It is one of the first women to have successfully fought to be as an Orthodox Jew in Israel for Rabbi ordained. But Rachel Rosenbluth wants to achieve more.
In the audience, it is easy to recognize: Rachel Rosenbluth is wearing a colorful floral dress and sandals. The young woman sitting in the midst of hundreds of fancy-dressed men and women from more than 100 countries. You follow the panel discussion “women as Peacemakers” in the world conference “Religions for Peace” in Lindau at lake Constance. Meherzia Labidi-Maïza is one of the speakers on the stage. The Tunisian politician, welcomed the audience: “Salam aleikum,” she says with open arms. She is wearing head cloth, in the same way as Layla Alkhafaji, former member of Parliament from Iraq. Also, a politician from Bahrain and Egypt have come the event will be moderated by a Lutheran Bishop from Germany. It was quickly evident: The women come on the stage from different countries, but share often the same problems.
“Women are not there to follow, women for peace are inside. Women can criticize their Religion, re-interpret, because God addresses women as well as men!”, Meherzia Labidi-Maïza says. Rachel Rosenbluth claps enthusiastically. She says: “I have few female role models. And then I see these women and feel their energy and passion, their strength and the obstacles they had to overcome, and I feel a sense of belonging.” She is happy about female role models, the fight for equal rights between a man and a woman, a senior political or religious positions, and Patriarchal structures do not deter let.
Into the “Boy’s Club”
What the young Israeli women, because it works already. The 29-Year-old has become a few days ago Rabbi. Next week she will be consecrated as one of the first women in her Orthodox Jewish community in Israel, she says. An important Moment was the, “for female voices have not been taken into account [in Judaism] for such a long time, thus, an inequality is created. I want to change that. I want to restore the Balance.” This is not an easy task, because of their training to feel often as if you had broke into the “Boy’s Club”. Still, she sees progress, because “the fact that women will be ordained in the Orthodox Judaism that was five years ago, the unimaginable”.
Discussion on “women as Peacemakers” in the world conference of Religions for Peace
Many of us here at the lake of Constance, represented 17 religions deal with Gender issues, often men still dominate. Also in the case of the participants in Lindau, women are under-represented. The Marburg scholar Edith Franke explains: “For me, as a religious scientist religions are not fallen from the sky. Religious texts and rituals are written by people, conceived and lived. Since the values of Patriarchal cultures reflected in which religious ideas were developed.” Often there is the impulse to keep women in check and narrow down. While religion showed historical studies, that women have worked, for example, in the early days of Islam as a religious authority, or in the Judeo-Christian Tradition as the prophet of the interior occurred.
Religion: weapon of war or Instrument of peace
The old balance of power is about to leave Rachel Rosenbluth, not only as a Rabbi but also as a peacemaker. It is for five years, coordinator of the programme “Solidarity of Nations”, a non-governmental organization (NGO) committed to the peace process between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The NGO invites young people from all over the world to come for five months in the Middle East, where she supported Palestinian shepherds, or to mediate between Jewish settlers and Arab neighbors. The young Rabbi rejects the Interpretation, to use Religion as a weapon of war, is clear: “For me, Religion is rather a tool that can create more integrity and compassion in the world.” Religion and spirituality could provide a Basis for mutual understanding.
“With distance and reason considered, you must say: The Religion is only as good or as bad as the people they live,” says religion scholar Franke. It all depends on how people interpret their Religion. For Rabbi Rosenbluth, this is, in Judaism, the clear order, the world a better place. Your goal is to open one day an inter-religious centre, a place where people exchange ideas, to meditate, to dance and to their Faith, to develop a holistic approach to their Religion on an intellectual, spiritual but also emotional level.
The panel discussion on comes to an end, Rachel Rosenbluth jumps up and runs to the front, talks for a long time with the women in front of the stage. When she is going on Meherzia Labidi-Maïza, this takes your Hand and holds you in its. The two women look into each other’s eyes and the words of the Tunisian politician, according to blades: “We have already suffered so much, and we will continue to unfortunately. But we will get to our goal.”