Today I fled the humid Mediterranean air for the crisp hill tops of Jerusalem and met with one of the Prime Minister’s advisors, Ovad Yechezkeli. It was quite an interesting affair, but I’m going to have to hold off on the details until tomorrow…
In the mean time, take a look at this article from the Jerusalem post, “Is religion good for peace?” Starting next week, the International Council of Christians and Jews’ will be headed by a woman for the first time. Another move forward for women and religion today…

In general I try to keep my little typers out of the Israel-Palestine conflict–their seems to be enough people writing and fighting about it. However, sometimes I just can’t be a cultural curator, sometimes I have to write about the unsababi things that I see (sababi is awesome in Israeli slang and Arabic) by typing bravely, thoughtfully and hopefully with a tinge of incite.

This is one of my first attempts to critique a classic burning Israel issue. My few and loyal readers, if you think I don’t do it well, you are free to scream back at me, that’s the norm for this kind of an article and yes, I would actually LOVE if someone would even say a peep in the comments section!

In this case I’m unseated about the Israeli consulates exploitation of a story that Gilad Shalit, an Israeli solider that was captured by Hamas in Gaza two years ago, wrote. “When the Shark and a Fish Met” is a story about a fish and a shark that become friends, even though their mothers tell them to be enemies. In the end, the friendship between the fish and the shark inspires all of the fishes and sharks to be friends and to make peace.

To “raise awareness about this humanitarian crisis” the Israeli consulate produced a YouTube video of 4th graders in the Bronx reading the story that he wrote in the 4th grade. The story has been made into a book that was illustrated by Israeli artists and published in English, Arabic and Hebrew.

However, after seeing the video and hearing the story, I’m pretty confused about what humanitarian issue the consulate wants the world to know about. From the story, it’s pretty clear that Gilad wanted to send a message of peace to children that are taught to hate. Unfortunately I don’t think that having the Israeli consulate release this video on the anniversary of his abduction with a plea to release in the introduction and conclusion is really going to help create peace on either side.

Instead, the Israeli consulate used the story as a publicity stunt to gain support and sympathy from the public, continuing to show just how little they understand the message behind 11 year old Gilad’s story.

In this case, I think that Israel should have just tried to keep a hush on the whole situation. Aside from my deep empathy for the families of these soldiers, I’m finding it hard to be too sympathetic towards Israel. Instead, I’m feeling very embarrassed that I belong to country that spends time and money raising awareness about 3 captured soldiers while holding over 3000 Palestinians.

Someday I really hope to see and Israeli government that is thoughtful and wise, not petty and producing propaganda. Until then, I guess I’ll have to keep writing these articles, making my little typers press on, waiting for one of you readers to scream something back.

Here’s the video. Take a look for yourself, I’m off to sleep.

Today during my daily consumption of blogs, I read about an on going debate about the power of Jewish women in liberal Judaism. Rebecca Friedman’s informative article about the state of the debate can be found on Jewess and Lilith, Jewish women’s issue blogs that are definitely worth a read. After reading the articles, I was shocked to see how many studies and articles argue that women gaining power in liberal Judaism is a bad thing and that it’s causing a crisis for men! You don’t say!?

After reading a few articles, I starting thinking about how liberal Jewish women fit into broader trends about women. In general, women have been gaining power in many different parts of society. Although women have not played a well documented role in religious institutions, women have always been a major part of religious order, especially in the home.

Even though Jewish women may now be playing a more powerful formal role in Jewish institutions, I think this is just a transfer of power, not an increase of women’s interest in Judaism. Jewish women have always had many duties in the home that made them active participants in Judaism. Who is lighting the candles on Shabbat? Who is guarding the Shabbat, cooking and cleaning and preparing the household for the Sabbath bride? I think it’s been the woman for a long long time.

And if the men are getting crowded out by the so called “feminizing” of liberal Judaism, well then men, jump back in! Yes, women should make an effort to coax back the submissive men, but liberal Jewish men also need to learn to live in a more feminine atmosphere, something that they can learn about from their female counter parts who were living in a male atmosphere for thousands of years.

I don’t hate to say it, instead I’m very proud, the liberal Jewish woman has arrived, but she was always there!!!