Wednesday, September 27, 2023

After Yom Kippur 2023 - 5784

Shana Tova and "almost Chag Sameach."  Yom Kippur has come and gone and we are now gearing up for the holiday of Sukkot, which starts on Friday night. I didn't get a chance to write a blog before Yom Kippur - and much has happened since then - so I thought I would put this together and  cover  off a variety  of topics.

Yom Kippur in Israel

I suppose we are not supposed to think of Yom Kippur as a "fun" holiday - after all how much fun can it be to  fast (no food or water) for 26 hours while spending 7-8 hours in Synagogue (even more  for  some), much of that standing up?  But Yom Kippur is really a special day - wherever we might be observing it - and all the more so here in Israel.  Here in Israel, pretty much all traffic stops  across the country, other than emergency vehicles and  some non-conformists (it is not "illegal" to  drive).   The airports are closed - and just about everything else is closed.

For the past  15 years or so, we have been participating  in a small community service.  It has been held, at different times, at different people's homes, at a shul we have rented out (that shul itself rents out a school gym because it has too many people to fit in its building).  Usually it is a five or ten minute walk from our place in Ra'anana.  This year, that meant spending  about 10 minutes each way 6 times, in 31-34c heat - with high humidity.  As we were walking through the streets, we passed by many different people on their way to shul, many dressed all in white, from head to toe.  Very few actually wearing suits, which is a good thing in light of the heat.  

Of course we also saw  hundreds of kids with their bicycles, some  accompanied by parents or other adults, many on their own, taking advantage of the car-free streets to ride around the city - or even to go and ride on empty highways.  For those who are observing Yom Kippur in a religious way and  for those  who "observe" in a non-religious way -  it is a special day for all.

For Israel, our service is somewhat unique.   Although we cover most of the traditional  liturgy, including the Torah readings, haftarah readings and different prayer services, using traditional tunes ("nusach") our service is a fully egalitarian, Conservative ("Masorti") service.  While egalitarian is the norm in most Conservative and Reform congregations in the U.S. and Canada, it only represents a small minority of  the shul-going public in Israel.  Here the vast majority of synagogues follow Orthodox traditions and are decidedly non-egalitarian.

With the higher than normal heat, an outdoor service - and the fact that I was the one leading Kol Nidrei and Neilah this year - as well as as assisting with the morning services,  I have to say that I was a bit thirstier than usual this year.  But we made it through, I was able to get a reasonably decent sound from our Shofar at the end - and we enjoyed a tasty community break-fast with our fellow congregants.

As we were walking home, we could already hear the sounds of clanging metal bars as people were starting to assemble their Sukkot -  temporary booths for the festival of Sukkot which starts only four days after Yom Kippur.

Now on a side note - even though I should have been all "shul-ed out" by this point - I decided to turn on the Park Avenue Synagogue stream and watch the PAS Neilah service.  (Sorry to my Toronto Beth Tikvah community...).  That was about 12:30 a.m.  at night here - well after the holy day had ended in Israel.  Although musical instruments in a shul are not necessarily my thing (I don't really know of many, if any other conservative shuls that use them other than PAS), I have to say that it is a real pleasure to watch Hazan Azi Schwartz.  It was really a musical treat.

In addition, Rabbi Cosgrove ran a flawless service.  I was particularly moved by his near closing discussion of the Unetaneh Tokef prayer, which forms part of the Musaf service in the morning of  Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah.   Unetanah Tokef is the "centrepiece" of the Yom Kippur Musaf service -  and, among other things, the source for Leonard Cohen's "who by fire."  In very short - I think you could probably still watch the service on the PAS site if interested - Cosgrove - explained that the final lines of the prayer "Prayer, Repentance and  Acts of Charity can cancel the harshness of the decree" is intended to mean that by doing great things with the time we have in this world - we can lessen the harshness of the reality that  our time is limited and there is a great deal of uncertainty - even if we can't change those facts themselves.  I hope that does some justice to Rabbi Cosgrove - but I thought it was really a wonderful and meaningful discussion near the very end of Yom Kippur.

Some Current Events

As  usual, there is a great deal going on here in Israel, and I will just comment on a few things.

Tel Aviv Yom Kippur Incident

I could write a whole blog about this one but here is my very short version.  A group called "Rosh Yehudi" - the Jewish Head (Probably taken from a Yiddishe Kop ) - announced that it wanted to run an Orthodox prayer service in Dizengoff Square.  The Tel-Aviv City council authorized the service provided that there was no mehitzah put up - i.e. that there was no physical barrier erected between men and women - which is a normal feature in an Orthodox shul.  The Tel Aviv City council noted that there are some 500 shuls in Tel-Aviv, mostly Orthodox and that the City Centre is a public place, open to all, without barriers.  Rosh Yehudi tried its luck in court and lost.  The court upheld the ban on erecting a mehitzah in a public square.  Well wouldn't you know it, Rosh Yehudi and its Rabbi (who has gotten himself  into all kinds of trouble with a torrent of homophobic comments) decided to show up and run the service with a mehitzah anyways, in Dizengoff Square - the heart of Tel-Aviv.  Many people in the square decided to sit wherever they pleased and disregard the mehitzah.  It turned chaotic and became a huge disruption.  TV and radio stations are discussing it around the clock.   And now Itamar Ben-Gvir, cabinet member from the Religious Zionist party (and current Minister of National Security in the Netanyahu government) has announced that he is going to bus in hundreds of worshippers and run a service with a mehitzah in Dizengoff Square  in defiance of the court order on Thursday night.  Even some of his coalition partners, including Simcha Rotman (who is fairly extreme himself) and Bezalel Smotrich (who is an off the charts fanatic) are calling Ben-Gvir's plan "provocative" and "unnecessary."  If Ben-Gvir goes ahead - things may get  completely crazy in Tel-Aviv on Thursday night.  Some Ben-Gvir supporters called "the Family" (as in the Mafia family) have announced they will come and  "participate."  Among other things, Ben-Gvir is really trying  to  ignite a religious war - there  is no other objective way to look at it.   **Breaking news update - Ben-Gvir or his spokespeople have announced that he has cancelled his proposed event for Thursday night.  I would imagine that for Ben-Gvir this amounts to a tactical delay rather than  any kind of change in policy.

US Visa Waiver Program

As you might know, Israelis have generally required visas to visit the U.S. unless they have another  passport that is part of the Visa Waiver Program.  It can be notoriously difficult for Israelis to get their U.S. visas and  can often take months if not years to set up appointments and get through the process.  Over the past few years, U.S. Ambassadors to Israel have been working with Israeli politicians including Bennett, Shaked, Lapid, and  now Netanyahu to get Israel into the VWP.  One challenge is that Israel would be  required to treat all Americans equally when they arrive in Israel - including Palestinian Americans living in the West Bank and in Gaza - even those who might be a security threat.  Nevertheless, Israeli officials announced this week - that the program will come into effect as early as October 2023 - and Israelis will no longer need visas to visit the U.S.  U.S. officials have called the announcement premature - but it looks like it is coming.  Maybe we  will now run into some  fellow  Israelis when  visiting New York City?

Israeli-Saudi Arabia Normalization

Prime Minister Netanyahu is on an all-out blitz campaign to try to bring about a  peace deal and "normalization" with Saudi Arabia - at as low a cost as possible.  Certainly, some Israelis have already been showing up in Saudi Arabia for events - and planes are flying over Saudi Arabia from Israel as we speak.  

We do not know all of the details of what is being negotiated.   But the Saudis have apparently been demanding  that Israel make significant concessions towards the  Palestinians and that the Saudis are able to develop a "peaceful" nuclear program.   Netanyahu's coalition partners  have stated quite clearly that they will oppose these concessions.  So Netanyahu is in a bit of a spot - as he tries to juggle U.S. pressure to agree to a deal with domestic pressure to get a deal without giving up anything.   I'm not convinced the deal will happen that quickly - but it would be a major foreign policy accomplishment for Netanyahu and for Biden.

Canada's Parliament Honours a Nazi War Criminal

Canada made the news around the world this week - especially in Israel (as well as Russia and Poland and other places) when the Canadian speaker of the house dredged up a Ukrainian war criminal (former member of the SS - volunteer Ukrainian brigade) and introduced him in the Parliament as a  "war hero" while President Zelensky was visiting from the Ukraine.    Quite sickening really - one would have thought somebody would do a background check. The truly sad part of the story is why Canada admitted so many war criminals after WWII and failed to prosecute them or extradite them.  Very embarrassing. And Sad.

Yom Kippur War Commemoration

As you may now, this year marked the 50th  Anniversary of the Yom Kippur war, in which Egypt and Syria launched a major surprise attack against Israel - causing massive casualties in the Israeli armed forces - and  leading Israel to fear for its existence, especially in the early days of  the war.  Only after several days of fighting, Israel managed to turn things around  in the Golan and in the Sinai.  By the end of the  war, Israel had a strong upper hand - even though the Americans and USSR stepped in and prevented Israel from inflicting serious damage to the Syrian and Egyptian armies.  Israel lost close to 2,700 soldiers in that war, its second highest total  number of  casualties - after the Israel War of Independence  in 1948.

Needless to say, there have been quite a large number of TV shows, movies, radio shows and other media discussing and analyzing different aspects of the war.  I watched one show on Monday night which was put together by Yehoram Gaon, a well  known Israeli singer.  It focused on musicians who spent the 1973 war entertaining troops near the front lines, not knowing whether the soldiers they were entertaining would ever return.  The show included footage of Canadian singer Leonard Cohen z"l, who flew to Israel when the war broke out and spent close to a month singing for soldiers during the war.  It also included footage and interviewers with a whose-who of the Israeli music industry - Gidi Gov, Shlomo Artzi, Chava Alberstein and many  others played prominent roles.   There have been many other shows - about Golda Meir and Moshe  Dayan,  about all of the losses that Israeli suffered, about the link between 1973 and the subsequent peace deal with Egypt and about many other topics.  Unfortunately, I am too busy to watch all of it - but there are some really interesting angles and discussions being presented.

Other Movies

Of course that was an intentional segue.  As you will recall if you read my last blog - I mentioned two of the "Jewish-themed" movies that were being released. I hadn't seen them at the time.

I had a chance to watch Golda late Saturday night - a day before Yom Kippur.   It is a very dark movie.  It is not a biopic about Golda.  Rather it only deals with  how she handled the Yom Kippur war in October 1973 - and how she responded to a commission of inquiry in Israel a year later.  Helen Mirren does an excellent job of bringing  Golda to life - which seemed to be quite an authentic portrayal.  

Many of the scenes show Golda Meir smoking - just about everywhere - in meetings,  in her bed, while speaking to doctors - or while receiving treatments for cancer.   There are many close ups as things seem to have been frozen in time at key parts - perhaps to emphasize the existential importance of some of the decisions Meir had to make.  I don't think it is fair to say that the movie dumps the blame for the war on Meir - certainly Moshe Dayan, and other army officials seem to have made some disastrous errors - the film suggests.  The movie also suggests that Meir laid the groundwork for a future peace deal with Sadat by insisting on recognition and face to face meetings to end the conflict.  Overall, I thought it was an interesting film, even though it has its flaws.

One criticism has been that there are scenes in the movie with background Arabic and Hebrew discussion and no sub-titles.  Maybe that will be corrected.  I understood the Hebrew but I can certainly see how that would be  frustrating.  Another criticism is that it is ultimately a war movie, but with little or  no war footage.  In any case, as a time-limited character study of Golda and how she handled a serious crisis, I thought the film did a good  job.

It would take quite a stretch to tie in this blog to the other recent movie I saw - Adam Sandler's "You are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah."  I am generally not a huge Adam  Sandler fan - and I have to admit I was tempted to turn this off after about  five minutes.  The target audience is probably 11 to 15 year old girls and I guess that is not quite my category.  But as they say, I wanted  to see what all the yichus was about - so I stuck it out and  watched the whole thing.

There are quite a number of cringey scenes, Sandler humour (often not in the best of taste - but maybe suited to 11 to 15 year-olds) - and lots of scenes of the stereotypical bar and bat mitzvah "spectacles" - of the type that one might find in some very wealthy communities particularly in the U.S.  I thought the crazy Israeli DJ - "DJ Shmuly" was a character that I have seen before at bar and bat mitzvahs while my kids were doing a version of the circuit in Toronto.  The Rabbi was also an interesting character - trying to find new and "hip" ways to appeal to the kids.   

I actually thought that the ending was fairly good, if predictable (I won't spoil anything) and the movie wound up being "not as bad as I thought it might be" at the start. Sandler himself was pretty good as a father and some of the other characters performed well.  I wouldn't really want people watching this movie as their only exposure to bar and bat mitzvahs and thinking that this is what it is all about - but the reality for many Jews  whether in North America or in Israel - is that many of these events are all  about the party.

Sports

Israel is aiming to make it into the FIFA 2024 Euro Soccer championships.  They have a reasonable  shot and play some huge games on October 12, 2023 vs  Switzerland and October 15, 2023 vs. Kosovo.  So still a few weeks to go - but these are some enormous soccer matches for Israel's national team.  

In other  interesting news, Israel has been chosen to host the World Under 19 Soccer Championship Finals in 2027.  That should be very exciting.

I have been staying up late this week watching the Blue  Jays try to secure  a spot in the MLB playoffs.  So you know where to find me at 3 a.m.  Israel time - at least for one or two more days.  Hard to watch those games here - without a proper streaming service, though I do have one that seems to work most of the time.

That's about it  for now - time to go and put up the new "downsized" sukkah - for a much smaller crowd this year.  Forecast in Israel is for some very hot weather until at least Monday or Tuesday and then some nice Sukkot rain - scheduled to start even before we say the annual "prayer for rain."   

Wishing  everyone  a joyous, fun Sukkot holiday and a Shana Tova!



Wednesday, September 13, 2023

Pre-Rosh Hashanah Blog 2023/5784- From Israeli Supreme Court to the Israeli National Soccer Team



There are so many things going on in Israel that it is difficult to keep up.  It would be nice to leave my law career and  become a full-time blog writer - but things are busier than ever in my real world -  so don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen.  That (and maybe some travelling) explains the limited number  of articles that I have written lately.  But as Rosh Hashanah approaches - I just could not avoid writing about yesterday's Supreme Court hearing - one of Israel's most monumentous days in its 75 year history - from a legal point of view.  I will try to keep my discussion of the hearing reasonably short and touch on a  few other topics as well before wrapping up with some Rosh Hashanah thoughts.

Supreme Court of Israel Hearing on "Reasonableness"

It would probably take a 10 page blog, at least, to cover this properly but here is the relatively short version.

The Israeli Supreme Court consists of 15 judges.  In most cases, only some of the judges sit in panels for hearings.  The Chief Justice, along with other members, selects the number of judges, in odd numbers to hear cases.  Usually, it is not more than 11 judges, for very serious issues.  So for example, earlier this year, 11 judges sat together to decide whether Aryeh Deri, the thrice  convicted fraudster, could serve as a cabinet member in the  current government.  The ruling was 10-1 against Deri.

As I understand it, yesterday was the first time in Israeli history where all 15 judges took part in a hearing.  For those interested in legal issues - this was like a national championship event of Supreme Court advocacy.  Don't  worry I will  tie in the sports analogy a bit later.

As you might recall, maybe even from reading one of my previous blogs, the current Netanyahu government passed a "Basic Law Amendment" which removes the power of the Israeli Supreme Court to quash (void or nullify) government actions and decisions on the basis of extreme unreasonableness.

There is a long history about how the Supreme Court of Israel came to have this power but it has been a part of Israeli jurisprudence since  the 1950s.  As you may know, Israel does  not have a written  constitution but does have a series of "basic laws."  The short version of all of this discussion is that the Israeli Supreme Court, over time, expanded its jurisdiction to conduct "judicial review" of other legislation using the  "basic laws" which it elevated to quasi-constitutional status.  This means that the Israeli Supreme Court decided (led by then  Chief Justice Aharon Barak) that it had the power to cancel laws or decisions put forward by the Knesset if they violated the basic laws.  One of the main tests was whether the law or action proposed was "extremely unreasonable."  This has been part of the Israeli legal landscape for more than  20 years and maybe closer to 30.  The Supreme Court views this power as one of the checks on the power of a Knesset majority government - which could, otherwise, effectively enact any laws or measures, including those which might trample on the rights of minorities.

But unlike the situation in Canada, for example, where there is a written  constitution that gives the Supreme Court these  powers expressly, the Israeli Supreme Court accrued these powers over time, through precedent, or "took them" as opponents might say.

So the current Netanyahu government decided to try and "set the clock back" or, in other words, overturn 30 years of judicial precedent by enacting a law to reduce the powers of the Court.  They called it a "Basic Law Amendment" to try and give it quasi constitutional status.

Opponents of the legislation  brought a petition to the Supreme Court to strike the law.  In another  bizarre historical first, the Israeli AG is supporting the petitioners and the government retained its own private lawyers.

So yesterday, the Supreme Court conducted a marathon 13 hour session to  hear arguments about what they should do. 

As you might know from reading my blogs - this  type of constitutional, academic, political, philosophical hearing - is the type of hearing that I would have loved to watch and hear (if  not participate in) in its entirety.  Alas I was swamped with other deadlines - and could only watch and listen to parts of it.   But it was riveting!  

Some of the  questions being  discussed....

Where does the  Israeli Supreme Court derive its power to overturn government legislation?

How are the rights of minorities protected in Israel?

How can  the Basic Law be amended? 

Where is the proper balance in a modern democracy between the legislative arm and the judicial arm of government?  

If you weaken the judiciary - is it only the voters that can "oversee" the legislature?

My "short" summary is that I have no idea what the Court will do with this.  It is extremely difficult and complicated and there is no easy answer.  One popular prediction is that the Court will send it back to the Knesset with a need for "amendments" but won't strike  it out entirely.  I do think it will be a split decision and we may wind up with as many as five or six different opinions.   It is almost certain that there will be several hundred, if not thousands of pages to read. 

Apparently, we  can expect a decision within two months, so maybe I will  write  a longer blog analyzing that when in comes out.  I could go on and on about the  hearing but  it would take  me a full day and I'm not even sure you would want to read all of it.  Some of you might...

One of my "mentions of the day" which has attracted quite a great deal of press attention in Israel - is the Netanyahu government's lawyer Ilan Bombach, who asserted that Israel's "hastily drawn Constitution" does not give the Supreme Court the rights it has exercised over its history.  That led to a heated and fascinating exchange.  There is a bit of truth to what Bombach asserted but far more rhetoric, exaggeration and spin than truth, in my view.  We will see if his advocacy approach was effective.  In my  experience, one has to be cautiously assertive, even forceful, while trying to avoid insulting the judicial panel hearing the case outright - but then again, I'm not the one appearing at the Supreme Court.

Sports News

On the same day that the Supreme Court had its hands full - the Israeli National Soccer team played a huge game against Belarus - in its ongoing campaign to earn a spot in the 2024 Euro Soccer Tournament.  A few nights before, Israel had eked out a tie against Romania.  Israel still has to play four more  games - two relatively "easy" ones -  two more difficult.  Sometimes the "easy" ones are the hardest to win.  The games will be  played in October and November - and will determine whether  Israel earns a spot  in the  June 2024 tournament.  From my research, it looks like Israel has not actually played in a major world  soccer tournament since 1970.  There is still a long way to go  but Israel's late goal victory over Belarus yesterday was a huge step forward for the Israeli side.  So the Israeli soccer team was playing some of its most meaningful soccer ever while the Supreme Court was hearing one of its most consequential cases.   Did that tie it in enough?

Entertainment

I was hoping to watch the latest "Jewish Double Header" that so many people  are talking  about - "Golda" and  "You are so not invited to my Bat Mitzvah."  I wanted to include discussions  of both movies in my blog - but that will have to wait until next time.  Very different types of content, of course, - but I'll let you know if there  is a way to tie the two together - other than temporal proximity of their respective release dates and the fact that there is  some  type of Jewish theme or content to both movies.  If you have seen one or both, I welcome all comments.

Podcasts

I used my subway and airline travel time rather productively in June and  July and into  August and listened to all 70 episodes of an Israeli podcast called "The Party of Thoughts."  This is a political, philosophical podcast that addresses contemporary (and not so contemporary) issues in Israel including the nature of the country as a  Jewish and democratic country, competing philosophical ideas about modern democracy, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and many other issues. It is led by Micah Goodman, a research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, and Efrat Rosenberg Shapiro, an excellent and very experienced moderator.  In Hebrew, it is called "Mafleget Hamachshavot" and is available on Spotify.  Goodman and Rosenberg try to  explain different sides on many different issues and try to present a wide range  of viewpoints with empathy, understanding and respect.  They are both self-described Orthodox Jews but many ideas are discussed with a very liberal  bent.  Different podcasts examine  ideas of Jewish religious leaders - from Biblical times through Rambam, Hassidic Rabbis, and more contemporary Jewish thinkers  from Rabbi Avraham Isaac Cook to modern day Rabbis.  Others deal with Israel's legal development and history including Israel's current constitutional status.   Many other issues  are addressed.

The podcast is all in Hebrew - so you should only try to tackle this if your Hebrew is up to the challenge.   If you are interested, Micah Goodman has given a number of lectures in English on YouTube and some are very good.  I wouldn't say that I agree with everything on these podcasts - but I found many of them to be thought provoking, reasonably balanced - and filled with all kinds of references and discussions - of historians,  philosophers, theologians, political scientists and others.  This is not confined to Jewish thinkers or ideas - but includes discussions of far Eastern ideas, Plato, Marx, Rousseau, Hobbes, Locke as well as many other philosophers and other thinkers.  I learned quite a bit and really enjoyed it.  Thanks to my daughter for  the suggestion.  It is apparently a very popular podcast in Israel, listened to many different people, including many on different sides of the political spectrum.

Ultimately, Goodman and Rosenberg propose various types of compromises - for dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian issue, the current constitutional crisis in Israel - and other issues.  Again, I'm not saying I agree with their proposals  but they are very interesting.

Holidays

I supposed it is now time to get into High Holyday mode.  I have been a bit slow off the mark because of general busyness with my work -  and  some travel and family occasions (happy events).  I don't  have any particular role for Rosh Hashanah (in the past, I have  often read some or all of the Torah readings or lead services) - other than to make a few dishes - including a honey apple cake - thanks to Tori Avey's delicious recipe.

For the following week, I will be leading Kol Nidrei and Neilah tefillot at our community services in a friend's  backyard - so if you (or anyone you know) happen to be in Ra'anana and  would like to join an egalitarian liberal service - let me know.  

That's about it for now - I wish everyone a happy and  healthy New Year - with hopes for good health, peace, less political  tension, more moderation - and lots of laughter.  Shana Tova.