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Last update - 10:03 20/03/2007
A call for revolt
By Avirama Golan

As the Festival of Freedom approaches, the bells of rebellion are ringing out. Last week, at a conference on agunot, Jewish women whose husbands have refused them a divorce, the audience was in for a surprise. The founder of the feminist-religious organization Kolech, Chana Kehat, dared to challenge the sanctity of halakhic marriage.

"Who needs the mythological halo of a religious marriage?" she asked, adding that the more distance women maintained from the rabbinate, "the better for the whole nation."

The shocked responses were immediate. The first came from the Tzohar rabbis, who specialize in conducting officially sanctioned wedding ceremonies for secular couples. They do not charge fees, plan the ceremony together with the couple and are punctual in showing up for the ceremony. Most of the public, says Rabbi David Stav of Tzohar, is interested in holding the "pleasing Jewish ceremony." Even if the butcher cheats, it doesn't mean you start eating pork, he says.
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In line with his organization's customary caution, Stav is ignoring two trends. One is the dwindling number of secular couples registering for marriage, for fear of dealing with the rabbinical courts in the event that the marriage ends in divorce. The other is the increasing extremism of the rabbinical establishment, which is growing more ultra-Orthodox, harmful, destructive and insulting to women in general and to religious ones in particular, and as a consequence is alienating even the national religious public.

Tzohar's "pleasing" ceremonies can no longer cover for the inflexible unreceptiveness and extremism of the religious establishment. Today's observant women, who are much better educated than their grandmothers, are supposed to be freer as well. But they are prisoners of an establishment that is threatened by their new power, and which enables cynical men to exploit the halakha to extort illicit benefits out of the break-up of their marriages.

Under the guise of preserving family values, the rabbis continue to block the revolution in women's status, to deny the changes that have taken place in the concept of couple relations in Israel and the world, and in so doing to abuse women and children. All of this is for the purpose of protecting that sacred asset, the rabbinical establishment, which was given without struggle to the most reactionary bodies (suffice it to look at the list of new dayanim, rabbinical judges, who were appointed to the religious courts yesterday).

The secular feminists' indifference to Kehat's call is even more outrageous than Tzohar's attempts to soften it. Kehat, who called for a joining of hands in the revolt that should finally be taking place in Israel, should have elicited an echo among them. This is not a rebellion against tradition or the marriage ceremony, not even against the family. It is a revolt against the oppressive relations that exist between the rabbinical monopoly and the state.

"What does the rabbinate have to offer secular women?" asked Kehat. "It's not good from the point of view of women, or religion, or halakha, or human beings in general."

Indeed, who said that a marriage ceremony should be conducted only by a rabbi with a license issued by the state? Anyone can do it, especially the couple itself. Israel is a modern state that is shaping a new identity and that has close links with its huge non-Orthodox Diaspora. It makes no sense for it to surrender control of hugely central functions of marriage and family life to an anti-liberal, anti-humanist clique.

Kehat's call, a rare display of courage from a community known for its conservatism and fear, is an attempt to save women, family and relations from the establishment, which has invested great power in the rabbis and the rabbinical courts. This power has had the effect of causing the Israeli public to disdain its ties to its cultural heritage.

Now the ball is in the court of secular women. If they dare to accept the challenge, the call will become the first step in breaking the Orthodox monopoly and realigning the feminist struggle on the basis of fundamental social and cultural interests, which cross the artificial border between "religious" and "secular."
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  1.   Its a typical third world life style 10:24  |  Tamir Gaza 20/03/07
  2.   The ball is in the court of secular women? hahah 10:32  |  Tamir Gaza 20/03/07
  3.   There must be Halachic solutions 10:45  |  Joseph 20/03/07
  4.   Darkei Noam 10:49  |  Ben Azai 20/03/07
  5.   Un reasonable partners 10:53  |  Sherlock Holmes 20/03/07
  6.   1-2: Wow, another ignoramous from Londistan speaks 10:53  |  David Teich 20/03/07
  7.   Revolt: # 1 and more 10:55  |  j10 20/03/07
  8.   IS THER AN ARGUMENT ABGAINST CIVIL MARRIAGE BIRTHS AND DEATHS 10:55  |  paul harris 20/03/07
  9.   Women and Orthodoxy 10:57  |  Jack 20/03/07
  10.   to number: 6 11:07  |  Tamir Gaza 20/03/07
  11.   I want my rabbi 11:38  |  Suzie 20/03/07
  12.   What to do? 11:44  |  M. Franks-Lhermann 20/03/07
  13.   revolt 12:02  |  j10 20/03/07
  14.   A modest proposal 12:06  |  Meir 20/03/07
  15.   # 6 to david 12:14  |  eric 20/03/07
  16.   Chief Rabbinat..or whatever it is..must be dissolved 12:15  |  Nancy Cohen 20/03/07
  17.   To paula harris 12:57  |  wh 20/03/07
  18.   #12M.franks 12:59  |  wh 20/03/07
  19.   To Suzie # 11 - I Don`t Blame You Honey ! 13:18  |  Klaudia 20/03/07
  20.   #17 ARE THEY WH I HOPE THEY WERE SATISFIED ROYALLY 13:26  |  paul harris 20/03/07
  21.   To 12 13:40  |  Hansel 20/03/07
  22.   what every girl wants 13:57  |  G. Lee 20/03/07
  23.   But How Can Their Power Be Broken? 14:29  |  Yaakov Sullivan 20/03/07
  24.   Joseph, this problem is not new #3 14:52  |  Yaakov Sullivan 20/03/07
  25.   Marriage was meant to protect... 15:19  |  Edith 20/03/07
  26.   # 1 There is only one world 15:20  |  Edith 20/03/07
  27.   Time for civil marriage in Israel 15:24  |  Tosefta 20/03/07
  28.   Secular Israelis 15:48  |  Avi Yerushalmi 20/03/07
  29.   To Yaakov Sullivan, on converts 16:00  |  Anon 20/03/07
  30.   A crack in the edifice 16:08  |  Yonatan 20/03/07
  31.   A crack in the edifice 16:08  |  Yonatan 20/03/07
  32.   Avi Yerushalmi on "coupling" arrangements #26 16:10  |  Yaakov Sullivan 20/03/07
  33.   Typically misguided way of thinking 16:16  |  Moises 20/03/07
  34.   Of course there are halakhic solutions 16:17  |  Yonatan 20/03/07
  35.   THIS IS A VERY DISTURBING TREND: 16:24  |  d.dor 20/03/07
  36.   Yaacov Sullivan - you have it all wrong 16:33  |  Moises 20/03/07
  37.   Why not engage the rabbinate 16:41  |  Moises 20/03/07
  38.   20 Wow PAUL HARRIS making a rude joke! 16:52  |  Michael 20/03/07
  39.   Be 16:54  |  Bedouin 20/03/07
  40.   Jews need to start having polygamy 16:57  |  Bedouin 20/03/07
  41.   To Avi Yerushalmi # 27 ... The Issue Isn`t" Coupling."... 17:10  |  Klaudia 20/03/07
  42.   No Anon, but apparently you have #29 17:13  |  Yaakov Sullivan 20/03/07
  43.   Moises, of course you can`t argue outside the sytem #36 17:19  |  Yaakov Sullivan 20/03/07
  44.   To Yaakov Sullivan... A Truly Frightening Development ! 17:23  |  Klaudia 20/03/07
  45.   sullivan is right.who cares about thousands of years of tradition 17:26  |  SHIMON 20/03/07
  46.   Whose ball ? 17:33  |  David 20/03/07
  47.   To Nancy Cohen: Would that language be English? 17:34  |  Ilan 20/03/07
  48.   Long overdue 17:38  |  Danite 20/03/07
  49.   Bedouin - apparently you don`t know Jewish women! 17:43  |  Moises 20/03/07
  50.   Shimon on the heart and soul of the rabbis #45 17:45  |  Yaakov Sullivan 20/03/07
  51.   Parent`s duty - Leave the Past 17:47  |  jhgy 20/03/07
  52.   Yaakov Sullivan #32 17:52  |  Avi Yerushalmi 20/03/07
  53.   Bedouin on Jewish polygamy #49 17:53  |  Yaakov Sullivan 20/03/07
  54.   There is an easy way out ! 18:01  |  David 20/03/07
  55.   MONEY MADE 18:04  |  TOBIA 20/03/07
  56.   #38 michael if YOU WERENT TRAGIC ID LAUGH ALL DAY AT YOU 18:05  |  paul harris 20/03/07
  57.   JUDASIM IS A DIRECT OFFSHOOT OF AFRICAN VOODOO 18:05  |  Muhammud al-Swain 20/03/07
  58.   Aguna issue: The responsibility of the State 18:09  |  Tosefta 20/03/07
  59.   On `brit hazugiut` 18:27  |  Avi Yerushalmi 20/03/07
  60.   Tamir Gaza What Rights 18:39  |  Tobia 20/03/07
  61.   #50 Good Post sullivan 18:43  |  FOX 20/03/07
  62.   #50 Good Post Sullivan 18:48  |  FOX 20/03/07
  63.   rabbis have too much power 18:51  |  Mersenne 20/03/07
  64.   Call for Revolt 18:52  |  OldPete 20/03/07
  65.   Yaakov Sullivan = Eruv Rav 18:54  |  Akiva 20/03/07
  66.   #11You SAid A DIRTY WORD 19:02  |  TOBIA 20/03/07
  67.   To M Franks-Lhermann .# 12 ....What to Do ? 19:09  |  Klaudia 20/03/07
  68.   Akiva and his presumptions #65 19:13  |  Yaakov Sullivan 20/03/07
  69.   I wonder... 19:15  |  simon 20/03/07
  70.   #53 Yaakov Sullivan - on polygamy 19:23  |  Yonatan 20/03/07
  71.   FOX, I agree completely on this one #60 19:28  |  Yaakov Sullivan