Shulamit Aloni

Former education minister says she is drawn to the sound of female cantors and the joyful worship.

All the literature of the Haskala ("enlightenment") movement has been erased from the curriculum as if it never existed.

This book raises the question: If Israel aspires to be a democracy, why is there a need for a special covenant on equality for all its citizens?

"Temurot Bema'amad Ha'isha Bamishpat Ha'ivri" ("Transitions in the Legal Status of the Wife in Jewish Law") by Elimelech Westreich, Hebrew University, Magnes Press, 388 pages, NIS 100.00

Of all the options presented by the author - and he presents many worthy of attention, especially by those active in human rights and the advancement of women - my choice would be civil marriage for everyone

Recently, we have been the victims of the disgrace and envy of various ultra-Orthodox men who have united with their old-fashioned and obsolete rabbis to shame women and keep them away from the words of the Torah.

How is it possible that in a law-abiding country that presumes to be democratic, a country in which the system of government and law is familiar to the public, someone in the Education Ministry decided to deal a mortal blow to civics lessons.

Manifestations of formal racism in Israel have become reminiscent of the black days of the Spanish Inquisition.

Netanyahu and Lieberman are eradicating everything we dreamed about and fought for.

There are elections and a good judicial system, but also an omnipotent army that ignores legal decisions.

The state of Israel was established as a civilian state, a state of law, and not as a state of Halakha, by the ?representatives of the Jewish yishuv and the Zionist movement.? Not by the ultra-Orthodox to whom the cabinet members enslave themselves.

In Israel there are over 300,000 men and women whose mothers are not Jewish and who are not willing to be "reborn," with a new name, by means of a conversion process that forces them to accept cult laws that are foreign to them, to send their children to ultra-Orthodox institutions and to live under rabbinical supervision.

Everyone has the right to determine what kind of Jew he wants to be: secular, Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, enlightened or arrogant hater of the gentiles.

Netanyahu and his supporters on the right and the extreme right need to scare us so that they can continue eating away at the Palestinians' lands, just as long as everything is ours. This is the right and its doctrine.

Netanyahu and his supporters on the right and the extreme right need to scare us so that they can continue eating away at the Palestinians' lands, just as long as everything is ours. This is the right and its doctrine.

Netanyahu and his supporters on the right and the extreme right need to scare us so that they can continue eating away at the Palestinians' lands, just as long as everything is ours. This is the right and its doctrine.

The children who received the best education that Israel can offer can now be heard shouting things like "Sharon will be murdered like Rabin," "Sharon, Hitler is proud of you," and mainly, "Death to the Arabs!"

It turns out that power has turned the heads of the rabbis of Yesha (the settlements of Judea, Samaria and Gaza) and the rabbis of some of the hesder yeshivas which combine military service and Torah study.

So, who are we afraid of? The Palestinians? Isn't that a bad joke? But we aren't allowed to say that because our Jewish paranoia is very serious, and the public relations people of the army and the greedy of the Greater Land of Israel know how to manipulate it very nicely.

In the coming days, the people who are meant to be what in Hebrew is referreed to as the "faces of the generation," meaning the best role models of the generation for preserving human dignity and human rights - Israel's chief rabbis and justices for the Supreme Court - will be selected. The chances are close to nil that the best and worthiest will be chosen.

The War of Independence ended in April 1949. Israel signed armistice agreements with each of the countries that fought against it, and the borders were set. The last to sign was Jordan, and the Green Line was set as the border.