The Conversion law

The debate is not recent. It is maybe the final point of various kind of approaches and discussions regading this issue, taking into account the experiences from the last decenies, including the massive Alyah from Central and Eastern Europe.

Here are several opinions expressed in this respect:

Ha'aretz - Conversion as a strategic goal

"The purpose of the Conversion Bill is to increase the number of Jews, and as such it must be supported on principle. It is a strategic goal, a matter of survival for our people, whose ranks are dwindling exponentially. Diaspora Jewry is in an accelerated process of extinction, out of choice, and every action that increases the worldwide Jewish population, whether legislative or educational, is welcome".

Diaspora - A threat!

On the other side, it is to be mentioned that Reform and Conservative movement do not enjoy equal rights and status in Israel - see here an example of the relations with the Orthodox mainstream, so claiming now the risk of division is rather a political move, than reflecting an action plan aimed to correct this situation.

The supporters

The Jerusalem Post - Troubles in the coalition

The Past Present

The American Jewish Congress is about to enter the pages of history, as a character of the past. Financial problems, as well as representativity problems. Situation available in the case of many other organizations, in North America, but not only. The debate is open, the question is how much a new leadership of young Jews is ready to take a certain lead. And, if yes, in what direction?

The forbidden street

I found this article very interesting from the point of view of the whole mental geography of the place. Often, when we are talking about Israel and the Middle East in general, we apply patterns of evaluation lacking the relevance of the direct life in this area. Starting with a completely different way of understanding justice, right, revenge and forgetfulness.

Victory!

of the common sense and democratic principles. Religious option is not an obligation for the state to support more the yeshiva students than the secular students.

But there it is a happy ending: when you stop looking for knowledge while loving. And you refuse looking for your thoughts, but share.

Unpleasant but unavoidable: more you start knowing somebody and understanding him/her more,more you want to run away. Far away. And it is so sad when you know precisely that you do not have any other choice but running.

Absent checking points

In the last six months I saw more or less recent Israeli movies, but very often, because of various time contraints I was unable to dedicate time to anything but watching. I am still optimistic about the possibility to succeed in writing at least a couple of lines about each of them.

And I will start with the freshest one, Yoav Shamir's Checkpoint. I liked from the very beginning the idea: filming - between 2001 and 2003 - at various checkpoints in Israel could offer various sociological, human, historical opportunities. Anyway, the category of the film is "documentary". And I was expecting at least some background information about the situation from the ground, some other aspects helping a viewer living outside the area to understand the context: why do you need controls, why the curfew in Jenin was introduced, why the rules were changing from an hour to another. Or why, for example, you need to control carefully children - in order to do not blow themselves up because they parents or relatives wanted to used them for various political reasons. The "documentary" is failing to explain this. And, instead, it is offering the image the Western viewer expect to see: "poor" Palestinians, aggressed by sometimes brutal youngsters with guns.

Now, I have to think about a recent problem: how much art is misusing and manipulating reality mostly in tensed political contexts? Yes, I know the benefactory influence as a soft power. I want to learn more about the bad side of the story.