Truth and Peace

The Times of Israel reported on a recent Knesset decision regarding Israeli mikvas (ritual baths). I'd like to point out two things that bother me here. The law itself The law that was passed gives local rabbinates the power to choose which organizations can make use of public (state-run/funded) mikvas, which effectively means they have the power to deny non-Orthodox groups the ability to use their mikvas to perform conversions. I'll offer a few brief thoughts on this issue: 1) I prefer to live in a country where religion is a private matter, and the state stays out of it , and yes, that includes the Jewish State. So for instance, do there really need to be "public" mikvas run by the state? I don't know. Yes, I recognize that there is value in having a "Jewish character" to the State of Israel, and that part of that might reasonably involve investing government resources to help enable Jewish religious practice. But investing resources in mikv...

I'd like to follow up a piece I wrote in support of Women of the Wall (WoW), and try to think through aspects of this complex issue over the course of several posts. And I hope people will offer their comments to help add further depth, and to bring to light sides of the issue I haven't addressed. Photo by Emil Salman / Ha'aretz It seems to me that what's really at the heart of the WoW issue is the question of equality in the public sphere. Part of it relates to religious equality, and part to gender equality. First let's define what we mean when we say "public sphere." I assume we're talking both about matters of the State (the national government and regional/local municipalities) as well as parts of the private sector which are open to the public (e.g. matters of employment and consumer access). And regarding "equality," we're talking about equal access - to services, employment, and government representation. Again, not equal...