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Oct 6, 2016

"secularizing Jerusalem" with women

Two events in Jerusalem are coming under fire, almost  in the same way the selichos event in Tel Aviv came under fire last week to the point that the organizers decided to throw in the towel and just cancel it (as an aside, see this post in TOI in which the author calls such secular activists "Secular Charedim").

The first event is a series of selichos events with chazzanim and paytanim in neighborhoods and cultural centers around Jerusalem. In Gilo, a largely secular neighborhood with sizable religious and Haredi communities, someone realized that the event was going to have many people performing yet none of them, not a single one, would be female. This activist decided to get involved, considering a ruling of the Supreme Court requiring city-sponsored events to be inclusive of women as well, and pressured the Iryah to the point that the Iryah added a female singer to the list of performers in the Gilo event.

It is still coming under criticism, but now from both directions. Some still don't like the Iryah's original intent, which was the exclusion of women - and continues to be that way in events in other parts of Jerusalem. Others, even some who support the inclusion of women, are upset that the Iryah has now meddled with the professional decisions of the organizers as to which performers would participate and say it is not the Iryah's place to decide on performers and to schedule them in without consultation.
source: Kipa

The other option was to take the chance on the event getting canceled entirely.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

The second event under fire is an event technically sponsored and organized by El Hamaayan, an organization affiliated with Shas, though almost entirely (90%) funded by City Hall.

the event is to take place on the upcoming Sukkos holiday in Sultan's Pool in Jerusalem at which the masses of Shas supporters are able to come and see and greet their rabbonim during the holiday.

The event, as expected, does not include any women. Activists want the Iryah to pull its funding of this event, which would almost definitely effect its cancellation.

In response to this, Minister Aryeh Deri claims, and he also points to the addition of the female performer to the selichos event described above, that people are trying to secularize the city of Jerusalem. He asks, "don't we pay arnona? do we benefit form the money used for races and other events around Jerusalem? Now they want women to lead slichos as Chazzaniyot - soon they won't allow us to daven in shul."

Shas later put out a statement that the opponents are mistaken and women are being included in the lineup of the event.
source: Kooker

While I happen to agree that events for the Haredi public should be in accordance with their rules and lifestyle, I do not know about public funding. The law is the law, and that somewhat ties City Hall's hands, but the City needs to provide services for all its residents, and it should be allowed to provide an event for the Haredi public that conforms to the rules of the community and that will be designed in a way that the residents will actually go to it rather than avoid it.

I do disagree with the logic of Aryeh Deri's argument. Residents do not get to choose where their tax money goes to and what it gets used for. The fact that the city holds events that the Haredi community does not benefit from (which is a point that is debatable in at least some of those events he refers to - e.g. there are haredim who participate in the various races, there are benefits to Haredim from concerts and other events such as via merchants that benefit, haredim who go to the events, money brought into the city that helps it improve services, etc) does not mean they have something coming to them, nor does it mean they have some sort of claim. They do have a claim as residents that need and deserve services from the local municipality - nothing more, nothing less.








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2 comments:

  1. "secular neighborhood"
    NOT! While there are a few Jewish religious cities, kibbutzim and towns, and many secular kibbutzim and moshavim, there is no such thing as a secular city or neighbourhood, town, village, local council or regional council in Israel. All other localities are mixed.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Maybe Deri should advocate for the real solution which would let people choose where their money goes - LESS GOVERNMENT.

    ReplyDelete

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