The diameter of the bomb was thirty centimeters and the diameter of its effective range about seven meters, with four dead and eleven wounded. And around these, in a larger circle of pain and time, two hospitals are scattered and one graveyard. But the young woman who was buried in the city she came from, at a distance of more than a hundred kilometers, enlarges the circle considerably, and the solitary man mourning her death at the distant shores of a country far across the sea includes the entire world in the circle. And I won't even mention the howl of orphans that reaches up to the throne of God and beyond, making a circle with no end and no God.
So congratulations are in order to Shoshana Martyniak (aka Shvaygshosh) who brought Barry Rubin (who writes the RubinReports) to Beth Emeth to talk about Israel, the Middle East, Libya, Egypt etc. It was a very successful Friday night, with a packed house full of engaged and thoughtful Jews of all ages. As an admitted peacenik, I found it fairly depressing at times, but thought Dr. Rubin himself was a good and articulate speaker (even with bronchitis!).
As I said Friday, there were moments when I felt like Dr. Rubin was citing the title of Al Vorspan's book, "Start Worrying: Details to Follow", but as the Hasidic story ends, it's good for a Jew to worry, especially about Israel. But, while we should stay wide-eyed, I still feel we should keep an open mind and be fully cognizant of the challenges Israel faces not only from her neighbors, but internally as well.
JERUSALEM — A satirical YouTube clip mocking Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s megalomania is fast becoming a popular token of the Libya uprising across Middle East. And in an added affront to Colonel Qaddafi, it was created by an Israeli living in Tel Aviv.
Noy Alooshe, 31, an Israeli journalist, musician and Internet buff, said he saw Colonel Qaddafi’s televised speech last Tuesday in which the Libyan leader vowed to hunt down protesters “inch by inch, house by house, home by home, alleyway by alleyway,” and immediately identified it as a “classic hit.”
“He was dressed strangely, and he raised his arms” like at a trance party, Mr. Alooshe said in a telephone interview on Sunday. Then there were Colonel Qaddafi’s words with their natural beat.
Mr. Alooshe spent a few hours at the computer, using Auto-Tune pitch corrector technology to set the speech to the music of “Hey Baby,” a 2010 electro hip-hop song by American rapper Pitbull, featuring another artist, T-Pain. He titled it “Zenga-Zenga,” echoing Col. Qaddafi’s repetition of the word zanqa, Arabic for alleyway.
By the early hours of Wednesday morning Mr. Alooshe had uploaded the remix to YouTube, and began promoting it on Twitter and Facebook, sending the link to the pages of young Arab revolutionaries. By Sunday, the original clip had more than 400,000 hits and had gone viral.
Mr. Alooshe, who at first did not identify himself on the clip as an Israeli, started receiving enthusiastic messages from all around the Arab world. Surfers soon discovered that he was a Jewish Israeli from his Facebook profile — Mr. Alooshe plays in a band called Hovevey Zion, or the Lovers of Zion — and some of the accolades turned to curses. A few also found the video distasteful.
But the reactions have largely been positive, including a personal message Mr. Alooshe said he received from someone he assumed to be a Libyan saying that if and when the Qaddafi regime falls, the liberated Libyans would dance to Zenga-Zenga.
The original clip features mirror images of a scantily clad woman dancing along to Colonel Qaddafi’s rant. Mr. Alooshe said he got many requests from surfers who asked him to provide a version without the dancer so that they could show it to their parents, which he did. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GcUutnU2gk).
Mr. Alooshe speaks no Arabic though his grandparents came from Tunisia. He said he uses Google Translate every few hours to check messages and remove any offensive remarks.
Israelis have been watching the events in Libya unfold with the same rapt attention as they have to the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, with news of the bloodshed dominating the front pages of the major newspapers this weekend.
In the past, Colonel Qaddafi has proposed that Palestinian refugees should return en masse by ship to Israel’s shores, and that Israel and the Palestinian territories should be combined into one state called Isratine.
Mr. Alooshe said he was a little worried that if the Libyan leader survived, he could send one of his sons after him. But he said it was “also very exciting to be making waves in the Arab world as an Israeli.”
As one surfer wrote in an Arabic talkback early Sunday, “What’s the problem if he’s an Israeli? The video is still funny.” He signed off with the international cyber-laugh, “Hahaha.”
By Donniel Hartman, found below and at this link. Also worth reading the comments at the link below the posting; many of them are quite thoughtful.
A Letter to the Egyptian People (13/02/2011)
By DONNIEL HARTMAN
Dear Neighbor:
We, your neighbors, have been speaking a lot about you these last few weeks. As the status quo in your country to which we have become accustomed has changed, some of us expressed concern, others hope, and still others, admiration. Each view has its pundits, whose reading of the "facts" (your reality) seemed somehow to always fit into their pre-existing worldview.
The truth is that we don’t know. We don’t know, first and foremost, who you are. You see, for the last 30 years it seems, we never got a chance to talk. We spoke with your leaders, but as you so aptly proved, they don’t speak for you anymore, if they ever did.
We got used to and comfortable with the existing state of affairs and learned how to adapt and work with it in ways that would fit our own national interests and aspirations. We all must now come to terms with the fact that it is not only about us, but about you. We must begin a new conversation with you, a partner that has declared loud and clear that your voice - the voice of the people - must and will be heard.
First, let me start then with a hello. As neighbors, we have had a long relationship, filled with many different memories. I remember as a young teenager the feelings of fear that you aroused when in 1973 your armies crossed the Suez Canal and my country's very existence was in doubt. I remember the awesome beauty of the Sinai desert as a soldier in the tank corps when it was still under Israel's control and the strategic comfort it provided. I remember falling head over heels in love with your President Anwar Sadat, when he declared, "No more war, no more bloodshed." I remember the hope that he brought to our country, a hope which inspired us to recognize that our future security could not and should not be based solely on the strength of our army and the impenetrability of our borders, but on the stability of our peaceful relations with our neighbors.
For nearly 35 years now, we have lived in peace with each other. Our children have not died at each other's hands. It hasn’t been the warmest peace, but as we say in the Jewish tradition, "dayenu." It was enough. We Israelis, while always aspiring for more, deeply valued it nonetheless. Where do we go from here?
One of the old adages posits that democracies rarely go to war with each other. This is so, it is argued, because when the people who actually have to pay the price of war get to choose, they will invariably choose resolution over conflict. They will choose their children's lives over national pride and ideology.
It is here that the Middle East has often proven this wrong. It seems that in our neighborhood at times, our children are our least valued commodity. The two of us, however, who have enjoyed the fruits that peace has given to our children are also a Middle Eastern phenomenon, and must become the rule instead of the exception.
Democracies rarely go to war, however, for yet another reason. A democracy is not simply the rule of the majority, but rather the rule of the majority that preserves the inalienable rights of its minorities. It is a system of government which believes that all humans are endowed with certain basic rights and freedoms which both empower them to govern themselves and which frees them from the potential tyranny of that same government. Democracies rarely go to war not simply because they want to preserve the lives of their citizens but because they respect the inherent freedoms of all humans, citizen and non-citizen alike. When one respects one's own rights to be free, it often leads one to respect one's neighbor's rights to the same freedoms as well.
I pray that this will be one of the outcomes of your democratic revolution. I hope that our two peoples living in vibrant democracies will find new ways to reach out to each other and respect each other. That does not mean that we always have to agree. It is possible and even likely that there are policies which each one of us is pursuing, either externally or internally, that may differ from the other's national interest or even moral sensibilities.
We have a critical choice ahead of us. The change in the status quo can cause us to revert to the old and mutually destructive patterns. I hope we do not need to relive the experiences of our grandparents and parents in order to learn yet again that war is not a solution. I pray that we will use the change in the status quo as a catalyst to move us forward. Status quos are comfortable, but they can also lead to stagnation. Our neighborhood is one in which there is still much pain and hatred. We, the two of us, have a unique opportunity to change the rules of the game, to speak, engage, challenge, and even push each other to find a new and vibrant status quo.
I know you are going to be busy over the next number of months and we are not your primary concern. I am nevertheless writing to you to again say, hello, and that we look forward to speaking with you soon. Until then, we wish that your transition to freedom be a peaceful and beneficial one to all your citizens and that your freedom be a blessing to you, and to the whole world. Amen.
Mahmoud Abbas' office has indicated that the elections postponed from last year will go ahead, apparently without Hamas' participation (or Gaza, for obvious reasons).
It'll be interesting to see if it happens and whether it helps promote the peace process in some way. Especially since the Military Council now running Egypt has made assurances that their peace treaty with Israel will be maintained.
Ha'aretz is also reporting that Saeb Erekat is stepping down. Not going to miss that guy. He was the PA's chief 'negotiator', which is to say, he always seemed to be more their chief obstructionist. Fascinating to me especially is the reason he's stepping down: a Wikileaks-style Al-Jazeera report that he was willing to make massive concessions to Israel on Jerusalem and the right-of-return. Hrmn....
Article contents appear below (from Ha'aretz).
Palestinians will hold presidential and legislative elections by September, a top aide to President Mahmoud Abbas announced Saturday, a surprise move apparently prompted by the political unrest spreading in the Arab world.
Abbas aide Yasser Abed Rabbo did not give a firm date for elections, but said the chief Palestinian decision-making body, the Palestine Liberation Organization, was already making preparations.
"We call on parties to put aside all of their differences and to focus on conducting the elections by September at the latest," he told a news conference.
However, Abbas' main political rival, the Islamic militant Hamas, said it would not participate.
Abed Rabbo spoke a day after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down in response to nearly three weeks of mass protests against his 30-year rule. The Egyptian protests and another successful revolt in Tunisia a month earlier have inspired calls for democratic reform throughout a region dominated by autocratic governments.
Palestinian elections were meant to be held last year, but the vote was put off because of the split between Abbas' government in the West Bank and the rival Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas rose to power in parliamentary elections in 2006, and a year later seized Gaza from forces loyal to Abbas' Fatah movement. Since then, both sides have resisted calls for new elections as repeated attempts to reconcile failed.
The Palestinians hope to turn Gaza and the West Bank, located on opposite sides of Israel, into an independent state, with east Jerusalem as their capital. The internal divisions are a major stumbling block to any future deal.
In Gaza, a Hamas official said Saturday that they would not allow elections in the coastal strip.
"Hamas will not participate or recognize or give any cover for this election and we consider this announcement a conspiracy against the Palestinian people," said spokesman Fawzi Barhoum. "Hamas believes in elections but elections can come only after [political] reconciliation."
Also Saturday, Abbas' chief peace negotiator, Saeb Erekat, announced his resignation. The move came in response to damaging leaks by pan-Arab satellite television station al-Jazeera that detailed some of the inner workings of previous peace negotiations.
Erekat told The Associated Press that an investigation determined that internal documents obtained by Al-Jazeera were leaked by someone from his office. "If there was any security failure in my office, then I am responsible. For that, I have resigned," he said.
The documents showed that during peace negotiations with Israel in 2008, the Palestinians were prepared to make significant concessions on final borders with Israel and on the fate of millions of Palestinian refugees with claims to lost properties in what is now Israel.
Mubarak appears to be stepping down as of September (apparently with some prodding by the Obama Administration).
Article from Ha'aretz follows, along with a little Musical Interpretation.
Mubarak: I do not intend to stand in next election
Announcement comes after a week of mass protests throughout Egypt, culminating Tuesday night in million-strong rally in Tahrir Square in central Cairo.
Embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced Tuesday that he would not run in the next elections in the country, following mass protests that have been ravaging the country for the past week.
The protests throughout Egypt culminated Tuesday night in a huge rally in Tahrir Square in central Cairo, in which more than a million people reportedly gathered to demand his resignation.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announcing he will step down at the next elections, in a televised speech to the nation, February 1, 2011.
Photo by: AP
"I did not have the intention of running in the next election and wanted to spend my life trying to serve the people," he said in a televised address to the nation. "Now I want to finish my role while Egypt is at peace."
The next presidential election is scheduled for September, but in his address, Mubarak pressed his cabinet to speed up elections. Until this most recent announcement, officials had indicated that Mubarak, 82, would likely run for a sixth six-year term as president, a role he has held for over 30 years. There were also indications that he was grooming his son, Gamal, to take his place.
Mubarak claimed the opposite in his speech, saying "I never intended to be a candidate for another term."
"During the next few months I am going to try hard so that we can fulfill a peaceful transition of the regime," the president said in a speech that was greeted by loud cheers and jubilation from the crowd gathered in Tahrir Square. There were, however, many in the square who vowed that they would continue their protests until the president left office immediately.
Among the changes he said he intended to make, the president said he would seek changes to the constitution. In an earlier attempt to appease the protests, Mubarak sacked his cabinet and appointed a new one. But protesters have been resolute in saying that they refuse to stop their demonstrations until Mubarak resigns.
Speaking about the riots which have left a reported 100 people dead and over 1000 wounded, Mubarak said that they were organized by political groups that wanted to threaten the country's stability.
He concluded his speech by saying that he did not plan on leaving Egypt after stepping down at the end of his term. Mubarak, a former air force officer, took over the presidency following the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981.
"The Hosni Mubarak who speaks to you today is proud of his achievements over the years in serving Egypt and its people," he said. "This is my country. This is where I lived, I fought and defended its land, sovereignty and interests, and I will die on its soil."
We were INCREDIBLY lucky to have Senator Chris Coons and his foreign and defense policy advisor, Halie Soifer, come to Beth Emeth this past Sunday for a joint Confirmation program with our kids, plus the kids from Beth Shalom and Adas Kodesh (plus their parents). It was a great morning, talking about the importance of confirmation, what it means to be politically and socially active, and Israel. Only in Delaware! Below you'll find the write-up that's going in the Jewish Voice by moi (with editing help from Michelle Miller of Federation, Bob Pincus, and Ms. Soifer). Pics by Cantor Mark Stanton.
On Sunday, January 09, 2011, Senator Chris Coons and Halie Soifer, his foreign and defense policy advisor, came to Congregation Beth Emeth to address Jewish teens and their parents on Israel, advocacy and the importance of confirmation.
The group of over 100—the combined confirmation programs of Congregation Beth Emeth, Congregation Beth Shalom and Adas Kodesh Shel Emeth, and their parents—listened and asked questions as Senator Coons and Ms. Soifer talked about their own religious journeys and the importance of confirmation to them personally. The Senator talked about his many connections in college and law school with Jewish peers and his trip to Israel to visit friends, and how that transformed his view of the importance of Israel to the Jewish people.Senator Coons also discussed how Jewish teens have a special gift, an ability to serve as ‘witnesses’ to their friends and peers and heal the world around them. Additionally, he offered his thoughts and concerns for the assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords on Saturday, and his own hope for her recovery. Ms. Soifer discussed her own political awaking as a little girl, watching her father advocate for Soviet Jewry in the 80s, and what we can do to stay informed and involved. Both took questions and the Senator posed for pictures, including a group photo with all the teens.
The group was welcomed by Rabbi Yair Robinson. Rabbi Michael Beals offered a prayer of Shehecheyanu, along with a prayer for healing for Rep. Giffords and Debbie Friedman, the noted Jewish songleader and composer. The program concluded with Cantor Mark Stanton leading the participants in a prayer for peace.
This letter was composed by my friend and colleague Rabbi Steven Saks, from Adas Kodesh Shel Emeth.
We, the members of the Delaware Association of Rabbis and Cantors join with the National Council of Young Israel, The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations in calling for the release of Jonathan Pollard. While Pollard actions were clearly wrong, his sentence was disproportionate to his crime. He is the only person to have been sentenced to life for spying for an American ally, the average sentence being 2-4 years. Pollard is now beginning the 26th year of his sentence and is in poor health.
In the interest of justice and compassion we urge you to support Congressman Barney Frank’s effort to have Pollard released from prison. As of now, 39 House Democrats have signed a letter asking the President to commute the reminder of Pollard’s sentence. Thank you for your support.
Sincerely, Rabbi Steven Saks, Adas Kodesch Shel Emeth, Wilmington & President of the Delaware Association of Rabbis and Cantors Rabbi Michael Beals, Congregation Beth Shalom, Wilmington Rabbi Yair D. Robinson, Beth Emeth, Wilmington Rabbi Peggy deProphetis, Congregation Beth Shalom, Dover Beth Cohen, Spiritual Leader, Seaside Jewish Community, Rehoboth Beach Rabbi Michael Krammer
The URJ's magazine, Reform Judaism, included this blog in their blogroll, specifically my quoting an article regarding college-aged folks' commitment to Israel. You can find that article at Tablet here.
Just read this article in Ha'aretz and thought it was worth sharing. Apparently, the Israeli Education Ministry pulled a textbook from a Sderot High School. Why? Because it portrayed the Palestinian Narrative as well as the Israeli one.
Let's be clear; this isn't historical revisionism nor the primary history textbook for the High School, this was for an elective unit for 11th graders, and has gone through years of research and production and peer review, AND was endorsed by the Foreign Ministry:
Work on the textbook, which is entitled "Learning the Historical Narrative of the Other," began 10 years ago as part of a joint project initiated by (the late ) Professor Dan Bar-On of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and Professor Sami Adwan of Bethlehem University, with input from numerous Israeli and Palestinian history teachers.
The completed edition of the textbook was published last year. It includes material on the genesis of the Zionist movement in the 19th century through events of the past decade. Each page in the book is divided into three sections of equal size. The Israeli narrative is presented on the right, the Palestinian narrative on the left, and down the middle are empty lines in which the students are asked to fill with their thoughts.
Last year, Michal Wasser, a history teacher at Sha'ar Hanegev, began using the textbook in specialized and expanded lessons for students who opted for the five-unit track. The class consisted of 15 11th-graders who will submit a final paper on the topic of their choice. The course work is in addition to the regular curriculum that is geared toward the matriculation exam. Last month, Haaretz ran an article about the experimental history course at Sha'ar Hanegev. During that period the head of the Sha'ar Hanegev regional council, Alon Shuster, hosted a delegation of Swedish mayors who sought to advance a joint educational initiative based on the textbook, a venture to encompass students from Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Sweden.
Critics portray the Education Ministry's reaction as 'kneejerk', 'pavlovian', 'narrow-minded', etc. What makes me especially sad is the irony of the situation. Sderot, as some of us know, is right on the edge of the Gaza Strip, and was (and continues to be) a primary target of Hamas Qassam rockets from Gaza. Their playgrounds, schools and other public spaces have been redesigned with reinforced roofs and extra bomb shelters because of the constant barrage. Their rate of enlistment in the IDF remains among the highest. And THEIR CHILDREN wanted to learn the Palestinian side of the story. Of all Israelis who have a right to want to close a door on understanding, they are the most willing, most interested in bringing these two people together. That it was undermined by political appointees looking to score points saddens me profoundly and illustrates (for me, anyway) one of the many barriers to peace that, despite the violence, regular Israelis and Palestinians are still seeking.
Just read this incisive bit of commentary by Jack Shafer on Peter Beinart's New York Times article, essentially poking holes in the whole 'young American Jews today don't care about Israel' trope. By now, it's a well-worn bit of conventional wisdom, that those Jewish kids today simply don't have the same connection as their parents and their parents did, yadda yadda yadda, cue shrying gavult and rending of cloth and saying kaddish over kids today. Then the complaints that it's the fault of the left, the right, the synagogues, the JCCs, Federation, Rock & Roll, Intermarriage, whatever.
But as Shafer points out, citing work by Theodore Sasson and Leonard Saxe, it's not quite that cut and dry:
Moreover, as we pointed out in our published response to the original Cohen-Kelman report, younger Jews have reported lower levels of attachment to Israel in most surveys going back as far as there are data to analyze. Younger Jews were less attached to Israel in the National Jewish Population Surveys of 2000 and 1990. They were less attached in the AJC surveys going back to the mid-1980s. If, in fact, young Jews are always less attached than older Jews, then the differences in age groups are likely related to lifecycle rather than generation. As Jews age, they become more attached to Israel. In other words, the younger Jews who reported a middling level of attachment to Israel in the mid-1980s grew up to become today's over 60 group, which reports a high level of attachment.
So it may be that kids today aren't very connected...but our parents and grandparents are remembering the old days of American Zionism and their involvement through rose-colored (or white-and-blue colored) glasses.
So now let's ask the follow up question: if this is true, what role do Birthright and other such programs play viz. connection to Israelis, if not to Israel?
And after that, the more important question, the question we are almost too afraid to ask: if the young are automatically more detached than their elders from a Jewish state, but that attachment naturally increases with age and experience, rather than thinking of what Israel (or the Diaspora leadership) need to do to woo them back or vice versa, what kind of role should Israel play in their lives?
We were discussing Michael Chabon on Saturday in Torah study and lo and behold, he opines in the New York Times on the Flotilla fiasco (thanks to Fred Mannis and my Mom for sending me the link). More to the point, he discusses our obsession with the 'yiddeshe kup', the idea that Jews are somehow more likely to look "for a clever way out of problems, someone who understands that the most direct way — blunt force, for instance — often represents the least elegant solution, a person who can foresee consequences of his actions.”
Of course, that isn't the case, as Chabon points out, but part of our mythology about ourselves is that we're smarter, more nimble, and that by extension so is our State of Israel. Chabon suggests that this is part of the problem; because we--as well as the rest of the world--views the Jewish people as somehow being preternaturally smart and therefore disinclined to get stuck in stupid situations, likewise the Jewish state would be immune to doing something this diplomatically inelegant, to using blunt force as another country might.
How is this the problem? Because we expect more out of ourselves as a people and a nation. In the same way that Jews around the world shried gavult over Rosanne Barr's rendition of the Star Spangled Banner or beat their chests over Bernie Madoff's criminal activity, we look--and the world looks--at Israel's actions as a reflection on us, and vice-versa. So when they do something spectacular or miraculous, we kvell, and when something terrible happens, well, their shame is our shame, because we're somehow supposed to be better than that. But what if we're not? What if David Ben-Gurion's dream has come true? What if we're...normal?
Like most of you, I'm still trying to process the raid on the Gaza flotilla and its aftermath. One thing is clear to me, though: no good comes of it.
Let me start by saying this: I agree with the Israeli assurance that, once those commandos hit the decks and the people on board started attacking (including with captured firearms), there was little the IDF sailors could do except respond in kind. Here's my quesiton: why did those sailors need to board those boats at all?
We've been hearing and reading about the flotilla for some time, and this is not the first attempt; everyone knew it was a publicity stunt and that the participants WANTED the IDF to storm the boats and cause a ruckus. No one could have anticipated the incident turning deadly, but it was clear from the get-go that they wanted to put Israel in the worst light possible. It was clearly a trap; so why did the Israeli Navy and government walk right in?
Israel is losing a very important battle right now: that of world opinion. I know there is a long-held sense of fatalism: that Israel never has the upper hand there, never has world opinion on its side, so why try? That Israel should look only after her strategic needs. The problem is that world opinion is part of that strategy, and it is becoming increasingly important. Perhaps there was a time to blow off world opinion to some degree, but when the country's leadership seems so tone-deaf that it's alienating long-standing allies, like the US and Turkey, one wonders what is going on? Before, it was merely the bad timing of building more settlements and Avigdor Lieberman insulting Turkey (which are both bad enough); now 10 people, mostly European protesters, are dead.
I agree very much with this analysis in Ha'aretz: Israel needs a full inquiry into the matter, and her leaders need to take a long, hard look at their policies. How is killing 10 protesters bringing Gilad Shalit back? How is this securing Israel's safety well into the future? How is making Israel a pariah state--eliminating several years of goodwill in Europe and the US and Turkey--going to ensure and Israel for my children and grandchildren? How is giving Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran more ammunition helping achieve any strategic goals?
Israel deserves better, and the world deserves better, than this mess now docked at Ashdod. In the meantime, let's hope Bibi Netanyahu, Ehud Barak and Gabi Ashkenazi are better at extracting themselves from the trap than they are at avoiding it. So far, I'm not impressed.
Hopefully you've been following the situation of the 'Women of the Wall', who are now facing increasing hostility from Israeli authorities. Here's a response from ARZA/World Union, The Reform Movement's Zionist arm (and thanks to Dr. E Dankner for the head's up).
Rabbi Robert Orkand, ARZA President, Response to Interrogation of Anat Hoffman, Executive Director of IRAC
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 7, 2010 RE: Interrogation of Anat Hoffman, leader of Israel’s Women of the Wall
On behalf of almost a million and a half American Reform Jews, I react with dismay and alarm to the recent report that Anat Hoffman, leader of Israel ’s Women of the Wall, was interrogated and fingerprinted on January 6 by Jerusalem police. She was told that she may be charged with a felony for violating the rules of conduct at what many consider to be Judaism’s most sacred site. The action against Ms. Hoffman who is the Executive Director of the Israel Religious Action Center, follows on the arrest in November of Nofrat Frenkel a member of the Conservative movement and a medical student. The crime: wearing a tallit (prayer shawl) not at the Wall itself, but at an area that had been previously designated a place where Women of the Wall can gather for a once-a-month worship, as they have done for the past 21 years.
These recent actions at the Wall insult all Jewish women for they are being reminded, as they have so many times in the past, that they are second-class Jews at a place that is not a synagogue but rather, an historic site of great importance to all Jews, not just those who are Orthodox. The insults to which Women of the Wall have been subjected cannot be repeated in polite company. The fact that the police have seen fit to arrest women who went to the Wall for peaceful prayer and not those who have screamed that the Nazis should have murdered these women is a stark reminder of the lengths to which the ultra-Orthodox in Israel will go to force their religious practice on an entire nation.
One must wonder why the people of Israel tolerate a religious fanaticism that is no different than what we have witnessed in Iran and elsewhere. There have been riots on Shabbat by ultra-Orthodox Jews protesting the opening of a parking lot near the entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem. There have been riots in Jerusalem protesting the fact that an Intel plant operates on Shabbat. There are now segregated busses in Israel on more than 90 routes, with demands that the number of routes be increased. There is a growing crisis in Israeli education due to the fact that there is not a core curriculum required of every Israeli student, which means that increasingly students are being exposed to a narrow religion-based curriculum and are not learning the subjects that will allow them to function in a modern society. In short, Israel is the rare democracy today that tolerates and even worse endorses religious discrimination against Jews. The promise of Israel’s “Declaration of Independence that Israel will be a homeland for all Jews appears to be nothing more than a dream.
Make no mistake: What appears to be a growing religious crisis in Israel is as much a threat to Israel’s survival as are the external threats, perhaps more so. Israel has shown that she can protect herself from armies and terrorists. Protecting herself from religious extremism may be Israel’s biggest challenge—a challenge that cannot and must not be ignored by those who care about Israel’s soul.
Rabbi Robert Orkand, President Association of Reform Zionists of America ( ARZA )
____________________________________
Anat Hoffman, IRAC Executive Director—Personal Call to Action
A Call to Action—Make the Wall for all Jews
On January 5th, 2010, I, Anat Hoffman, Executive Director of the Israel Religious Action Center , and leader of Women of the Wall was called in for questioning and fingerprinted by the Israeli police. They warned me that I was being investigated for the felony offense of wearing a tallit, and holding a Torah at the Western Wall.
My interrogation comes less than two months after the November 18th, 2009 arrest of the Women of the Wall member Nofrat Frankel for wearing a tallit and holding a Sefer Torah at the Wall.
We are asking you today to contact your local Israel Ambassadors and Consulates and tell them that you will not tolerate religious discrimination or be forced to practice the religious ideologies of the Ultra-Orthodox community. You can write your own letter or sign the letter we have attached. (see below)
Israel must understand that the will of a small fundamentalist minority cannot take the Wall away from Klal Yisrael. • Please send your letter to your Ambassador Michael Oren • Send a letter to your local Israeli consulate • Please also send this communication to your friends and family so that the message will come from as many people as possible • Other ways that you can show your support are to purchase a Women of the Wall tallit (Karen@irac.org) or by making a donation to IRAC's work advancing Jewish pluralism and tolerance in Israel and fighting to end religious coercion and discrimination. http://www.irac.org/Donate.aspx • Lastly, organize a solidarity rally or prayer service for the Women of the Wall on the next Rosh Hodesh, Erev Shabbat January 15th 2010
