Sarah Silverman's sister detained under sexist Israel tradition

by JerryM | February 17, 2013 at 07:19 pm

Sarah Silverman is one of my favorite comedians. The television show that she had was one of the funniest things on cable. Well, her sister, the Reform Judaism Rabbi, Susan Silverman, and her 17 year old niece, Halle Silverman, were one of a group of women detained for hours by Israeli police at the Western (or Wailing) Wall, in Jersusalem. Their grave crime, not abiding by theocratic laws in Israel which prohibit women from wearing prayer shawls.

See, only men can wear them, because we don't want to offend homophobic, sexist and ultra right-wing ultra-Orthodox Jewish men. Israel is supposedly a secular republic, though a refuge for Jews across the world. The government supposedly does not exist to expand and push the dictates of the religious right-wing in Israel. This religious right-wing by the way wants Israeli troops to defend religious based settlements in the West Bank, while their young men decline service so they can just study the Torah some more.

The religious right-wing in the U.S. wants these settlements so they can bring about, the supposed second coming of Jesus. This is not the only way women are treated inferior. in Israel. Women on public buses in Israel are often forced and pressured by ultra-Orthodox men to sit at the back of them. If they could strip the right of women to vote, I don't doubt many if not most ultra-Orthodox men would do so.

If fact, it would not surprise me if they don't ban or order their wives or sisters on how to vote. The issue of Israel becoming more and more a Jewish version of the Islamic states of Saudi Arabia and Iran is often ignored.

Yes, women do enjoy more rights in Israel then in those nations but it is not because of the religious right-wing in Israel, but because of secular Enlightenment values among the majority (especially those of the Reform wing of Judaism) of Israel. As I say about the U.S., we have a secular republic if we can keep it away from the Christian right. Can Israel keep theirs away from the Jewish right?

Source: http://www.nowpublic.com/world/sarah-silvermans-sister-detained-under-sexist-israel-tradition-0

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