Biodun Iginla, BBC News

Biodun Iginla, BBC News
Showing posts with label Jenny Feder and Biodun Iginla. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jenny Feder and Biodun Iginla. Show all posts

Thursday, April 2, 2020

ANALYSIS: Passover on Zoom: Jewish leaders split on digital Seders


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Jewish worshippers gathered at the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem to take part in the Cohanim prayer (priest's blessing) during Passover
Jewish worshippers gathered at the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem to take part in the Cohanim prayer (priest's blessing) during Passover Thomas COEX AFP/File
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Jerusalem 
by Jenny Feder and Biodun Iginla, France24 News Analysts. Disclosure: Jenny Feder and Biodun Iginla dated when she was based in New York
The Jewish holiday of Passover has long inspired intense debate, with favourite topics including whether Moses actually parted the Red Sea or if the Ten Plagues were an ethical response to enslavement.
But with the COVID-19 pandemic raging, a previously unthinkable question has consumed Jewish debate less than a week before the holiday starts: is it permissible to hold the traditional Seder meal over Zoom?
The videoconferencing application has emerged as an essential tool during a crisis that has confined people across the globe in their homes.
But the app and similar tools that have connected people through the pandemic have created divisions among Jewish leaders.
Passover, an eight-day holiday that marks the Jewish people's biblical exodus from Egypt, begins Wednesday evening with a Seder, one of the most important events of the year for Jews.
A typical Seder involves large gatherings of relatives crowded around a table, who recount the Exodus story through song and prayer while sharing a multi-course meal.
- Are digital Seders kosher? -
Israel, which has more than 6,500 confirmed COVID-19 cases, has banned people from straying more than 100 metres from their homes except for essential activities.
A wealthy benefactor floated the idea of donating 10,000 computers to confined elderly people, allowing them to join loved ones in digital Seders.
He asked a group of Orthodox rabbis from the Sephardic tradition, which is rooted in southern Europe and North Africa, to assess if the plan was consistent with halacha, or Jewish law.
Rabbi Rephael Delouya, one of the 13-member panel that studied the issue, told us at France24 that the answer was "easy".
Digital Seders were permissible to alleviate loneliness that isolated elderly people were experiencing during the pandemic.
"Loneliness can lead to a weaker mind, which causes lower immunity," Delouya said.
"Mental health and physical health are connected."
The Sephardic rabbis also issued a formal ruling, or posek, declaring that conferencing apps like Zoom could be used in an "emergency" to aid the "elderly" and the "sick".
It could "give them motivation to continue fighting for their lives and to prevent them from falling into depression" the ruling said.
Delouya said the decision was based on guidance from "wise" Sephardic leaders, who more than 50 years ago approved the use of certain forms of electricity, like an oven light, on Jewish holidays.
They were later overruled by Rabbi Avrohom Yeshaya Karelitz of the Ashkenazi tradition of eastern Europe, whose guidance against using electricity on holidays prevailed across the Orthodox world.
- 'I don't bend' -
Israel's chief rabbis -- the Ashkenazi leader David Lau and the Sephardic Yitzhak Yosef -- pushed back against the videoconferencing decision.
"Loneliness is painful and we must respond to it, perhaps by having a video conference on the eve of the holiday before it begins, but not by desecrating the holiday," they wrote.
An expert in Orthodox movements at Israel's Bar Ilan University, Kimmy Caplan, told us at France24 that the debate hinged on tensions Judaism has faced previously when Orthodox rabbis confront social challenges.
"Overall, the Orthodox stance on many issues is that we don't (adjust) for social issues... when they contradict the letter of the law," Caplan said.
The typical response from Orthodox rabbis is, "I don't bend my legal system because of a social situation," he added.
A similar tension between social reality and Jewish law divided Orthodox and Conservative leaders in the US in the 1950s.
As American Jews moved to suburbs, and therefore further away from their synagogues, it became imperative for many to use cars on Shabbat.
Conservative rabbis decided the need to preserve Jewish life justified the use of cars, while Orthodox rabbis held firm in opposition, Caplan said.
- 'Turning point' -
Jerusalem resident Sabrina Castro-Moise told us at France24 that she will use videoconferencing on Seder night next week to connect with her 76-year-old mother, who lives nearby.
"We spend all the holidays together," she said.
Zoom will ensure her mother is not alone on Passover, "while being consistent with what (the panel of Sephardic) rabbis said", she added.
Michael Lev, a 44-year-old businessman agreed that the decision by the rabbis to allow Zoom was "humane".
"What's the purpose of the (Seder) ritual if you practice it alone?" he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is in quarantine after his health minister tested positive for COVID-19, urged the country late Wednesday to only have Seders "with the nuclear family that is with you now".
Passover, he said, could be a "turning point" in Israel's battle against COVID-19 if precautions are followed.

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Thursday, March 12, 2020

ANALYSIS: Four women at forefront of Israel's Arab political surge


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Nazareth, Palestine
by Jenny Feder and Biodun Iginla, France24 News Analysts
Newly elected Israeli MP Iman al-Khatib, greeting supporters in Nazareth, shook hands with women but tapped her heart with her right hand for men.
The gestures signalled the Muslim identity of the woman who is about to become Israel's first hijab-wearing MP and part of a group of Arab women poised to expand their voice in Israel's male-dominated politics.
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All major parties in the Jewish state are led by men, with women making up only 25 percent of lawmakers in the Knesset, or parliament.
But in March 2 elections, one party managed to double its female representation, albeit from a low base.
The predominantly Arab Joint List won 15 of the Knesset's 120-seats, the alliance's best-ever performance and up from 13 during stalemate election last September.
The List also counts four women among its incoming MPs, up from two in September.
Khatib will be part of the Knesset's largest ever contingent of Arab women, including three Joint List colleagues and a Druze woman from the centrist Blue and White party.
The List draws most of its support from Israel's roughly 20-percent Arab minority -- who have Israeli citizenship but are Palestinian by heritage.
Israel's Arab minority complain of discrimination and accuse Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of treating them as second-class citizens.
Netanyahu counters that his government has invested more in Arab neighbourhoods than any in the history of the Jewish state.
The List's elected women told us at France24 that while they will focus on their constituent's concerns, they also care about wider issues in Israeli society.
"Do not make the veil a barrier. Look at the capabilities of the veil's wearer -- their ethics, work, skills and attitudes," said Khatib, a 54-year-old mother of four.
There are "religious Jewish women in the Knesset", she added. "We didn't hear any comment about them."
"We must deal with people first as human beings."
- 'Lack of options' -
Like other Arab-Israeli MPs, Khatib speaks fluent Hebrew.
She studied social services at Tel Aviv University, specialising in women's support. In parliament, she wants to tackle issues ranging from violence in Arab neighbourhoods to poverty and housing.
"Sixty-four percent of women are excluded from work, not because they don't want to work but due to conditions and lack of travel options," she said, referring to the Arab population.
Inflexible hours mean Arab women often need to leave for work before their children go to school, she said.
"These issues must be put on the table at the Knesset."
The new parliament will be sworn in next week but some fear it will last only a few months.
No bloc has a 61-seat majority, a repeat of inconclusive polls in April and September 2019.
Netanyahu's right-wing Likud won 36 seats and controls a total of 58, counting its allies.
Netanyahu's main rival Benny Gantz, who heads Blue and White, needs the Joint List's support to even consider forming a government.
The List's head Ayman Odeh has indicated he could back Gantz under certain conditions.
- Israel's youngest lawmaker -
Aida Touma, a Christian Arab-Israeli re-elected on March 2, is on the List's four-person team negotiating with Gantz.
A women's activist before entering parliament in 2015, Touma stressed that the List's incoming female MPs "are from all walks of life and are capable and serious representatives of the whole of society".
The Joint List is an alliance of parties representing both Muslim and Christian Arab Israelis, as well as some Jewish leftists.
Its members range from Islamists to communists.
One member, Sundus Salih, is at 34 about to become Israel's youngest lawmaker.
The mother of three is from Al-Mashhad town near Nazareth and has a masters in science and technology.
"There are differences between the (List's) parties... but we four women unite and agree on most things," Salih told us at France24. 
"As a mother and a teacher I am worried by the proliferation of violence and guns."
The fourth member of the quartet almost didn't make it on the ballot.
Hiba Yazbek, also from Nazareth, was blocked as a candidate by the Central Elections Committee over Facebook posts allegedly supporting terrorism.
She denied the charges and won an appeal. Now she is determined to use her Knesset seat to fight for Arab rights.
"We intend to translate our great electoral strength into political positions that reinforce our position as Arabs in this country and confront the right-wing and its agendas," she told AFP.

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