Deaf and blind Haredi world shrinks

 

IT MUST BE TOUGH being an "Orthodox" Jewish male.

The rabbis have to protect the men and boys from hearing a woman's singing since it might arouse the males libido, G-d forbid.

The rabbis also decided, if a Mew York Times article, Jewish Group, With Hired Protesters, Opposes the Parade is to be believed, that even seeing homosexuals might cause these males to have prurient thoughts, again, G-d forbid.

But some New York religious "leaders" decided it was OK for non-Jews, specifically Mexicans, to view a Gay Rights parade in the City-East.

According to the Times, the Jewish Political Action Committee, a fringe Hasidic group based in Brooklyn, at Sunday’s parade in Manhattan, engaged some Mexicans (Mexican-Americans, Mexicans with work visas, illegal immigrants - sorry, "undocumented aliens") to protest the parade in their name.

NOW EVERYONE KNOWS LATINS are hot blooded, highly sexual creatures; according to "The Donald" (Trump), apparently most Mexicans come across the border to rape our women and sell us drugs. He DID admit there there may be a few good Mexicans; maybe the Jewish Political Action Committee asked for resumes before engaging their services.

Obviously the Mexican men were both literate with English and good sign makers - that is obvious from the photo on the Times site (ibid.). You can see for yourself. Since good Hasidic groups speak Yiddish and shy away from standard education, it's plain that the Mexicans created the signage as part of their contract with the Jewish Political Action Committee.

I really think the New York cops and the Immigration and Naturalization Service should look into the Mexicans who were employed by the the Jewish Political Action Committee, with the idea that the the Jewish Political Action Committee should be prosecuted if these employees fail to provide evidence of citizenship or work visas. The Mexicans, who undoubtedly will turn State's evidence, should be allowed to go on about their business; the Donald not withstanding.

What is interesting to me is: If yeshiva students, men who bury their heads in the talmuds from sun up until well into the night can be aroused by homosexuals, how could a person with less personal discipline be expected to control himself?

Another question for the Jewish Political Action Committee: Who would be arousing these hasidim? The gay men or the lesbians, or maybe the man-with-man or woman-with-woman arrangement would "turn them on."

I am aware of what the Torah says about homosexuality.

I also am aware about what the Torah says about inter-action with non-Jews, and making loans, and many more things the rabbis have - like the death penalty - effectively mitigated out of existence.

My bottom line: Why did the the Jewish Political Action Committee feel it necessary to protest the parade; why even be present - or hire stand-ins - at the parade?

The behavior of the the Jewish Political Action Committee does Jews a disservice and mocks true hasidim.

 

libido

: a person's desire to have sex
1: instinctual psychic energy that in psychoanalytic theory is derived from primitive biological urges (as for sexual pleasure or self-preservation) and that is expressed in conscious activity
2: sexual drive

prurient

: having or showing too much interest in sex
: marked by or arousing an immoderate or unwholesome interest or desire; especially : marked by, arousing, or appealing to sexual desire

Opuscula How flotillas can Avoid provocation

 

ACTUALL;Y THEY CANNOT (avoid provocation or confrontation) - that's their raison d'etre.

BUT, if the ships heading to Gaza from European ports really are carrying "humanitarian" goods - unlike the Comoros-flagged MV Mavi Marmara that carried weapons and provocateurs that hardly can be considered "humanitarian" in most civilized peoples' minds - then they should allow Israel's navy to board and inspect the vessels - without interference.

Then, following an inspection, any "humanitarian" cargo should be allowed to land at a Gaza port.

IF THE SCEANRIO above is allowed to happen, three things will immediately be accomplished:

1. Establish precedent
2. Guarantee only allowed (humanitarian) goods reach Gaza port
3. Allow Hamas to "save face" and Israel to reduce bad PR

Although Israel has international law on its side to blockade Gaza - only a few governments, such as Turkey and the notoriously anti-Israel UNHRC, dispute that - it would show the liberals of the world that Israel is willing to compromise on ships bypassing inspection of cargos at an Israeli port - typically Ashdod - with an inspection at sea.

Caveat for ships and sailors carrying contraband: Any ship that either (a) refuses to be inspected or (b) any ship's crew or passengers who attack any Israeli sailor prior to, or during, an at-sea inspection will be sunk with all cargo. The Israeli navy will take the ship's crew and passengers to the nearest Israeli port where they will be incarcerated until the politicians can decide their fate.

Establish precedent

A precedent would be set for all international trade with Gaza and, by extension, the PA areas. Once established, an on-sea inspection would be recognized as standard Operating Procedure for any two nations. Aircraft and passengers are screened at international airports (worldwide), ships' cargo is screened at sea ports (worldwide), and vehicles and passengers are screened at border crossings (worldwide). At-sea inspections would expedite delivery of (humanitarian) cargo to its destination.

Guarantee only allowed (humanitarian) goods reach Gaza port

Having an "at-sea" inspection allows vessels carrying only truly humanitarian goods to proceed without further interference to a Gaza port. Gaza-bound vessels today must dock at an Israeli port (normally Ashdod). Off-load cargo for inspection, and then load onto trucks for transshipment via a portal in the Israel-Gaza border.

Off-loading cargo at a Gaza port has several advantages:

1. Faster arrival at the cargo's destination
2. Employment of skilled, semi-skilled, and unskilled Gazans at the port and at supporting businesses

According to a World Bank report, the enclave with a population of slightly less 2 million is believed to have the world's highest unemployment rate with a record high of 43 percent in 2014; youth unemployment, meanwhile, stands at more than 60 percent.

Allow Hamas to "save face" and Israel to reduce bad PR

On the Hamas side, it can claim that it can import - and export - goods from, its own port. Exports could include products from the PA. Imports, once cleared at sea by the Israeli navy, can be used locally (in Gaza) or transshipped to the PA if Hamas and the PA can cease their internecine warfare.

Certainly it would "score points" against the PA - assuming that the despots of Gaza use the seaport to benefit Gazans and not solely to line their own pockets and fatten foreign bank accounts.

Israel, at the same time, avoids yet another knock against it by allowing pre-screened cargo to land at a Gaza port.

Shippers will know that Gaza-bound ships will be inspected and released to continue their journey in good time - assuming the ships carry only humanitarian cargo ; they also will know the penalty if war materials are discovered on the Gaza-bound vessel.

Provocation will continue - it is a Muslim PR weapon; the world sees Israel's response but overlooks the REASON for the reaction, just as it ignored the Hamas missiles falling on Israeli civilians yet took umbrage when Israel retaliated.

While I am an Israeli citizen I do NOT currently live in Israel and I do not pretend to tell Israelis in Israel how to deal with their neighbors; the foregoing is only my personal thoughts on the subject.

Opuscula Br'r Rabbit And the Label

 

THE EU APPARENTLY WANTS all products from beyond the "Green Line" to be labeled not "Product of Israel" (which it is), but Product of the West Bank or some other term for Judea and Samaria.

I say to the EU and others who think as the EU thinks

BRAVO! Do it in BIG PRINT.

As for me, I will make a special effort to buy products from Judea and Samaria.

PEOPLE WHO SUPPORT Israel, and even people who support the PA, should line up to buy competitive products from Judea and Samaria.

Why those who support the PA? Because often the products from Judea and Samaria are produced with people who live in PA-controlled areas. There are a number of good examples, even after Soda Stream pulled out.

Boycotting products from Judea and Samaria is counter-productive to any advancement toward peaceful coexistence. Better for peace is a daily interaction of Jews and Muslims so each sees the other as they are: human beings trying to live their lives. Israeli Arabs - Muslim and otherwise - already know this and, if surveys are to be believed, most Israeli Arabs, given the choice of life in Israel or life in the PA would opt for life in Israel. Most, but certainly not all. (To the best of my limited knowledge, no Arab in Israel is prevented from relocating to the PA or any other area such as Jordan, Egypt, etc.)

So go ahead, label products from Judea and Samaria.

All but self-hating Jews and their Israel hating friends likely will make products from Judea and Samaria their preference, all other things (price, quality) being equal.

Labeling, and avoiding purchase of, products of Judea and Samaria is akin to throwing Br'r Rabbit into the briar patch; it will be good for Judea and Samaria; unfortunately it won't help those folks in the PA who depend on work in Israel for their livelihood.

Opuscula Value of a fence

 

MR. GORBACHEV, TEAR DOWN THAT WALL.(President Ronald Reagan to Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, June 12,. 1987),

Since then, two new walls - actually fences - have become bones of contention: one between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) and one between Mexico and the U.S.

Liberals hate them and Conservatives - while perhaps not "loving" them - recognize the necessity for them.

An admittedly biased comparison follows with a few photographs taken from the WWW.

Click on images to enlage

Why the fences?

U.S.-Mexico

There are several reasons the U.S. government - over several administrations, both liberal Democrat and conservative Republican - have supported the border fence.

The "politically correct" reason is to prevent - or at least reduce - the amount of drugs being smuggled into the U.S. via Mexico. Weapons also are smuggled across the border; the question is, in which direction are the weapons being transferred?

The other reason, which may or may not be politically correct depending on your liberal/conservative stance, is to reduce the flow of Mexicans illegally entering the U.S. for economic reasons. Since Americans employ these illegal aliens - sorry, the current PC term is "undocumented residents" - at least part of the problem must be laid at the door of U.S. citizens.

California and Arizona bear the brunt of the Mexican influx; their taxpayers must fund health care and education benefits for the illegals, although as they migrate to other states (e.g., Florida), those states' taxpayers get to share the extra tax burden.

Meanwhile, presidents of both major parties put the illegals on a "fast track" to citizenship. Statistically, most become good citizens, but the people who come to the U.S. legally are punished by being told their applications for citizenship are delayed because their home country's quota has been reached,

The quote system is a holdover from a previous century and effectively worked to prevent escapees from the nazis from reaching America's shores.

Israel-PA

If a picture really is worth 1,000 words, the graphic above tells both the reason for, and the value of, the fence

As an aside, look carefully at the death toll; note that CIVILIAN victims far outnumber security personnel (IDF and Border Police) victims, clearly showing the terrorists' victim preference .

From September 2000 to mid-2005, hundreds of Palestinian suicide bombings and terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians killed more nearly 1,000 innocent people and wounded thousands of others. In response, Israel's government decided to construct a security fence that would run near the “Green Line” between Israel and the West Bank to prevent Palestinian terrorists from easily infiltrating into Israel proper. The project had the overwhelming support of the Israeli public and was deemed legal by Israel's Supreme Court. (Jewish Virtual Library)

Admittedly one reason for the U.S.-Mexican fence is to cut down on criminal activity, but - in general - Mexican criminals are far less dangerous to the typical U.S. citizen within America's borders (Americans in Mexico are a different story) than a Palestinian (or Hamas/Gaza) terrorist in Israel.

The first section of the Israel-PA fence went up in 2003. By 2012, 440 km (273.4 mi) (62%) of the barrier had been completed, 57 km (35.4 mi) (8%) was under construction and 212 km (131.7 mi) (30%) had not yet been started.

Israel-Hamas/Gaza

The fence along Israel's southern border with Hamas' Gaza and Egypt's Sinai is likewise to keep terrorists out of Israel. Since Hamas builds tunnels into Israel with construction materials allowed into Gaza to rebuild facilities destroyed by Israel in retaliation for continued (and continuing) missile attacks on Israeli civilian targets, the fence is only partially successful.

From the Sinai Israel also is invaded by emigrants from Muslim countries who illegally enter Israel for economic gain - much like many Mexicans enter the U.S.

While they are not pretty, they are more or less effective in reducing - albeit not halting - terrorists and people who simply want to better themselves; in America by doing work U.S. citizens refuse to do.

There is some truth in the expression: "good fences make good neighbors." They may not be "politically correct" to some, but these are the same people who, in the U.S., hire the illegals to do their work and in Israel to endanger Israeli - Jewish, Muslim, and others - lives.

Unlike the Berlin Wall, it is not time to "tear the fences down."

Opuscula Rabbinical omertà Covering up averot

 

There was a story I heard long ago about a servant who offended a rabbi's wife. The wife, in high dudgeon told her spouse that she was taking the servant to the bet din (Jewish court). The rabbi told his wife to wait and he would go with her.

I'm perfectly able to present my case; I don't need you to do it for me.

The rabbi replied that he was going with her to defend the servant.

PERHAPS THERE WAS A TIME AND PLACE where justice for a Jew was only a dream.

But this is the United States in the year 2015 CE (5775, if you prefer); the venues are Miami Beach, Brooklyn, and Washington DC.

And the rabbis still want Jews to deal with criminals only through a bet din.

Never mind that in the U.S. a bet din has no legal standing for criminal matters and cannot enforce any of its decisions.

 
But in Israel

Popular rabbi nabbed at airport over sex crimes accusations

The rabbi, who has not been named, was accused Wednesday of sexually assaulting a woman who had approached him for religious guidance 13 years ago. On Wednesday evening, a second sexual assault complaint was filed against him.

Safed Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu said the women were initially reluctant to report the allegations to the police. The rabbis then turned to the cops with the charges, but were informed they could not file a complaint on behalf of the women, Eliyahu said.

“In light of the numerous complainants, we approached the police this week of our own initiative, and during this meeting, it became clear that only if the women maintain there is something criminal in his actions and complains, can an investigation be opened,” the chief rabbi said.

Read full article by clicking on the headline ("Popular rabbi...), above.

 
Like the Catholic church and its pedophile priests and sadistic nuns, everything must be kept "in the family" - the ecclesiastical court, the folks who brought us the Inquisition - and Islam's imams and their Sharīʿah courts, it is almost impossible for the "judges" to rule against one of their own - a rabbi, a priest, an imam.

Even the "Jewish" newspapers* brush any rabbinical crime accusations off their pages; try to find any mention of Rabbi Steve Karro and charges of "lewd and lascivious molestation of a child and lewd and lascivious conduct on a child"

The Miami Channel 10 tv station's Web site shares that "According to an arrest report, Karro, who is a substitute rabbi at Shaare Ezra Sephardic Congregation, intentionally grabbed the buttocks of the victim April 16 while they were at the Karro Art Gallery."

The tv news continued: According to detectives, Karro denied some of the allegations, but said he touched the victim's buttocks for a "cleansing as she was exhibiting negative energy."

Today (June 23) another station is reporting that the alleged victim's mother is claiming that area rabbis are telling her not to complain to (civil) authorities, to bring the matter before a bet din. The mother also contends that she is being shunned by others in the Miami Beach Jewish community for her actions of publicly accusing a rabbi of misconduct.

This is, alas, NOT unique in the Miami Beach Orthodox Jewish community.

The New York Times, under the headline Ultra-Orthodox Shun Their Own for Reporting Child Sexual Abuse reports that a mentally disabled teenage son was being molested in a Jewish ritual bathhouse in Brooklyn. The boy's father, according to the NYT, said that Old friends started walking stonily past him and his family on the streets of Williamsburg. Their landlord kicked them out of their apartment. Anonymous messages filled their answering machine, cursing Mr. Jungreis for turning in a fellow Jew. And, he said, the mother of a child in a wheelchair confronted his mother-in-law, saying the same man had molested her son, and she “did not report this crime, so why did your son-in-law have to?”

While the crimes the Jewish leadership - rabbis, teachers, camp counselors, et al - ARE "Jewish crimes," that is actions prohibited by Jewish law, they ALSO are crimes according to U.S. law, crimes committed in the U.S.

Given any group's proclivity to protect its own from attacks by outsiders, many in the Jewish community prefer to protect criminals and - in a rare instance - take these people before a powerless bet din, a court that, in a Western democracy where law allegedly is the rule - has no power to punish; worse, that has shown no inclination to punish criminals even within its limited means; even if it did, it cannot compel a criminal to accept a punishment (e.g., make restitution for a money crime).

We live in the United States in 5775/2015, not Israel under a foreign power, not Europe through the 19th century, not the Soviet Union and its successors, not in Muslim countries where a Muslim's word ALWAYS trumped a Jew's word - not in places where Jewish courts had some power and where government courts often were notoriously anti-Jewish.

It's time America's Jews realized that government courts are independent of the "old boy" network of any group's power elite.

It's time to turn to government courts to deal with crimes committed by the powerful against the powerless.

 

The Jewish Journal is published by the Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale but includes a Miami-Dade edition; this edition omits any mention of Karro and the accusations while covering other criminal activity.

Opuscula Something is seriously Wrong with this picture

 

Abraham H. Foxman was national director of the Anti-Defamation League and a Holocaust survivo, complaining from the safety of his U.S. claims that Israel's Minister of Culture, Miri Regev, is stiffling free speech.

Foxman, a naturalized U.S. citizen born 75 years ago in Baranovichi, Byelorussia, takes umbrfage, according to a Times of Israel article, that Ms. Regev is refusing to finance anti-Israel "artists." From the Times article:

First there was a statement by an Israeli actor, Norman Issa, saying he would refuse to participate in a performance of his acting company in the Jordan valley. Next came a movie about an individual who murdered an Israeli soldier which seemed like a defense of his actions. And then surfaced a film about Yigal Amir, the assassin of Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin, which appeared to express sympathy with the killer.

There are so many things wrong with Foxman and his holier-than-thou attitude that it almost laughable.

ASK YOURSELF AS A LIBERAL - and TRY to be honest with yourself - would you encourage and finance someone who promotes ideas that threaten your life even if only by promoting hatrid of you and yours?

If someone came to you and asked you to be an "angel" for a play that denigrated you and your way of life, that castigated you.

I'm not sure I personally would object to a film that protrays Yigal Amir proin a less than dastardly light knowing Rabin's history and willingness to murder fellow Jews (on order of his master, Ben Gurion). At the same time, as a politician, even a Likudnik, I doubt I would contribnute state money to the project. It happens in Foxman's self-flagellating America, but it need not happen in Israel.

The Times reported that the minister of culture focused on the expenditures of her budget. She distinguished between the right of individuals or institutions to say or put on productions of the most obnoxious things, and the question as to whether government should fund such things. On the face of it that appeared to be a legitimate distinction — except for the fact that leaving that discretion to the minister of culture could lead to disturbingly high levels of politics in the decision as to what to fund, and what not.

Foxman's ADL was famous for verbiage, but while it talked the talk, it never "walked the walk"; for that we needed - and still need - the JDL, the much maligned by heads-in-the-sand liberals. Jewish Defense League. Foxman's ADL spent a great deal of time trying to shut down Israeli leaders' voices and molifying the friend of Israel's enemies in the White House.

It's OK, per Foxman's ADL, to criticize Israel, free speech and all, but G-d forbid that an Israeli politician should say an unkind word about the U.S. or its political "leader"ship. Convenient double standard.

Israel has enough problems with far left liberals within its own borders without having to deal with the likes of Foxman and his useless ADL.

Opuscula Member of Knesset Victim of "apartheid" Does not compute

 

IF ISRAEL IS AN "APARTHEID' STATE, how it is that it has non-Jews in its government?

One of the "victims of Israeli apartheid" - Member of Knesset (MK) Hanin Zoabi - is to speak at a Columbia University panel on: "Israel, Racism and Apartheid."

The fact that she is a member of the country's governing body - despite promoting anarchy - makes a lie of any claims that Israel is an "apartheid" state.

Not by race, not by religion, not even by politics.

What about the fence?

If the fence separating terrorists in the Palestine Authority areas makes Israel an "apartheid" state, then the U.S., with its fence to try to keep out Mexicans - those with weapons and drugs and those who simply want more money in their jeans - is an "apartheid" state.

What about jobs?

My daughter's apartment building in Yavne - distant from any PA-controlled area, was built largely by workers from the PA-controlled areas who legally enter Israel each day to earn wages far above those they can earn at home. (Israel no longer is the "Zionist state" envisioned by the pioneers of the first and second aliyot where Jews did all the jobs; now low paying, hard labor jobs go to imported workers - some from the PA-controlled areas, others from Pacific rim countries. I think that is bad for Israel, but the Israeli Jew of today simply won't do the work.)

What about the military?

In order to "get ahead" in a job, a male must have served in the Israel Defense Force (IDF). If he was an officer, so much the better. There ARE a few Arabs - Muslims and Christians - in the IDF; there are many Druze in the IDF, a few making general grade. Unfortunately, most Muslim Arab men avoid the IDF - unlike a Jewish Israeli, they are not drafted into the IDF. These same Muslim Arab men also refuse national service (in lieu of military service) EVEN IN THEIR OWN COMMUNITIES!

What about education?

Look at MK Zoabi's CV: She studied philosophy and psychology at the University of Haifa, earning a Bachelors of Arts, and received a Masters of Arts in communications from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She was the first Arab citizen of Israel to graduate in media studies, and established the first media classes in Arab schools. She also worked as a mathematics teacher and worked as a school inspector for the Israeli Ministry of Education. (Source: Haneen Zoabi biography also Knesset overview)

Muslim students dominate Haifa University and are represented in ALL Israeli universities and scientific institutions.

What about trade?

When Hamas in Gaza stops firing missiles at Israeli civilian targets, the border is opened and goods flow IN BOTH DIRECTIONS - Gaza farmers ship produce to Israel and the PA.

What about travel?

Israeli Arabs are limited in their international travels only by the countries that accept Israeli travel documents. Arabs from PA-controlled areas routinely get permission to enter Israel to travel internationally via Israel's main airport or to Jordan via the Allenby/King Hussein Bridge. Israeli Arabs DO visit countries that are sworn to Israel's destruction, but they pay a price on their return (interrogation by Israeli security forces). (Consider the reception an American citizen gets when returning to the States from North Korea or Iran. No difference.)

What about medical care?

There is NO distinction made between an Israeli Jew and an Israeli Arab in Israeli public hospitals. (First hand experience.) Muslims from the PA-controlled territory and Hamas-controlled Gaza are treated in Israeli hospitals and allowed to return home unmolested. The PA's dictator's mother was recently treated in an Israeli hospital. Citizens of neighboring countries - notably Lebanon and Syria - are routinely treated at Israeli hospitals DESPITE their countries being in a state of war with Israel.

UNLIKE THE PA-CONTROLLED AREAS there are NO restrictions on where anyone can live in Israel. Muslims do tend to congregate in their own communities, just as almost all groups of people with common interests; but they are NOT restricted to any area. Jews are not welcome in PA-controlled areas and the PA's leadership has repeatedly vowed that a Palestinian state would be free of Jews.

 

DON'T TELL ME
ISRAEL IS AN
"APARTHEID" STATE.

 

Apartheid

Apartheid (Afrikaans pronunciation: [ɐˈpartɦɛit]; an Afrikaans word meaning "the state of being apart", literally "apart-hood") was a system of racial segregation in South Africa enforced through legislation by the National Party (NP), the governing party from 1948 to 1994. Under apartheid, the rights, associations, and movements of the majority black inhabitants and other ethnic groups were curtailed and Afrikaner minority rule was maintained. Apartheid was developed after World War II by the Afrikaner-dominated National Party and Broederbond organizations. The ideology was also enforced in South West Africa, which was administered by South Africa under a League of Nations mandate (revoked in 1966 via United Nations Resolution 2145),until it gained independence as Namibia in 1990. By extension, the term is currently used for forms of systematic segregation, established by the state authority in a country, against the social and civil rights of a certain group of citizens, due to ethnic prejudices.

Children only losers in "religious war" Bnei mitzvah sacrificed For politicians' foolishness

 

THE TIMES OF ISRAEL had an article titled Rivlin’s ‘rabbi swap’ for bar mitzvah event angers Conservatives that reports on the barriers put in the path of "disabled boys" preventing their bar mitzvah.

The battle is political, albeit between the Conservative (Masoratri) movement in Israel and those hewing to the (Ashkenazi) Orthodox line. If the combatants truly were concerned about the children, there would be no battle.

There is no justification for the stupidity of the combatants.

Question: Was Abram "bar mitzvahed?" How about Yitzak? Yakov? How about Pinhas, the second high priest?

A case can be made that Moses and Aaron were "called to the Torah" when HaShem "invited" them to climb the mountain; that REALLY was "going up" to the Torah, but that is not the type bar mitzvah ceremony most often seen today.

BAR MITZVAH is automatic. Bat mitzvah, too. No need to be called to the Torah or to give a speech to the congregation. No need for a budget-busting celebration. Certainly no need for a rabbi or hazan and certainly no need for a professional politician.

The day after a boy turns 13 (or a girl turns 12), when the child performs his or her first mitzvah - מודה אני followed by נטיךת ידים - the child is a beni mitzvah. Period. End of story. Don't know the prayers? Then honoring parents will do. Put an earned coin in a tzedaka box; that also works.

It's a relatively new tradition for a boy to have an aliyah on the first opportunity after his 13th birthday and a day. It's an even newer tradition for a girl either to receive an aliyah (Conservative and Reform) or to give a Torah-based speech (some Orthodox).

Some interesting reading about the bar mitzvah as it developed check out

History of Bar Mitzvah

What is the Origin of the Bar Mitzvah celebration?

Bar Mitzvah, Bat Mitzvah

According to the Times of Israel article - don't shoot the messenger - apparently the Conservatives wanted to provide some "disabled" boys with a bar mitzvah. Kol haKavod.

They tried to involve the City of Rehovot in Central Israel, but Rehovot's politicians forbade the event. WHY they tried to involve a political entity in a religious event is beyond my ken.

There are, if the map is to be believed, many Conservative congregations in Israel. In Rehovot there is the Conservative Adat Shalom-Emanuel congregation at 6 Miller Street, Rehovot 76112 (Estee Gafny. Adatshalom1@gmail.com, 08 946 9180), so why bother the city's politicians? (When I tried the Adat Shalom-Emanuel URL it failed to connect.)

Apparently the city's refusal to participate failed to generate enough "anti-Orthodox" press so the movement arranged to have the event hosted by Israel's new president who - also apparently - agreed providing any services included an Orthodox presence.

Then, according to the Times of Israel article, someone backed off and the president's place was supposed to be a venue for a post-ceremony party.

IT DOESN'T CHANGE THE FACTS: The politicians-as-religious leaders used "disabled" children as "weapons" in an intra-religion war.

If the Conservatives really were interested in seeing that these disabled youngsters had an "aliyah" bar mitzvah they could easily have done it at any of the many (see map above) Conservative synagogues in Israel.

If that wasn't satisfactory - if the synagogues were too small to accommodate the crowd - the Conservatives could have rented a hall; that's what many Israelis - heloni and haredi - do for weddings and britot (been there, done that; ask to see the photos).

It seems to me that the Conservatives were looking to pick a fight and hoping for sympathetic headlines, maybe even a "tsk-tsk" from the UN Human Rights group, always ready to condemn anything Israeli.

If I was a Conservative I would be embarrassed by my rabbi/politicians.

Opuscula Time to "Americanize" Israeli local rabbinute

 

FOR THE MOST PART, I believe Americans - indeed, all non-Israelis and Israelis "hu"l" - should stay out of Israeli politics.

Let there be no mistake, the Israeli rabbinute IS political, with all the problems inherent in anything political.

BUT, perhaps a suggestion based on what seems to work in the U.S. and other western countries.

LET CONGREGATIONS SELECT AND PAY FOR A RABBI OF THEIR CHOOSING.

Currently there is a dust up in Israel over the Chief Rabbinute's decision to remove (by not reappointing) Efrat's first and only community chief rabbi, American Shlomo Riskin.

Riskin and the Jerusalem-based Chief Rabbinute are at odds because, from what I've read of Riskin's practices, he is too liberal for the rabbi/politicians of the Chief Rabbinute.

Riskin, for example, is "in bed" with the Tzohar Institute; this organization develops technology that allows observant Jews to live in modern times within halakah (Jewish religious law). As an example, it found a sound amplification system that does NOT require electricity that can be used on Shabbatot and hagim. Riskin also founded a bet midrash for - gasp - women where they will be educated to near rabbinical level without being rabbis. A fuller list of Riskin's "sins" is given in Isi Leibler's blog entry titled "Dissolve the Chief Rabbinute now" that I commend for your education. (One Riskin offense I read about some years ago was to include the mother's name when a man is called to Torah - So-n-so ben (Father's name) and (Mother's name). It seems to my non-rabbinical mind appropriate since the child's first and perhaps greatest influence, certainly during the child's formative years, is the child's mother; not the father and not a teacher; the mother.

According to Leibler's post, the city government wants to keep Riskin as its chief rabbi, and Riskin is willing to serve sans remuneration. He's 75 years old and surely has a state pension so he can afford to serve gratis.

THE PROBLEM in Israel is that rabbis are paid by the state; everyone pays taxes to support the rabbinute, even helonim, even agnostics and atheists.

If the rabbinute loses its ability to pay its rabbis - its employees - salaries will have to be paid by the congregations the rabbis serve. If the community wants a different religious leader - a Shammai instead of a Hillel or vice versa - they simply can hire one.

There is, of course, another side to the coin; a few wealthy people might be able to control the rabbi, but then a few people control the paid-by-the-taxpayer rabbis now; the difference is that now the power rests with the Chief Rabbinute in Jerusalem, not with the people in, say, Efrat or Holon or Yavne or Bet Shean.

Even today people "vote with their feet" by simply going to a different minyan. (In Bet Shean, for example, there are at least 4 minyans within easy walking distance of my Mother-In-Law's home. Where I live in Florida there also are 4 such minyans, albeit only two are Sefardi. With the possible exception of the Aish minyan, all rabbis serve at the pleasure of their congregation.)

The "American way" hardly is perfect, and certainly there are politics involved, but here the politics are local while in Israel the politics are isolated to a handful of selected rabbis of like minds; incestual.

Since the death of R. Sholom Rivkin in 2012, St. Louis - the last community to have a chief rabbi - the office does not exist in the U.S. According to the rabbi's obituary, the late R. Rivkin was chief rabbi from in 1983; he retired in 2005.

Apparently as with Efrat's chief rabbi, St. Louis' chief rabbi also was in the forefront of modern orthodoxy. According to the obituary in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Rivkin often broke new Jewish legal ground. In the 1980s his decision to allow a St. Louis Jewish woman to undergo in vitro fertilization influenced Jewish legal thought on bioethics. .

Bottom line: Let congregations name, and compensate, the rabbi of their choosing. It isn't a perfect solution, but I suggest it's better than what Israel has now.

 

For a "taste" of R. Riskin watch the Balak video on YouTube.

Invisible females Females pay price For lack of self control

 

it's not the FEMALES who lack the self control; it is the male religious extremists who lack self control.

Judaism's religion-in-extreme - I won't write "religious extremists" since I think there is nothing "religious" about their actions, certainly nothing based on the Torah or even the talmuds justifies their behaviors toward women - would have Jewish females cover themselves from head to toe in black sacks.

G-d forbid that a "religious" Jewish boy or man should see so much as an ankle; he might go into a sexual frenzy and attack the female.

Turning Jewish females into Muslim look-alikes is something relatively new - hopefully, unlike the Torah from Zion,(כי מציון תצא תורה) this foolishness will NOT go out, although . . .

In England, the men in control of one "hasidic" group have, following the Muslims of Saudia, banned their women from driving cars; in effect, creating a Jewish sharia law in their ghetto; hopefully they won't stone women not in their sect for driving through their self-imposed ghetto on the city's streets.

The "super datee" (super religious) obviously lack any self-control. They can't trust themselves to

Sit next to a woman on public transportation (bus, plane, train)

Shake hands with a woman who may be their better (unlikely to be their boss since most spend their time in a study hall while their wives work and their less religious neighbors defend the country

Touch a female not their mother, wife, daughter, or unmarried sister

Accept a dish from a female not an immediate unmarried relative

Yet we read on a seemingly daily basis how this or that Orthodox rabbi is caught up in a sex scandal - sometimes peeping at females in the mikveh and sometimes with young boys - Catholic priests are not alone in their preferences for young people.

In some/many haredi newspapers, images of female faces are blurred out or air brushed (Photoshopped) out. It males no difference how important the female is to the photo or how newsworthy the female may be, she's out, never existed.

Member of Knesset and cabinet minister? Out.

Leader of a nation (on which Israel depends)? Out.

G-d forbid a "religious" man should see a females face, even one he would never encounter; he might have lecherous thoughts.

And why would he have lecherous thoughts? Probably because seeing a female's face - never mind her body! - was something he's never seen before; it’s a novelty to him.

In the heloni (non-religious) world, a man might look twice at a beauty in a teeny weenie bikini, but unless he is mentally disturbed he would control his impulses, his desires.

Perhaps the haredi newspapers should ban photos of ice cream - there are those of us who have a weakness for the stuff; perhaps ban all "less-than-nutritious foods" as New York City has banned sugar-laden dinks in its schools. (But what if someone has a carrot or pickle fetish? Ban veggies, too.)

It's perhaps understandable that the sheltered haredi boys find it difficult to control their desires when they encounter something from which they've been protected all their lives; from someone who they have been taught is just a necessary evil around for procreation - else why segregate them at the table much as we separate meat and milk dishes.

The problem does NOT lie with the females; it lies solely with the males who never learned self control.

But since in the haredi world the rabbis - all men, of course - are in control, the women will not only be not heard*, they also will not be seen.

* Men are forbidden from even hearing a woman's voice in song - "kol esha" - since, like seeing a woman's face, the super-religious Jew might get "turned on" by the voice and think an unapproved thought.

I guess I'm not ready for black hat prime time.

Lucky me.

** RELATED STORY: The distance between pixels and veils