Thursday, May 29, 2014

Religion and State in Israel - May 29, 2014 (Section 1)

Editor – Joel Katz
Religion and State in Israel is not affiliated with any organization or movement.


AGUNOT/MARRIAGE/CIVIL MARRIAGE
The Jewish Federations of North America, or JFNA, may soon launch an effort that would include supporting groups in Israel working to limit or end Orthodox control of personal-status issues such as marriage, divorce, conversion and burial, The Jewish Week has learned.

Clearly this is a key, often emotional, issue in this country, where about 85 percent of the American Jewish community is non-Orthodox; some feel they are looked upon as second-class Jews by Jerusalem.

But the proposed project, known as iRep — Israel Religious Expressions Platform — while presented as advancing freedom of religious expression, may stir controversy among many observant Jews and those uncomfortable with the notion of diaspora Jewry stepping up its support for critics of Israeli policy, especially through the vehicle of JFNA, its primary consensus organization.











PRESIDENT ELECTION AND REFORM MOVEMENT




RELIGION AND STATE




GENDER-SEGREGATION



see document here: http://argovcenter.org/



ALIYAH/ISRAEL-DIASPORA RELATIONS

Practical, ideological questions hover over big-money project to fortify Jewish identity.





















CONVERSION


KOTEL/WESTERN WALL/WOMEN OF THE WALL

Think of it as an Olympic Torch for pluralism: A Torah scroll scheduled to be read by women at the Western Wall, before finding a home at a Reform congregation in Israel, will make three stops in New Jersey along its journey.








CONSTITUTION/JEWISH AND DEMOCRATIC STATE




KASHRUT


CHRISTIANITY
We Israelis seem to have a problem embracing our own biblical narrative; many Israelis feel alienated from the Bible stories.


Editor – Joel Katz
Religion and State in Israel is not affiliated with any organization or movement.
All rights reserved.

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