Roundup from page 10
Women Of The Wall
SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) -- A group of
North American rabbis has launched an
online campaign to support women who
want to pray at the Western Wall with
Torahs and prayer shawls.
The 28 rabbis, calling themselves
Rabbis for Women of the Wall, sent a let-
ter to seven Israeli leaders urging protec-
tion for those women.
The letter, signed by the presidents of
the Reform, Conservative, Renewal and
Reconstructionist rabbinical associa-
tions, was sent to Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu, Knesset Speaker
Reuven Rivlin, opposition leader and
Kadima Party head Tzipi Livini, Jewish
Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky and
Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, rabbi of the
Western Wall and Holy Sites.
It calls upon the officials, as well as
Jerusalem's mayor and police chief, to
"provide protection to Women of the Wall
as they pray at the Kotel ... rather than
harassing them."
The letter also calls on the Israeli
officials to "find appropriate and safe
venues at the Kotel for Jews who are not
comfortable with women leading worship
or holding the Torah or reading from it
to enjoy their practice of Judaism unhin-
dered, and physically separated from
other designated portions of the Kotel
where women are allowed to lead wor-
ship, wear a tallit, wear tefillin, hold the
Torah and read from the Torah!'
For more than 20 years, members of
Women of the Wall have fought, and lost,
legal battles in Israeli courts seeking
the right to pray with Torahs and prayer
shawls at the Western Wall. They have
faced physical and verbal attacks from
haredi Orthodox men and women at the
site.
The group has been permitted to pray
at an alternate site, Robinson's Arch, at
the southern end of the wall.
'Non - Jews Serve Jews'
JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israeli Sephardic
leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef in his weekly
Saturday night sermon said that non-
Jews exist to serve Jews.
"Goyim were born only to serve us.
Without that, they have no place in the
world; only to serve the People of Israel,"
he said during a public discussion of
what kind of work non-Jews are allowed
to perform on Shabbat.
"Why are gentiles needed? They will
work, they will plow, they will reap. We
will sit like an effendi and eat," he said to
some laughter.
Yosef, the spiritual leader of the Shas
Party and the former chief Sephardi
rabbi of Israel, also said that the lives of
non-Jews are protected in order to pre-
vent financial loss to Jews.
"With gentiles, it will be like any
person: They need to die, but God will
give them longevity. Why? Imagine that
one's donkey would die, they'd lose their
money. This is his servant. That's why he
gets a long life, to work well for this Jew,"
said the rabbi, who recently turned 90.
An audio recording of some of the
rabbi's Oct. 16 remarks was broadcast on
Israel's Channel 10.
The American Jewish Committee con-
demned the rabbi's remarks in a state-
ment.
"I pointed out
the poodle
in the sky.
My 5-year-old
pointed out
that it was a
cumulus humilis poodle."
October 28 • 2010
114
Nazi - Looted Art Database
BONN (JTA) -- A searchable database of
more than 20,000 Nazi-looted art objects
has gone online.
At least half of the objects, search-
able by item, artist and owner, have not
been restituted to their original owners,
according to the Conference on Jewish
Material Claims Against Germany.
The database is a project of the Claims
Conference, with technical support pro-
vided by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial
Museum. It reveals the fate of each of
more than 20,000 art objects taken from
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"Rabbi Yosef's remarks — suggest-
ing outrageously that Jewish scripture
asserts non-Jews exist to serve Jews —
are abhorrent and an offense to human
dignity and human equality:' said AJC
Executive Director David Harris.
"Judaism first taught the world that
all individuals are created in the divine
image, which helped form the basis of
our moral code. A rabbi should be the
first, not the last, to reflect that bedrock
teaching of our tradition!'