6. Reasons For The Reality Gap
2. The Role Of Religion In Israeli Society
In 1953, as a part of the “Status quo agreement” which was meant
to create a stable co-existence between religious and secular elements in
Israeli society, the Personal Status Law was passed. Under this law, all issues
of personal status were passed over to the exclusive control of the Orthodox
religious establishment. This has created enormous tensions within Israel,
since all sorts of different groups feel marginalised and unrepresented in
issues of personal status. Many groups, such as Ethiopian and Russian immigrants,
have suffered what they perceive as almost wholesale discrimination and humiliation
at the hands of representatives of the Orthodox establishment.
Another group that has been badly affected are women on many different levels.
To mention just a couple of the central issues, the problem of divorce has
affected adversely the lives of many Israeli women. Women who have tried to
get a divorce against the will of their husbands have found themselves chained
to the husbands by the inability of the Rabbinate to force husbands to agree
to a divorce. While Rabbinic Courts have the legal wherewithal (imprisonment
and economic sanctions) to force recalcitrant husbands to divorce their wives,
these are rarely employed. It is true that wives cannot be forced to accept
divorce against their will either, but the difference is that Rabbinic courts
in Israel have consistently allowed men to take a second wife in certain cases
of the wife refusing divorce, whereas no such possibility is open to the woman.
A Halachically married woman who disregards these Halachic limitations and
lives with another man either as a “common law” wife or as a result
of a civil marriage abroad will be penalised in many ways, including the stigmatisation
of her children from the second relationship as mamzerim (bastards). These
agunot (chained women) are likely to be trapped for life without the option
of civil divorce. In addition, Rabbinical law courts will usually side with
a man and push women to make peace and return to their husbands, even in cases
of terrible suffering on the part of the wife. There is an initiative to create
pre-nuptial agreements to avoid subsequent problems of Agunot (chained women),
but this is by no means commonly accepted at present.
In addition to the Rabbinic control of personal status issues, Rabbinic society
over the years has increased its claim over areas of society that once were
left to other authorities. Ultra-Orthodox circles have become more militant
and have used political power to ensure their control. Issue after issue is
brought to the High Court of Israel concerning the rights of different Jews
in Israel to live their lives as they wish and many of the issues have concerned
women.
For example, a recent decision by the High Court sided with Rabbinic opinion
over the traditions and religious rules to be observed at the Western Wall
in Jerusalem. Women, including Orthodox women, who have for twelve years struggled
for the right to conduct a Rosh Chodesh minyan (prayer quorum including the
reading of the Torah convened on the first of each new month, a traditionally
special time for women) at the Wall, were turned down. The court sided with
the Orthodox opinion that, at the Wall, only Orthodox religious customs should
be accepted, which does not allow for the public reading of Torah by women,
especially not in prayer shawls, and that public order would be threatened
if such a thing were to happen. Meanwhile, the Knesset passed a law which
would make wearing of tallit and kippah by women in a prayer context at the
Wall, a crime punishable by seven years imprisonment. All in all, women have
not done well with a narrow-minded exclusively male conservative Rabbinic
establishment in Israel.