Tova Hartman & Shira Hadasa Pursue Gender Equality in Jewish Orthodoxy

Beyond the Veil| Tova Hartman is a 53-year old psychologist and Jewish scholar, an Orthodox Jewish woman mounting her own challenge to the religious patriarchy, writes Kevin Douglas Grant for the Religion News Service.

“Shira Hadasha came about after trying to change a lot of the local shuls and not succeeding,” she said, using the Yiddish word for synagogue. “We understand and accept that our agenda does not resonate yet with modern Orthodox establishment shuls and that’s OK. They don’t want to change, and they don’t have to.”

Women and men continue the traditional practice of being divided in Shira Hadasha but the Torah sits in the middle, making it equally accessible to both genders.

Click to read more ...

Israeli Paper Photoshops Hillary Clinton Out of Situation Room Photo

 

God bless Jezebel. The ultra Orthodox Hasidic newspaper ‘Der Tzitung’ — representing the Jews we’re supposed to live and die for in America — has edited Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from one of the most important images of the early 21st century. Writes Morning Gloria:

The religious paper never publishes pictures of women, as they could be considered “sexually suggestive.” Apparently the presence of a woman, any woman, being all womanly and sexy all over the United States’ counterterrorism efforts was too much for the editors of ‘Der Tzitung’ to handle.

So let me understand this. The Orthodox Hasidic Jews have an apoplectic fit with crazy Muslims who deny the the reality of Holocaust. But when the subject is women, they have no problem rewriting history.

It is a sacriledge that American taxpayers are supposed to finance yet another group that hates women and seeks a giant world war over religion. Period. Anne

Women’s Rights and the Sperm Fight in Jerusalem

Fundamentalists Fight Women's Rights Far Beyond Israel

It’s not the case that Haaretz.com is our go-to website for news on Israel. They just come up in our Google News searches. Good SEO and writing in English, I assume.

Researching the status of women in Israel yesterday, trying to understand the composition of the Israeli Knesset, the article Bill would reward parties that boast more women appeared.

The read brings to mind the Fundamentalist Conservatives in Egypt denying the rights of women to become judges, now thrown out by Egypt’s supreme court, but with another attempt at reconciliation scheduled for next week.

via Flickr’s Belgian_Sun_FlowerWomen’s Reservation Bill in India

I’m thinking also about last week’s vote in India on the Women’s Reservation Bill, delayed with fighting and a floor sit-in by seven Conservative members of India’s Rajya Sabha (Upper House of Parliament), now expelled by their Janata Dal-United party.

Note the decisive action taken against the seven members in India. For once bad boys paid the price: expulsion from the group.

Yes, I know their argument was framed around a desire for quotas for members of different castes, and also religious quotas for Muslims, Hindus and presumably other religous affiliations. 

Women’s rights will always be last in the minds of many men who believe we deserve none. At least in India, the men tried to disguise their determination to keep women out of politics by arguing for a broad blanket of quotas.

India’s Women’s Reservation Bill has moved to the Lok Sabha, the India’s Lower House of Parliament, where the same foes will fight its passage. Attempts to reduce the quota from 33% to 20% female representation have failed. The bill remains undiluted and is expected to pass.

In America where you would never know that abortion is legal, listening to the patriarchy on television saying that they answer to God and the Vatican — not the US Supreme Court — there’s a reasonable chance that a health care bill will pass.

The Vatican Strong-arms America

Perhaps the Vatican will not prevail in dictating America’s health care for women from Nancy Pelosi’s office, surely one of the most scandalous moments in American history. Given the Vatican’s pitiful record on women’s rights worldwide, I was chilled to the bone by their aggressive move against American women.

The Vatican’s concerns are on breeding new Catholics, not women’s health and wellness. The rights of a fully-grown woman with an IQ of 180 — the next Albert Einstein — are of lesser value to the Catholic patriarchy, than an unfertilized egg and wandering sperm.

Having their own hands full with errant bad boys doing far more harm to God’s creatures than I ever will, I’m in no mood for Catholic lectures on female morality.

Hopefully, I’ve made it clear that I have no ax to grind with Israel, more than any other patriarchy in the world. As US Commender of our forces in the Middle East Gen. Petraeus testified yesterday, the dispute between Israel and its neighbors does have an “enormous effect” on other regional issues.

Click to read more ...

"Women of the Wall" Protest Exclusion from Praying at Jerusalem's Western Wall

Supporters of a group of religious activists called Women of the Wall gathered at the holy site in Jerusalem for prayers on Friday. Conservative Jew Nofrat Frenkel, 28 and a fifth year medical student, was the first woman to be arrested last month on Nov. 18th, during prayers at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Her crime was wrapping herself in a tallit or fringed prayer shawl, a ritual garment traditionally worn only by men.

The Women of the Wall, who meet for prayers at the Kotel at the start of every Hebrew month, are at the vanguard of a feminist struggle in Orthodox Judaism. via NYTimes

The group prayed in large numbers last Friday, the first day of the Hebrew month of Tevet. “We are pushing the envelope. History is made of moments like this,” said nat Hoffman, chairwoman of Women of the Wall, which was founded in 1988.

Click to read more ...