The more extreme Orthodox Jews in Israel really need to back off before they seriously piss off the diaspora.
When I hear about them spitting on little girls who they deem not dressed modestly, stoning LGBT Pride Parades, or discriminating against women in the military, it makes my blood boil. As a secular Jew from the United States 
I will only support a free Israel — not an ultra-Orthodox one that seeks to clone the ways of Iran’s mullahs. The latest kerfuffle involves the right of women to pray at the famous Western Wall. According to the New York Times:
Amid outrage across the Jewish diaspora over Israel’s flurry of recent arrests of women seeking to pray at the Western Wall with ritual garments – in defiance of Israeli law — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked Natan Sharansky, the chairman of the Jewish Agency, to study the issue and suggest ways to make the site more accommodating to all Jews.
The move comes after more than two decades of civil disobedience by a group called Women of the Wall against regulations, legislation and a 2003 Israeli Supreme Court ruling that allow for gender division at the wall, one of Judaism’s holiest sites, and prohibit women from carrying a Torah or wearing prayer shawls there.
Such barbaric behavior and backwardness is an embarrassment to Jews everywhere. Many of us are truly fed up with the tantrums of religious fundamentalist nuts — whether in Gaza, Tehran, Cairo, or Jerusalem. These totalitarians want to dominate the majority population and violently impose their anachronistic values and views. When it comes to the diaspora it is our duty to stand up and says NO — and demand reforms. The answer at the Western Wall is to allow full access to women at all times. If the Ultra Orthodox have an issue with it, send in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to integrate the shrine. That way, the bigots can fight men in uniform, not bully women who want to pray. If God is so much on their side, they will no doubt defeat the IDF.
I have a friend who was talking with an Israeli a few years back and he was quite bitter that the ultra orthodox don’t have to serve in the IDF, like the rest of the citizens do. They take advantage of their freedoms but are not willing to fight for them, nor to extend those same freedoms and rights to others. Their behavior is particularly galling in light of the fact that the Holocaust was only about 70 years ago, the blink of an eye in historical terms. Humans never learn!
I’m a big supporter of Women of the Wall and have been following them for a couple years. When I was in Israel I felt the divide between religious and secular. Either you are religiously Orthodox (or Ultra Orthodox/Haredi) or you are secular and not religious at all.
Myself, I’d say I’m a progressively religious Jew; I attend services with other queer religious Jews, many of whom are gay women. We read through the prayerbook, all in Hebrew, and wear traditional garb – the women often wear kippot and tallitot. We all sing together. Sometimes women lead the service. And we all read from the Torah. Everything is egalitarian.
In Israel, these actions would be seen as illegal in most of the synagogues there. The government does not recognize any other sect of Judaism as “officially Jewish” except for Orthodox. My tour guide was resentful of the fact that she had to have an Orthodox wedding in order for it to be recognized in Israel as legal – she is not Orthodox.
It’s a bitter irony that the Nazis murdered all Jews – secular, Reform, Orthodox, Haredi, and everything in-between – without prejudice. If you were a Jew, you were a Jew – and thus a “subhuman.” Now today the nation that is supposed to be my Homeland rejects me for my Jewishness.
They expect me to be “pro-Israel” when the right wing has a stranglehold on the government? When the populace over there supports it? No thank you.
Laws against who can pray? I’m stunned! We can use all the prayers when can get. I would thank these women to pray for us….Israel and the Jews everywhere! I just wonder..if the Israelis would invite their neighours to seek solutions through prayer, if there would be better results—could it be worse?
Time for a new real religion, all this hocus pocus god schpeel has to go. It’s the only way out of this history of complete barbaric insanity. Either w start fully denouncing this sick poor excuse for this insane god mock up of kneel or die or we take it on into an even more conflictive future. Most people are foolishly debilitated with a great fear of god complex. We robotically chose to believe it. We can certainly choose once again. The age old question arises “what do you want”?
Many would agree with you but I suspect many more would not. People believe what they believe because they believe it. For me, a more sensible solution is to remind people that religion (belief, spirituality) should be an excercise in self improvement and growth; not a soap-box from which we tell others how to live and not a liscence to subjugate those who belief differently 9or not at all). Even the Christian Bible has a saying that if your enemy sows bad seed among your good seed, let them grow up together so as not to damage any good seed while removing the bad; G-d will sort out the good from bad once harvested.
I certainly agree many would not agree with me however at this point there are no options, of which I would like to see. Every strange “god” in all religions of volume are judgmental warring control idols. And this is where people get sick and stuck. They are yoked with a fake false image and they tend to mimic that Idol /ceo. God is only peace. Now how would this world be if that were our spiritual and social role model? Less violence, less greed less fear. It would be a better world all around. Again it boils down to what we want as a species. Truth or lies.
I think we each have a responsibility to model peace etc. It’s one thing to complain about your neighbours who act badly if it is constructive. In my experience, Modeling a better way gets better results. I think it very sad that you only see judgment, control and violence when you think of G-d. I would invite you to have a closer look. In any event, I think you raised some good points. I will try a little harder today to make my corner of the world a better place.
Very good Darren.
I am looking at the violence bc it is in our face as a world and people are not only losing their lives they are losing hope. Now we can sing kumbayah and go back into “god is good god is great” or we can look at our problem and fix it.
There are no authentic Christians in this world today, but there are Judeo Christians. Authentic Christians 2k ago got saddled w a Judaic god through negotiation. Yeshua /Jesus taught only of the God of peace. THAT was “he who sent me”. The current knock off is a political result of authentic Yeshuan Christians and jews negotiating a religion they could both live w wo any more bloodshed. So Yeshua stayed if the Jewish “god” stayed. But Jesuses true version of God of peace was out, and teaching the opposite of vengeful gods was why he was killed. The more I study the less Kumbayah works for me, especially with the spiritual deaths of so many. The battlefield is heavy, it’s been going on for thousands of years. No need to complain. Just change it. True peace comes when the reasons for war are abolished. The mission of Christ.
That’s great you are using your corner of the world for peace, we need all of that we can get. For that I truly thank you.