JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Tel Aviv District Court judge Hadas Ovadia ruled Thursday that the Rosh Yehudi community could not continue to place a Mechitza in the Dizengoff square when they conduct the Neila prayers there as they have done in recent years.
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The ruling came after the Tel Aviv municipality had told Rosh Yehudi that the Mechitza in a public place constituted an exclusion of women and should not be allowed in a public place. Rosh Yehudi, a center for Jewish outreach located in Tel Aviv, petitioned the court against the municipal decision but Ovadia, snubbing 2000 years of historical evidence of the Mechitza, claimed that such an item placed in a public place would indeed exclude women and should not be allowed. She added that “Mixed prayer on Yom Kippur will not harm the quality of the prayers.”
Judge Hadas Ovadia
The judge’s decision was criticized by religious lawyer Tzofnat Nordman as “The first prohibition of a mechitza in the sovereign state of Israel since the British and the Mufti”, a reference to the mandate period when it was forbidden to place a mechitza at the Western Wall.
Nordman said that the ruling “tramples the very foundations of constitutional and administrative law and the basis of liberalism. It insults and shames any Jew who has not totally abandoned his heritage.”
Rosh Yehudi said that “A wonderful tradition of mutual respect by thousands of residents of the city from all sectors has been stopped. The state of Israel’s court ruled that separate prayer in accordance with Jewish tradition is prohibited by law.
“The Mechitza in Dizengoff was minimal and only near the Chazan and never disturbed passersby. On the contrary, thousands gathered around this minyan without a Mechitza and were moved in unity, but the administrative court rejected the petition and decided to prohibit the prayer on the holy day in Dizengoff Square.
“In her explanation of the ruling, Judge Hadas Ovadia claimed that ‘Gender separation is seen by the halacha as an expression of feminine exclusion’. We are sorry that the judge misconstrued the halacha which protects the honor of women far better than the court and in her decision has prevented many men and women from the mutual experience they had hoped for.”
Rosh Yehudi added that they were consulting rabbis on how to respond to the ruling.
This is a perfect example, why we desperately need judicial reform in Israel.
We cannot let a bunch of leftist secularist self hating atheists become virtual dictators.
The left are always laughably hypocritical
Gender separation is seen by the halacha as an expression of feminine exclusion
Why is that so? Maybe its excluding men? the mechitza spearates both sides. I have seen many shuls with much preetier ladies sections. The food is definitely better by a simcha. Anyhow this further enforces that judges in Israel have too much control. We need to limit their control
Can it be argued that not having a mechitza excludes religious women and men. So the judges ruling is discriminatory and exclusionary.
And there have been years of precedent.
“In her explanation of the ruling, Judge Hadas Ovadia claimed that ‘Gender separation is seen by the halacha as an expression of feminine exclusion’.
These liberal leftists are showing more and more how liberalism is a mental illness.
Don’t cancel the prayers.
Put up flowers / trees.
Not the usual mechitza.
Maybe an outdoor davening isn’t optimal….
The solution to Rosh Yehudi’s problem is simple. The judge’s decision should be ignored.
The people who want the mechitza should let it be known by not attending this service
“An invention of the Reform movement, the notion of “confirming” young Jews at age fifteen is borrowed from Christianity. A sort of Judaized First Communion…”
SOURCE: The Lord Will Gather Me In: My Journey to Jewish Orthodoxy (chapter 4, page 52) by David Klinghoffer, year 1998 CE, published by Free Press, ISBN 0-7432-4267-X
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“…the Reform movement represented by your local Reform temple has its roots in social ambition, in this case among German Jews. The scholar I. Grunfeld identifies three stages in the early history of Reform. The first, naïve stage was initiated in 1810 at Seesen, Westphalia, where a group of wealthy Jews opened the original Reform temple. The service was intended to simulate Christian prayer, complete with church bells.”
SOURCE: The Lord Will Gather Me In: My Journey to Jewish Orthodoxy (chapter 3, page 37) by David Klinghoffer, year 1998 CE, published by Free Press, ISBN 0-7432-4267-X
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“By [year] 1880, 90% of American synagogues either had been transformed into [Reform] temples or had started out that way. In the [American] South, Reform rabbis sought to give the appearance of Christian clergymen, asking that they be addressed not as “Rabbi,” but as “Dr.,” “Reverend,” or “Minister.” Some wore black suits and white clerical collars, like Catholic and Episcopal priests. Yarmulkes and prayer shawls were banished, and some congregations met on the Christian Sabbath day [Sunday] instead of the Jewish one.
SOURCE: The Lord Will Gather Me In: My Journey to Jewish Orthodoxy (chapter 3, page 38) by David Klinghoffer, year 1998 CE, published by Free Press, ISBN 0-7432-4267-X
This same shister judge wouldn’t dare rule like this about a muslim gathering. They only rule like this bec its frum jews. Shame on her. Is the kosel next?
In all honesty, who could blame many (not very religious/m.o.) women, or any other woman for that matter? Who wants a wall blocking your view that you can’t see the goings on in the part of the crowd (by the men) where everything is happening? (The chazzan, Torah reading, aliyos, someone giving a speech, a bris, etc etc.
THE WHOLE IDEA OF A MECHITZA, IS THAT THE MEN SHOULDN’T LOOK AT THE WOMAN, AND NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND. So here is a novel (not so novel) idea; put up a mechitza that can be seen through only in one direction. In fact, many frum shuls have just that.
Halachically, you are not obligated to have a mechitza for an ad-hoc minyan, like on an airplane, on the street–or on a public square in Tel Aviv. You might argue that it’s different if its planned in advance–I don’t know. But there is certainly room to make the case that if you’re davening in a public space that isn’t normally a makom tefilla, you don’t need a mechitza anyway.
a tsom kal and a G’mar ksiva v chasima tova to all.
Mixed seating is fine. Happens everywhere.
I don’t have a horse in this race, as I am not Israeli, but how does the Israeli Left call a proclamation by a judge “democracy”? Don’t they understand that this is oligarchy?
Men _ women _ mixed. Problem solved
Simple solution: if you don’t like it don’t go there!!
Is a mechitza actually required for an occasional minyan? I don’t think I have ever seen one in a shiva house.
That said, our backyard outdoor Yomim Noraim minyan in the Bronx has a mechitza. Nobody has complained.