Charedi Judaism

Streisand distressed by strictly Orthodox treatment of women

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 11:43:39 +0100

Barbra Streisand has spoken out against the treatment of Israeli women by strictly Orthodox Jews.

The singer, who was receiving an honorary doctorate at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, used her speech to voice concerns over what she regarded as recent incidents of sexism in the country.

"It's distressing to read about women in Israel being forced to sit in the back of the bus, or when we hear about ‘Women of the Wall’ having metal chairs hurled at them when they attempt to peacefully and legally pray, or women being banned from singing in public ceremonies.”

Mrs Streisand warned that, though “it’s not easy to fully grasp the dynamics of what happens in a foreign land”, and “solutions don’t come easy”, this wasn’t an excuse for inaction.

“To remain silent about these things is tantamount to accepting them. Human dignity means giving all people a voice.”

Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni drafted legislation in May to make official sexism illegal, declaring that: “Discrimination against women in public places, in public services, cannot be allowed.”

Mrs Streisand praised the Hebrew University for their work in making education available to both men and women.

“For the first time in the history of the HU, more women than men are graduating with a doctorate. That’s amazing. You understand the yearning for equal access to education. I wish the world was more like the hallways of Hebrew University.”

Making her first visit to Israel in 29 years, the Yentl actress is scheduled to sing at President Shimon Peres’ 90th birthday celebration and perform two concerts in Tel Aviv.

Union heeding wake-up call

Geoffrey Alderman — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 10:46:19 +0100

On the assumption that most of you are not devotees of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, or in full paid-up membership of one of its numerous conventicles, I need to bring you up to speed on developments within the Union and its affiliates that are without precedent. Not only do they offer a very public window into a world that has shunned all publicity hitherto, they constitute a landmark in the slow but hopefully steady progress of the Anglo-Charedi world towards some semblance of an emotional maturity sadly lacking hitherto.

Towards the end of last year a number of leading rabbis based in London put their names to a remarkable statement declaring that an unnamed rabbi was "not fit and proper to act in any rabbinic capacity". This being the Charedi world, addicted to nothing so much as gossip and innuendo, the name of the rabbi soon emerged, but what also emerged were very serious allegations against him of an explicitly sexual nature, relating to the way in which he had allegedly counselled women who came to him for guidance over their marital problems.

At first the UOHC seemed reluctant to act. This being the Charedi world an attempt was made to hush matters up by establishing a special Beis Din to hear the allegations, doubtless in the hope that this would head off any involvement by the police. But, this being the Charedi world, the attempt was clumsily executed and failed miserably. As the Union rabbinate must have known, this was always a police matter, and the police should have been involved as a first resort, not a last. Once they did become involved a number of arrests were made. These were accompanied by a very sensible public statement from the desk of the most senior police officer in the borough of Barnet (where the arrested men were being held), chief superintendent Adrian Usher, who reassured the Jewish community that those so detained were being treated "with fairness, dignity and respect".

On such matters the law will take its course. All those already charged or who might be will come before the courts, where their innocence or guilt will be established. Meanwhile the Union has taken some very welcome steps to put its own house in order. At the end of May, through its recently established "Committee for the preservation of purity in the camp" (my translation) it inserted an astounding notice in the Charedi press, drawing attention to the fact that "the behaviour of rabbonim in some counselling and marriage guidance workshops in our area is inappropriate and disrespectful towards their female patients and falls below expected standards of modesty". Some days later another UOHC announcement (behind which there must be lurk a collection of unsavoury stories as yet untold) condemned "the behaviour of staff in some tailoring and dressmaking workshops in our area" as "inappropriate and disrespectful towards their female customers and [which] falls below expected standards of modesty."

It's too easy to snort and snigger at such pronouncements. I imagine that those in charge must have thought long and hard about making them. What they tell us, on the record, is that the UOHC acknowledges wrongdoing of a sexual nature by some of its rabbis - and clearly, by its own admission, by the use of the plural "rabbonim," more than one rabbi was involved. They also suggest that such inappropriate behaviour extends beyond the very private arena of marital counselling into the somewhat less private milieux of dressmaking.

I have before used this column to draw attention to incidences of sexual impropriety in Charedi circles. But these recent public admissions are in no sense an occasion for smugness. The Union has at last commenced the journey that it knows it must undertake, as the Catholic Church has painfully done (or rather, been forced to do). But in permitting the rabbi at the centre of last year's allegations to officiate at a recent wedding in London the UOHC has also demonstrated that its grasp of the need to act appropriately and with integrity is still far from perfect.

And in agreeing to officiate in this way the rabbi concerned has merely given his detractors further ammunition to use against him.

Charedi fear over Gove education reforms

Simon Rocker — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 12:30:17 +0100

Education Secretary Michael Gove’s wish to put a greater focus on evolution in the GCSE science curriculum could pose problems for strictly Orthodox schools, a Jewish education consultant warned this week.

The minister announced the move on Tuesday as part of his reforms to raise the standard of school exams.

But Michael Cohen, an adviser to Orthodox schools, said: “I don’t see Charedi schools going along with it. It is something that flies in face of their ethos and culture. It is clear this kind of proposal is definitely going to create difficulties for Charedi schools.”

Mr Gove’s plans to make evolution a compulsory part of the primary school curriculum have already caused consternation among Charedi educators and the National Association of Jewish Orthodox Schools has lobbied his department for a rethink.

A draft primary curriculum says that young children should study fossils as evidence of evolution, know about Charles Darwin and understand how the human skeleton has evolved “since we separated from other primates”.

While modern Orthodox schools feel able to reconcile evolution with Jewish teachings on creation, Charedi schools regard it as opposed to traditional doctrine.

If greater emphasis were put on evolution at GCSE, Charedi pupils would be likely to have to sacrifice marks by ignoring the topic.

Mr Cohen believed that Jewish schools generally would welcome the thrust of Mr Gove’s reforms for “ a more rigorous and academic approach”.

But he added: “It is important to recognise that Charedi schools have been set up by their community and parents send them to these schools where they know they will be kept away from delicate, sensitive or problematic issues like evolution.”

Unconfirmed reports on the internet this week suggested that a question deemed unsuitable by Charedi teachers in a GSCE science exam this year was blacked out for pupils who sat it.

Rabbi Avraham Pinter, principal of the state-aided Chasidic girls’ secondary school, Yesodey Hatorah, said he was unaware of the details of science papers this year.

But he confirmed that “sometimes Charedi schools, if they find anything in the paper which could be offensive to parents, advise children to avoid that question”.

He said that he expected Charedi concerns to be raised in consultations about the reforms. “We are confident that the government will take into consideration the educational priorities of parents and children of all faiths, and ensure that this topic is covered in a balanced and sensitive manner.

Israeli chief rabbi election could yet make history

Nathan Jeffay — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 12:00:17 +0100

Israel moved a step closer to a non-Charedi chief rabbi earlier this month, when the Knesset’s religious-Zionist party threw its weight behind a moderate candidate.

The modern-Orthodox iconoclast David Stav has built his rabbinic career on making Judaism more welcoming for the non-religious, and he is now determined to break the strictly-Orthodox control over the Chief Rabbinate.

He says that if elected Ashkenazi chief rabbi, he will end discrimination in the rabbinate against converts, make visits to rabbinate offices for marriage licenses and the like less intimidating for secular Israelis, and remodel the Israeli face of Judaism in general.

His outlook not only contrasts with that of the Charedi candidates, but also with the views of the other modern-Orthodox candidate, Eliezer Igra, who believes the rabbinate system, broadly speaking, functions well.

When it first emerged late last year that Rabbi Stav was planning to run this summer — the date is still to be set — he appeared to be long shot in race that generally favours Charedim. But since then, things have gone his way.

The new government turned out to be free of Charedi parties — which, given that the selection process is intensely political, gave an unexpected boost to his chances. Then, last week, another candidate who is modern-Orthodox but more traditionalist, dropped out. Yaakov Ariel, city rabbi of Ramat Gan, was disqualified because he was too old to run.

In addition, Rabbi Stav now has four of the five coalition parties behind him — Jewish Home, Yesh Atid, Yisrael Beiteinu and Hatnuah.

Rabbi Stav, 53, is the municipal rabbi for the town of Shoham, in central Israel. In the mid-90s, he set up the Tzohar, an organisation to provide an alternative to what he saw as the overly hardline rabbinate.

It provided practical solutions. For example, secular Israelis complained about negative experiences at compulsory pre-wedding bridal classes, so it launched its own user-friendly classes. To help people who were told by stringent marriage registrars that they had to bring obscure documents to prove they are Jewish, it set up a research unit.

He wants to now make progressive changes from inside the rabbinate. However, while he looks ever more likely to get the job, it us unclear what real impact he will be able to make. His proposed fix to intransigent marriage registrars who refuse to trust the Jewishness of people converted by the state’s Conversion Authority hints at what he is up against.

How Chasidic life inspired the latest Miller’s tale

Gerald Jacobs — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 13:01:06 +0100

A few years ago, novelist, film director and screenwriter Rebecca Miller and her children were rowing across the lake in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, when she spotted a crowd of Chasidic families enjoying a day out in the sunshine.

“I was fascinated by the women in particular,” she recalls, “and their ability, in the middle of New York City, to be able to maintain such a hermetic life. I went into a kind of trance, listening to them.” This, she says, proved to be the key to her new novel, Jacob’s Folly, which until then was going to centre on an almost too-kind-to-be-true fireman.

Around the same time, she read an article by a Satmar woman “in which she described her grown-up daughter being followed around by a fly all day and she wondered if it was a soul doing penance. I thought: ‘Wait a minute — is there reincarnation in Judaism?’ And then I found gilgul in the kabbalah.” This inspired her choice of narrator — a reincarnated Jewish fly.

For scholars, reincarnation, or transmigration of souls — gilgul — is disputable. But for storytellers, it’s irresistible. And in Jacob’s Folly, inside the body of a 21st-century American fly lives the soul of Jacob Cerf, an 18th-century French Jewish pedlar. “I researched the tiny, 18th-century Jewish population in Paris, who were there under sufferance and had to have passports,” Miller explains.

Her research unearthed an actual police inspector “in charge of Jewish affairs”, a man called Buhot who kept “a ledger with the name of every male Jew in Paris” and whom she drafted into her story. “And,” she adds with an air of proprietorial delight, “there was a real Jacob Cerf, a Polish Jew. I wanted them to be Polish Jews because I’m a Polish Jew. I wanted to feel connected.”

This is a sentiment that has applied to most areas of Miller’s life. Growing up as the child of one of America’s greatest playwrights, Arthur Miller, and distinguished Magnum photographer, the Austrian-born Inge Morath — he Jewish, she Protestant — the young Rebecca’s “root occupation” was religion. “My first questions were about the nature of God. And I used to worry that the devil might be in the house!

“I had a Catholic phase. My best friend was a neighbour’s son and when his family went to the Catholic church every Sunday, I got a ride. Had I got a ride to a Baptist church every week, I might have been a holy roller. Had it been shul, I’d have had to walk, which would have been a long, long way from where I came from.”

Religious customs and beliefs are central to Jacob’s Folly, especially those within Judaism of the most fundamental kind. For this, Miller went to stay with a strictly Orthodox family and it was there that her main female character, Masha, took shape. “One of the most powerful experiences I had within that community,” Miller recalls, “was on Shabbes among the women. As they made dinner, they sang together so beautifully. Then when everybody sat down around the table and the men sang the hymns, the women weren’t allowed to sing — in accordance with the talmudic equation of a woman’s voice with nakedness — but silently mouthed the words. And I thought: ‘Wow, what a moment it would be if one of them sings.’ Masha!

“I came to the Orthodox way of life feeling very foreign and ended up seeing the beauty of it. The way the community works is amazing. If somebody has too many blankets, say, or too much baby formula, they invite others to come and take. The mother of the family I was with allowed her three-year-old child to walk up the street from a crèche to have her diaper changed. Their confidence that they are living in the way God wants them to live is so profound.”

Indeed, although the fictional fly in Jacob’s Folly provokes Masha’s urge to rebel and become an actress, Miller’s treatment of strictly Orthodox family life is sympathetic and tender. In this regard, she is more tolerant than her famous father, the son of Polish Jewish immigrants. “Though he had a deep identification with being Jewish, my father was very suspicious of religion,” she says. “Ours was an essential, cultural Jewishness. This book was in part a journey to at least the beginning of an understanding of how Jewish I am.”

How filmable, to this director, is a book with a fly as its central character? “It took me five years to write and I need some liberation before I even think about it,” Miller reasons. But don’t bet against it. Her films tend to be based on her own books, including The Ballad of Jack and Rose, Personal Velocity and The Private Lives of Pippa Lee.

With her parentage, Rebecca Miller was surely destined to possess a powerful creative talent. And versatility — she was a painter and actress before she began to write. She also teaches at New York University, and tells her students “how my father wrote in what I think of as a ladder format. People don’t actually answer each other, they speak in a way that moves the action on.”

Another creative — and Jewish — dimension to Miller’s life is her marriage to the outstanding actor, Daniel Day-Lewis, whose actress mother, Jill Balcon, came from a Jewish family. “Very late in the game, I give Daniel my manuscript,” Miller reveals. “He’s always got great comments but I want him to read it when it’s almost done, when I feel it’s good.”

Until recently, they lived in Ireland, spending the summers in America. They’ve now reversed that, living in America and spending summers in Ireland. This is mainly for the schooling of their three sons, Gabriel (from Day-Lewis’s relationship with Isabelle Adjani), Ronan and Cashel. But also because “I just need to hear my own people talk”. Again, that urge to feel connected. “My youngest, Cashel, who’s 11, recently told me that he just wants to ‘go on learning’ for the rest of his life — sweet, but that’s what’s been so great about writing this book. I haven’t learnt so much since I left university. You just keep on learning.” As you do in reading fiction like Jacob’s Folly, containing history and fantasy, comedy and psychology, folklore and theatre. In the fly Jacob’s own words, it’s a kind of “cosmic drum roll… from a mirthful sky”.

In New York, 20,000 Orthodox protest against draft

Zoe Winograd — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 17:06:47 +0100

Thousands of Charedim gathered in New York yesterday to protest against the Israeli government’s moves to force the Orthodox to join the army.

The New York City police reported that 20,000 Charedim filled Foley Square in lower Manhattan holding banners which read “freedom of religion” and “Orthodox Jews will proudly go to jail rather than join the Zionist army.”

A sea of black hats listened to speeches in English and Yiddish whilst some supporters locked themselves inside cages pretending to study Torah through the bars.

The Rabbinical Council of America condemned the "anti-Israel rally".

The Charedi protest was organised in response to last month's decision by an Israeli ministerial committee to advance a bill that would force Orthodox Israelis to enlist in the IDF or face penalties that include jail terms.

Gallery aims to attract strictly Orthodox to Lithuania exhibition

Zoe Winograd — Fri, 31 May 2013 08:30:00 +0100

An art gallery is mounting an exhibition by a Jewish artist that it hopes will attract local strictly Orthodox Jews.

The Shipley Art Gallery in Gateshead is displaying prints by Naomi Alexander exploring her Jewish roots in eastern Europe. The exhibition, which is called Once Upon a Time in Lithuania, consists of over 70 works.

According to the curator (and JC art critic) Julia Weiner, two works have been excluded in order “not to offend religious sensibilities”. They depict swimmers on a beach and an elderly woman in a sleeveless top and shorts.

The exhibition opened on June 1. A private view took place this week with guest speaker, Lithuanian ambassador Asta Skaisgirytë Liauskienë and members of the Gateshead Jewish community.

Following the exhibition, Ms Alexander will become artist in residence in the community to work with students and senior citizens.

“I think I will learn a lot,” she said.

Candle ban snuffs out strictly Orthodox Aberystwyth holiday plan

John Jeffay — Thu, 30 May 2013 13:30:00 +0100

More than 1,000 Orthodox Jews have been barred from their annual summer holiday in Wales because of health and safety fears over their Sabbath candles.

Aberystwyth University bosses have rented out their student village to Jewish families for a fortnight every August for the last 20 years. But they have pulled the plug this year, insisting they cannot relax their ban on naked flames.

Members of the Jewish community, mostly from Manchester and London, said they were “very disappointed and upset” at the decision.

Last year the holidaymakers were told that in future they would be allowed to stay in Pentre Jane Morgan only if they agreed not to light candles in the houses.

In response, they have found an alternative holiday destination, but are still hoping that the university will agree to a compromise so they can return next year.

The families rent up to 120 houses, each accommodating between seven and nine people.

One of the holidaymakers, Mrs Brander from London, who declined to give her first name, said: “We come to Aberystwyth for a holiday. We have stayed in Pentre Jane Morgan since it opened. It is a summer home to us, and we all love it. We are very disappointed and upset by the university’s decision.”

She added: “We were told about this condition as we left last year, but at the time, we did not think it a threat to our visit. But, ultimately, there was no real decision for us — our religion requires lighting of candles.

“There was a small fire last year, but it was not considered serious. And we have holders to make each candle safer. We offered to discuss it with the fire brigade, but the university was not interested.”

The majority of the visiting Jews come from north London, but others come from as far afield as Israel and New York.

The families’ absence will affect a number of traders, according to Chris McKenzie-Grieve, president of the town’s Chamber of Commerce,

He said: “Many of the visitors shop in the town. And it will surely have a great effect on the university’s income.”

A spokesman for Aberystwyth University insisted that candles and naked flames were forbidden in all university residences. He said: “This is clearly set out in the terms and conditions which visiting groups are required to sign and abide by during their stay.

“Unfortunately, last year there was more than one incident involving lit candles with this visiting group.

The spokesman added that the university had been asked to relax the rules or to accept covered flames, but that it had rejected the suggestion.

“In reaching the decision not to allow candles to be lit in rooms, we have taken legal advice, consulted with the Health and Safety Executive and the Fire Service, and our own risk assessment.

“The decision has been taken in the interest of the safety of those staying in university accommodation, and to protect our property.

“At all times, the university has stated that it would be delighted to welcome this group back, as long as they are able to sign our terms and conditions.”

Tragedy struck the families last year when Berish Englander, a 47-year-old rabbi and father of 11 children, drowned in the sea off Aberystwyth’s promenade.

Rabbi Chaim Halpern conducting a wedding a ‘serious error’, says United Synagogue

Simon Rocker — Fri, 24 May 2013 07:30:00 +0100

The United Synagogue has strongly criticised the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations for allowing Rabbi Chaim Halpern, who is under police investigation over alleged sexual abuse of women, to officiate at a wedding.

Rabbi Halpern, the leader of the Divrei Chaim community, took part in a ceremony under the UOHC’s auspices on Wednesday afternoon at Finchley United Synagogue, which houses the Kinloss banqueting suite.

In a statement, a spokesman for the US said that it considered the UOHC’s approval of Rabbi Halpern’s participation as “wrong and a serious error of judgment”.

Rabbi Halpern, who has denied any wrongdoing in connection with counselling sessions for women, has been bailed to return to a police station in July.

A special Beth Din set up by the UOHC to look into the allegations against him has been suspended pending police inquiries.

No one was available from the UOHC to comment.

The US said that its synagogues were hired out for dozens of weddings each year under the Union’s auspices.

“The United Synagogue is not involved in the authorisation or solemnisation of such marriages and relies on the UOHC to ensure that a suitable person officiates,” a US spokesman said.

“The former head of the London Beth Din and two current dayanim in their capacity as north-west London rabbonim have already publicly made their views very clear concerning Rabbi Halpern.

“Rabbi Halpern’s own governing body, the UOHC, has seen fit to initiate a high-profile investigation that has not yet been concluded. In addition to which, he is under police investigation.

“We therefore consider his authorisation by the UOHC to officiate at this marriage wrong and a serious error of judgment.”

Plan could end in blame game

Jonathan Freedland — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:19:30 +0100

The long-ago BBC Jerusalem correspondent, Michael Elkins, once lamented that too many war reporters had not served a journalistic apprenticeship by working on a local newspaper. How, he asked, could they understand the grief of a woman in Beirut devastated at seeing her house blown up if they had never witnessed the tears of a lady in Somerset, disappointed to miss out on first prize in the village flower show? They had no measure of comparison.

Elkins was suggesting there is a scale in such matters, with the local at the mild end of the spectrum. Except it doesn't always look that way. In Britain, there are few things that get people more agitated than their immediate surroundings - the more immediate, the more agitated. Just ask those reporters who've covered neighbours at war over a disputed hedge or overgrown leylandii.

Which is why I'm worried about the row currently playing out in my own patch of Stoke Newington and next-door Stamford Hill, home to Britain's largest community of strictly Orthodox Jews.

The trouble began with a proposal by the government that would allow "neighbourhood forums", made up of local people, to make planning decisions previously left to the council. In the spirit of the Big Society, the idea is that communities will take control of their own streets and houses, rather than having to wait for the ruling of the town hall.

Nice in theory, but here's how it's playing out in London N16. Many in the Charedi community like the idea of a forum that will bring planning decisions closer to home, seeing a chance to deal directly with what is their most pressing problem: a shortage of living space. With an estimated average of eight children each, Charedi families need more room.

But that has sparked local opposition from those who worry that if a neighbourhood forum - with a Charedi majority - takes over, it'll instantly lift planning restrictions, enabling Charedim to build outsized extensions that would blight the street or block their neighbours' light.

Worse still, they imagine expanding families suddenly winning the right to concrete over and build on their back gardens.

Predictably, there is plenty of arcane local politics at play. One group bidding to establish a forum is led by Conservative councillors apparently keen to tighten their hold on Charedi votes (and end the Labour-supporting habit still maintained by some of the borough's Charedim).

And, of course, the Charedi community is far from united, some supporting this Tory-backed initiative, others hoping to create a wider, cross-communal forum that would enjoy more non-Jewish support. Things have turned nasty, with allegations of antisemitism and "social cleansing" hurled at those who oppose the forum scheme.

My own view is simple. I don't want to see a system that pits strictly Orthodox Jews against everyone else, one that would cause local people to grow resentful as they watch their streets or gardens become disfigured by excess construction. Right now, if a bad planning decision is taken, people blame the council. What nobody should want is a situation where they would blame the Jews.

Luckily, the Charedi leadership seems to recognise this danger. They are not in favour of some narrow group winning control of planning. Instead, as the indomitable Rabbi Avraham Pinter puts it, they want a forum that is "broad, inclusive and represents all views." I agree. But if it's too tricky to set up a new body that meets all those criteria, I can think of an old one that ticks the same boxes. It's called the local council. Let it decide who can build and where - and let its members take the blame.