Filipino Caregivers in Israeli Society

In Israel there is a large number of Filipino women migrating from their homeland in order to receive better wages by working as caregivers for the elders. Filipinos contribute to Israel their services as well mannered  and enthusiastic workers who develop close relationships with their employers/authority.The caregivers monitor their patients, assist with basic needs and give companionship.There are cases of Filipino women converting to Judaism in order to marry their Israeli Jewish husbands.Filipinos bring diversity and an unusual demographic to the Reform congregations. Private agencies profit from Filipino workers that fee them in order to link them to their employers in Israel. Due to the large numbers of Filipino caregivers (primarily women) migrating to Israel they have been able to develop a close relationship within the small community of workers that often share the same lifestyle.They contribute distinctive cultural network creating their own church congregations, shops and food within Israel. Even with their significant contribution into the Israeli society they are deprived of bringing or raising their families in Israel. Migrant Filipinos are given the option of keeping their legal status or keeping their own children. Human rights organizations refer to Israel’s inhumane laws toward migrant workers as the “Slavery Law” because it restricts them from changing their employers more than three times. Migrant children can face the consequences of being deported or imprisoned if their Israeli legal status is denied. Filipinos have a difficult time trying to get legalized in Israel because of Israel’s “demographic threat” that focuses on maintaining their Jewish state. 

Filipino caregivers usually live in with their employer to provide strength and support through out the work day and often take the responsibility of the household duties. These workers face many obstacles that arise when being a caregiver like the lack of privacy when living in their employers house, the caregivers needs are often unnoticed, and a constant challenge with working with a physically disabled elder. Employers are aware of the financial necessity of their caregiver at oftentimes bargaining prices, demanding more services, and exploiting their workers. Legal advocates in Israel demand for an improvement in migrant human right laws. Maris Delusong in “Family life forbidden for migrant workers in Israel” shares her account on being a caregiver in Israel while providing for her family in the Philippines which creates a stressful situation for her marriage and herself being separated from her family. Delusong receives a better salary in Israel than she will receive in the Philippines and is supporting her family but is not able to bring her family to Israel. Any employer that goes to Israel with a working visa is limited on the opportunity of having children in the country because they will not be able to stay due to their strict legalization laws. Due to the inadequate support for the rights of these migrant workers these laws continue splitting families. 

Filipino women are also contributing to the Reform movement by being equally as involved as their Jewish husbands. These women light the candles for Sabbath every Friday night, learn traditional dishes, and bring an unusual group to their congregation. Moshe and Rina

are regular couples that attend a Tel Aviv synagogue and share their story on how most of the time the men return to Judaism because of their wives interest in the religion. The Filipina wives    organize Shabbat dinner with other wives and decide who brings the entrees every week. Rabbi Gilad Kariv, executive director of the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism claims that their congregation becomes more “interesting” with their Jewish’s men choice of wives. He also expresses about the importance of being accepting of anyone who wants to convert which is different from an Orthodox’s perspectives. The Chief Rabbinate does not consider these converts as real Jews so they must marry outside of the country to legitimize their marriage. They are also not entitled to the Law of Return since the Chief Rabbinate is suspicious that they are only interested in gaining citizenship or financial benefits. The Filipinas often practice the high holidays and live a religious life while reintroducing their husbands to their own religion. 

The Billion Dollar Sex Industry in Israel

 
The sex industry in Israel is a prosperous business, creating approximately 25,000 sex for trade transactions daily. The clientele can vary from elite lawyers, doctors, married or religious men that are confident they will never be exposed. Most of the women involved in the sex industry are exploited and enticed by the money they will be receiving in comparison to leisure jobs. Pimps will often hire immigrant women who do not speak the native language, are undocumented, and/or in desperate need of financial security. Israelis are aware of the sex service industry and at times create their own fortune by supplying material for both the hookers and clients. The Russian mafia controls their own prostitution business by recruiting foreign women and exploiting them by taking advantage of their affliction. Prostitutes generate a great deal of money that is often given to their pimps who will share a small percentage with the hooker. The pimp will purchase a women in accordance to her looks and can quadruple his earnings by selling her services. The billion dollar industry is being tackled by the Knesset in forming better regulations in regard to penalizing pimps, trafficking international women and weaker communities that usually turn to prostitution. 

Prostitutes are victims of the pimps due to the hardship that lead them to choose selling their body as a form of payment. In “ One Woman's Journey to the Bleak Israeli Underworld - and Back” Alma was emotionally neglected by her family, sexually abused twice, married at the age of 17 and encouraged by her heroine addict husband to pursue prostitution. She was alone once her husband had an affair and her family rejected her, which got her into working for a higher paying prostitution business that would often pay her $1,000 a night or $2,000 with tips. The Russian mafia is in control of the prostitution business in Israel often recruiting uneducated immigrant women according to Rosenthal “ women desperate to escape the collapsed economies of the former Soviet Republics and Eastern Europe.” ( Rosenthal 387) Pimps often hire immigrants because they will do anything for money for the fear of being deported, and will not complain about the split of money as Israeli prostitutes often will. Natalia was an unemployed single mother from Moldova when she answered an ad showing “$1,000 a month a masseur can make in Israel.” (Rosenthal 388) She was then taken on an “Egyptian holiday” which was later deducted from her earnings and smuggled with a group of women into Israel by a man who put them to work in a brothel. In 2001 she gave a speech to the Knesset on Trafficking Women and was later deported. 

Locals use the opportunity to create their own business out of the prostitution industry. Advertisements appear in newspapers, alongside restaurants, and billboards selling escort and phone sex services from women as a way of promoting a “sexual supermarket.” (Rosenthal 383) Local vendors even make revenue from supplying prostitutes and clients with condoms, beer, cigarettes. Religious men contribute to a fifth of the loyal customers that visit prostitutes at brothels according to Rosenthal’s testimony. Exploitation is a serious issue being addressed by the Knesset for they do not want recruitment into the growing industry “But as trafficking has subsided, the prostitution industry has flourished because demand for sex services remains steady.” According to Harretz and Rosenthal both sources agree that there are approximately 250 brothels operating in Tel Aviv. (Rosenthal 383) These women are being over worked by being with 10 to 20 clients a day working 12 to 14 hour shifts. These new legislations will hopefully create rehabilitation programs, enforce law upon pimps promoting sex services, and create more resources for women trying to get out of prostitution. 

Mizrahi Orthodox Jews

Mizrahi Jews are primarily from North Africa or the Middle East, their culture is often referred to as vibrant and colorful. “For hundreds of years, most Jews in the Holy Land were Mizrahi/Sephardi.” (Rosenthal 225) The immigration of Ashkenazi Jews began under the British rule and Mirzrahims began to decrease. Rosenthal gives a description of a Ashkenazi and Mizrahi wedding in which the culture differences are apparent from the beginning. Adi was a daughter of Orthodox American Israelis and Moti’s parents were Orthodox Algerian Israelis. Moti’s family hosted a dinner three nights before the wedding in which a traditional henna practice was done as a Mizrahi and Arab custom. Adi and Moti both got matching henna symbolism of their prosperous and long lived marriage. Moti’s family sang to the couple in Arabic while his six sisters danced around them. Adi’s guests did not dance because Orthodox Ashkenazi girls primarily do not dance. After the wedding ceremony the couple move into an apartment together in which they both observe a Mizrahi style of the dietary laws. According to the Pew Study “Sephardim/Mizrahim are generally more religiously observant than Ashkenazim. ”When they except their first child they follow the Mizrahi tradition of naming their child after a living relative. Mizrahis are primality Orthodox Jews and attend a synagogue belonging to the same ethnicity they belong to or are comfortable with. Adi and Moti both being Orthodox Jews value the importance of the connection between state and religion. Israel is meant to be in connection with the religious tradition of Judaism because they claim that persecution their ancestors went through would be a waste. (Rosenthal 223-230) 

The 2016 Haaretz article “In Blow to Rabbinate's Monopoly, Israel's Top Court Approves Private Conversions” discusses rabbinic views on the approval of the new act which gives non-Jews the privilege of being eligible to partake in the Law of Return. Rabbis are calling the new act outrageous making it easy for any non-Jew to obtain citizenship in Israel. Orthodox Jews do not recognize Russian and Ethiopian immigrants as legitimate Jews even through conversion. Reform and conservative conversions are not taken with much seriousness due to their liberal views. Kariv the leader of the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism states "This is a day of celebration for all who believe that the unity of the Jewish people will come only through mutual respect and religious tolerance and by Israel's recognition of all streams of thought of the Jewish people.” Other’s argue that this issue is another argument in which Jews are battling between one another as a ranking to determine which Jew is a legitimate Jew. Some followers of the case argue that it is a “war on assimilation.” 

The Knesset Committee Honors International Agunah Day

The Jerusalem Post discusses the Knesset Committee’s discussing the issue of  Jewish women who are not granted a divorce by their husbands which enables them to remarry. It is International Aguna Day on the day of the Fast of Easter and the controversy is considered a “world wide Jewish problem.” Aida Touma-Silman argues that Israel needs civil marriage in order to free women because they should be not subject to their husband’s decision of being forcefully married. Women are often threatened by their husbands, in order for the husband to give their wife a divorce he must obtain all joint assets and eliminate all child support. Zionist Union members Revital Swid and Cohen Paran wonder when rabbinical courts will make the initiative to stop the agunot issue and when will they take disciplinary actions toward the husbands who do not want to provide gets. Rabbinical courts did promise that by Passover they will begin visiting men who were sent to prison for not providing a get for their spouse. Now in modern times, there are pre-nuptial agreements which are becoming very popular. It is all in hope that it will reduce the aguna problem in about 10 years as according to Rabbi Jeremy Stern. 

In the Jerusalem Post the article failed to mention the purpose of holding a meeting on International Aguna Day. The article said that it held the meeting in honor of the day but lacked to mention what they hoped to achieve. In the Jerusalem Post, Yael Cohen-Paran suggests rabbis to use annulment in cases which the husband refuses to divorce their wife. In My Jewish Learning they argue the complexities that arise from laws governing annulment which the rabbinical court does not want to partake in. The Jewish Press continued on to state that victims are not only the wives involved but can effect their family members, community and even the Rabbi trying to resolve the problem. The author failed to make the connection to why the Knesset Committee associates International Aguna Day to the fast of Esther. At the end of the Jerusalem Post the author points out that Rabbi Jeremy Stern predicts that with the popularity of halachic prenuptial agreements there will be a decrease of an aguna problem within Orthodox Jews in the US. In the Jewish Press it mentioned an effective “Post-nuptial Signing Party” for the prevention of get - refusals at Efrat. The Jewish press argues that in both the US and Israel the best way to prevent being an aguna is signing a halachic prenuptial agreement.

The writer for the Jerusalem Post was in favor of the agunot getting divorces by quoting members of the meeting that have been personally effected. The author did not provide any statistics to prove the amount of women undergoing this problem in Israel. The quotes the author used were always suggesting the committee with solutions to end the problem either through annulments, civil marriage or publicity shame. When he would mention the rabbinical court he would use negative comments provided by the committee. He quotes an anonymous aguna that referred the feeling of being in front of the rabbinical court as humiliating. He writes her account of being an aguna and the blame she received from the rabbinical court making them seem malicious. He also ends the article with giving an example of the progression of the rabbinical court administrator visiting the husbands placed in prison for not providing a get which does not seem as productive. 

First Foster Care Legislation in Israel

In Israel the Knesset just approved their first foster care law in memory of the tragic murder of Dafna Meir. The mother of six children was murdered at the footstep of her door at the Otniel settlement by a terrorist attacker. She had four biological children and two foster children with her husband Nathan Meir. Foster care used to be an issue addressed  directly to the Welfare and Social Services Ministry. Foster parents will now have the right to have absolute control of their foster child/ren while under their custody. The issues that biological parents formally used to decide like haircuts, doctor visits, or field trips will now be in the hands of the foster parents.The establishment of a body that will issue licenses to foster parents will also address children complaints.  Foster children are meant to live with their foster parents temporarily then placed back with their biological parents.Nathan was present for the passing of the bill with other supportive foster families to show appreciation. The new law is meant to make the process more pleasant for future foster parents to apply which foster children will benefit from. The legislation will create equality for all children in creating a healthy environment undergoing these circumstances. 

The Times of Israel had misconstructed statements on Dafna’s attack and it provided an unclear description of the legislation being passed on foster care. In the Times of Israel writer Renee Ghert-zand addressed Dafna Meir’s attacker as a terrorist but on Ynetnews claim that her attacker was incited by Palestinian TV. The attacker is a Palestinian teenage boy that was roused up by the media’s portrayal of Israel as a nation that kills young Palestinians. The attack was not premeditated but impulsive. The reporter fails in explaining the influence of media contributing in spreading discriminatory messages to the audience and focused all the blame on the teenage boy. The author was very vague on the status of the biological parents during the process of this new legislation and how it will improve the status between the biological parent and child. Harretz claims that parental rehabilitation will cost approximately 200 million shekels a year which is why it was excluded in the new law. In The Times of Israel it did not comment on the economic benefits for the foster parents. The Jerusalem Post stated that the foster parents will be eligible for full maternity leave benefits in accordance to the age of the child. 

The author is sympathetic to Dafna Meir’s attack and is supportive of the new mandate. Renee Ghert-zand gave an excerpt of an interview he did with Meir’s husband who supported for the bill to pass. The article focused a suitable amount of information on Dafna’s background and did not go into full details to explain the new proposal. The Times of Israel did not give statistics about the issue on most foster children currently living in institutions or group homes. The law is meant to facilitate foster parents’ process to remove children from living in institutions into homes. The issue had to be addressed because in Israel there have been many children living in group homes and there was no real institution to rely on but the Welfare Ministry that had homes for the displaced children. The Times of Israel was not able to provide that information I had to do further research in all the articles I utilized to construct this conclusion. Haarezt argues that the new law has many flaws regarding foster care being temporary and it does not benefit the biological parent. Renee Ghert-zand was giving the reader an article on the advancements of Israel in creating a law that will diminish the amount of foster children placed in institutions and praise the memory of Dafna Mei. 

Ban Ki-Moon addresses Terrorism in Israel

On February 3rd, 2016 there was a terrorist attack at the Old City’s Damascus Gate by three Arabs which resulted in the assassination of Hadar Cohen and injured a female border patrol officer. The men were equipped with weapons, knives, and explosives and were prepared for a large attack which was prevented by the brave border patrol. UN Director-General Ban Ki-Moon commented about the incident as a “natural response” to the occupation occurring in Palestine which called the attention of the Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon to Ban through a letter. He addressed Ban Ki-Moon ordering him to revoke his statement which advocates for terrorism to occur in Israel. He then continued to honor the nineteen year old victim that blocked a larger catastrophe from occurring by risking her own life. Ban’s statements have not only interfered with his popularity within Israel but also within Jews living in the diaspora. He was expected to give a speech at Park East Synagogue in New York City for International Holocaust Remembrance Day but was booed by the audience over his stand on the terrorist attack

. 

The writer Shimon Cohen had mostly factual data but failed to give background information about the incident which provides the reader an understanding of why the event occurred. It is a fact that Hadar Cohen was a victim of the three Arab terrorist attack and so was another officer that was present during the scene. The two officers approached the skeptical trio that then attacked the officers with weapons not only shooting but also stabbing the victims. When reading the article for the first time I was confused as to why the Arabs were directly attacking the female border patrols. When reading CNN’s version of the incident I learned that they were not attacking them specifically but intending to do greater harm. In Cohen’s article only the shooting was mentioned but not the stabbing during the attack. Ban’s statement was also only referred in fragments excluding the reason why the provocative statements were said. The article made it clear that Ban was justifying terror and made it clear where he stood when referring to the war occurring in Palestine. Ban’s opinion was constructed as very objective and understanding of why violence toward Israel is taking place. It never mentioned that Ban is supportive of a two-state solution in order to remove the hate and extremism. He claims it is a human reaction that all the terrorism is occurring due to provocative acts. Many claim that the UN ambassador should have remained neutral on such a sensitive issue. 

The author, Shimon Cohen is sympathetic to the Israeli victims by only quoting UN Director-General Ban Ki-Moon small portion of this speech. He is against Ban’s opinion and supportive of the UN Danny Danon action of rejecting Ban’s subjective speech. By only using part of Ban’s speech the author was generating a false interpretation of what the ambassador was trying to convey.  He only quotes the part that frenzies the audience which speaks about Ban’s vindication on terrorism toward Israel. The author states that Ban quotes it was a “natural response” as a justification for the attack. He continues on to repeat all the fragments of Ban’s speech which most people disagree with. Cohen never fully provides a complete section of the speech which thoroughly provides Ban’s section of his speech. He also did not give any background information leading toward the event of the crime explaining why the Arab men decided to take this action leading toward Hadar Cohen’s murder. The writer did not state Ban’s opinion on creating Israel into a two-state solution which would explain (not justify) why he would make such a comment toward the violence occurring in Palestine. The author is very subjective in composing an article that is targeted in effectively getting the reader to dissent Ban Ki-Moon by his scandalous attitude toward terrorism. 

Link to Oral Presentation

 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/01/world/middleeast/israel-western-wall-prayer.html