|
|
April 18, 2003
A time for reflections on freedom
Naomi Ragen – Orthodox Jew, Israeli, author, journalist,
activist, lecturer and teacher – comes to Vancouver.
ALYSSA C. SCHOTTLAND SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
Passover – it's a time we recline as we eat, rejoice with
family and celebrate the ancient Jews' escape from Pharaoh. It's
a time when we retell the story of Moses parting the Red Sea and
when we, as Jews, relish in the freedom our ancestors gained after
years of slavery in Egypt. On the two seder nights, symbolic foods
– matzah, charoset, parsley dipped in salt water and maror
– each with a distinct meaning, are eaten as a way for us to
taste our ancestor's hardships. But this year, on this joyous holiday,
as we celebrate freedom, it's hard not to consider the suffering
taking place right now in our world. It's hard not to question the
certainty of freedom and how freedom, something so easily assumed
as mere birthright in the western world, is yet so vaporous to Jews
and oppressed people throughout the world.
As we celebrate, reflect and question, we must also be aware that
the fight for liberty continues everyday. Israel, a nation guided
by strength and perseverance, encounters countless horrors, suicide
bombings, terrorist attacks and casualties, yet its people live
a life with such intent determination. The Israeli people know that
fear alone could strip Israel of the freedom it strives so hard
to attain.
No one knows this or expresses it better than novelist and former
Jerusalem Post journalist Naomi Ragen.
Last year at this time, Ragen apprehensively travelled to be with
her elder in-laws to celebrate the Passover seder together as a
family at the Park Hotel in Netanya, site of the gruesome terrorist
attack known as the Passover Massacre. Palestinian extremists shattered
the hotel to pieces, along with the hopes and dreams of the families
who gathered there for the seder. Ragen and her family were of the
few uninjured people who staggered through the blood-flooded floors
to escape. This Passover, Ragen is not with her in-laws, who are
too fragile to make the journey themselves and, as a result, the
Ragens are not celebrating all together on this traditional family
holiday.
"I must be in my own home in Jerusalem," she said in a
phone interview earlier this month.
"It is a shame we are not together this year, but it is a result
of what the terrorists did," she stated sharply. Ragen, along
with everyone in the Park Hotel last Passover, had their freedom
stolen from them in an instant.
"I will never attend a seder or any other celebration in a
hotel, any hotel, ever again," she confessed. And if Ragen
and her family are not safe in a hotel, then really, who is? The
fight is not only for Israel and Jews alone, but also for every
country. It is a fight for all of civilization, for all of mankind.
This has become even more evident now in a time of repression and
war. People are being mugged in crowded Parisian streets for wearing
the Star of David, Kurdish teenagers in the wrong place at the wrong
time are being tortured, Muslim women without burqas covering their
faces are being raped by their own people, Nigerian women are being
stoned to death, Iraqi men are held at gunpoint for not believing,
and all for what? We must examine where the dangers are coming from.
The Passover Massacre is just one of the many events Ragen experienced
and then wrote about. She continues to fight for her freedom. Dissecting
political issues, examining religious laws and preaching women's
rights, Ragen speaks her mind. As a woman, an Orthodox Jew and Israeli,
as a novelist and political journalist, as a devoted wife, mother
and grandmother, as an activist and a thinker, lecturer and teacher,
Ragen fights hard to express what she believes in.
Brought up in low-income housing in Brooklyn, N.Y., she received
a scholarship at a young age to attend Orthodox private schools.
Right from the start she had to work to fit in. Here she was, the
poor girl from "the projects" trying to mix with the rich
kids. By high school, she was intrigued by Judaism and started to
attend synagogue on her own. Her love for literature and the written
word grew. Determined to be a writer, she wrote poetry, essays,
adventure and romance for fun. By day she attended university, but
come night, she furthered her Judaic studies at an ultra-Orthodox
women's college. Already, Ragen was pushing the boundaries. At the
time, it was unheard of for an Orthodox Jewish woman to attend a
non-secular university. It was the 1960s and Orthodox Jewish women
didn't need such formal education. Their role was to make babies.
But Ragen
didn't see a conflict between modern professionalism and Orthodox
Judaism
"This wasn't Judaism," she said of that Orthodoxy. Ragen
wasn't giving in to this "jargon," as she put it. She
had plans and wasn't going to let social and religious norms stand
in the way.
"Women are wise, powerful and aggressive, and the Bible approves
of them," she pointed out.
"Look at Devorah, prophetess, judge and mother, and what about
Sarah and Abigail." Of course, Ragen could have children and
still have a career.
"Not to have both was what I thought was unheard of,"
she said. In 1968, Ragen met her soulmate at Brooklyn College and,
in 1971, they moved to Israel.
Ragen has been living in Israel ever since, and it is there that
she realized how different her views were from other Jewish ultra-Orthodox
women. Ragen is an Orthodox woman, but at the same time a modern
progressive woman. She couldn't believe the social and religious
constraints the Orthodox Jewish women tolerated. So she turned her
observations into novels about their struggles – women who
were forced to marry not for love, but out of family or economical
conveniences; a religion that strictly forbade the lust of a man's
kiss, his touch or the yearning for such intimacy; women who were
abused by their spouse, but denied divorce; married women forced
to conceal their beauty underneath wigs; a religion that discouraged
women from reading anything but the Bible. Inspired to retell their
tales, Ragen instilled women with strength and hope to fight for
their own rights, and people all over the world to fight for their
own liberties.
Over the years, Ragen has also expressed her beliefs as an acclaimed
political journalist for the Jerusalem Post, writing op-ed
pieces on Israel, Palestinians, terrorism, anti-Semitism, the western
role in Israel, dictatorships and anything current, political and
controversial. In fact, she is a woman who thrives on controversy
and is disappointed if everyone is in agreement.
"Whenever you say the truth, you will be criticized,"
Ragen said. "You have to have guts."
Join Ragen as she speaks her mind. The Women's Endowment Fund of
the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Vancouver and the Canadian
Friends of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem are bringing her to
Vancouver and presenting an evening of inspiration, hope and energy
on May 20, 8 p.m., at Schara Tzedeck Synagogue. For more information,
call 604-257-5133 or visit www.vancouverjewishfoundation.com/ragen.
After a four year stint as senior editor at Where NY, Alyssa
C. Schottland recently relocated and is now a Vancouver-based
freelance lifestyle writer.
^TOP
|
|
