Jewfem Blog

The latest on "Modesty Patrol" violence against women: Yoel Kraus was arrested on suspicion of attacking a haredi women and spraying her with tear gas becuase she refused to walk on the opposite side of the street. According to Ynet: The Jerusalem Police on Sunday arrested Yoel Kreus, the "operations officer" of the Eda Haredit, a staunchly anti-Zionist Haredi communal organization, for allegedly assaulting a woman in the Meah Shearim neighborhood after she refused to cross the street at his command.... According to initial investigation, Kreus spotted the woman walking on one of the neighborhood's streets and instructed her to cross over to another street. When she refused, he allegedly assaulted her, spraying her with mace. This is just the latest in the growing fanaticism of haredi anti-women sectors of society. The fanatics are spreading out and getting more violent. According to other recent reports: Jerusalem’s “chastity squad” is branching out and has recently begun operating in the capital’s Beit Israel neighborhood. According to local residents, several of the neighborhood’s inhabitants have been violently attacked by members of the “modesty guard”. One of the residents told Ynet that a divorcee living in the neighborhood had been assaulted by squad members, who poured hot water on her and beat her at a local playground. “The ‘chastity squad’ members snatched her at the playground, poured hot water on her, and when she began shouting they beat her up,” said the resident who witnessed the incident. These events come at the same time that haredi groups have successfully exerted pressure to remove Fox clothing chain advertisements from the Ayalon Highway because they are too “revealing”. So now, the only advertisement along the highway is a gargantuan photo of the late Lubavicher Rebbe. Again, violence against women is getting more widespread, violent, and acceptable, and creeping dangerously into the public sphere. This is not Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia but Tel Aviv. Democracy or theocracy? It is becoming increasingly unclear. And of course, as in most theocracies, the women are the first to be hurt. Troubling times, indeed. --------------------------------------- 3 Responses to “ More violence against women by the “Modesty Patrol” ” # 1 Michael Makovi Says: October 28th, 2009 at 4:05 am I completely agree with your overall sentiments, but I don’t see the need to distinguish between theocracy and democracy. The fact is - as shown by Lecturer Raissa Epstein in her appendix to Moshe Feiglin’s Where There are No Men / Bimqom She’ein Adam - that Israel is politically more Marxist-socialist than liberal-democratic. By contrast, John Locke and the other thinkers of Western democratic political theory derived most of their notions from the Tanakh. So the Israeli government is not democratic, and the Haredim, while religious, are not necessarily Jewishly religious; their theocracy is not a Jewish one. The conflict here is not between democracy and theocracy. The conflict here is rather being pseudo-democratic Marxist socialism on the one hand and pseudo-Catholic-monastic anti-traditional misognynist sophiaphobia on the other. Western democracy and Judaism have...

Sara Einfeld, 25-year old mother of two, ran away from her Gur Hasidic life. In the process she began a blog, called "Hor Basadin," which attracts many struggling haredi women. Yediyot Aharonot exposed her story in last weekend's newspaper, and has since caused a buzz in haredi and secular circles alike. Here is a heart-wrenching poem that Einfeld posted last week in response to the hubbub(translation mine) I still cry when I rememberMe A young women who tried to explain to a yeshiva scholarWho sat across from herNext to the dark wooden table in the living room.Who made charts and asked, So what’s bothering you?And wrote down:That we don’t pass objects from hand to handThat you don’t call me by nameThat we have intercourse according to predetermined times because that ruins everything.And then I was embarrassedTo tell him that I wantHim to hug me tight, to give me a little kiss on the lips and say,I love you. And when I tried to tell him, I felt dirty.And how I cried one day so hard until I banged my head against the wall over and over againHarder and harder.And heClosed the steel door quietlyAnd in fast steps with his hands folded behind him and his face locked to the groundHe went to the ShteibelLearned Gemara, or an hour of halakha.And I wanted to die, I wanted to die, I wanted to die.Because our sages (or rather, his sages) also said, “O hevruta o mituta,”Either in a pair, or death

In today's Ynet The Bill for Civil Marriage in Israel, which went to second and third readings yesterday in the Knesset Law committee, sounds like much more than it is. To be clear, it's not really a bill to introduce civil marriage in Israel in general, but rather to provide a way for people "without religion" to register their unions. No wonder the haredi parties are not opposed -- it doesn't even affect Jews at all! Nevertheless, this may still be an important, if somewhat weak, first step.

Kolech, in cooperation with Pelech, Yedidya, and Ne'emanei Torah Ba'Avoda, are pleased to invite you to "Identity Beit Midrash", a place where young men and women can study, explore and reflect upon existential questions of religious, Israeli identity and belonging.

When Professor Ada Yonath, the bubbly, animated scientist with Einstein-like hair as well as intelligence, received the phone call several days ago informing her that she was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, she thought someone was playing a joke on her. “I said, ‘Yeah, right, so should I make an appointment for the hairdresser now?’” sherecalled at the press conference this week. “As you can all see, I did not make that appointment,” she laughed, with a wonderful gleam in her eye. Prof. Yonath’s prize for discoveries about ribosomes is cause for celebration, especially for Jewish women. It gives her a place not just in the annals of human history, but also in the hearts and diaries of countless girls. I can just picture all those science-loving girls. They are the ones who, like Prof. Yonath, prefer to be in a lab rather than at the hairdresser, who may be quiet in class or walk with their noses in a book, who are perhaps irreverent and independent-minded, girls who love a good experiment and would rather read science fiction than go to the mall, girls whose idea of a perfect birthday gift is a microscope or telescope rather than a Barbie, girls who wonder why they don’t fit in. READ THE REST AT THE FORWARD SISTERHOOD BLOG

Here's the latest news in the radical extremist, violent culture of sex-segregation in certain areas in Israel: According to today's Yediot Aharonot, a woman had her baby snatched from her arms by a haredi man in Meah Shearim. Apparently, this was done to her because she inadvertently entered the "men's" sidewalk. Yes, sidewalk!

Inbal Gal is one of the most amazing women I have ever met. She has sage wisdom and spiritual insight way beyond her years. She brings kindness, compassion, and enormous love and care to all her work. I've been doing meditation and guided imagery with her for four years now, and her beautiful spirit has profoundly impacted my life. With the start of the new year, Inbal has just opened a new meditation group on Tuesday nights in Modi'in -- "Ragu'a b'emtza ha'shavua" -- and I highly, highly recommend it. Tonight she is doing a special session for Sukkot. Tuesdays at 8:30 PM at Yizhak Rabin 49, apt 3. Cost: 25 NIS per session. Spread the word! For more information, call Inbal at 054-520-5019.

The following essay by Palestinian feminist Asma'a Al-Ghoul is being disseminated by Phyllis Chesler.  Al-Ghoul was recently arrested on the beach in Gaza for wearing jeans, even though went into the water fully clothed, and the men around her, including a man who was trying to rescue her, were beaten by the police. In the spirit of helping our sisters in struggle, I bring the essay here in its entirety, followed by Chesler's commentary: Gaza: Silence, Collusion and Shame for Female Victims, While Killers Enjoy the Sun and Freedom By Asma'a Al-Ghoul

Stanley Chais doesn’t know me, but I know him. His name appears in the title of countless files on my computer – titles such as, “Chais Proposal for Educational Program….” Over the past five years, I’ve written a wholebunch of not-quite-Pulitzer-prize winners in this fascinating genre called “The Grant Proposal”. See, I’m one of those idealists urned pragmatists, the kind who graduated university thinking I wanted to change the world and ended up spending most of my days grant-writing. There are throngs of us out there – teachers, social workers, youth counselors. We have ideas, we have drive, we have creativity and we have motivation. What we don’t have is a clever way to pay our own bills. What can I say, there is much more market demand for good English writing than for expertise in, oh, say, “gender issues in Jewish education.” (What’s that?Yeah….) So now, in addition to the many charming (or perhaps outrageous) ideas for improving society that are floating around my brain like the balls in a pinball machine, I now have a trade. I’m a fundraiser.

As a parent, I love the holiday of Sukkot, which begins Friday night. It’s a great family time – lots of al fresco dining, sleeping outdoors, enjoying fresh air, singing, cooking favorite foods, and experiencing a welcome escape from the weightiness of an excessively material life. There’s nothing like spending eight days inside four walls of canvas to remind us of the value of simplicity. As a woman, though, I find Sukkot to be one of the most difficult holidays we’ve got. It is laden with messages about gender differences and where women truly belong, and these messages seem to intensify each year. READ THE REST ON THE FORWARD SISTERHOOD BLOG