Charedim, segregation and the battle for Beit Shemesh

I've been reeling the past few days over the information coming from Israel.  Of course, tensions are always high in the Middle East, but the tensions in Ramat Beit Shemesh are not from the outside.  They are coming from within.  A fight between Dat Leumi (Religious Zionists - think standard Orthodox in the US or Canada) and some fringe Charedim that has been long simmering is at a boiling point.

The problem centers around Orot Banot, an all girls school that is for the Dati Leumi in the neighborhood.  Reports have been coming in that the girls on their way to school are being spit on , called "shiksas", and called whores. Their mothers are harassed as well.

These are not girls or women dressed immodestly!  They are dressed modestly by normative Orthodox practice, but not dressed as the Charedim dress.

Here is an Englished subtited (thank you A Mother in Israel) video about what's going down

Here is another interview with a resident of RBS:

As the woman in the second interview points out, it's not ALL charedim.  It's a small fringe.  But they are loud and strong.

It's also not just the school harassment.  This particular group have also posted signs demanding that segregation on the sidewalks be the rule. They regularly harass DL members of the community.  The funny thing is, as charedi they are almost completely reliant on the good folks they are harassing.  How so?  Most charedi are on government assistance.  The men study all day and the women are at home.  They have large families and now way to pay for these families.  So they rely on the tax dollars of the same people they give hell to. Cut them off, would be my suggestion.

Where are the police,  you may ask.  When the police did show up this past weekend to remove the signs.  And it sparked a nice clash. They had rocks and eggs thrown at them.   Journalists have been attacked too.

It's hard for me to explain to people who are not Jewish that 1) this is not all ultra-Orthodox and 2) they are attacking other Orthodox, not secular residents (although secular residents suffer under the charedi too). I am disgusted the government is not taking a stand against these fringe groups.  I am even more disgusted that the rabbonim are not taking a harder line on them.  What's happening in RBS is bad for all of Israel and bad for Jews everywhere.

Hunger strike

I'm pretty certain Sophia is on a hunger strike.  What's she protesting I am not sure of but she's devoted to her cause. Maybe I should take comfort in the fact that she is so devoted but I really am worried about her not eating. And for all I know she's protesting me and my oppressive regime.

So far today I have tried toast, applesauce, egg, noodles, mangoes, pomegranates, and yogurt.  Each time she shrieked at me and acted like I was approaching her with a bottle of poison.  I'm not a bad cook, kid. She has been nibbling on things like Cheerios and goldfish crackers but not even as much as she normally would. This is day 3 of this behavior.  She's drinking milk and water just fine.

My mother has told me not to worry, she's being a toddler.  Well...you know, I'm old and cannot handle this stress. So I guess I'll just make a buffet for dinner and pray she picks something off it.

Preemie toddlerhood

Last week at the Neonatal Follow Up Clinic, we received a dire warning.  Sophia is on her way to needing therapy because we give in too much.

It's true.  When she gets up at 1am and won't go back to bed,  I do just let her out into the living room to play and watch In the Night Garden dvds. It's because I hate crying and and I feel like a jerk.  She gets these super big tears and I am convinced she'll remember that I was a jerk who let her cry and need therapy some day.

I understand kids need and want boundaries.  I'm just bad at it.  So Nick and I re-committed to holding the line with her, no matter how wound up she gets.

Otherwise, she's doing well.  She's a limit testing, walking, climbing, tantrum throwing toddler.  I'll take it.  :)

Me and the challah, a love story.

I'm really enjoying baking challah every week.  It gives me a greater connection to my Judaism and the Jewish world. As someone living not only in the diaspora, but also feeling like I live in hamidbar, I have little connection to the Jewish world.  No shul to attend every week unless I schlep to Vancouver.  No one to sit by for Shabbat (other than DH and DD).  It makes a girl feel pretty alone.

But baking challah has eased that a bit.  I feel the generations running through me as I measure, stir, and knead.  Every time I braid a challah I think of women doing this in modern day shtetls in places like New Square or Monsey, or Mea Shearim. I don't feel separate from them but I feel a part of them.

Don't get me wrong.  I'm not totally happy.  I do miss having that daily connection to Jewish life right outside my front door.  But for now, baking challah is as close as I can get and it feels good.  Shabbat Shalom.

The Politics of Hair Covering

I cover my hair about 75% of the time that I leave the house as it is a requirement of married Jewish women. I don't cover it at home because when I am at home, I rarely have any visitors and I am trying to minimize damage. Yes, covering your hair constantly does damage it.  And frankly, I am just too vain to watch my hair break and fall out.

As for what I cover with, my preference is tichels.,  Beautiful scarves.  Love them.  In North America, tichels are hardly seen but sheitels (wigs) are the norm.  I have an idea why and it irks me. It's come to it being an almost political statement.  If you wear a tichel, people assume you are Israeli.  If you respond you are not, they assume you are Sephardic or have a Sephardic husband.  If you also deny that, they look at you like you are not only a freak but also very wrong.  See, most of the North American Jewish population is Ashkenazic. and the hair covering of choice is the sheitel.

The sheitel does have it's benefits, to be sure.  The biggest is that you can finally have hair that looks fabulous all the time. Some of the more picky rabbis have realized this and so they require women wear a cover of the sheitel.  Yes, a cover over a cover.  No, they can't just wear a hat or tichel.  They have to wear a sheitel, with a hat or tichel over it.  Why? Because they said so.  And it's political.  So if you don't, your community will probably come to regard you as rather goyish. That's because those rabbis prefer sheitels because they cover every strand of hair.

But sheitels are hot, itchy, and do a lot of damage if worn all the time.  And why can't Jewish women not want to destroy their hair and not want to be uncomfortable?  Why can't the tichel or the hat be embraced?  Sure you occasionally see some hair peeking out of a tichel in Israel.  But these women are somehow less observant than their North American counterparts who sit comfortably every night not worrying about if their husband or child or themselves will be blown to bits by terrorists?

Challah baking

I love to cook and bake.  I've always been a baking failure though. My breads come out like rocks. Or dried out. Last week I played around with some French bread, artisan style.  It came out pretty but not so much in the taste department.  I've successfully made challah for Shabbat, but it was many years ago.  I decided to start again but was afraid of massive failure.  I took from a few recipes I found at imamother.com and put them together for this:

NOTE: Do not change  the order of mixing this recipe or it may not be fail safe anymore!
Mix together:

1.5 Tbsp. dry active yeast (that's 2 packets)
1/2 cup warm water
A pinch of sugar


*After mixing yeast with the warm water and the pinch of sugar, wait for yeast to foam and bubble.  This tells you that your yeast is indeed active. Make sure water is just slightly above lukewarm.  Too cold water will cause yeast not to activate. Too hot water will kill the yeast.

Add and mix together with dissolved yeast:

1-1/2 cup warm water (this makes 2 cups total of warm water, including the 1/2 water used in the yeast)
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
3.5 cups flour

Add to mixture and mix together:

2 eggs beaten
1/2 cup oil

Add to mixture and mix together:

3-1/2 to 4 cups flour
Remove from bowl and knead into a good dough. Lightly sprinkle with flour while kneading. Continue kneading until no longer sticky but not dry. About 10 mins.

Place in a lightly oiled bowl.  Turn the dough to get the dough oiled as well. Cover with clean towel (a tea towel or something not terry cloth.  Or just use plastic wrap) and let rise for 1 to 2 hour.  Punch dough down at least three times during the rise. Letting it rise for 2 hours makes for a fluffier challah.

After rising, take the piece of dough that you will be separating and either burn it on your gas stove flame or wrap it in foil and burn it up in your oven. This recipe is not large enough to make the bracha, so you just separate. If you double the recipe and a bit more flour you have enough to make the bracha.

Shape dough into braided loaves (I use 6 strands).

Let the braided loaves rise on parchment lined cookie sheets for about an hour to 1.5 hours.

Brush with egg wash

If you like add toppings:
1) a mixture of salt and garlic powder
2) a mixture of sugar and cinnamon
3) or add either poppy seeds or sesame seeds

 After final rise, place challah in cold oven.  Turn on heat to 350 degrees and bake for 30-45 minutes or until gold brown.  A cold oven allows the challah to continue rising as it warms up to baking temp.
This recipe can be doubled.

And....

Here is right before it went into the oven:

And this is when it came out:

It was fluffy, light, not dried out, and just incredible!

Success!


Impressed with myself, I am going to try a standard white sandwich loaf tomorrow.  Hopefully I will become the bread making success I long to be.

Moving over from Wordpress

Sort of.  I'll probably still keep WP.  I'm trying to figure out which I like better.  Yes, I am fickle.

Here's the link to my WP: http://thefailimaleh.wordpress.com/