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Collateral Benefits to Take Away

Bonna Devora Haberman — Tue, 21 May 2013 09:03:32 +0000

Much talk about conflicts these days is about collateral damage. Let’s talk about collateral benefits for a change. Brazilian theater master Augusto Boal taught me how theater can be rehearsals for better life. I started up a conversation with a white-haired and mustached burly fellow standing by his pick-up truck on my street this morning. [...]

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Israel Spring: A Passover Seder Liberation Supplement

Bonna Devora Haberman — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 14:08:14 +0000

The last Jerusalem almond flurries flutter away as leaves bud forth. Inside, many of us scour our homes, businesses, cafés. Hasidic masters make a metaphor of Jewish spring cleaning. The point is to purge our hearts of excess leaven – self-absorption, indulgence, ego puffery. With President Obama in town on his mission to jump-start a renewed peace process, I [...]

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Matza and Roses

Bonna Devora Haberman — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 17:16:22 +0000

Horrified and helpless, the crowds — I among them — looked up at the burning building, saw girl after girl appear at the reddened windows, pause for a terrified moment, and then leap to the pavement below, to land as mangled, bloody pulp. This went on for what seemed a ghastly eternity. Occasionally a girl [...]

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Esther at the Wall?

Bonna Devora Haberman — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 00:03:04 +0000

Adar is the Hebrew month of masquerade, parody, and inversion, the month of Purim. In the Scroll of Esther, I reveal hidden links between ancient Persia and contemporary Jerusalem. Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch reigns over the Western Wall and all of the holy sites throughout the modern State of Israel. This is Ahasuerus who reigned, from India even unto [...]

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King Herod’s monument, tomb or temple?

Bonna Devora Haberman — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 21:52:41 +0000

Why is the monumental exhibit at the Israel Museum, “Herod the Great: The King’s Final Journey” making such a buzz? And why did the museum invest in Herod more than in any other exhibit – ever? Given the extent of Herod’s imprint throughout the country, why did the museum focus its reconstructive efforts on his [...]

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Israeli Judaism – Under Arrest

Bonna Devora Haberman — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 15:33:19 +0000

Now that the war is over, we have returned to everyday Jerusalem challenges. The first of this Hebrew month of Tevet was the twenty-fourth anniversary of Women of the Wall – the Israeli initiative I convened for morning prayers to celebrate monthly at the Kotel. On that sunny morning when we were all much younger, I did [...]

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Collaboration under fire

Bonna Devora Haberman — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 14:15:24 +0000

By Bonna Devora Haberman & Kadar Herini War is raging. Missiles are exploding closer and closer to our center core. We contract into fear, mourn the loss of life and devastation, and worry for the safety of our loved ones. We also affirm our commitment and work tirelessly to build our capacity for peace. Though art [...]

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Scaling the Western wall

Bonna Devora Haberman — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 06:40:35 +0000

Many people are appalled by the recent arrests of women at the Western Wall for donning a tallit prayer shawl and reciting the Shma – a central credo of Jewish faith. How can an open society condone such oppression? In 1989, when I convened the initial Rosh Hodesh (New Month) prayers of what came to be known as “Women of [...]

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The wailing shawl

Bonna Devora Haberman — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 14:20:06 +0000

On my way in to the Western Wall plaza for Rosh Hodesh prayers with Women of the Wall this morning, the security officer held me for 10 minutes while he tried to verify with his superior whether or not I should be permitted to enter with six copies of my new book about Zionism. They [...]

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Yizkor tears

Bonna Devora Haberman — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 10:56:34 +0000

This past week, traffic jammed the roads leading to the graves lined up on the hills at the entrance to Jerusalem — cars driven to visit our deceased in this holy season. Attendance of the Yizkor memorial service on the morning of Yom Kippur attests that reverence for the dead is alive among our people [...]

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Romeo and Juliet in Jerusalem: A plea to lovers’ families and friends

Bonna Devora Haberman — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 11:47:18 +0000

From the season of mourning excess hatred among the Jewish People, we arise to celebrate love. The Talmud recalls young women dressing in simple white garments and going out to dance in the vineyards on Tu B’Av, as grapes plump to ripeness, and the moon waxes rotund over the holy land (Ta’anit 30b-31a). Commitment, betrothal, and [...]

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Why extremists always focus on women

Bonna Devora Haberman — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 19:11:34 +0000

As the Muslim Brotherhood prepares to take elected office in Egypt, and in the aftermath of the chief rabbis’ emergency meeting to address the threat open-minded, egalitarian Judaism poses to Israel, American Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s mystery about extremists achieves renewed poignancy. Clinton puts her finger on an aching absurdity of our historic moment – our societies [...]

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Open society shut down at the Western Wall

Bonna Devora Haberman — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 08:52:53 +0000

This first morning of the month of Tammuz, the month in which we begin to count the days toward commemorating the destruction of Jerusalem, Israeli police detained a woman for wearing her prayer shawl in the plaza of the remnant of the ancient Temple. Whether we agree or disagree with the particular religious observance by [...]

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From ‘is’ to ‘ought’: An open letter to Peter Beinart

Bonna Devora Haberman — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 11:55:26 +0000

Thank you for contributing passionately to the conversation about Zionism. The significance of Israel to American Jewry is indisputable. As different communities of the Jewish People evolve, many of us still feel that our fate is vitally linked. Understanding our mutual relationship better and sharing our challenges with caring and commitment is a welcome proposition. [...]

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