the Knesset. Please sign this petition in support of liberal Jewry.
There’s work to be done!
Blogosphere, I am going to be away for two weeks and am taking a vacation from blogging.
See you on the other side…
Glad it wasn't like this for URJ biennial!
You might not be aware (and ‘you’ would definitely not be living in Toronto if this is the case) that the G20 begins this coming weekend. All of downtown Toronto has been transformed into a security zone, it seems. Last night I was lucky enough to go to the Rogers Centre for the Jays v. Cardinals and downtown was deserted except for the groups of cops. (What do you call a group of cops standing around? A gaggle is geese…) The protests are apparently under way. People who work downtown are being advised to stay away or to come to work in street clothes.
Apparently over 1 billion has been spent to keep everyone safe. We should expect highways to be closed down for up to 45 minutes at a time. I live well north of the area where all of this is happening and have no plans to go downtown or anywhere near downtown. I’ll stick to the suburbs until this is over.
And because I had to look it up, therefore it is probably worthwhile knowledge to share. The G20 is composed of…
The Group of Twenty Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (known as the G-20 and also the G20 or Group of Twenty) is a group of finance ministers and central bank governors from 20 economies: 19 countries plus the European Union. Recently summits meeting at level of Heads of government have been introduced. The 2010 chair country of the G-20 is South Korea.
Countries included are: South Africa, Mexico, Canada, USA, Argentina, Brazil, China, Japan, South Korea, India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, EU, France, Germany, Russia, Italy, UK, Turkey and Australia.
This list is oddly similar to the World Cup qualifying teams… hmmm.
Here’s a map to show the security zone. 
They’re projecting that the downtown businesses will lost $1 billion in revenue though this will not be measurable or be recovered at any point.
If anyone wanted my opinion on how to spend $1 billion, well, I can think of lots of ways and places. It definitely wouldn’t be on security for a bunch of people in Toronto.
And by Venice I mean Italy not California. An easy thing to confuse.
When I was a first-year student at Brandeis I took this awesome class called, “Merchants, Moneylenders and the Ghetti of Venice” taught by Dr. Benjamin Ravid who is an expert in this field. Needless to say the class was fascinating though I was totally ill-equipped in my first semester at university for such an intensive, seminar style course. Fortunately, I had opportunity to travel to Venice after my senior year, though only for one day, and tour the Jewish Quarter.
I am resisting every urge to go into a lengthy history lesson about Venice and the pivotal role of this community in post-inquisition Europe (Venice is one of the first stops on the way to the Levant/Ottoman Empire where many Jews continued on).
So, instead, I will just encourage you to read this article. If you have opportunity to get to Venice, definitely stop in the Jewish quarter (and then have some gelato for me anywhere in Italy). It is nice that there is a Chabad presence in Venice and I, or course encourage any liberal Jewish visitor to seek out the appropriate organizations that will meet her/his needs. Regardless, there is very important history and culture of our people in Venice! Go and see and learn.
With the World Cup on in the background, I just read of the passing of Manute Bol. You can read an obituary, here. I don’t know much about Bol beyond the basketball court but it seems after his career in the NBA ended his real work began. Hailing from Sudan, he did lots of work to bring peace to the region torn apart in horrendous armed conflict.
I wonder where this type of hero is? With the world’s attention on the pitch in South Africa are there players who are planning on making the world better when their professional career comes to an end? I hear lots of people around me idealizing hockey stars, I do live in Canada after all. Are there organizations they support that go beyond the rink? How about in addition to listing stats relevant to the game we could also learn about the work people are doing so that we can idolize the talents not just in the professional sporting arena?
I don’t mind when professional athletes have flaws, they are human after all. I do not condone their behavior when they do things that are illegal or are things we do not want our children to know about. What about the player who makes the most assists and doesn’t score all the goals or points?
I guess in the end I’m still holding out for a hero.
