Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site lanl.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!hplabs!qantel!dual!lll-crg!seismo!cmcl2!lanl!wkp From: wkp@lanl.ARPA Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish Subject: Human rights and Judaism: A hope for 5746. Message-ID: <31087@lanl.ARPA> Date: Thu, 26-Sep-85 06:56:26 EDT Article-I.D.: lanl.31087 Posted: Thu Sep 26 06:56:26 1985 Date-Received: Mon, 30-Sep-85 01:58:12 EDT Distribution: net Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory Lines: 44 Not that anyone should care, but here is my wish list for those issues which I feel need to be raised by all Jewish communities during this new year: 1. The responsibility of religious Jews to human freedom in South Africa. Most orthodox rabbis, unlike their counterparts in other movements, have remained silent in South Africa on apartheid. Only one courageous orthodox rabbi, Rev Ben Isaacson, has been outspoken in his condemnation of racism. ("You cannot suppress the G-d given rights of fellow human beings with impunity." he has stated). Rev Isaacson is now being called a "rebel rabbi" since his ostracization from the orthodox establishment in South Africa. 2. The treatment of Ethiopian Jews by the orthodox establishment in Israel in order to obtain more money from the government. Both =former= chief rabbis (Shlomo Goren and Ovadia Yosef) have supported the Ethiopian position. Rev David Shloush, the current Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Netanya, and a member of the Chief Rabbinical Council, also supports their position. The refusal of the current powers-that-be in the Rabbanut (especially Ashkenazi elements) to discuss the situation fairly is an unfortunate result of the mixing of religion and politics. 3. The refusal of most of the orthodox establishment to confront the issue of women's rights. Many orthodox women in Israel, members of the Israel Women's Caucus, are observant Jews who only wish to change their demeaning status by appeal to halachic authorities. Many point out that, for example, the ineligibility of women to be witnesses (which is a crucial element of female legal inferiority) rests on very weak foundations. [cf., Talmud Yerushalmi Yoma 6 or Rambam's Hilchot Edut 9]. As a postscript to this, I would like to bring up the recent psak halacha decided on by Rev Moshe Feinstein and the North American Rabbinate (all males, of course) regarding the ban on husbands accompanying their wives into birthing rooms. Ostensibly, as reported in the Hebrew press, the ban on husbands assisting their wives in the birth of their children was due to the fact that it violates the principle of modesty and also that the husband upon seeing his naked wife may do "an ugly and shameful thing" (lit., "she'hoo ya'aseh davar mchoar v'mayvish") or may violate the laws of Niddah. I personally find the reasoning behind this ban to be rather dubious. -- bill peter ihnp4!lanl!wkp