Shas in the Opposition

In Donna Rosenthal’s novel The Israelis she focuses on the lives of ordinary people and does her best to keep out the famous because you can find information on them anywhere. One of the groups that she mentions are the ultra-orthodox Jews and the questions of what their representation in the Knesset looks like. Rosenthal makes many references to the Shas (Sephardi Torah Guardians) political party, but gives little information about their workings or core beliefs. Shas’ core values and beliefs are that they need to repair what it sees as the “continued economic and social discrimination against the Sephardic population of Israel” and to “return the crown to the former glory”. Sephardi Jews refer to descendants of those expelled from their homes in 1492. Both the Mizrahi and Sephardi observe Sephardi Judaism with an emphasis on distinguishing themselves against the traditions of the Ashkenazi Jews.        

Shas was formed in 1984 by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef (Yosef currently serves as the spiritual leader of Shas) when ethnic divisions between the Sephardi and the Ashkenazi reached an all time high. Yosef felt that the ultra-orthodox party gave little representation to the Sephardi Jews and therefore broke away to create Shas. The party name defines the party leaders as those who will protect or guard the Sephardi. Since it’s creation it has formed it’s own council of Council of Torah Sages which is their policy making group of four. In 1984 Shas was just a small political group, in the first election winning only 4 seats of the 120 in the Knesset. Since then the greatest amount of Shas members to sit in the Knesset was 17.

            Politically Shas has moved from the left to right on different issues and started moderate on the Israeli- Palestinian conflict declaring that lives are more important than territories. Now Shas has moved to the right and opposes any freeze in Israel’s settlement activity in the West Bank. Shas believes in a “United Jerusalem” and in 2010 joined the World Zionist Organization. Shas strongly urges helping the poor and struggling Sephardi and encourages aid to schools and housing in Sephardi neighborhoods. Being an ultra-orthodox political party Shas opposes homosexuality and expressions of it including parades. Although Shas believes that homosexuality is “a plague as toxic as bird flu” it condemns any form of violence against gays and lesbians.

Shas Today:

            Today Shas stands as the fifth largest party in the Israeli government and lies outside the Likud/ Netanyahu coalition instead being apart of the Labor party’s opposition. The thirty- third government of Israel is the first government in a decade to not have representation from an ultra-orthodox party. The response from Shas about the new coalition, and their exclusion, was very bitter and after Prime Minster Netanyahu announced they would not be included in the coalition they pronounced the new government as “un-Jewish, anti-Jewish, shameful, evil and heartless”. Members of Shas are continually upset at their exclusion in the government and in an article on Haaretz , “New Israeli banknotes let the Ashkenazi-Sephardi genie out the bottle, again”, they recently let their anger known when the current cabinet approved new banknotes that failed to represent the Sephardi and Mizrahi, Netanyahu’s response was to promise that the next new banknote will be of the spiritual leader Yosef.  The significance of this article is that the Sephardi are constantly feeling discriminated against in the eyes of Shas and this is why they broke away in 1984.

            A big issue that faces Shas today is the support that is growing for drafting young ultra-orthodox men into the army. In an article titled “Sephardichief rabbi blames 'devil' for plan to enlist ultra-Orthodox” the ultra-Orthodox Rabbi Shlomo Amar criticized those who support drafting the Haredim in the army citing that “the devil has prompted people jealous of Torah study to fight against it”. Unfortunately I was unable to get information on the Shas information site because alas I don’t speak or read Hebrew, but the sources that I did find to use proved to be reliable and from major newspapers in Israel including haaretz, Jerusalem Post, and The Times of Israel.

A Beginners Guide to an Israeli Wedding

            For those living in Israel a wedding is a major event. Couples invite everyone and their mother’s mother. But the process to get to the alter, or the huppa, requires many different steps. In The Israelis by Donna Rosenthal in her chapter about Israeli weddings got me wondering about the entire process of an Israeli wedding. Based on what people post online about going to a wedding in Israel it sounds like the most fun you will ever have, but based on the process the whole thing seems like a nightmare from having to prove you are Jewish, finding a rabbi who is considered orthodox and sanctioned by the rabbinic court, I find myself thinking that I would take the way many have taken also and just jump on a plane literally anywhere else in the world where this matter is considered civil and not religious. But alas those who get married in Israel have chosen this route.

First in order to get a marriage license in Israel you must first prove that you are Jewish and have been born to an uninterrupted line of Jewish mothers. If a person does not meet the religious requirements for marriage they will not be allowed to marry in Israel. For many people that came into the country as refugees, especially those who fled the Soviet Union during the cold war, proving that you are Jewish in accordance to the orthodox tradition can prove to be a challenge. An article titled “Getting Married in Israel: Why it so Often Means Hiring a Detective” describes a case Har-Shalom, a man who runs a non profit detective agency who tracks down Jewish ancestry, takes on in order to track down a young woman’s Jewish ancestry. Each year Har-Shalom takes on roughly 1200 cases and the rabbinic court almost always accepts his conclusions about a person’s status.

After fulfilling the terms set by the Rabbinic Court then congratulations lets begin planning an Israel wedding ceremony. Israeli weddings today keep a lot of the traditional aspects of an Israeli wedding, but there are many modern touches as well. Some of the traditional aspects kept in Israeli weddings are the signing of the ketuba, which is a prenuptial agreement in which spells out a man’s legal obligations to his wife. Today there are many places where a woman can amend the document to fit their needs and eliminate words about a man buying his wife. During the ceremony the couple gathers beneath the Huppa, which is like a canopy and symbolizes a home for the new couple. After the blessings have been read in either Hebrew or English the bride and groom sip from a cup of wine. At the end of the ceremony it is tradition to break a glass, most people believe that it is a symbol of the destruction of the Holy Temple and the fragility of love and marriage.

Mazel Tov! Now you’re married and it's time for a party. In Israel it is considered to be a great mitzvah to celebrate a wedding in order to bring happiness to the newlyweds. Based on many different primary sources written by people who have attended a wedding in Israel or multiple weddings in Israel the reception is like nothing found in the US. For one thing during the ceremony the people gathered there pay little attention to what is going on and the dress code is often relaxed and simple jeans being typical to the attire. Those men who are found in suits are usually the man marrying the couple or a few guests from out of town. In a blog written by Benji Lovitt he writes about how he has been to many Israeli weddings and even offers “An Idiots Guide to Israeli Weddings” in his comical post he writes about everything from the laid back attire to the gifts, Israeli newlyweds have no gift registry they want money, to the traditional chupah. In another first hand account of an Israeli wedding found in the San Diego Jewish Journal writer Tinamarie Bernard writes about her experience at an Israeli wedding and found many of the informalities that were also noted in Lovitt's blog like the fact that there was little attention paid to the actual wedding ceremony.  

In Donna Rosenthal’s chapter about Israeli weddings she describes ceremonies that are tense and how stupid some of the required rules are like the fact that only an orthodox rabbi can marry people not reform or conservative rabbis. If married by a reform or conservative rabbi this marriage will not be recognized and going abroad is necessary for a civil marriage. Rosenthal’s point of view is that orthodox rabbis should not have the exclusive right to marry people in Israel.