It’s Not Your Mother’s Knesset
They davened in Knesset last week for the three bochrim. Men and women, separate. With a mechitzah.
Mi k’amcha Yisrael.
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Wow! …Just wow!
It would have been even nicer had the UTJ contingent also davened in the minyan.
There really isn’t anything remarkable about this. The Knesset has had a Orthodox synagogue for decades, probably from its very beginning, just like many, many Israeli state institutions such as the government company I work for and the IDF which has been frequently excoriated for not being “frum enough”.
While I understand the need for the mehitza here, it would have been much nicer for the women and men to be side by side as opposed to the women being in the back.
In all fairness, I don’t think many Knesset members from the past sixty years, even the most secular, would have davened in a minyan without a mechitza. After all, they did build the Beit Knesset with a women’s section when they built the building, and that was fifty years ago.
Yossie, according to the official Knesset press release, at least two UTJ members were there.
You can see them in some of the pictures here:
http://lifeinisrael.blogspot.co.il/2014/06/picture-of-day-knesset-holds-tefilla.html
Although I will concede R’ Adlerstein’s point- just under a third of the Knesset (39 members) is openly religious, and probably another thirty or so members are Shomer Shabbat.
Maybe next time they’ll allot more than 5% of the room to females when putting up that mechitzah.
Of course this is very heartwarming, yet I am not sure I would want Israel to become a theocracy.
Yossie, The UTJ members were also in the room but they are not seen in this specific photo. There’s a nice video of this event which shows the members of UTJ and Shas davening along.
Interesting that the only MK wearing a hat is Dov Lipman. There are other pictures taken which show Ayelet Shaked sharing a siddur with Orit Struk and Yuli Edelstein – the speaker of the Knesset who was the shaliach tzibbur – saying tachanun. They also show Gafni and Eichler participating.
Bet you don’t know that the only chaverat haknesset who wears a sheitel is Tzippy Hotavelli of the Likud – Orit Struk and Shuli Mualem of ha-Bayit ha-Yehudi wear tichels and hats.
Mi Keamchea Goy Echad BaAretz!
The reason UTJ and Shas are unseen..is because they’re in the front..Duh..
Note that the only black hat is Dov Lipman 🙂
it is hard to reconcile this with the proclamations in certain quite religious circles, that many of the pictured members are Amalek …..