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As some of you know, a court in Cologne, Germany has ruled that circumcision violates a child’s fundamental right to be protected from bodily harm. Of course, it can’t be forgotten that these are the people who brought us the Holocaust. It boggles the mind to think that the country that exterminated six million Jews some 70 years ago thinks it has the moral standing to rule on anything whatsoever to do with Judaism. It doesn’t.

Of course, something else that boggles the mind is that this court can make this ruling while, in Africa, the World Health Organization has embarked on a circumcision campaign that will end up costing over ONE BILLION dollars. Why? Because there is very compelling evidence that circumcision helps fight the spread of HIV (click here for how) as well as other STDs. Granted, protection is not 100%, but reducing risk is better than nothing.

Of course, rabbinical groups are already urging Jews to violate the ban. Incidentally, the last time that ban was active in Germany, it was put in place by Hitler. However, we can recall another time in history when circumcision was banned – the Greeks. If they caught someone who had circumcised their child, they would tie the newborn around the mother’s neck and throw them both from a wall to their deaths. What was the outcome of that? The Hebrew Hammer, of course. No….not the really funny movie…Judas Maccabeus.

The Bible commands us to circumcise our male children on the eighth day after birth. This is not negotiable. To be a Jew, a male child has to A. be born to a Jewish mother and B. be circumcised. Now, those of us who are Jews by choice know that if you are not born to a Jewish mother, you become a Jew by immersing in a mikveh (pool of water), appearing before a beit den (rabbinic court) and being CIRCUMCISED. Again…not negotiable. If you were circumcised as a child, you still have to have blood drawn from your penis at the circumcision site. Ask any convert….they dreaded it. It filled them with terror. In the end, an IV needle was inserted in their penis and it really didn’t hurt….. but that’s all they could think about for a month before!

This ruling by this German court does not outlaw a medical procedure. It outlaws Judaism. I hope when the ruling is challenged, the higher court has common sense and realizes how important of a religious issue this is.

UPDATE: Germany is taking a lot of heat on this, including a petition with 13,000+ signatures from all over the world, including mine. So, Merkel has spoken up saying Jews and Muslims will not be prosecuted. Now, the parliament is calling for the government to pass a law to enshrine the religious right to circumcise children.

Recently, I have come across the idea of “difference feminism”. I came across it in the context of Orthodox Judaism, but apparently it has its roots in Catholicism. Now, at first thought, you might say “What do these patriarchal and seemingly sexist organizations know about feminism?” and, from what I’ve heard of “difference feminism”, it appears “not much” is the answer. I have to wholeheartedly agree with this article.

In short, whenever any philosophy starts with “BECAUSE you’re a woman…” or “BECAUSE you’re a man…”, it has a definition. We can easily turn to Webster’s dictionary and find that definition:

sex·ism noun \?sek-?si-z?m\
Definition of SEXISM
1: prejudice or discrimination based on sex; especially: discrimination against women
2: behavior, conditions, or attitudes that foster stereotypes of social roles based on sex

(more…)

Amar is getting a lot of press lately in regards to his attempts to keep Reform and Conservative Jews from being treated equally by the government of Israel. He organized a meeting to FOIL THE GOVERNMENT’S DECISION to pay non-Orthodox rabbis. Where I’m from, that’s called treason, I believe.

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/more-than-100-orthodox-leaders-protest-recognition-of-conservative-reform-rabbis.premium-1.444153

Now, it’s an inflammatory article, but it’s interesting for the hypocrisy:

“This is a battle for the soul of the Jewish people,” declared Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, who called the meeting. Amar said that if the state recognizes non-Orthodox religious services, it could tear the Jewish people into two nations. He added that people should pray on this matter as they do in times when “rockets are fired or in times of war.”

Amar went on to warn that state recognition of non-Orthodox religious services would lead to these rabbis performing weddings and conversions not recognized by Jewish law. “God forbid, we will have to keep records of ancestry, and that is a great danger,” said Amar. “Now, despite the disagreements within the people of Israel, we marry one another. But if we cannot, the significance will mean tearing the people in two, it is a danger without a remedy.”

Where is the hypocrisy there?

1. As far as marriages, Haredim marry haredim. Orthodox marry Orthodox. Non-Orthodox marry Non-Orthodox. Even more importantly than that, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage_in_Israel

However, Israel does recognise civil or religious marriages entered into outside Israel. It is usual for couples who may not or choose not to marry in Israel to travel overseas to marry.^[12] One out of every ten Israelis who married in 2000 did so abroad mainly because they could not marry in Israel. 2,230 couples who married abroad consisted of two Israeli partners, and another 3,660 couples consisted of an Israeli and a non-Israeli partner.^[12]

There are already two “nations” as far as marriage goes. 10% of Israelis have to leave the country just to get married! Then, they return and their marriage is accepted, but is not viewed by the Haredim as the same as marriages done by THEM. Civil and religious marriages from outside the country are accepted as valid within Israel…but not by the Haredim!

2. As far as conversions…this is where it gets crazy, because Amar is no stranger to conversion controversy…..because he has caused it! http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/chief-sephardi-rabbi-diaspora-orthodox-rabbis-convert-for-bribes-1.349681

The allegations were part of Amar’s attempt to defend a controversial policy that the Chief Rabbinate and the Interior Ministry adopted about two years ago. Under this policy, they do not recognize conversions by Orthodox rabbis overseas unless the rabbis belong to specific rabbinical organizations. As a result, several Orthodox converts have been denied the right to immigrate under the Law of Return in recent years.

MKs Yohanan Plesner (Kadima ) and Nitzan Horowitz (Meretz ) had requested the meeting in response to last month’s Haaretz report about this policy, which essentially extends the rabbinate’s power to Orthodox communities overseas.

The High Court of Justice has ruled that the ministry must recognize people who underwent Reform or Conservative conversions overseas as Jews. But no such ruling was ever issued on Orthodox conversions; hence the rabbinate and the ministry retain discretion.

At the meeting, Horowitz pointed out the irony: The Orthodox rabbinate is thus actually pushing prospective immigrants to opt for Conservative or Reform conversions instead.

So, all those Orthodox conversions that are denied for right of return are BECAUSE of Amar.

3. To go on about creating two different nations…how about denying the Right of Return to ALL converts? Talk about oppressing the ger! http://www.haaretz.com/news/chief-rabbinate-prepares-bill-to-remove-converts-from-law-of-return-1.201909

Converts will no longer be recognized as Jews under the Law of Return, according to a bill formulated by the Chief Rabbinate and presented to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert a few days ago. The revolutionary bill is now awaiting a decision by the prime minister whether to make it a government-sponsored bill.

The bill was initiated by Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar in an effort to block the possibility that the High Court of Justice could recognize Reform conversions carried out in Israel. Amar expects the government to adopt the initiative after other solutions proposed by the state to the High Court, such as a recent suggestion to establish a second Ne’eman Committee to discuss conversions, seemed no more than stall attempts.

The Chief Rabbinate said Monday the proposal was an egalitarian one that would withstand the scrutiny of the High Court. It argued the bill would “close the loophole” in the Law of Return that allowed foreign workers to convert in order to receive Israeli citizenship.

However if the law passes, it is likely to lead to a major crisis between Israel and the Diaspora.

The bill would give rabbinic courts and the Chief Rabbinate sole authority over conversions, as another bill, which did not pass, had also stated. The main element in the bill is a change in the clause defining a Jew for the purposes of the Law of Return. At present the clause defines a Jew as a person born to a Jewish mother or who converted to Judaism. The bill proposes that an the only individuals recognized as Jewish by the Law of return will be those born to a Jewish mother.

The situation with Amar and his hypocrisy is deepening the gulf between the Jewish people in Israel and the Diaspora. This is a dire situation that will only be resolved when the power that he will stop at nothing to secure is wrested from his hands and given back to the people and their government.

“Jewish memory was never meant to be frozen or finished. Jews don’t live in history. We live in memory—in remembrances that are authentically rooted in tradition, but in each generation, evoked in new ways.” – Cantor Angela Warnick Buchdahl

I ran across that quote and loved it. I think it sums up Reform Judaism pretty well.

The other thing is mainly a link roundup. Of course, as a Jew by Choice, anything on Jews by Choice catches my eye, especially when it’s entitled Why We Love Jews By Choice. It reminds me of Maimonide’s letter to Obadiah (or Ovadyah) the Proselyte, a Norman nobleman who was studying to be a Catholic priest when he became convinced Judaism was correct. He converted and wrote a letter to Maimonides asking him if it was ok if he referred to “our fathers” etc. in prayer like a person born Jewish. Maimonides replied:

Yes, you may say all this in the prescribed order and not change it in the least. In the same way as every Jew by birth says his blessing and prayer, you, too, shall bless and pray alike, whether you are alone or pray in the congregation. The reason for this is, that Abraham our Father taught the people, opened their minds, and revealed to them the true faith and the unity of God; he rejected the idols and abolished their adoration; he brought many children under the wings of the Divine Presence; he gave them counsel and advice, and ordered his sons and the members of his household after him to keep the ways of the Lord forever, as it is written, “For I have known him to the end that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice” (Gen. 18:19). Ever since then whoever adopts Judaism and confesses the unity of the Divine Name, as it is prescribed in the Torah, is counted among the disciples of Abraham our Father, peace be with him. These men are Abraham’s household, and he it is who converted them to righteousness.

and ends his letter with:

Do not consider your origin as inferior. While we are the descendants of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, you derive from Him through whose word the world was created. As is said by Isaiah: “One shall say, I am the Lord’s, and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob” (Is. 44:5).

Powerful stuff….

This is an article I submitted to blogs.rj.org, the blog of the Union for Reform Judaism. I do not know whether it will be accepted for publication or not, but I wanted to share it with you.

Whenever the issue of assimilation and declining membership comes up, invariably someone will bring up the question as to whether Reform has reformed too much. Of course, the issue is never whether Reform had disregarded too many mitzvot or focused too little on Jewish identity and education in the past. I think many in the movement as well as the heirarchy itself has decided that is a yes. We are now being encouraged to reexamine the mitzvot, even ones traditionally disregarded within the movement. We are also focusing much more on Jewish identity and education with programs and day schools popping up across the movement. No, these are problems we identified and are in the process of correcting.

The issue that invariably comes up is that bellwether of the Reform movement: personal autonomy. When you can’t tell people what to do, the speaker laments, they will do whatever they want. The picture the person paints is a bleak one: intermarriage and assimilation are running rampant in the Jewish community, especially among the Reform. If trends continue, there is only a 10% chance your great grandchildren will be Jewish. If people have personal autonomy, their rabbis cannot tell them they cannot assimilate or intermarry and, even if they did, people just wouldn’t listen. (more…)