Uproar in Israel and Beyond as Netanyahu Yields to Ultra-Orthodox Jews.

[elleng]

JERUSALEM — A group of Jewish leaders canceled a dinner with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. The president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the powerful pro-Israel lobby, flew to Jerusalem for an emergency meeting with the prime minister. A prominent Jewish donor demanded a refund for the $1 million in Israel Bonds he had just purchased.

The Jewish diaspora has been in uproar in the week since Mr. Netanyahu yielded to pressure from his ultra-Orthodox coalition partners and suspended a plan for an upgraded space for worship by men and women together and for other less traditional practices of Judaism at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, which is now under strict Orthodox control.

The government also approved a contentious bill enshrining the Orthodox Chief Rabbinate’s monopoly over religious conversions in Israel. That could affect hundreds of thousands of citizens who were entitled to immigrate from the former Soviet Union, but who do not qualify as fully Jewish under strict interpretations of religious law.

In addition to ruling out less demanding, private Orthodox conversions, the bill undercuts a petition to Israel’s Supreme Court by the non-Orthodox Reform and Conservative movements for recognition of their conversions performed in Israel. The majority of American Jews identify with these more liberal streams of Judaism.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/03/world/middleeast/israel-benjamin-netanyahu-ultra-orthodox-western-wall.html?

[Mosby]

1. Separating men and women is a modern practice.

Orthodox judaism has been affected by culture, politics etc just like the other streams and religiouns but they are to hypocritical to admit it.



Jews praying at the Western Wall (circa 1917). (public domain/via Israel Daily Picture)


http://www.timesofisrael.com/when-men-and-women-prayed-together-at-the-western-wall/

[elleng]

2. Hypocritical, or just uninformed?

[Mosby]

3. More like in denial

Haredi Orthodox Jews agree with their non-Orthodox brethren on one thing: The future of the Jewish people is at stake in the debate raging over who controls the Western Wall and conversion in Israel.

Other than that, though, there is little common ground.

According to Nachum Eisenstein, the chief rabbi of eastern Jerusalem’s haredi Maalot Dafna neighborhood, Reform and Conservative Judaism threaten to undermine the survival of the Jewish people.

“The reason why Judaism is the only religion that survived throughout thousands of years and all the massacres and all the attempts to destroy it is that the ours is the only religion that has always been the same, the way it was given to us on Mount Sinai,” Einstein said in an interview. “Who gave you, the Conservative and the Reform, the authority to make up a new religion?”

The government’s suspension last week of a deal that would have expanded a non-Orthodox prayer area has sparked a crisis in Israel-Diaspora relations that some are calling unprecedented. Major U.S. Jewish groups, led by the Reform and Conservative movements, rushed to Israel to complain that the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had caved in to haredi Orthodox interests and insulted the Jewish majority that does not subscribe to Orthodoxy.

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Haredim believe that their tradition "has always been the same", and can never be changed. They reject the idea that the modern day rabbis can issue rulings based on principles like Shinui ha-I'ttim (change of times). But like we see with the arrangement at the Kotel, they can and do change based on a whim.

[elleng]

4. I was referring to the history, gender separation.

I have nothing positive to say about what's happening in Israel.

[Mosby]

5. I don't know how long that's been going on, any idea?

That is gender separation in shul, weddings etc.

Probably a long time I suppose, but my dad told me once that a lot of immigrant families in the 20s 30s just went to local shul, there wasn't as much distinction between denominations back then.

[elleng]

6. I don't know.

I do recall the separation in shul, Brooklyn, when I was a kid, late '40s/early '50s. I only 'met' 'conservative' and 'reform' when moved to Long Island '54.

[MosheFeingold]

9. My shul

Has effectively 4 sections: (1) men alone, (2) women alone, (3) families, and (4) whomever.

3 and 4 are in the back. 4 is generally men not comfortable being in 1 (e.g., visiting Reform Jews), but also women.

I've seen variations of this my entire life. So getting on to a century.

I don't mind separation of men and women, provided a mixed option is available. I view it like Catholic or other parochial schools -- sex is a distraction for some (not for us old codgers), and you need to focus on the business at hand.

I've noticed Israel and Japan have female-only sections for public transit to get away from the creepy gropers. Not exactly the same idea, but similar, and very reasonable.

[EllieBC]

8. I think in the shtetls there was always a mechitzah or probably

more than likely the women just didn't go to shul. Remember women are not required to daven the same as men.

I think after the Shoah the surviving chassidim doubled down and increased separation in the name of tzniut.

As for now, I've been to many shuls with all manner of separation. Some with balconies, some with a row of potted plants down the middle, and some with a curtain.

[EllieBC]

7. I feel really bad for gerim. All he ones I know are so devoted.

The idea that the rabbinate could and has thrown out conversions makes me sad. Unless it's Ivanka.