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From: Russell Hendel <rhendel@saber.towson.edu>
Date: Tue, 8 Feb 2000 22:01:27 -0500 (EST)
Subject: RE: Aliyah

Carls basic point about Aliyah was that parts of America (like the
public schools) are 'spiritual deserts' and Israeli schools are not. I
would like to bring in some (unpleasant) topics connected with the
aliyah situation that have not yet been mentioned. I believe in certain
areas America surpasses Israel in 'atmosphere'.

The question I am about to propose was in fact asked to Professor Alon
when he presented a lecture at Penn Univ discussing including civil
rights in a new Israeli constitution, 3 years ago. I did not get an
answer then nor since.

Briefly I would posit that sexual harassment is much more common in
Israel then it is in the US and this constitutes a legitimate reason
(halachically and morally) for not going on Aliyah.

First let me mention that there was in fact an (embarassing) cover story
on Times Magazine (in 1994?) that dealt with this topic.

The question I asked Prof Alon was for details in the progress Israel is
making in eliminating sexual harassment at the 4 critical points of a
womans life

a) TEENAGE YEARS: A former prime minister of Israel openly said that the
army is "where people learn about sex." I know that Carl will probably
tell me that religious girls are exempt from the army, but I don't want
to emigrate to a country where all non-religious girls are subjected to
a 'military' life. Furthermore, although people learn about sex in
colleges the distinction is that the colleges do not have an enforcable
environment.  Whether we like it or not America has no forced military
conscription while Israel does.

b) WORK PLACE: As indicated America has very strong harassment laws;
CEOs and managers try and avoid lawsuits(this fact is not contradicted
by American promiscuousness in the workplace--harassment is very
distinct then promiscuousness). By contrast there is little legal
protection in Israel (though some recent supreme court decisions may be
changing that)

c) DIVORCE: The waiting, inefficiency of courts, & necessity to give up
equitable shares of estates for a divorce are all public knowledge

d) EMIGREES: People still crack jokes about Russian emigrees asking
where to find employment who are told to go to places where prostitutes
hang out

I would be happy to find out only 1 or 2 of these are still serious
problems But they are problems and Israel has to offer a comparable work
environment to those who want it. Saying that Bais Yaakov teachers have
none of the above problems is avoiding issues. Religious girls have a
right to be CEOs or computer scientists or whatever they
want. Halachically, the right to a 'safe work place' is one of the 3
permissabilities for leaving Israel.

Since I have a habit of being misunderstood let me make it explicitly
clear that ALL I am saying is that in certain areas America is superior
to Israel in atmosphere and the deficiencies in these areas halachically
justifies not emigrating to Israel--that is ALL I am claiming.

Russell Hendel; Phd ASA; RHendel@Towson.Edu, Math
Moderator Rashi Is SImple; http://www.shamash.org/rashi/