Survey says...

[eumelia]

According to a survey conducted by the Conservative/Masorati movement in Israel:

Eighty-seven percent of the public believe that nominal gender equality is entirely justified, and 54% claim that Jewish tradition discriminates against women — this according to a survey conducted by the Masorti (Conservative) Movement in Israel this week on the occasion of the organization's 30th birthday.

However, according to the article, only 24% of seculars would attend synagogue more often if partition were removed. In the article they make it sound like seculars should and could be going more often to synagogue.
Isn't the point of secularism that people don't go to worship an entity, the existance of which is under constant debate?

Israel at the moment is ruled by Orthodoxy, never mind if they're Haredim, Hasidim, black kippah or knitted kippah. Orthodoxy rules and everything more progressive than Tradition! as Tuvia* like to proclaim is deemed unauthentic at the very least. Some Orthodox Rabbis even go so far to call Reform Jews worse than gentiles, this is assuming they know the difference between the progressive movements which most Israeli religious or not, don't.

My family has been a member of the Conservative Shul in our town ever since we came on Aliyah and though the participation has lessened due to us kids growing up and moving away (or just not caring as the case may be with me) we still go there on the High Holidays and sit together as a family.

I the first time I went into a synagogue that wasn't my family's and was absolutely shocked at the fact that I had to go upstairs to the Ezrat Nashim** and be away from the actions. People were shocked that I was shocked, didn't I know anything about Tradition!

The wonderful thing about Judaism, or at least that was always how I thought about it, is its pluralism and the fact that tradition evolves and changes to suit the times, there's a reason Judaism survived for so long. It's adaptability, or more the the point the willingness of the people who practice it to change with the times.
At least some of the people.

Israel is very much behind the Diaspora when it comes to the Progressive streams of Judaism. People view Conservative and Reform here as the same, they've never heard of Reconstructionist or Renewal, which i knew nothing about until I live in the US for a while.

There are Women rabbis, but they're not allowed on the Religious Council, marital law is tightly controlled by the Rabbanut, the Israeli Rabbinical council, where the signing of the Ketubah*** is still required as is the immersion of the bride in the mikveh****.
My sister got married through the Rabbanut and told me it was a horrible process.
My other sister got a civil marriage, which one can only get outside of Israel, though divorce is still only through the Rabbanut and they are known to not give a divorce on certain occasions.
Weddings conducted by Conservative or Reform Rabbis in Israel have no legal standing, which is ridiculous because according to Jewish law all you need is two people as a witnesses and an item worth more than a pruta (penny) and you're married in "the eyes of GD" obviously. fixed in editing.

So yeah, Israel has it's problems in regard to its "national" religion.

*From "Fiddler on the Roof".
**Women's section.
***Marriage contract in which the new husband "aquires" the wife from the brides father.
****A purification pool of constantly moving water.

Comments

[sabotabby]

54% claim that Jewish tradition discriminates against women

You gotta wonder about the other 46%. Srsly. When my mom tried to get a Jewish divorce from her abusive, cheating husband, the (Reform, supposedly progressive) rabbi told her that she'd still have to ask him for permission. This is why I stopped going to even the nice synagogue, by the by.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

That's the main reason I decided never to get married in Israel (when I was 13 and saw what my sister had to go through), I later decided that marriage-the-institution is arcane and oppressive in it's own way and decided never to get married at all.

*sigh* Israel and Israelis are so schizoid when it comes to religion, only some form are valid and the rest are forms "Hellesization".
The racism and xenophobia within the Jews themselves, never mind the "Other". Sheesh.
Hannukah is obviously big here.

I only go on Yom Kippur and only for the Erev... I like the singing :)

[justin-angel.livejournal.com]

"Eighty-seven percent of the [Jewish] public believes that nominal gender equality is entirely justified, and 54% claim that Jewish tradition discriminates against women "

So, one has to wonder about the Jewish Israeli citizens who thinks women are being discriminated against in Judaism and also believe in gender equality. According to the survey, it's about half of the Israeli population.
The big question is - what are those aware of the injustice who think it's wrong are actually doing about to fix it?

As you've said, not enough. Half the Israeli public knows the system is wrong, and does nothing about it.

I have to agree with your pic. In days like this I'm glad I'm an Israeli pagan. At least we believe in equality and practice our religion accordingly.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Indeed, Earth Based Religions seem to be the way to go for those who seek equality in spirituality.

[apemanmaldonado.livejournal.com]

I hope you don't mind me butting in, I this post while looking at talibah_nazahah's friend list. I was struck by your entry because despite having several Jewish friends growing up and my brother kinda sorta converting to Judaism I recently realized I really dont know that much about Judaism. I've been reading and been fascinated by the dynamics between Orthodox, Conservative, Reform Judaism. If you don't my asking, I apologize if you do, in your experience in Israel are most secular or follow an Orthodox group or what? Is their a large movement to try and remove Orthodox control of aspects of life? Are non-Orthodox just viewed essentially as hippies or what? Thanks for your time and sorry to bother.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Hi there and it's no bother at all.
My own personal bubble of friends are mainly secular to atheist, I'm one of the more spiritual ones because I'm agnostic going on pantheistic.
Secular Jews are the majority in Israel, that is Jews who don't go to synagogue regularly, don't keep kosher, don't keep the Shabbat and don't say the three daily prayres.
Not Hippies :)
There are various degrees of observance within Orthodoxy, for instance both the Haredim (which are often called ultra-orthodox) and the - roughly translated as - National Religious are orthodox, but their tradition and their focus on various Halacha (Jewish religious law) rulings are different.
Conservative is a progressive stream in Judaism that basically sees Judaism as an evolving religion culture, in Conservative shuls there isn't a separation between men and women and both genders may wear religious garb like Talleisim and skull caps which in orthodoxy this isn't so (with a few notable exceptions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shira_Hadasha)).
I unfortunately know very little about Reform because it is a stream that has had and still has difficulty catching on in Israel, but there are tons of information websites out there on each stream.

I'm by know means an expert and I may have made glaring mistakes in describing things to you, because I myself am secular and am kosher by default merely because I'm a veg-head, don't eat bread over pass-over only in my house because of tradition and go to synagogue once a year on Yom Kippur.

Hope this very long comment was helpful :)

[apemanmaldonado.livejournal.com]

Thanks for answering, it was very helpful. I've been reading more and sad as it sounds for most of my 25 years I thought there was only the regular secular Jews and Orthodox Jews. I'm just amazed that I never noticed how many different groups there are. I can only imagine how much of a pain the marriage and divorce laws must be in Israel, especially for those who aren't Orthodox. Thanks again for answering, I enjoy reading your entries, they are refreshing after I sometimes read a blog by a Kahane supporter.

One last question if you don't mind, why is it you think the secular majority hasn't managed to do something about all the Orthodox laws?

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

#1 Because the leadership feels it will interfere with Israel's Jewish identity.
#2 Because the Religious and/or Nationalist members of the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) have a large electoral base which don't see anything wrong with the religious nature of marriage (and other religion based) laws in Israel.
#3 The majority of the people in Israel, while very politically savvy and have opinions on everything under the sun are also quite apathetic, understandingly so, we've been disappointed so many times by the leadership it doesn't seem worthwhile to try and change something that will most likely be ignored anyway.