OLDSMOBILES SAABS
FOR LESS
FOR LESS
prime minister, originally
backed the Ramon formula. But
last week they bowed to pres-
sure from the Histadrut and
voted (along with the majority
at the Labor Party Conference)
to bring the legislation into line
with the Histadrut's demands.
The result, other than Mr. Ra-
mon's resignation, was that al-
ternate legislation (following
Like the U.S, Israel
is grappling with
proposed changes
in health care.
Mr. Ramon's original formula)
is being tabled by other parties,
while Labor has lost points with
the electorate for placing
parochial interests above those
of the public at large.
And Labor has yet to come
forward with a convincing de-
fense against that damaging
claim.
At the very same time, Is-
rael's system of higher educa-
tion faced the most vexing crisis
in its history as the strike of its
academic staff entered its sixth
week. Arguing that their in-
comes are downright humiliat-
ing for people of their education
and stature (salaries, before tax-
es, range from $17,635 a year
for junior lecturers to $27,172
for full professors), the faculty
members have demanded that
their wages be doubled.
The government has be-
grudgingly agreed to negotiate
(following the recommendation
of an independent commission)
on a 30 percent raise. But it is
leery even about granting that
increase, since any substantial
rise in the salaries of one group
of public-sector workers will in-
evitably spawn demands by all
the others — and cripple the en-
tire economy.
Various interesting compro-
mises have been put forward,
including special increments
based upon excellence in teach-
ing and scholarship. But the
scholars have stood firm, and
with the country's students up
in arms, the deadlocked nego-
tiations make the peace talks
look like a piece of cake.
As if all that weren't enough,
last week the High Court of Jus-
tice issued a decision that has
thrown Israel's religious estab-
lishment into an uproar and
threatens to bring the work of
the religious courts — which
have sole jurisdiction over mat-
ters of marriage and divorce —
to a standstill.
In ruling on property settle-
ments in divorce cases, the rab-
binical judges have always
regarded themselves as bound
only by the financial terms of
.
the wife's ketubah (which are
cited in an ancient coin called
silver "zekukim"). Last week,
however, in response to an ap-
peal by a woman invoking the
1951 Common Property Law,
the High Court obliged the rab-
binical judges to place civil law
above rabbinical law in decid-
ing property settlements.
The reaction from the reli-
gious establishment was swift
— and predictable. Threaten-
ing to defy the High Court's de-
cision, Chief Rabbis Yisrael Lau
and Eliyahu Bakshi Doron in-
sisted that "the rabbinical
courts in Israel rule, and will
continue to rule, on the basis of
the halacha alone," while the di-
rector of the rabbinical courts
warned that any interference
with their competence will only
lead to "delays and cause ad-
ditional harm to women."
What's more, members of the
National Religious Party have
already proposed two bills lim-
iting the authority of the
Supreme Court in religious af-
fairs — which could prove yet
another embarrassing chal-
lenge to the Labor government.
What binds these three oth-
erwise disparate issues togeth-
er, and links them with the
peace process, is the common
observation that Israeli society
is in the throes a wide-ranging
transition — political, econom-
ic, and social.
Just as the peace process is
forcing Israelis to think in new
terms about their future in the
region, so changing social and
economic realities are causing
them to chafe against the dic-
tates of outmoded institutions
that often seem to be mounting
rear-guard actions to maintain
their power.
The economic convention
that links the salaries of schol-
ars to those of street cleaners,
for instance, grew out of condi-
tions and a mindset that are as
remote from contemporary Is-
raeli life as are the "zekukim"
on which divorcees are com-
pelled to build their financial fu-
tures.
The Labor Party grasped this
trend when it geared up for elec-
tions two years ago. It intro-
duced party primaries, brought
a crop of younger deputies into
the Knesset and, in declaring a
"change of national priorities,"
shifted away from serving ide-
ologies forged in the last centu-
ry (and far earlier) to ushering
Israel into the next one. EJ
Remarkably, Stephen Birm-
ingham, who wrote the well
known three- book series
tracing the rise of Jewish
European immigrants in
American Jewish culture —
Our Crowd, The Grandees
and The Rest of Us — is not
Jewish.
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111