The most important thing is not to fear at all

kohenari:

The Rabbinical Assembly’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards — which sets halachic policy for the Conservative movement — has voted unanimously to provide the approximately 1,600 Conservative rabbis with guidelines on performing same-sex marriages.

The move is an official sanction of the ceremonies by the movement.

The CJLS approved the documents Thursday by a 13-0 vote with one abstaining ballot. For years, the Conservative movement has debated how to approach same-sex unions.

As I wrote last week, Jews have options (and I presume that Christians and Muslims do too). Despite the injunction against homosexuality in Leviticus, there is no need for a Jew to join a congregation that condemns homosexuality or even makes gays and lesbians feel in any way unwelcome. And so, as a Jew, I gravitate toward congregations that are welcoming to gays and lesbians and toward rabbis who speak out in favor of equal rights and equal treatment.

Especially meaningful to me, because while I daven in all sorts of shuls and actually prefer Orthodox services, I identify as part of the Conservative movement of Judaism and follow its stance on Halacha.

aj-rromale:

(SARAJEVO) - The head of the Council of Europe asked Bosnia on Monday to propose amendments to its constitution within a month to end the discrimination of its Jewish and Roma minority.

“We want to see a clear, concrete and formal proposal submitted to the Bosnian parliament” before the June 4 meeting of the Council of Europe’s ministerial comittee, Thorbjorn Jagland told reporters during his visit to Sarajevo.

He said the draft must be “submitted in advance to Strasbourg to secure that this is a proposal that is in compliance with the judgement” of the European Court of Human Rights.

The Strasbourg-based court condemned Bosnia in December 2009 for barring Jews and Romas from running for high elected office.

The court ruled that the Balkan country was violating provisions of the convention prohibiting discrimination and upheld the right to free elections.

Two plaintiffs in the case, prominent public figures Dervo Sejdic who is of Roma origin and Jakob Finci who is Jewish, filed a suit in 2006 claiming discrimination and a breach of their human rights.

Bosnia’s constitution makes a distinction between two categories of citizens: “constituent peoples” — Bosniaks (Muslims), Croats and Serbs — and “others” — Jews, Roma and other minorities.

Posts in the Bosnian parliament and its tripartite presidency are reserved for the three so-called constituent nations under the rules which were intended to prevent ethnic strife in the wake of the 1992-1995 war.

“If new parliamentary elections in 2014 (in Bosnia) are being held on the basis of the current constitution there is no way that the international community recognizes these elections,” Jagland warned.

The reform of the constitution is one of the main conditions for Bosnia to obtain EU candidacy status.

EUbusiness

(via golden-zephyr)

sinidentidades:

European countries are discriminating against Muslims for demonstrating their faith, especially in the fields of education and employment, according to rights group Amnesty International.

In a report focusing on Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland, Amnesty urged European governments to do more to challenge negative stereotypes and prejudices against Islam.

The report was particularly critical of countries that have brought in outright bans on face-covering veils or on the wearing of religious symbols in schools.

“Rather than countering these prejudices, political parties and public officials are all too often pandering to them in their quest for votes,” said Marco Perolini, Amnesty International’s expert on discrimination.

“Muslim women are being denied jobs and girls prevented from attending regular classes just because they wear traditional forms of dress, such as the headscarf.

“Men can be dismissed for wearing beards associated with Islam.”

The Amnesty report comes two days after the anti-immigrant National Front achieved a record score for the party in the first round of France’s presidential election, with 18 percent of voters backing leader Marine Le Pen.

The report, titled “Choice and prejudice: discrimination against Muslims in Europe”, says legislation prohibiting discrimination in employment has not been properly implemented in Belgium, France and the Netherlands.

Employers had been allowed to ban religious or cultural symbols on the grounds that they would annoy clients or colleagues, or that it conflicts with a company’s corporate image or supposed neutrality, it said.

Amnesty said this was in direct conflict with European Union law.

stay-human:

1. Israeli Official: 40% on fly-in blacklist weren’t activists
   
   Security service had no evidence that 470 of the 1,200 people whom Israel labeled as ‘pro-Palestinian activists’ intended to do anything illegal, source says; French diplomat and his wife among those whose tickets to Israel were…

malariamonsters:

Excerpt:

“TEL AVIV, 9 February 2012 (IRIN) - Growing up in Israel, Shay Sium became accustomed to being called a “nigger”.

Sium, 32, has lived in Israel most of his life, but says he and other Ethiopian Jews are treated differently from other Israelis: factories do not want to employ them; landlords refuse them; and certain schools turn away their children.

“The word discrimination doesn’t describe what we experience. There is another word for it: racism. It is a shame that we still have to use this word today,” he told IRIN.

An estimated 125,000 Ethiopian Jews live in Israel, but while they are supposed to be full citizens with equal rights, their community has continued to face widespread discrimination and socio-economic difficulties, according to its leaders.

A recent decision - as reported by local media - by 120 homeowners not to sell or rent their apartments to Israeli-Ethiopian families has brought discrimination against Ethiopian Jews in Israel back into the spotlight.”