Here’s what we’re reading today: First, the strangest video you’ll see today. (And when you see it, I think you’ll agree I’m not overhyping it at all.) Then, some commentary on a new ban on Orthodox female rabbis — and, from the other opposite end of reality, news of a new Reform initiative regarding treatment of transgender Jews.
“Is ‘Japanese Klezmer’ a thing now?” asks Heeb Magazine. Yes, evidently it is. Heeb reports:
“Meet Charan-Po-Rantan, A Japanese girl group who play weirdo klezmer mash-ups that sound [like] David Krakauer blowing on a ramen noodle. They dress in the kinds of technicolor costumes you expect from a J-Pop duo on the rise, with lead singer Momo Matsunaga usually grasping a stuffed pig while her sister Koharu absolutely slays on accordion.”
Last week, the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA), the largest group of modern Orthodox rabbis, issued an unusual new ban on ordaining female rabbis. Here’s Rav Yosef Kanefsky’s bold take in L.A.’s Jewish Journal:
“Let us all recognize that the stammering bluster of the RCA resolution, which seeks to limit rather to expand the number of teachers of Torah, which seeks to reduce rather than to enlarge the pool of people who can respond to halachic questions, which seeks to minimize rather than to maximize the number of religious role models and leaders that our communities can have, marks the complete abdication of the RCA’s stated mission, ‘to make Torah great and glorious.’”
And, opposite news, “Reform Jews poised to pass landmark transgender resolution,” as this Times of Israel headline proclaims. The resolution, set to be passed at the Reform movement’s biennial convention in Florida this week, calls for concrete steps toward making Reform institutions trans-friendly:
“The resolution calls for Reform Jewish congregations and camps to have gender-neutral bathrooms, encourages gender-neutral language at Reform Jewish institutions, suggests training on gender issues for religious school staff and encourages advocating on behalf of the transgender community.”