Concern that ultra-Orthodox are tightening an intolerant grip in Israel.

by Gary Berg-Cross
Ruth Marcus, published a small article August 7 in WAPO called The ultra-Orthodox tighten their grip in Israel. It started with an eye opener story about the treatment of some women by conservative (aka ultra orthrodox) Jewish groups. We have been reading a bit about the war of women here from fundamentalists and certainly of women in some Moslim countries, but the Jewish story has been perhaps less reported on. Marcus bravely took it on.
Nili Philipp is an observant, modern Orthodox Jew. Marcus reports how Philipp was hit by a “rock on the side of her helmet as she biked last year along the main road in this Jerusalem suburb. A few years earlier, the spitting had begun, as Philipp jogged on a road bordering an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood. Men called her names: Shikseh, the derogatory term for a Gentile woman. Prutzah, whore.”
As reported the Philipp’s story “speaks volumes about intolerance among the ultra-Orthodox”

“Whenever people tell me, respect their society — their society doesn’t respect me,” Philipp says, voice quivering as she describes a recent incident in which a woman with an infant was pelted with stones while shopping here. “We all see ourselves as vulnerable, and we’re all scared.”

Marcus’ story got over a 1000 responses and resonated with many woman. One talked about having to had to give up her seat on a flight home from Israel

“because a religious man had to sit next to another man. I’m ashamed to say that three years ago on that Continental flight bound to the U.S., I gave into the demands of one such fanatical Jew.… Good for you for exposing this ugly reality in Israel. I love Israel, but this radicalization of Judaism cannot be ignored.”

You can read more about here experience in her blog. She deepens the feelings by discussing how just these types of separations and frustration of 2^nd class status were describe in a book about Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Rabbi Abraham and Joshua Heschel.
As the book notes Young Martin, for example, grew up in the 1930′s in segregated South and was not allowed to swim in a pool or drink from a water fountain or even use a public bathroom because he was black. This was paralleled also in the 30′s by a “scared young Jewish rabbi Nazi-occupied Poland who could not find a job, use regular transportation, or attend university because he was a Jew.”
One might add Rosa Parks later experience, but the point being made is the concern about a something like this happening now:

“new kind of segregation taking hold in certain Israeli towns where small but fanatical groups of ultra-Orthodox Jews are looking to bend and warp Halacha (Jewish law) to their benefit in order to separate Jewish women from public life. All in the name of modesty.”

Marcus describes some of the problems in a way that may sound familiar to those of us fighting intolerance that mixes gender & culture wars with a separation of church and state battle:

One difficult set of questions in a country where religion and government are officially entangled is how much the state should accommodate the religious needs of the ultra-Orthodox — for example, the ultra-Orthodox public radio station that bleeps out the voices of female members of the national legislature, the Knesset, lest men suffer from “impure” thoughts on hearing women’s voices, or public health clinics with separate days for men and women. If higher education is key to integrating the ultra-Orthodox, should the state fund scholarships for gender-segregated classes?

Even more troubling are the mounting instances in which the ultra-Orthodox have insisted that their religious needs take precedence — for instance, demanding separate seating at public ceremonies or even, as happened last year, barring a female pediatrics professor from going on stage to accept an award from the ultra-Orthodox health minister.

There are other signs of growing power going along with this intolerance among some of these Jewish conservative communities and their leaders. In an infamous sermon, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the head of Shas’s Council of Torah Sages and a senior Sephardi adjudicator showed perhaps a bit too much of the implications of that politically incorrect, old time, bronze age, tribal religion when he said, among other things "The sole purpose of non-Jews is to serve Jews. “
This, is his answer to the Q “Do Jews have the right to treat all non-Jews as god-created servants? according to.
http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=191782 but you can read about it in his Wikipedia entry and you can apparently see a version of some of the sermon’s translated quotes on YouTube. Some of his attributed (translated) quotes include:

• “Goyim were born only to serve us. Without that, they have no place in the world – only to serve the People of Israel,” he said in his weekly Saturday night sermon on the laws regarding the actions non-Jews are permitted to perform on Shabbat.
• the liv"es of non-Jews in Israel are safeguarded by divinity, to prevent losses to Jews."
• “In Israel, death has no dominion over them... With gentiles, it will be like any person – they need to die, but [God] will give them longevity. Why? Imagine that one’s donkey would die, they’d lose their money.
• This is his servant... That’s why he gets a long life, to work well for this Jew,” Yosef said.
• “Why are gentiles needed? They will work, they will plow, they will reap. We will sit like an effendi and eat.
• That is why gentiles were created,”

It’s a bit retro and if Marcus is right disappointing to see it ascending in influence. Yosef’s Saturday night sermons have seen many controversial statements from the 90-year-old rabbi. Yosef caused a diplomatic uproar when he wished a plague upon the Palestinian people and their leaders, a curse he retracted a few weeks later, when he blessed them along with all of Israel’s other peace-seeking neighbors.

The Shas Rabbi is apparently not that much a fringe person in Israel. A recent article notes him as Key Israeli Spiritual Leader Calls Jews to Pray for Iran’s Destruction (from Yossi Gestetner reports political news associated with and relevant to the Jewish Community.) Now that is a scary religious-state and military fusion.

Image Credits:

Ultra orthodox and athletic women confrontation: http://www.imagesofmythoughts.com/News/20110915-Athena-Womens-Walk/19044079_wJ77ZW/1480893971_HSr2xCt

Caption - Ultra-Orthodox Jewish man hurries to distance himself from Hundreds of women taking part in an Athena Women's Walk physical fitness event near the Jaffa Gate. Jerusalem, Israel. 15/09/2011.

Ruth Marcus: http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/ruth-marcus-anyone-opposed-catfood-commiss

Rabbi Picture from http://www.crownheights.info/index.php?itemid=29404

Jerusalem Post page from: http://www.infiniteunknown.net/tag/ovadia-yosef/

Martin Luther King’s Inspired (Humanist) Life and Thoughts

By Gary Berg-Cross

Today marks the official opening of the MLK monument and it is a suitable time to reflect on the life, work and thought of this great moral, American voice. The Memorial, like the FDR complex, sits astride the Tidal Basin, across from the Jefferson Memorial and near to the Lincoln Memorial. It celebrates another step in our progress from the time of the Founders but also reminds us of these four giant’s unfinished dreams. I know that we’ll never get a Monument, but as Norm Allen and others have pointed out long before Martin Luther King, our Robert Ingersoll uttered similar words:

"I have a dream that this world is growing better and better everyday and every year; that there is more charity, more justice, more love every day. I have a dream that prisons will not always curse the land; that the shadow of the gallows will not always fall upon the earth; that the withered hand of want will not always be stretched out for charity; that finally wisdom will sit in the legislatures, justice in the courts, charity will occupy all the pulpits, and that finally the world will be governed by justice and charity, and by the splendid light of liberty...." (The Works of Ingersoll, (The Dresden Edition), Volume IX, p. 186)

King’s Monument involves both a “mountain of despair” and a “stone of hope” in which MLK’s likeness partially emerges dreamlike. In the context the Occupy movement the moment reminds us of unfulfilled democratic dream and King’ legacy as a polarizing figure in support of inconvenient truths. His has won begrudging support over time while the Occupy movement is still in its early phase. See my blog on the DC Occupy and Occupy the issue of objectives.

We all know that as a Christian King drew ethical inspiration from the Bible, and his speeches are full of these ideas and phrasing. An example is "We are determined here in Montgomery to work and fight until justice runs down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream."

But non-believers joy in his Humanist spirit as well. As freethinkers, such as Susan Jacoby, have pointed out, King's moral appeal, while rooted in his own faith, transcended all religions and open to the participation of all. He was highly influenced by Humanists. One of these was the black humanist movement and several black atheist leaders of the late 19th and early 20th century. Norm Allen, in his speech for the Center for Inquiry entitled Martin Luther King, Jr. from a Humanist Perspective, argues that only later did churches provide organizational capacity that nurtured its form of Black activism. Jeff Nallin Remembering the Humanism of Martin Luther King provides several key quotes showing King’s pluralistic & religion-neutral positions. When asked how he felt about the U.S. Supreme Court's decision ruling school prayer unconstitutional his response was:

I endorse it. I think it was correct. Contrary to what many have said, it sought to outlaw neither prayer nor belief in God. In a pluralistic society such as ours, who is to determine what prayer shall be spoken, and by whom? Legally, constitutionally, or otherwise, the state certainly has no such right. I am strongly opposed to the efforts that have been made to nullify the decision.

Another declaration on church-state relations was that the church "is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool."

As a truth seeker King was not hesitant to blame organized religion where it was due, one case being support of violent resolutions:

In a world gone mad with arms buildups, chauvinistic passions, and imperialistic exploitation, the church has either endorsed these activities or remained appallingly silent. During the last two world wars, national churches even functioned as the ready lackeys of the state, sprinkling holy water upon the battleships and joining the mighty armies in singing, "Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition." A weary world, pleading desperately for peace, has often found the church morally sanctioning war.

These are not the type of passages that earned a space on the Monument but 14 select passages are
enshrined there. As a humanist I find inspiration in the words and ideas which I find reflected in much of the discussion by the Occupy movement, starting with the idea of ultimate goals of things like Justice and Fairness in a Moral World:

Justice

"True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice." And

"We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice."

The Goals of a Moral Society

"We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience."

*********************************************************************

But other values that Secular Humanists might agree with, and sometimes make up topics on this Blog, include:

Generosity Towards and Love of Fellow Humans

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."

The Value and Role of Truth & Reality

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant."

Opposition to War and Militarism

"I oppose the war in Vietnam because I love America. I speak out against it not in anger but with anxiety and sorrow in my heart, and above all with a passionate desire to see our beloved country stand as a moral example of the world."

"It is not enough to say, 'We must not wage war.' It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it. We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but on the positive affirmation of peace."

Cosmopolitarianism’s Role in Peace

"If we are to have peace on earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective." and

"Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies."

Human Rights

"I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits."

The Virtues of Conviction, Fortitude and Thoughtful Action in Support of Inconvenient Truths

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."