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| The Pluralist
Weekly Highlights of Religion & State in
Israel
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June 11, 2007
Editor: Joel Katz
Click
here to sign up for IRAC's e- newsletters!
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 MKs bash Interior Ministry for violating court ruling
on pop-over conversions
By Matthew Wagner, JPost.com
Members
of the Knesset Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs
Committee slammed the Interior Ministry for ignoring a High
Court ruling that recognizes "pop-over" conversions (giyur
kvitza).
Rabbi
Gilad Kariv, associate director of the Israel Religious
Action Center, the Reform movement's legal arm, said it
was "scandalous" that the Interior Ministry continued to
ignore an explicit High Court decision.
"It is
totally legitimate for the Interior Ministry to want to put in
place procedural criteria," said Kariv, "though two years and
four months is an awfully long time to do so.
"But what is scandalous is that in the meantime, until
these criteria are put in place, the Interior Ministry is
obligated to give these converts citizenship. Refusing to do
so shows contempt for the law."
Click here for full JPost.com
article |
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 AG calls on chief rabbi to crack down on
huppas-for-money
By Matthew Wagner, JPost.com
State-employed rabbis will no longer be allowed to
supplement their salaries from "presents" received for
presiding over wedding ceremonies, according to a letter
addressed to Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger from the State
Attorney's Office.
Nitzan got involved after the Israel Religious Action
Center, the Reform Movement's legal arm, and other legal
watchdogs, quoting media reports, complained to the
attorney-general that former Chief Ashkenazi rabbi and Chief
Rabbi of Tel Aviv Yisrael Meir Lau was paid to preside over
marriages that took place in Tel Aviv.
IRAC
argued that Lau was obligated to provide his rabbinic
services, including performing marriages, free of
charge.
They also
said that all public servants, rabbis included, were forbidden
to receive presents.
IRAC
argued that Lau was obligated to provide his rabbinic
services, including performing marriages, free of
charge.
They also
said that all public servants, rabbis included, were forbidden
to receive presents.
(photo: Haaretz cartoon, by Biderman, Rabbi Lau)
Click here for full JPost.com
article |
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 Petition: Ministry not pushing core
curriculum
By Or Kashti, Haaretz
The
Education Ministry employs only two inspectors to ensure that
hundreds of ultra-Orthodox schools teach the core curriculum,
the ministry told the Israel Religious Action Center
(IRAC) in response to its petition to the High Court of
Justice last week. .
IRAC petitioned the court due to the ministry's failure to
implement previous court rulings on the core program.
IRAC's petition says that if the figures provided by the
ministry about the core curriculum are based merely on the
schools' statements without being checked by the ministry,
they should be treated with great circumspection.
"If there are only two inspectors for the recognized
unofficial education, then these figures cannot be verified,"
the petition says
Click here for full Haaretz
article |
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 Reform hopes greater focus on aliya will bear
fruit
By Michal Lando, JPost.com
"Part of
our Zionist agenda is not only to connect Reform Jews and
Israel, but to impact Israeli society," said Rabbi Andrew
Davids, director of ARZA
[Association of Reform Zionists of America].
"Our commitment to religious justice issues, to democracy,
pluralism, are tremendously important values that need to be
strengthened and supported more in Israeli society. Our aliya
efforts are designed to put more troops on the ground to
strengthen Israel in these ways."
Despite
resistance from the Orthodox establishment, the Reform
Movement is growing "by leaps and bounds" said Rabbi
Kinneret Shiryon, rabbi of Kehillat
Yozma, an active Reform synagogue in Modi'in with 600
member families.
"On a
shoestring budget we've managed to bring about a cultural
revolution," she said. "If Reform families come, they will be
part of a revolution which is extraordinary in my eyes, and
they will have a direct link to changing Israeli society. Who
wouldn't want to be part of that amazing
adventure?"
(photo: Rabbi Andrew Davids)
Click here for full JPost.com
article |
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 Leaving the Zionist ghetto
Avrum
Burg, I read your new book, "Defeating Hitler," as a parting
from Zionism. Am I wrong? Are you still a
Zionist?
"I am a
human being, I am a Jew and I am an Israeli. Zionism was an
instrument to move me from the Jewish state of being to the
Israeli state of being. I think it was Ben-Gurion who said
that the Zionist movement was the scaffolding to build the
home, and that after the state's establishment it should be
dismantled."
Does
this mean that you no longer find the notion of a Jewish state
acceptable?
"It can't
work anymore. To define the State of Israel as a Jewish state
is the key to its end. A Jewish state is explosive. It's
dynamite."
And a
Jewish-democratic state?
"People
find this very comfortable. It's lovely. It's schmaltzy. It's
nostalgic. It's retro. It gives a sense of fullness. But
'Jewish-democratic' is nitroglycerine."
See also:
"What
Burg and the right have in common"
The
Jewish national home needs two levels, the physical and the
spiritual. But the physical level is the foundation and the
condition that allows for the existence of the spiritual one,
even if the spiritual level is a lot more
stimulating.
See also:
"Is
Burg eyeing the EU's new Jerusalem?"
Perhaps
Brussels is Burg's new Jerusalem, and his latest words are
designed to sound as music to the ears of the EU commissioners
- the commissioners who dole out the hefty salaries, travel
allowances and corner offices with a view in the European
Commission's headquarter Berlaymont Building.
(photo: Avraham
Burg, former Knesset Speaker, Chairman Jewish Agency
)
Click here for full Haaretz
interview article |
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 Gaydamak buyout - Kashering a supermarket, kashering
himself
Whether
he founds a party or runs for mayor of Jerusalem, the kashrut
certificate Gaydamak bought himself yesterday will serve him
well.
In turning Tiv Taam into a kosher chain, he made an ethical
move that can, in due time, yield a handsome political
return.
See also:
"Will
Mizra still be able to bring home the bacon?"
Businessman Arcadi Gaydamak's decision to purchase the
Tiv Taam supermarket chain and make it kosher will
significantly reduce the number of places where Israelis can
buy pork products.
See also
"Leaving
a non-kosher vacuum"
Arcadi
Gaydamak's purchase of Tiv Taam over the weekend is expected
to create a vacuum in the non- kosher food market. The primary
non-kosher supplier is throwing away a $100 million
market.
(photo: Arcadi Gaydamak)
Click here for full Haaretz
article |
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| Highlights of Religion & State in
Israel
MKs
pass preliminary reading of law nixing gay pride
parades
Rabbi
Gilad Kariv of the Israel Religious Action Center
said that "the government is selling the basic rights of
citizens in exchange for political survival."
Conversion
and subversion Letter by Rabbi Andrew Sacks
What
Jonathan Rosenblum is calling for is a standard that will fit
what may be referred to as "the frummest common denominator."
This would be conversion courts made up of haredi rabbis only,
subscribing to an approach that follows the strictest
application of Jewish Law, which often goes well beyond a
normative standard. But, most problematically, many of these
rabbis are anti- or non-Zionist, and often anti- State of
Israel.
NRP
leader meets Meretz youth to rally support for weekend
bill
MK Zevulun Orlev discusses his 'Shabbat revolution' with
members of left-wing party, with surprising results.
TALI
network celebrates 30 years of 'enriched Jewish
education
The TALI
network, which provides enriched Jewish studies to some 70
state secular schools and 100 kindergartens turned 30 with a
celebration at the Ramat Rachel Hotel attended by Education
Minister Yuli Tamir.
A
class of its own
"Today,
it seems that a lot of Israelis don't want to have any part of
Judaism," Varady comments. "People have come to see Judaism as
all or nothing - either you are very Orthodox or nothing. But
TALI showed me that there is a middle
ground."
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| About Us
The Israel Religious Action Center is the public and
legal advocacy arm of the Israel Movement for Progressive
Judaism.
IRAC's mission is to advance religious freedom and
pluralism, tolerance, social justice and civil liberties in
Israel, based on the belief that these values are intrinsic to
and stem from a liberal understanding of Judaism.
Since its establishment in 1987, IRAC has been a leader in
the struggle for freedom of religion and conscience in
Israel.
Telephone: +972 (0)2 625 6261
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