Roundup

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Black Female Rabbi Leaving
GREENVILLE (JTA) -- The first African-
American female rabbi will leave her
congregation this summer.
Rabbi Alysa Stanton's contract with
Congregation Bayt Shalom in Greenville,
N.C., was not renewed, the Forward
reported on Jan. 6
"We felt Rabbi Stanton has brought a
lot of gifts to the congregation, but we
felt she wasn't a good fit for the direction
we're going',' board president Samantha
Pilot told the Forward. "I can tell you with
certainty that race — I never heard that
come up once during her tenure or now.
It's a non-issue'
Bayt Shalom is a small Conservative
congregation that also is affiliated with
the Reform movement.
Stanton said she would serve out her
contract, which expires at the end of July.
Stanton, 47, a convert and mother
to an adopted teenage daughter, was
ordained at the Hebrew Union College-
Jewish Institute of Religion in June 2009
and took up her full-time pulpit shortly
thereafter.
The former Pentecostal Christian con-
verted 20 years ago while in college. She
is a trained psychotherapist who special-
izes in trauma and grief.

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Gender Segregation OK
JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Gender segregation
on Israeli public buses may continue as
long as passengers agree, the country's
Supreme Court ruled.
The practice will still be allowed
on dozens of bus lines serving the
haredi Orthodox community, known as
Mehadrin lines, as long as passengers
are not coerced and no violence erupts,
according to the Jan. 6 ruling.

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Thank you to our corporate partner:

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Questions? 248-642-4260 x183

Jewish
Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit

WOMEN'S DEPARTMENT

1643900

10 January 13 • 2011

Birthright Investment Up
JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israel's government
will more than double its investment in
the popular Birthright Israel program.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
made the Jan. 6 announcement before
3,000 program participants in Jerusalem,
the Jerusalem Post reported.
"My government will give more than
double its investment in Birthright, and
over the next few years we will invest
more than $100 million in Birthright:'
said Netanyahu, according to the Post.
"Together with private donations, we
can increase the number of people to
50,000 a year."
Considered one of the most suc-
cessful initiatives in the Jewish world,
Birthright Israel provides free 10-day
trips to Israel for Jewish young adults
aged 18-26. Some 30,000 people par-
ticipate in the program each year; more
than a quarter-million have partici-
pated since its inception in 2000.

The finding adopted recommenda-
tions made last year by a Transportation
Ministry committee that found that the
Mehadrin lines should be allowed as long
as the segregation was voluntary and
women were not forced to sit in the back
of the bus, Haaretz reported. The state
had accepted the finding.
The legal opinion was in response
to a lawsuit filed in 2007 by a group of
women and the Israel Religious Action
Center, an organization of Israel's Reform,
or Progressive, movement.
"A public transportation operator, like
any other person, does not have the right
to order, request or tell women where
they may sit simply because they are
women:' Supreme Court Justice Elyakim
Rubinstein wrote in his ruling."They
must sit wherever they like.
"As I now read over these lines empha-
sizing this, I am astounded that there
was even a need to write them in the year
2010," he added. "Have the days of Rosa
Parks, the African American woman who
collapsed the racist segregation on an
Alabama bus in 1955, returned?"
The judges ordered the Egged bus
company to institute the new rules dur-
ing a 30-day trial period, during which
time the Transportation Ministry must
hold undercover and open inspections
to ensure that the rules are being fol-
lowed. The company also must establish
complaint centers for women passengers,
according to the ruling.
Women's groups and the Israel Religious
Action Center told reporters that they were
pleased with the decision, which they said
shows that the court endorses the idea that
segregation is illegal.

Kosher Duties Taken Over
NEW YORK (JTA) -- New York safety
inspectors will be trained to do the work
of kosher inspectors, after budget cuts
depleted the state's kosher division.
Rabbi Luzer Weiss, the director of the
now defunct Kosher Division of the New
York Department of Agriculture and
Markets, will train the 85 inspectors to
ensure that the proper disclosures are
posted in kosher retail establishments,
the New York Jewish Week reported.
A 2004 change in the state's kosher law
prevents state inspectors from enforc-
ing Orthodox standards of kashrut.
According to the new law, kosher estab-
lishments must disclose the standards
they use and under whose authority they
operate, but are not required to adhere to
Orthodox regulations.
Weiss is the only employee left in the
kosher division, which once employed
11 inspectors, following budget cuts and
retirements in the past year. The cuts will
save up to $1 million a year in salary, ben-
efits and services, according to reports.

