The recent edition of the monthly brouhaha at the Kotel with the "Women of the Wall" alongside the recent court statement enjoining the government to comply with its own decision from several years ago to establish the Ezrat Israel section by the Kotel area to be controlled by representatives from the Reform and Conservative movements have led the government to drastic measures.

It seems the Prime Minister's Office has published a letter ordering that no mechitzas will be allowed to be erected at the Ezrat Yisrael plaza. The Ezrat Yisrael plaza is also known as the Egalitarian plaza of the Kotel, aka the Reform Kotel.

Zeev Alperovitz of Merkaz Inyanim, a Haredi news media outfit not found on the Internet (that I know of), is reporting on an upcoming series of laws soon to be passed, or at least proposed. This series of laws is being seen as an anti-Haredi blitz of legislation, and MK Uri Maklev (UTJ) is supposedly working his connections to thwart them in advance from being raised and/or passed, campaigning quietly for support among religious and right wing coalition MKs.

הבנתי שבשמאל קצת מתלהבים מאייכלר לאחרונה,
אז שיקשיבו מה הוא מספר על החברים של איש הקואליציה גלעד קריב: pic.twitter.com/Sg2XfrWURi

— ינון מגל (@YinonMagal) November 3, 2021

There is a difference between supporting them and between requesting things we need for our community. If they would be received in our cities with royal honors, so you would have a complaint, but if they think the fruit put out on the table is some big honor and maybe it is a sign we will joint eh coalition, so maybe we should only put out water next time..

I have found that UTJ does a really great job, in recent years, of publishing videos for their election campaigns. They make videos that are clear, have a good message for their voters, create or define an identity, and pass the message their voters want to hear, or the message that makes their voters feel strongly connected to the party. In recent years I have thought that they might even put out the best, most on point, campaign videos of all the parties - except maybe for Bibi.

This is pretty funny. Times of Israel is reporting that the Haredi MKs, from both Shas and UTJ, are writing off the Labor party as future coalition partners. 

Reports have it that the monthly service on Rosh Chodesh organized at the Kotel by the Women of the Wall group was very poorly attended today. Articles say they had less than 20 participants.

A number of religious/frum media outlets are speculating that this might be foretelling the end of the monthly provocations. They surmise that after the failed attempt to bring 1000 women for the services last month, they have pretty much given up and did not make a big thing out of it this time.

I do not know why the regular number of participants did not participate this time. Perhaps some are out of town after the holiday, or others did not because of the rockets, or maybe just general disinterest. Either way, this basically just validates what I, and others, have said should be done to deal with this - let the women pray and just ignore them, and the numbers will dwindle to be irrelevant if it does not cause it to stop altogether. They thrive on the attention being given to them and explicit opposition to them causes and exacerbates the conflict and brings more people out turning the Kotel into a circus on these days.

The articles I saw did not get a statement from the Women of the Wall people in response. On their Facebook page no mention is made of the small turnout and predictions of their demise. They say they are proud of the fact that no fighting was necessary and they were able to have and read from a full Torah scroll.

Basically, just continue ignoring them.

I find it interesting that MK Gafni considers the Kotel to be under his jurisdiction alone and nobody else can have an opinion or discussion about it and Gantz is wrong for butting into his business and talking about the Kotel, just as he, Gafni, didnt butt into defense issues Gantz dealt with as Chief of Staff of the IDF..

I am not sure I get the point but it seems to be saying that because the Reform are trying to take control of part of the Kotel, we should take control of the Reform designated area by going there in large numbers.

"This year, some rabbis, eager to woo younger people to High Holiday services, are holding programs in a beer garden, replacing deep reverential bows with goat yoga and celebrating the end of the season with glow sticks in a mosh pit." https://t.co/4x2C2A4Q7R

— Sam Kestenbaum (@skestenbaum) September 12, 2018

Today we heard about an earthquake. Perhaps we should do an accounting of our deeds that the earthquake was because some people are trying to touch what is holy to us? Hear our pain, they are not Jews. Would you give them access to the Al Aqsa Mosque?... What do you have to do anyway with the ancient stones of the Kotel? I recommend that you take all the money you invest in Israel and build yourselves a Kotel in the USA.

  -- MK Yinon Azoulay (Shas)

The Knesset recently published a tender for a new Rabbi of the Knesset. The responsibilities assigned to this position include responsibility for all religious issues such as kashrut, the Knesset shul, installing and maintaining mezuzot, selling the chametz, and more.

Initially the tender required applicants to hold rabbinic certification from the Rabbanut of Israel at the level of "Yoreh Yoreh". That requirement was just removed after the Reform Center For Religion and State petitioned the relevant parties with a complaint that this is discriminatory against women as the Rabbanut does not allow women to take their certification tests.

The Knesset authorities accepted the petition and changed the requirements to requiring applicants to hold minimally an academic BA along with certification as mashgiach kashrut for the Rabbanut - a certification women are able to attain.
sources: Srugim, Actualic
So theoretically, a woman, or any mashgiach kashrut, or any other non-rabbi meeting non-rabbi requirements, can qualify for the job of Rabbi of one of the most important government institutions.

Strange. I am even surprised the Haredi MKs did not block this change, as they have done with similar attempts in many other places in government.

Maybe we will soon see a female rabbi of the Knesset. That will definitely be interesting to see...

The Jewish Journal has a conversation with both a Reform and an Orthodox rabbi, between and about denominations.

The discussion is short, but I hope it continues and becomes some sort of a serial conversation. It somewhat reminds me of the book "One People, Two Worlds" that was a fabulous debate/discussion between a Reform and an Orthodox rabbi, Rabbis Amiel Hirsch and Yosef Reinman.

The Jewish Journal conversation is between Rabbis Sarah Bassin and Ari Schwarzberg. Personally I thought Rabbi Schwarzberg was on the defensive too much in this conversation and it was not really much of a conversation, but if this is just the first installment in what could be a series of many articles and topics discussed, this could really be fabulous.

I know the basic Orthodox position is to not debate, or even just share a podium, the Reform or Conservative so as not to give them any credibility or acceptance or recognition, but I do not believe in that approach. I can accept it as an approach perhaps in actual ritual - not to share a place of leading worship together or something like that, but sharing ideas and discussing ideas is always good, in my opinion.

The Conservative and Reform representatives are now saying that because the Haredi politicians backed out of the Kotel deal and had the entire thing canceled, from their perspective they are pulling back from the compromise as well and they will now demand equal representation on the administrative board of the entire Kotel area and an equal place of prayer for egalitarian services at the Kotel.

They explain that they only agreed to the Ezrat Israel area as a compromise, not as if it was an ideal situation. It did not satisfy their demands and it caused conflict within their own community. But they felt it was worth compromising to resolve the situation. Now that the government pulled back from it, they have no reason to agree to stick with the one minor aspect of it that the government left for them and they'll go back now to the original demands.

I am not quite sure what they are saying, as all along anyway they have continued to fight for services at the Kotel area, even at the height of the deal. Had the deal gone through maybe they would have stopped the conflict and used the Ezrat Yisrael, though we will never know, but because the deal did not go through it seems they are now threatening something they have been doing all along anyway.

Kikar has a report about a conference to be held for [male] directors of Haredi organizations and says that the Reform leaders are protesting the conference and demanding that women be allowed to participate. According to their demands, the organization putting on the conference will have to change their plans and also advertise from scratch specifically that women are invited to attend.

The organizers say this is a private affair and they put on similar conferences for the general public to which all are invited, including women and anybody else.

This fighting won't end any time soon. The Reform lost, so far, at the Kotel with the arrangement being cancelled, so they have opened up new tactics and targets. Eventually they will even petition to stop discrimination in shuls and remove mechitzas, and try to force yeshivas to allow entry to women. Anything in Haredi society where men and women are kept separate will soon become a target, especially, but not only, if they receive State funding for that event or institution.

Good news for new immigrants to Israel, and for many other people..

Yisrael Katz, the Minister of Transportation, has announced new reforms in the transportation industry. A number of these reforms might be thought of as a big deal for a lot of people.

The reforms include issues such as:
 - extending the age of the drivers license to 70 instead of requiring it to be renewed every ten years. Once the driver reaches 70, he or she will have to renew it every 5 years until the age of 80 and then every two years.
 - adding more automated machines around the country, called RishyoMat, from the current 50 to the eventual 100. This makes it easier to print licenses and pay fees without having to step into the DMV and wait in line
 - providing more DMV services via the post office. nobody really wants to wait in line at the post office either, so I am not sure this is a big deal, but maybe even the post office is better than waiting at the DMV
 - installing an appointment system for the DMV
 - new DMV offices around the country in cities that until now never had one
 - more hours open to the public at the DMV
 - and more
 - and perhaps the biggest reform for many of the people I know... new immigrants will no longer need to go through the same bureaucracy when coming and converting the foreign license to an Israeli license. Until now new immigrants had to take a lesson and a test. This was basically part of the same scam the entire licensing procedures follow, just to get more money out of people while not necessarily producing better drivers. Now new immigrants will just be able to go to the DMV and convert their valid foreign drivers license to an Israeli license without going through the lesson and test procedure. The foreign license will have to have been valid for at least 5 years in order to be converted like this. this one is a big deal.
There are still a lot of uncertainties and questions as to how this will work, but hopefully that will be cleared up soon. Will it apply to people who have already gone through the procedure and failed the exam - will they now be able to get the Israeli license without further testing or are they up a creek because the failed exam is on their record? Will this apply only going forward or also to new immigrants already here under the old system?

This will ease the pain for many people, and thank you to whomever lobbied to get this done.

The reversal of the Kotel agreement has led to a lot of anger, along with what seems to be shock and surprise.

While criticism leveled at PM Netanyahu for this might be fair, the anger, and at least most of the platitudes, directed at the Haredi parties is disingenuous, as is the seeming shock and surprise at the reversal.

Nearly the entire response of the public seems to have expected the Haredi parties to be considerate of other people's desires to worship differently. It manifests itself as if this is an entirely new issue and conflict never before having been raised, and thus the move to seal Orthodox tradition as the only valid one at the Kotel, or in Israel, is surprising, unfair and inconsiderate.

The conflict between the Orthodox and Reform organizations have been going on for over 150 years, since Reform Judaism was founded. The Orthodox clergy always refused to recognized the Reform as being legitimate and always did whatever they could to not give any hint at legitimacy tot he Reform as a stream of Judaism. What just happened in Israel, at least what was done by the Haredi political parties, is nothing new. And the Reform organization and clergy, over the past 150 years, has fought its position against the Orthodox just as vociferously.

Why everyone seems surprised and shocked as if they expected differently makes no sense and is taking this battle out of its historical context.

And pointing to a few pre-State pictures of how there was mixed prayer at the Kotel is just silly, as the Jewish people in Israel (then called Palestine) did not have the ability to put up a mechitza, or have formal services, under British and Ottoman rule. Flashing those pictures and saying this is proof even Orthodox Jews did not care about mechitza just 100 years ago is ridiculous.

Whether you or I would have done differently, or would have wanted this to play out differently, is irrelevant. The Haredi MKs, as representatives of the Haredi rabbonim and the Haredi public, would not, could not, have done anything to give the Reform legitimacy, including giving them control of part of the Kotel. The fact that they have enough political power to get their way on this is a different issue and it says that the Reform and its supporters need to work more in the political arena in gaining more political influence - not just with money but with votes and actual political power.

Say what you want about what you think should have been or could have been - but what the Haredi parties actually did is basically consistent with the history of the fight between Orthodox and Reform.

I think the Reform might just be trying to give MK Moshe Gafni(UTJ) some bad press, or just trying to annoy him a bit, but it is still a funny approach. Anyways, anything that is done to annoy Gafni is good, because he is sharp and at his best when he feels under attack and threatened, and when he has a target - which this gives him.

The Reform, under Gilad Kariv, are due to begin construction on the first Reform mikva in Israel.Kariv credits Gafni as being the impetus for the mikva being built, and he says he will invite Gafni to the ceremony and to cut the ribbon. Karic says it was unintentional on Gafni's part, but "מתוך שלא לשמה בא לשמה" and he thanks Gafni for helping them build the Reform institutions in Israel.

How did Gafni help them raise the money to build a mikva?

It seems that last year when the Haredi parties passed the law that all public mikvas in Israel have to operate according to halacha under the authority of the Rabbanut, they basically locked out the Reform from using the mikvas (the intention was for Reform conversions, but it also includes using the mikvas for anything). The law that was passed included a clause delaying implementation for 9 months (enough time to get pregnant and have a baby - ironic that this was the delay for the mikva law).

It turns out that the purpose for this delay was to allow funding, 10 million shekels, to pass through the Prime Minister's Office to the Reform organizations for the purpose of building mikvas, under the guise of  "connections to the Diaspora".

Back then Gafni said he was duped and would turn it into a world war if the money goes through, but then quietly it all went through and nobody made a big deal about it.
source: Actualic

It might be true or it might be a distortion by the Reform of how things went down back then, but either way I am looking forward to seeing Gafni's response to the forthcoming invitation. At worst it will be entertaining.