In some Middle East countries women are not allowed to drive or to vote. In Iran, it is enshrined in law that a women’s life is worth half that of a man. In many buildings in Saudi Arabia there are separate entrances for men and women. Rape and domestic violence are carried out with impunity in some Middle Eastern states, due to laws that protect the male perpetrators and often actually criminalise the female victims.
Meanwhile, as a beacon of light amid this darkness, stands Israel, where three major political parties are currently led by women. The President of the Supreme Court is Dorit Beinisch. Women serve in the army. And, lest we forget, Golda Meir became the first female Prime Minister of Israel in 1969 – a full 10 years before the UK had its first female leader. America has yet to even come close to a female President.
I love it when people use the feminine pronouns ‘she’ and ‘her’ to refer to countries. Such usage is particularly apt for the state of Israel. Long may she shine.
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Thanks as always Chas for your insight and willing to spread the truth
I hate to be a wet blanket on this, but the Charedi are, in some parts of the country, trying to push this boundary back in the wrong direction. Long may they fail and the secular, even if they go to shul now and then, succeed in keeping the boundaries at least where they are now (if not further towards genuine and complete equality.
Brian, they are the exception to the rule. Here in Israel, there are many different minorities with various cultural/ethnic values that are different from the mainstream (i.e., arabs, druze, etc).
The Charedi factions will never become mainstream as long as us other mainstream Israeli citizens don’t exit en masse to the nearest EU country…
While they may be doing that, it’s not state-sanctioned. There’s also some pretty nasty “extreme secular” people in Israel too. But again, not state sanctioned. Hopefully, the official line, followed by the large majority of the population, is more sane.
Benjy: can you give me an example of some pretty nasty “extreme secular” people who might compare with the charedim who throw dirty diapers at women who dare to pray at the “wrong” part of the Western Wall?
Also the CEO of Bank Leumi, one of the biggest and oldest banks in the country, has been a woman for years. Hers is one of the most powerful positions in the private sector. She has recently stepped down and is being replaced by another woman.
Oh those Israeli women soldiers! They make Duvid weep with pride. Here is just one video of Israeli women paratrooper jump instructors. There are more, many more, including maksmanship instructors, all serving Israel at the highest level.
http://youtu.be/w0c_8fSCTJE
Not sure that I would call Meretz, Labour and Kadima three major political parties, as they are all heading out. But it’s a nice sentiment. And yes we are better than Iran. B”D. But only an idiot could fail to realise that.
As for Chareidi bashing, we all know that the army is predominantly secular, so who is it then that is sexually harassing 20% of female recruits, and giving “unwanted attention” to most of the rest? Obviously set a personal example by their leaders Barak and Gantz who have no problem making sexist jokes. On the other hand, I have been personally in contact (in person or via letters) with many of the “gedolei hador” including Rav Kaduri zatzal, Rav Mordechai Eliyahu zatzal and Rav Kanievsky shlita, amongst others, and they all treated me with the utmost respect, including encouraging me and wishing me success in my career. In fact none of the gedolim, ever told me to stay home and make babies. People who write comments about chareidim are on the whole people who don’t know any and just get their sources of information from the secular media, which is exceedingly distorted to say the least.
I’m not saying there aren’t problems, there are in every sector of society and in every society, but they are not necessarily worse amongst chareidim. There is no doubt that there has been some despicable behaviour that has shown up in the media, and there is no doubt that a lot of it was itself provoked and was blown out of all proportion. I’m just saying before you start with comments about chareidim, maybe get to know some real ones first.
“There is no doubt that there has been some despicable behaviour that has shown up in the media, and there is no doubt that a lot of it was itself provoked and was blown out of all proportion.”
Lol, those poor adult men provoked by the sight of little girls walking to school…
Regarding provocation, I was actually thinking about the woman who intentionally boarded a separate seating bus in order to provoke an incident. But you reveal your own train of thought. Does it really have to be spelled out what is wrong in and of itself and what was engineered to cause a media splash?
All abuse of children is wrong full stop. But why is there more hatred of chareidim? Just do a search for “child porn epidemic”. Do you think that it’s all those chareidim around the world causing the epidemic of internet porn? (and btw, if you do you have a serious problem).
The problem lies in targetting a specific group of people when it is uncalled for according to the facts. It is both racist and by deflecting attention from the issue at hand to a populist cause (in this case hareidi bashing) it reduces the possibility of solving the actual issue. Meaning that everyone loses. Rather like the exhorbitant resources poured into Israel bashing, which could have been used to help solve a myriad of global human rights issues.
So it’s an ‘intentional provocation’ to get on a bus and sit down where you like, not accepting that your personal liberties are to be controlled by the beliefs of others?
Tell it to Rosa Parks. I don’t say that to compare the fights over the buses to the civil rights movement, but it fires me up to suggest that women should be nice and polite about segregated buses, else it’s ‘deliberate provocation’.
Gender-segregated buses are narishkeit. My great-grandparents never needed any such thing, and neither did those of the people who insist they need them now.
The fact is there are good and bad people of all religions and none. For instance, there are many news stories about serious child sexual abuse by charedim and catholic community leaders. But there are many stories of such behaviour by non-religious people, too. It’s despicable whoever is committing it.
As ‘From Israel’ says, there is disproportionate attention on problems/issues within the charedim. This attention and criticism – when obsessive – is almost like antisemitism in microcosm in a way.
I would recommend people read the oddly-titled but brilliant book Real Jews, which takes a more balanced, informed and fair look at the issues between the charedim and secular in Israeli society.
I’d also echo ‘From Israel’s’ comment: “I’m just saying before you start with comments about chareidim, maybe get to know some real ones first.”
You might like what you find!
Chas, on a completely different topic:
There is an article in The Telegraph about the alleged son of yemach shmo hitler. I can understand why this would be a news item, but this,
“Although he never officially had any sons or daughters of his own, Hitler often spoke of his love of children and animals.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/9088865/Hitler-had-son-with-French-teen.html
It’s made to sound like Audrey Hepburn, beauty and goodness incandescent, with her love of children. How can they get away with writing something so mindbogglingly obscene and no-one is making a fuss? Please make a fuss in all the right places.
Thanks, I’ll look into this.
Thanks, please keep me posted.
great blog
take care
ben