IDF rabbi: We should exempt religious troops from events where women sing
Yuval Azoulay; 24/7/08
The Israel Defense Forces’ head of Halacha (Jewish Law) has said that religious soldiers should be exempt from participating in army ceremonies that include appearances by female singers. Rabbi Maj. Menachem Perle’s stated this after a female singer from the army band sang a number of songs at a rehearsal for the final ceremony for a course of soldiers from the Kfir infantry brigade, which includes the religious Nahal Haredi battalion and a number of platoons of students from Jewish seminaries. One of the soldiers present at the ceremony later posted a question to the military rabbi via the Web site Yeshiva, asking if it was permissible by Jewish law to remain in the audience during the appearance of the female singer. He also pointed out that a number of religious soldiers had left the hall when the female singer came up to the stage during the ceremony. Perle said the prohibition on listening to female singers was based on the halachic ruling that kol haisha arve (the voice of a woman is shameful, or sexual).
See: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1004856.html
Dance of drums and belief
Rukhl Schaechter, 24/7/08
One of this year’s arts fellows at Drisha, a Torah study center for women that is located on New York City’s Upper West Side, is a 23-year-old Barnard College graduate named Anna Schon. As a product of the Modern Orthodox day schools, she blends into the student body easily. But when she is not studying the Prophets or the talmudic laws about transactions in the tractate Bava Kama, Schon leads a very different kind of life. She is an active member of four New York dance companies - an unusual profession for an observant Jew, since many performances take place on the Sabbath, and since, according to the laws of tsniut (modesty), dancing with or performing before unrelated members of the opposite sex is not permitted. Anna Schon identifies herself as modern orthodox - and as a modern dancer.
See: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1004414.html
Fearing Haredi ire, Knesset choir excludes women singers at Brown session; Shahar Ilan; 23/7/04; http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1004102.html
‘Hatikva’ belongs to women, too
Editorial; 24/7/08
Only the male third of the Knesset Choir was allowed to sing the national anthem, “Hatikva,” on Monday, at the end of a special meeting in honor of visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. It turns out that this is state policy. To sing the anthem, the Knesset invites to the plenum only male singers or child choirs, as long as the girls are not over 12 years of age. The reason for this is the concern that female singers will make the ultra-Orthodox MKs leave the assembly hall, arguing that “a woman’s voice constitutes sexual incitement.” What was special about the meeting with Brown was that no all-male or children’s choir had been invited, so they simply made do with the male section of the Knesset Choir. The women, who make up two thirds of the choir, were left in their offices. Women may sing in the Knesset - but only in the Chagall Hall, not in the plenum. If this were not our parliament, it would be very funny. But because it is our parliament, it is hard to decide whether to laugh or cry.
See: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1004521.html
Tags: Gender, Israel, Womens Rights