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Conservative rabbis endorse use of electric cars on Shabbat, but divisions over driving remain
(JTA) — When rabbis from the Conservative movement got together to decide whether it is permissible to drive electric cars on Shabbat, their conclusion might have been obvious.
After all, the Conservative movement famously adopted an opinion in 1950 saying that driving to synagogue on Shabbat is acceptable for Jews who have no other way to get there. And in 2012, the movement adopted an opinion saying that the use of electricity in activities that are permitted on Shabbat is acceptable according to Jewish law or halacha.
And yet the ultimate vote to permit the use of electric cars on Shabbat was deeply divided, with just 10 members of the movement’s 25-rabbi Committee on Jewish Law and Standards voting in favor and six voting against. Five rabbis abstained from voting. (All 25 rabbis need not attend a vote; six or more votes are needed to approve a paper.)
What’s more, the committee adopted a second, competing opinion, known as a responsum, outright rejecting the use of electric cars on Shabbat — by a very similar margin.
Two rabbis, including one of the committee’s co-chairs, voted for both papers, even though the responsa came to different conclusions.
“Both of these responsa articulate the preference for walking to and from the synagogue on Shabbat, and the more of us Jews who can do that, the better, not only for halakhic reasons, but also for creating a close-knit community on Shabbat,” Rabbi Elliot Dorff wrote to explain why he voted for both positions. “That said, Jewish law must be applied to the realities that Jews face.”
It’s not unusual for the committee, whose rulings guide the movement’s rabbis, to adopt competing opinions, as it did, for example, when ruling in 2006 on inclusion for gay and lesbian Jews.
The groundwork for the split rulings, published on Wednesday, was laid in a footnote to the 2012 ruling on electricity. “Those who accept the 1950 CJLS minority position permitting people to drive to synagogue in a gas powered car would be justified extending this permission to electric cars,” the opinion’s author, Rabbi Danny Nevins, wrote — implying that at least some in the movement rejected the 1950 decision.
Before the 1950 responsum, Orthodox and Conservative groups agreed that driving was prohibited on Shabbat, citing halacha, or Jewish law, that forbids a host of activities on the day of rest, including lighting a fire and traveling a long distance from one’s home. The 1950 responsum was a landmark in American Judaism because it effectively sanctioned the choices of many Jews who had moved to suburbs where walking to synagogue was all but impossible. In fact, the responsum did not say that driving to synagogue was halachically sound, only that it was a concession worth making to facilitate the public and communal observance of Shabbat.
Nearly 75 years later, the leniency reflects the practices of most Conservative congregants in the United States, but Conservative rabbis and institutions largely have not accepted it. The Jewish Theological Seminary, the movement’s flagship seminary, bars rabbinical students from traveling by car on Shabbat, for example, and the Conservative movement in Israel rejected the position fully.
The challenges to the use of cars on Shabbat according to Jewish law are extensive: One might travel beyond the borders of one’s community, for example, or be tempted to perform repairs, both prohibited on Shabbat. But the biggest obstacle for the cars that most American Jews were driving in 1950 and today is that gas-combustion engines create fire in the course of ignition.
The rise of the electric car offers a widely accessible way to drive without creating fire. Concerns about driving too far or needing repairs still apply, write the authors of the paper making the case for electric cars on Shabbat, but by sticking close to home and driving only for Shabbat-related reasons, Jews can use electric cars without violating Shabbat.
That paper was written by two rabbis with recent experience in U.S. pulpits, David Fine of Temple Israel in Ridgewood, New Jersey, and Barry Leff, who divides his time between Israel and the United States and recently completed an interim stint at a synagogue in Birmingham, Alabama.
“For those who drive to the synagogue on Shabbat, driving an all-electric car is preferable to driving a conventional car,” they write. But they add, “When possible, we encourage walking or riding a bicycle as they are at a slower pace and more conducive to the spirit of Shabbat.” (Looking ahead, they also note that self-driving cars are permitted, saying, “The more that can be taken out of direct human hands, the more the spirit of Shabbat is constructed and preserved. If the technology and capability of an autonomous driving car is available and safe and able to transport one to synagogue, then all the better.”)
The paper rejecting driving on Shabbat altogether was written by two rabbis who do not work in synagogues: Marcus Mordecai Schwartz, who heads the study center at JTS, and Chaim Weiner, the head of Masorti Europe, the movement’s network of European congregations. They say they wanted to make sure that Conservative Jews who hold more traditional views about Jewish law — and who never accepted the 1950 ruling on Shabbat driving — could see their values in the movement’s legal literature.
“Some may think that we are attempting to exclude the less strictly-observant members of our communities,” they write. “Nothing could be further from our aim.”
Practically speaking, the impact of the legal opinions about electric cars is limited. Conservative congregants mostly drive to synagogue when they go — though the number of Jews affiliating with those synagogues is down sharply in recent decades, according to survey data. Few rely on the movement’s legal rulings to guide their daily activities.
But the rulings are influential among the movement’s rabbinic corps. And they can offer broad and needed messages, according to Rabbi Pamela Barmash, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis who chairs the CJLS with Dorff.
Barmash voted for the anti-driving opinion and abstained from voting on the one permitting electric cars on Shabbat. She said she wanted both positions to be available to Conservative Jews who are thinking about how to observe Shabbat.
“What is inspiring this is to emphasize the centrality of Shabbat to our lives as Jews, to our synagogue communities, and our personal relationships with God,” she said. “Restoring Shabbat and emphasizing Shabbat as so central is all the more urgent in the 21st century.”
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Australia Cracks Down on Antisemitism Amid Unrelenting Surge in Hate Crimes Targeting Jewish Community
Car in New South Wales, Australia graffitied with antisemitic message. Photo: Screenshot
The government of the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) has introduced a proposal to criminalize specific protests outside places of worship in response to a recent wave of hate crimes targeting Jews in Australia.
“We have seen disgusting acts of racial hatred and antisemitism,” the NSW premier Chris Minns said in a statement outlining the proposed laws. “These are strong new laws, and they need to be because these attacks have to stop.”
Part of a broader set of measures, the reforms aim to address a recent wave of arson attacks and antisemitic vandalism across Australia over the past two months.
“These laws have been drafted in response to the horrifying antisemitic violence in our community, but it’s important to note that they will apply to anyone, preying on any person, of any religion,” Minns said.
The legislation also followed Israel’s call for the Australian government to take stronger measures against the “epidemic of antisemitism” that has swept across the country. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has maintained that his government is doing everything possible to combat attacks, including acts of domestic terrorism.
The attempted antisemitic terror attack at a synagogue in Sydney is intolerable. This joins a long list of antisemitic attacks in Australia, including setting fire to a childcare center in Sydney, firebombing a synagogue in Melbourne, and many other antisemitic attacks.
The…— Gideon Sa’ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) January 29, 2025
On Sunday, the NSW Jewish Board said that in three weeks they had seen 10 publicly reported antisemitic incidents, primarily in the Sydney area, which included arson and vandalism — including property defaced with messages reading “f—k Jews.” The group said that number “doesn’t include the graffiti appearing in our streets on a daily basis or the abuse and harassment that goes unreported.”
Last month, Australian police said they foiled a potential mass-casualty antisemitic terrorist attack after discovering a caravan in a suburb of Sydney filled with explosives and material containing details about Jewish targets.
Under the new proposed laws, it would be an offense to block access to places of worship or harass, intimidate, or threaten people there, with a maximum penalty of two years in prison. The legislation gives the police heightened powers to enforce he law.
It would also become a crime to display a Nazi symbol near a synagogue, with a maximum two-year prison sentence, and the Graffiti Control Act would be amended to make graffiti on places of worship an aggravated offence.
These potential changes would come after two synagogues in Sydney were vandalized last month with swastikas, and an attempt was made to set one on fire.
Under the new legislation, sentencing could take into account whether an offense was “wholly” or “partially” driven by hatred or prejudice.
“The entire community will be safer as a direct result of these changes. The proposed changes will mean that divisive and hateful behaviors will not succeed in dividing our community,” said Michael Daley, the attorney general.
As authorities work to counter the alarming surge in anti-Jewish incidents, law enforcement has made several arrests across Australia.
On Wednesday, two 27-year-old men were arrested and charged for spray-painting antisemitic symbols and words on walls, bus stops, and signs in several Perth neighborhoods in western Australia.
“The Western Australia Police Force will not allow vile acts of hatred and racism to go unchecked,” a WA Police spokesperson said in a statement. “This swift outcome should send a clear message to anyone engaging in this kind of behavior. We will find you and you will be put before the courts to face the consequences of your actions.”
In Melbourne, a 68-year-old man has been charged with criminal damage, unlawful assault, and offensive graffiti after allegedly vandalizing a family home in a Jewish community and throwing bacon at a passerby who tried to intervene.
In Sydney, a woman was found guilty of sending a threatening message to a Jewish school just 11 days after Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. However, she has escaped conviction.
In the letter, the 21-year-old wrote: “You are the children of Satan … get cancer and die a slow, painful death.”
“Praise Hitler. If only he was here to continue the mass destruction of your bloodline,” the message continued.
Many observers have expressed outrage over the woman escaping conviction. The verdict came as Jewish students were reported to be hiding their school uniform logos and avoiding public transport, in the wake of rising antisemitic attacks on Jewish schools, daycare centers, and synagogues.
AUSTRALIA’S SHAME – ANTISEMITISM EMERGENCY
This pic is the front cover of the Wentworth Courier, the local paper for much of Sydney’s eastern suburbs which is home to much of the Jewish community in NSW.
“Jewish children under police watch” in order to attend school.… pic.twitter.com/L6Itct35L9
— Australian Jewish Association (@AustralianJA) February 4, 2025
Last month, the NSW government also proposed a new law making it a criminal offense to intentionally incite racial hatred, with a maximum two-year prison sentence.
In their efforts to combat hate speech, this change would make inciting racial hatred a criminal offense, rather than just a civil one under the Anti-Discrimination Act.
The state government also announced an increase of $525,000 in funding for the NSW police engagement and hate crime unit, along with a $500,000 boost to a grants program for social cohesion.
The post Australia Cracks Down on Antisemitism Amid Unrelenting Surge in Hate Crimes Targeting Jewish Community first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Pro-Trump Arab American Group Changes Name After US President Floats Controversial Gaza Plan
Then-US President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with House Republicans at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Washington, DC, US on Nov. 13, 2024. Photo: ALLISON ROBBERT/Pool via REUTERS
A prominent organization that sought to forge strong ties between US President Donald Trump and the Arab American community has changed its name in opposition to Trump’s proposal for the US to “take over” over Gaza.
On Wednesday, “Arab Americans for Trump” announced a rebrand to “Arab Americans for Peace,” criticizing the president for his failure to hold meetings with “key Arab leaders” and his support for removing “Palestinian inhabitants to other parts of the Arab world.”
“We strongly appreciate the president’s offer to clean and rebuild Gaza. However, the purpose should be to make Gaza habitable for Palestinians and no one else,” the group said in a press release explaining the name change.
The group explained that it supports a separate independent state for Palestinians encompassing Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, expressing disappointment that Trump has not attempted to carve out a “path to a permanent peace process.”
Bishara Bahbah, chairman of the group, told the Associated Press that the organization is “completely opposed” to Trump’s suggestion to transfer Gaza’s civilians out of the coastal enclave.
“The talk about what the president wants to do with Gaza, obviously we’re completely opposed to the idea of the transfer of Palestinians from anywhere in historic Palestine,” Bahbah said. “And so we did not want to be behind the curve in terms of pushing for peace, because that has been our objective from the very beginning.”
On Tuesday night, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was visiting the White House, held a press conference following their private meeting in the Oval Office. Trump asserted that the US would assume control of Gaza and develop it economically into “the Riviera of the Middle East” after Palestinians are resettled elsewhere.
“The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too,” Trump told reporters. “We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site.”
Earlier in the day, Trump referred to Gaza as a “demolition site” and said its residents have “no alternative” but to leave, suggesting Egypt, Jordan, and other Arab states as possible relocation sites.
Trump performed remarkably well with Arab American voters in the 2024 presidential election. In the majority-Arab American city of Dearborn, Michigan, 42 percent of voters backed Trump, compared to 36 percent who supported Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
Other Arab American leaders and organizations slammed Trump’s proposal to vacate Palestinians from Gaza.
Layla Elabed, the co-chair of the Uncommitted National Movement, said she was “sad, angry, and scared for our communities.”
James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, called Trump’s comments “dangerous, provocative, illegal, and callously insensitive to Palestinian needs.”
Wa’el Alzayat, leader of EmgageUSA, an organization that advocates on behalf of Muslim Americans, rebuffed Trump’s proposal as a “violation of international law.”
The post Pro-Trump Arab American Group Changes Name After US President Floats Controversial Gaza Plan first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Liri Albag Celebrates 20th Birthday at Hospital With Other Hostages Released From Gaza
Liri Albag, center, standing from a balcony inside Israel’s Rabin Medical Center and watching an orchestra performance for her birthday alongside Agam Berger, Daniella Gilboa, Karina Ariev, and Naama Levy. Photo:
American Friends of Rabin Medical Center
Liri Albag, who was recently released from captivity in Gaza as part of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, celebrated her 20th birthday on Tuesday with other former hostages at Rabin Medical Center’s Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikvah, Israel, where she is recovering after returning home 10 days earlier.
An orchestra came to the hospital to perform a small concert for Albag, who celebrated her previous birthday in Hamas captivity. The songs included Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and “Happy Birthday.” She watched from a balcony on one of the upper floors of the hospital alongside other freed hostages Agam Berger, Daniella Gilboa, Karina Ariev, and Naama Levy. All five women were serving as surveillance soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces when they were kidnapped from an IDF base in Nahal Oz by Hamas-led terrorists during their deadly rampage in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Albag, Gilboa, Ariev, and Levy returned together after 15 months in Hamas captivity as part of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. Five days later, Berger was also released as part of the ceasefire deal.
Albag uploaded a post on Instagram about her birthday and wrote: “Today I get to celebrate my 20th birthday with my loved ones. The only wish I asked for — is for all the hostages to return.”
Her older sister, Roni Albag, shared a photo from the birthday celebrations on Instagram and wrote in the caption: “Our Lirosh, our number 1. I dreamed of this moment countless times and here you are. Today you celebrate your 20th birthday at home!!! Today you celebrate the life that was given to you again. You are our victory, our heart and the light of our home. I love you and am here for you forever and ever.”
Liri posted on social media on Friday for the first time since returning from captivity. In an Instagram post, she thanked the people of Israel for their “support, love, and help.” She said, “Together, we are strength.” She also thanked the IDF and members of Israel’s security forces “who sacrificed their souls and fought for us and our country! There isn’t a morning that I don’t pray for their safety.”
“Finally got to reunite with my family! But our fight isn’t over and I won’t stop fighting until everyone is home!” she added. “I want us to continue to stay united, because together nothing can break us. The unity and hope we have in us scares all our enemies, amazes all our lovers, and comforts the people among us. A sentence that used to accompany me was ‘at the end of every night, darkness disappears.’ And I wish that everyone can see the light.”
Seven surveillance soldiers were abducted from the Nahal Oz base on Oct. 7, 2023, including Noa Marciano, who was killed in Hamas captivity, and Ori Megidish, who was rescued by the IDF in October 2023.
The post Liri Albag Celebrates 20th Birthday at Hospital With Other Hostages Released From Gaza first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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