The beach is a key part of Australian culture. If you won’t go to the beach and have a swim, you’re not a real Australian.
I guess the ancient Greeks said that anyone who does not compete in the nude is not a Greek.
So how much, if at all, should Jews and Muslims compromise their traditions to fit in with their gentile host countries?
Forward: Moshe Sebbag, the rabbi of the Grand Synagogue of Paris, announced this week that he supports the French ban on burkinis, the modest swimwear some Muslim women wear to cover up on the beach.
Wearing a burkini, he said, is not “innocent” and it sends a message.
But, we ask Sebbag, what difference exactly is there between the garb Orthodox Jewish women wear to the beach than the burkinis that some Muslim women wear?
And why should one religious group of women be allowed to follow their traditions over another?
