world
Year in Review
Fighting over Jewish pluralism.
I n 5773, the religious wars just would
not go away.
In Israel, elections that extended
Benjamin Netanyahu's tenure as prime
minister delivered big wins to two anti-
Orthodox-establishment upstarts, Yair
Lapid and Naftali Bennett. For the first
time in nearly two decades, Israel's coali-
tion government included no haredi
Orthodox parties.
The Israel Defense Forces took concrete
steps toward ending the draft exemp-
tion for haredi men. Israel's Ministry of
Religious Services agreed for the first time
to allow non-Orthodox rabbis to serve in
communal positions with state-funded
salaries.
And the Reform and Conservative
movements finally broke through years
of apathy to get the Israeli government to
consider changes to the Orthodox monop-
oly over ritual and prayer at the Western
Wall — but there's been no movement
beyond proposals.
In the United States, Yeshivat Maharat, a
New York school for women founded four
years ago to train Orthodox female rab-
binic authorities, graduated its first class
of Orthodox clergy, known as maharats.
The Supreme Court granted federal ben-
efits to same-sex couples and struck down
a California law banning gay marriage in
the state.
While Jewish liberals seemed to have a
good year, Orthodox leaders and institu-
tions found themselves on the defensive.
Israel's Ashkenazi chief rabbi, Yona
Metzger, was arrested on suspicion of
fraud and money laundering.
Yeshiva University, the flagship institu-
tion of Modern Orthodoxy, became the
subject of a $380 million lawsuit by former
students alleging that two rabbis who used
to teach at the Y.U. high school for boys in
the 1970s and '80s committed hundreds
98 August 29 • 2013
Ge da lya Go ttdeng er v ia Crea tive Commons
Uriel Heilman
NEW YORK (JTA)
Two Chasidic men walk in
Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Along with Borough Park, the
neighborhood accounts for
two-thirds of overall Jewish
population growth in the New
York area, according to new
details from a 2012 study.
Israeli riot police scuffle with
haredi Orthodox Jews at the
Western Wall plaza in a bid to
keep them away from Women of
the Wall's monthly prayer service
at the holy site in Jerusalem,
May 10, 2013.
5773 on page 100