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THE JEWISH CITIZEN



By Donald H. Harrison












Harrison may be contacted at editor@sandiegojewishworld.com






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LETTER FROM JERUSALEM

By Ira Sharkansky

JERUSALEM— My recent posting critical of the "Women of the Wall" (Local religious customs should be observed at the Western Wall, October 28th)  brought a bit of applause and an argument: it is the right of Reform Jews to express themselves, and even to create some disturbance in the effort to change Israel.

This is not an issue with an obvious solution. Rather, it is one of numerous campaigns that Israelis and others are pursuing to make Israel in their image. The country serves as a platform for people with vision. We should expect no less for the Promised Land. Individuals and organizations, with views we might call messianic, want to define the promise and achieve it.

The following list is not meant to support or criticize, or to rank the issues with respect to their legitimacy. Its sole concern is to describe an agenda crowded by intense advocates, some of whom have achieved success. Among the successful are those who have caused problems for people with contrasting visions.

There are quarrels as to how to describe each of the groups. I aspire to neutrality, but that is difficult to obtain in a field marked by great passions.

• Most prominent are the contrasting visions of religious Zionists and Palestinian nationalists. Each demand part or all of territory with as-yet undefined boundaries, and have proven themselves willing to shed blood in order to achieve their visions.
• Related to them are Jews and Christians who come as immigrants or visitors to lend their support to the Jewish settlements in the West Bank; and Jews and others who identify with the Palestinians. Among both groups are individuals who have paid with their lives. Some have died in terrorist attacks. Others put themselves in the cross fire between the Israeli army and Palestinians, and died while calling for peace or justice.
• Political activists from Israel and overseas identify groups that should be brought to Israel. Most prominent are the Ethiopians. More than 100,000 have come since the 1980s. More controversial are unknown thousands of additional Ethiopians. They and their supporters claim that they have family relationships with those already here, or that they are Jews, were Jews in the past, or want to become Jews, and should be brought to Israel.
• Peruvian Indians, and Asian Indians, plus others in Africa and elsewhere, some of which have rabbis convinced that they are Jews, or potential Jews, and should be given preference as immigrants.
• The Black Hebrews, mostly African Americans from Chicago, who have described themselves as the true Jews. Among supporters are those who admire their music. After more than two decades as unrecognized outsiders tolerated partly due to the pressure of African American politicians, Israel has granted this group the status of residents. They have access to public schools, other social services, and the army's recruiting offices.
• Numerous Africans have made it across the Sinai and entered Israel. Advocates claim that they fled from the genocide in Dafur, and must be given the status of refugees. However, many or most of them are Nigerians or other West Africans, seeking opportunities better than at home.
  

Political intensities among the major secular parties have declined in recent years, reflecting the emergence of the Kadima Party out of leading members of both Labor and Likud. As we face a national election in February, several commentators have wondered about the differences between Kadima, Labor, and Likud, or even the differences between them and the left-of-center Meretz. There are policy and personality nuances. However, voters might consider an expression that comes from American politics: "Not a dimes worth of difference."

Israelis wary of boredom can relax. The leader of the Sephardi ultra-Orthodox party has uncorked the bottle containing the ethnic issue. He charges Kadima leader Tzipi Livni with racism because of comments about his political demands.

One can wish for the quiet, as well as the peace and prosperity of places like Norway or Switzerland. The fear is that Jews would wither from boredom in those countries. Emigration is greater to places of challenge like the United States, Canada, Britain, and Germany. A high incidence of international travel suggests that many Israelis seek an opportunity to rest from the fray, but nonetheless come back.


Sharkansky is professor emeritus of political science at Hebrew University. He may be contacted at msira@mscc.huji.ac.il

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By David Benkof

NEW YORK—Secular Israelis and American Jews often complain about the power of haredim (fervently Orthodox Jews) in Israel: "They barely pay taxes yet they collect oodles of money for their schools and families, and their sons don't have to serve in the army!" The implication is that haredim have somehow gamed the system, and that a fair democracy would not allow such outsized power to a minority (10-20 percent, depending how you count) of the population.

No matter what the merits of their policy stances, the haredim are not cheating. Mature democracies make room for minorities to wield power, especially in areas that disproportionately affect them. Further, some of the most significant beneficiaries of political systems that foster minority rights have been the Jews. Israelis, whatever their thoughts about the haredim, should be loath to try to design a new system in which the majority can rule tyrannically over all minorities.

The haredim are not the first minority group in Israel to use its electoral power in the parliamentary system to gain significant resources and other concessions from the government. According to Alan Zuckerman, a professor of political science at Brown University, "given the nature of democratic politics in Israel, minority groups have the ability to block and veto and push issues they most care about. The classic example of that is not the haredim but the kibbutzim."

Zuckerman pointed out that the kibbutzim represented a relatively small part of the population but received massive government assistance. When the political conditions changed after 1977 and the parties that represented kibbutz interests lost power, many kibbutzim went under as the government pulled the plug.

Haredi power comes from their ability to form political parties that can either join coalitions or support the cabinet from the outside, which is a normal function for a minority party in a parliamentary system. But any replacement system Israel might design must involve rights for minority groups, because that is the only fair way for a polity to include the wishes of all its citizens.

Professor Gad Barzilai, the Pruzan Chair of Jewish Studies at the University of Washington, has written several books arguing, in part, that haredim "should get minority formal recognition in law." Barzilai, a political scientist, described to me a future Israel which gave full power to the majority with no minority rights. It sounded like a very scary place. "Under those conditions, Israel would subjugate any minority group - ultra-Orthodox, Arabs, women, homosexuals," he said. He described such a polity as "a sort of very abusive majoritarian rule."

Indeed 90 years ago the number one item on the world Jewish agenda was securing minority rights in the new nation-states in Central and Eastern Europe. Jewish lobbyists at the European peace conferences after the First World War insisted that new and reborn countries like Poland, Hungary, Romania, and Czechoslovakia guarantee specific political and cultural rights for minority groups, especially the Jews. In many such states, most prominently Poland, Jewish political parties pushed for Jewish votes and engaged in coalition politics not that different from those pursued by the haredim today. The minority rights principle was absolutely crucial to securing government funding for Jewish needs and protection of other Jewish interests.

But wait, there's more.

One of the parties most capable of securing funding and other Jewish needs in the interwar European democracies was Agudas Yisroel. Agudas Yisroel is the spiritual and literal ancestor of the Agudat Yisrael party that is one of the two partners making up the United Torah Judaism list representing Ashkenazi haredim in recent elections in Israel. That means the very people secularists are complaining about learned how to use parliamentary democracies to their advantage in a system designed (in part) to avoid excluding Jews and their needs.

It's important to recognize that haredim are necessarily making sacrifices by their current political strategies. By focusing on funding and a handful of status-quo issues related to religion and state (military deferments and personal status issues, for example), they lose the ability to also have an important say in foreign policy, defense, energy, infrastructure, environmental, and other policies that some of them may care a lot about. But for their current strategy to work, they have to be willing to support coalitions with a variety of stances on those other issues, so they can get what they want on the issues dearest to them.

Given the nature of the historical Jewish condition, have we learned nothing from the experience of being a minority in land after land? Surely we should welcome minority power now that we run our own country. That doesn't mean all Israelis should vote for or celebrate the haredi parties. But the widespread complaints about haredi power, as if minority rights are somehow illegitimate,is a true irony of Jewish history.


David Benkof writes the "Fabulously Observant" column, which runs Thursdays in the Jerusalem Post. He can be reached at DavidBenkof@aol.com.




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LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER


Sweat-equity partners sought for San Diego Jewish World by publisher

SAN DIEGO—While San Diego Jewish World has gained its place, there is so much more we could do in presenting to the San Diego Jewish community and to Jewish communities all over the world a daily publication of news and commentary.

I am looking for partners who would like to build up San Diego Jewish World with a new graphic design, increased content, and expanded advertising. These prospective partners don't have to invest a dime in our publication—we really don't want your money. We are looking for two things far more important: your ideas and your hard work.

If you are as committed as we are to keeping the Jewish community informed, and to its well-being, and if you have skills that will help us accomplish our task--such skills as web designing, or selling advertising, or web mastering, or writing and editing--we invite you to contact us to discuss your interest in bettering this publication.

I can be reached at editor@sandiegojewishworld.com. Please provide me with some background about yourself, tell me your skills, and how you would like to see San Diego Jewish World. I will respond, and perhaps set up a meeting with you to discuss further your ideas and potential participation in San Diego Jewish World. — Donald H. Harrison, editor and publisher

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SAN DIEGO JEWISH ACADEMY November 18 Kindergarten program

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Thursdays with the Songs of Hal Wingard

Editor's Note: We continue our presentation of the songs of Hal Wingard, moving this week to death. Here is a link to an index of Wingard's songs published by San Diego Jewish World. To hear Hal performing the song, click on its title.

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