Saturday, January 16, 2010

Women of the Wall

As we approach Martin Luther King day, I was absolutely appalled to see what is going on in Israel.  They have virtually created a Rosa Park's situation.  Instead of putting people of color at the back of the bus though, they shove Jewish women to a small section of the wall and interrogate them and finger print them if they wear tallit.
For a nation that grew out of the oppressed, that seems awfully oppressive to me.



As a new convert, who is pre-mikvah, I am not turning away from Judaism, but I think the Israeli government could get a clue.  Yes, just what I need to do... piss off the Israeli government, but it just seems they went a little too far in my book with the interrogation and finger printing of Anat Hoffman. http://blogs.rj.org/rac/2010/01/up_against_the_wall_anat_hoffm.html


I encourage anyone who reads this blog to investigate further this situation and sign the petition for these women or help support them in some way.  Women have in my opinion long been the stronghold of a Jewish family, why are they not allowed to pray the same as men in the year 2010?
FYI-I am not a drastic feminist and I am not one who wants to rewrite the entire Torah so it is gender neutral-another huge topic, but not today.  However, I do not think Jewish women should be shoved aside to an out of the way place as that to me is saying their prayers aren't equivalent to those of men.  I also don't think wearing a prayer cloth should be so offensive to anyone.  If these ultra-orthodox men feel so inadequate they are threatened by a prayer cloth then what does that say about them?  It's all about control.  What's next, do women have to dress up like Yentl to use a prayer cloth?
Kathy
1st of Sh'vat, 5770 / א׳ בשבט תש״ע

3 comments:

  1. Kathy,

    Thank you for sharing your 'unassimilation' discovery.

    For more on the issues of religion and state in Israel, may I suggest checking out Religion and State in Israel.

    You can also get real-time updates @religion_state on Twitter.

    Joel Katz

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  2. I think this is downright scary.

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  3. Kathy, I'll be making a post pertaining to this if I don't forget but I thought I would share with you. I've been reading One People: Two Worlds and the Orthodox Rabbi who writes in this book insists that The Women of the Wall are in it for the politics and nothing more. I was really annoyed to hear someone speak of them that way, even if he does disagree with their statements.

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