Restating the case for women orthodox rabbis

Professor Geoffrey Alderman's momentous op-ed piece in last Friday's Jewish Chronicle (JC) seems either to have slipped under the radar or to have been brushed under the rug.

Some bona fides for those unfamiliar with Alderman and the JC:

• Professor Geoffrey Alderman is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Society of Arts. He recently received an honorary second doctorate from Oxford University for his work on Anglo-Jewish history, which includes his Modern British Jewry, the first such comprehensive rejection of top-down community apologetics. He is a strictly observant Orthodox Jew.
• The JC is the oldest continuously published Jewish newspaper in the world (since 1841) and, perhaps more importantly, the unofficial mouthpiece of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Orthodox United Synagogue, Britain's largest Jewish denomination and Europe's largest synagogual organization.

In Women rabbis? Why ever not? Alderman goes beyond endorsing Rabbi Avraham Weiss' decision to train and ordain women rabbis, to actively encouraging the practice, even noting that today's "Orthodox prohibition on women holding positions of authority derives [not from within Tradition but] from a purely Maimonidean view, and that even while he lived Maimonides was widely regarded as a heretic." (Maimonides, of course, borrows many of his positions from outside Tradition; from the decidedly non-Jewish Aristotle, in whose scheme women are less than human.)

I've spoken at length with Professor Alderman and know his diverse work well, so his response doesn't shock me in-and-of-itself. I'm glad, however, that he's gone public with it in the JC at a time when Modern Orthodoxy is struggling to prove its moniker meaningful.

Now read Women rabbis? Why ever not? for yourself.

Living Room Minyan

On Saturday evening, June, 20, the peripatetic Living Room Minyan (LRM), which comprises, in most part, 30s and 40s something couples and their children, stepped into our house for a Havdalah prayer service and pot luck.

We attended our first LRM Havdalah just three weeks ago in a nearby south Austin home and enjoyed it so much we volunteered to host. Kati takes the organizational lead on all social matters—that way, we actually have social matters!—but from what I've gathered, the group is organized by evite and tries to meet somewhere in Austin, TX at least once a month for Friday night or Havdalah services. (Once each per month would be really nice.)

Some random observations:

• Between the three or four families that seem to form LRM's core—all of whom are members of Conservative Congregation Agudas Achim—the five or six that are also long-term participants, and the five or six newbies we added to the mix, there were approximately 50 attendees—roughly 28 adults and 22 kids.
• The attendees were born on at least four continents and represent a broad spectrum of Jewish socio-economic groups.
• At least two thirds of those present live in southwest, south, and east Austin, rather than the Jewish community's "traditional" heartland of north central and northwest Austin.
• Judging by the noise level, mingling, empty bottle count, and comments, the adults had fun: judging by the relative harmony and the time it took us to hose down the patios, tidy the yard and playroom, and touch up a few paint chips, the young ones had a scream. (Building fun memories of Jewish gatherings is essential to their future as Jews and to our survival as a religious community.)

With concerted effort, we newbies could help the LRM in its efforts to continue personalizing the somewhat less than close-knit Austin Jewish community. (That is, if that's what LRM wants to do.)

Most importantly for right now, however, having about 50 friendly, open people share Havdalah in our home was wonderfully moving—the perfect way to start a new week. Thanks everyone for coming.

Shavua Tov. Have a great week.

There will be no peace

The most eloquent indictment yet of Bibi's Bar Ilan speech comes from the pen of David Grossman: award-winning author of several fiction and non-fiction books including the stunning Sea Under Love; outspoken peace activist (along with fellow literary giants and friends Amos Oz and A. B. Yehoshua); father of Uri Grossman, a 20-year-old staff sergeant killed immediately before the end of Israel's 2006 Lebanon folly.

Read Netanyahu's message is there will be no peace in today's Haaretz.

Giving ground without giving in

When it comes to Israel's future, I'm often at odds with otherwise close friends. (You know who you are and that I love you anyway.) Many are liberal in all other aspects of their lives, but fear that simply recognizing Palestinian grievances and claims to human rights risks threatening Israel’s legitimacy. They also refuse to accept, for example, that Iran’s ability to target semi-guided missiles at Tel Aviv obviates the (always specious) occupied West Bank-as-buffer argument in the same way that Syria’s ability to do the same obviates the (albeit once valid) occupied Golan-as-buffer argument.

There's no good reason to not make peace. From a materialist perspective, the Palestinian population is growing so fast that a Greater Israel will become a minority Jewish state sooner rather than later. From an idealist perspective, Jews can make no ethical sense out of occupying and persecuting another people. Now America finally has a President who treats us Zionists and/or Israelis not as impetuous children, but as mature partners, we have the opening, impetus, and support to make a just and mutually favorable peace with the Palestinians in particular and the Arabs in general.

In the wake of Bibi's Bar Ilan speech, and for those among you who care, here's a quickly assembled list of "must" haves or positions I've long believed central to Israel's peace and security:

• Israel and Syria must talk immediately and with no preconditions. Israel should, however, expect to give back most of the Golan in return for normalized relations, and Syria should be ready to expel extremist organizations and stop arming radicals in southern Lebanon.
• Israel must immediately and without preconditions pursue a two-state solution with the Palestinians. Today!
• Jerusalem must be divided between Israel and Palestine. No messy sharing arrangements. No internationalization. This necessitates tit-for-tat border shaping, because Israel can't accept the imposition of a June 4, 1967 border that keeps Jews from our major holy places.
• Palestine must comprise Gaza, Arab Jerusalem, and almost the entire West Bank. All parts of Israel’s security wall that divide Arab farms, cities, and villages, and that otherwise misappropriate land, must go. Now! If the Palestinians agree to exchange land occupied by some settlements contiguous with sovereign Israel for land of equal value contiguous with the Arab West Bank, Israel may make that exchange. All settlements not contiguous with Israel must go. No exceptions.
• The USA, and only the USA, must form and lead an agency/force monitoring the borders between Israel and Palestine for at least 10 years.
• Israel must guaranty anytime and any-reason passage between Gaza and the West Bank. Also Israel must not impose limits on Palestinian airspace, port traffic, or international travel and commerce.
• Palestinians must renounce any hope of return to, claim to property from, and right to work in sovereign Israel, unless s/he is an Arab-Israeli citizen or the descendant of Arab-Israeli citizens. It's simple: Israel gives up for good any “religio-historical” claim to Arab land; Arabs give up the same to Israel’s.
• Palestine must sign an internationally recognized and mutually binding statement of non-aggression with Israel. In return, Israel must accept Palestine's sovereign right to maintain a defensive army equipped with, for example, tanks and other heavy weaponary. (Any insistence otherwise mocks the term "sovereign.") There is, however, no reason for Palestine to develop purely offensive capabilities including, for example, long-range guided missiles. If Palestine starts building offensive capabilities, Israel has the right to protect herself by legal means.
• Wealthy Arab countries must help repatriate to the new Palestine those Palestinians who wish to live there. They must help nurture the Palestinian economy and help poorer Arab societies integrate Palestinian refugees who do not wish to live in Palestine. Israel must fund the integration into Israeli society of Israelis displaced from the West Bank.

These "must" haves are but ideas. My ideas. They are neither systematic nor complete, but I’ve long held them to be fundamental to Israel’s safe, peaceful future. I'd love to hear what you think of them, good or bad, and what your list of conditions might look like. So please let me know by commenting here, calling me in person, emailing me, or finding me on facebook or twitter.

Meat really is madness

Shavuah tov.

Kathy Freston, from whom I learned—among many other things—that farmed animals produce 40 percent more harmful emissions than all cars, trucks, planes, trains, and ships in the world combined, has another great piece in Huffington Post. In Shattering The Meat Myth: Humans Are Natural Vegetarians, she reminds us—or perhaps informs us for the first time—that people aren't by nature carnivores or even omnivores, but vegetarians for whom animal products are more or less poisonous. I can't say for sure it's an article to enjoy; I can say it's a must read.

Remember: Eat local. Eat organic. Eat vegan.