re: #11 Bob Levin

Okay, I just read the article, not the whole article, because the excerpt was bothersome enough. I’m also somewhat suspicious of it, since there is such a concerted effort to delegitimize the State of Israel. What better places to do this than forums that are supposed to be about Jewish culture? What better issue to exploit than the recent news, inequality between sexes. So, for me, after reading it, it might be a work of fiction.

I didn’t get the sense that there was any effort to delegitimize the state of Israel—that’s a pretty strong charge. I’m not familiar with most of the columnists and people who run Tablet Magazine (or their parent org, Nextbook), but they seem legit enough and don’t strike me as moonbatty Jew haters or anti-Zionists, especially since Jeffrey Goldberg is among their contributing editors and I am familiar with him (I can’t imagine him lending his name to any online outlet if it had questionable intent WRT the legitimacy of Israel).

The magazine also interests me because of its focus on the arts & culture which, to be honest, is much more my cup of tea than politics, my fondness for LGF notwithstanding.

This doesn’t even make sense. Both spouses sign the Ketubah. There is a tractate of Talmud about this. Functionally, it’s a marriage license. A divorce also requires a document, called a Get. Got news for this couple, divorces are acrimonious. Whether the husband decides to give the Get is all part of the acrimony. There is considerable pressure put on the husband to give this document when appropriate. It’s an issue, the acrimony. No different than any place else.

WRT marriage, I’m somewhat familiar with the Jewish divorce and Get as it’s very similar to the Islamic process. Ours doesn’t require a written document, but it’s also the husband who grants the divorce, however (the same as in Judaism) a woman can petition for divorce. That said, the fact that may divorces are acrimonious and husbands are often pressured to give the Get doesn’t change the fact that the process is still somewhat lopsided in favor of the man (again, as it also is in Islam). It is what it is in both our religions, there’s no getting around that.

As for the rest, I appreciate the info as most of it is new to me. I’ll be sure to look into those things in greater detail.