Israel's Politics -- Not Religious Laws -- Put Women At Back Of Bus During Pence's Visit To Israel

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Israel's Politics -- Not Religious Laws -- Put Women At Back Of Bus During Pence's Visit To Israel

Haaretz reports that the "last-minute public relations black eye" was avoidable. "It seemed that the American embassy in Israel, which set up the press arrangements in cooperation with the rabbinical authorities at the Wall had paid little attention to the grumbling of female journalists back in May, when U.S. President Donald Trump and his family visited the wall. During that visit, too, women and men, including journalists, were completely separated, the women restricted behind what is known as a “mechitza” - a barrier separating the sexes, intended to allow each gender to focus on praying undistracted."

When the Trump contingent visited the Western Wall, the group included Orthodox Jews Jared Kushner and Ivanka and the custom of separation was required. However, writes Haaretz, there was no need to separate the women journalists during the Mike Pence visit because the entire site had been cleared for the VIP visitors.  ". . . while Karen and Mike Pence may be religious and used the time at the Wall to pray - there are no strictures on Evangelical Christians requiring them to pray only in the company of their own sex.

It's pure politics, writes Haaretz, citing the ongoing battle between ultra-Orthodox Jews and the Jewish feminist group "Women of the Wall," together with the Reform and Conservative movements, locked in an ongoing battle over policy and procedures at the Western Wall. 

Israeli Cabinet Bows To Ultra-Orthodox Demands, Nixing Western Wall Mixed Gender Plan

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POLICE ESCORT ANAT HOFFMAN HOLDING A TORAH SCROLL FROM THE WESTERN WALL, ON JULY 12

Israeli Cabinet Bows To Ultra-Orthodox Demands, Nixing Western Wall Mixed Gender Plan

Sunday’s decision to cancel the new Western Wall arrangement has drawn denunciations from liberal Jews in Israel and the United States. It also appeared to threaten Netanyahu’s fragile coalition, with Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman — head of a faction that represents secular Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union — vowing to fight back.  

“It actually causes terrible harm to Jewish unity and to the alliance between the State of Israel and Diaspora Jewry,” Israeli media quoted him as saying. 

“It’s a terrible day for women in Israel when the prime minister sacrifices their rights while kowtowing to a handful of religious extremists, who want to enforce their religious customs while intentionally violating the rights of the majority of the Jewish world,” said Anat Hoffman, chair of Women of the Wall.  

Renee Rabinowitz Wins Case Over Ultra-Orthodox Demand That She Be Moved On El Al

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Renee Rabinowitz Wins Case Over Ultra-Orthodox Demand That She Be Moved On El Al

The most obvious erosion of women's rights in Israel centers around issues of religion and gender in public spaces. Now 83-year-old Renee Rabinowitz has won a critical court ruling, suing the strictly Orthodox male passenger who demanded that she be moved from her El Al aisle business-class seat when he boarded Flight 028 bound for Tel Aviv from Newark in December 2015. Strictly Orthodox Jewish men believe they are contaminated and tempted in the close proximity of women who are not their wives. 

Ms. Rabinowitz, who lived through traumatic days of the Nazis in Europe, moved reluctantly. But she landed in Israel determined to take action. This week a Jerusalem court ruled that gender segregation and the movement of passengers to accommodate gender discrimination was illegal on El Al. 

As Modern Orthodox Jews, Jared Kushner & Ivanka Trump Share Deep Connection To Israel & Chabad

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As Modern Orthodox Jews, Jared Kushner & Ivanka Trump Share Deep Connection To Israel & Chabad

The Trump-Kushner family have said they practice Modern Orthodox Judaism and Jared Kushner graduated from The Frisch School, the prestigious New Jersey yeshiva. In Washington the family has joined the Chabad synagogue attached to Washington's Kalorama neighborhood.

Rabbi Levi Shemtov, heads the small membership synagogue, which is a seven-minute walk from their home. Throughout the years, many Jewish politicians have attended TheSHUL, including former senator Joe Lieberman and current Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, several Jewish ambassadors posted in Washington, and Israeli Cabinet ministers from the Orthodox parties. If Trump and Kushner attend the synagogue on a regular basis, it is likely to gain a lot of public attention, writes The Forward.

In a separate article The Forward poses the very question that captured my attention, writing "It might seem odd for a Modern Orthodox Jewish family to join a Chabad synagogue.  The relationship of Jared and Ivanka to the Chabad movement, also known as Lubavitch and Chabad-Lubavitch, was explored in one of the two Zembla videos exploring Donald Trump's relationship with the Russians. Chabad is the largest Hasidic movement in the world. 

This evening, Thursday May 25, all US media confirms that Jared Kushner is under scrutiny by the FBI for his involvement with the Trump campaign and the Trump White House. Trump's lawyer, Democrat and Hillary Clinton supporter, Jamie Gorelick, has said that Jared Kushner will be fully cooperative with investigators. 

Related: The Media Goes Deeper and Deeper Into Ivanka Trump: Zembla Looks At Jared, Ivanka & Lev Leviev.  (Zembla videos embedded). AOC Redtracker Daily

Israeli Newspapers Photoshop Out Women Leaders From Paris March

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Israeli Newspapers Photoshop Out Women Leaders From Paris March

The actual photo from Sunday that included German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and EU foreign affairs, security chief Frederica Mogherini and Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt.

"Women of the Wall" Protest Exclusion from Praying at Jerusalem's Western Wall

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Supporters of a group of religious activists called Women of the Wall gathered at the holy site in Jerusalem for prayers on Friday. Conservative Jew Nofrat Frenkel, 28 and a fifth year medical student, was the first woman to be arrested last month on Nov. 18th, during prayers at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Her crime was wrapping herself in a tallit or fringed prayer shawl, a ritual garment traditionally worn only by men.

The Women of the Wall, who meet for prayers at the Kotel at the start of every Hebrew month, are at the vanguard of a feminist struggle in Orthodox Judaism. via NYTimes

The group prayed in large numbers last Friday, the first day of the Hebrew month of Tevet. “We are pushing the envelope. History is made of moments like this,” said Nat Hoffman, chairwoman of Women of the Wall, which was founded in 1988.