Monday, April 26, 2010

Religion and State in Israel - April 26, 2010 (Section 1)

Religion and State in Israel

April 26, 2010 (Section 1) (see also Section 2)

If you are reading in email or RSS feed, please click here to read ONLINE

Editor – Joel Katz

Religion and State in Israel is not affiliated with any organization or movement.


Rabbinate torn between state, halacha

By Jonah Mandel www.jpost.com April 26, 2010

The High Court of Justice is due to decide on Monday whether to give the Chief Rabbinate more time to respond to a petition against city rabbis who have seemingly rejected official conversions, or whether to simply rule on the petition.

The Chief Rabbinate, which was supposed to respond to the petition on Sunday, has asked for a postponement.

It was apparently unable to formulate a response, as it is torn between its capacity as the State of Israel’s official body in charge of religious matters, and the actions of its more zealous representatives, who are not accepting the validity of some conversions approved by that same body’s official organs.


Dry bones and live Jews

By Rabbi Seth Farber Opinion www.jpost.com April 15, 2010


If the Prime Minister's office would take control of these issues, and simply tell the UTJ that their opinion will not be decisive in determining who is a Jew and who can convert, then these travesties would stop once and for all.

But, just like the hospital decision, the decision to take control of conversion won't be made by the prime minister alone. Netanyahu took a bold step only after the public made clear that they wouldn't tolerate the Ultra-Orthodox position. Once the outcry became so loud, the interests of the public outweighed the special interests of the UTJ.

The public needs to get more involved in making conversion more accessible to Israelis. Anything less will not move things forward.

If the public spoke so forcefully about 3,000-year-old bones, shouldn't it speak out louder about 300,000 individuals unable to convert?


Equality

www.mfa.gov.il April 25, 2010

Yediot Aharonot believes that:

"Equality must be one of the minimalistic rules underpinning the State of Israel. It must be clear that separate buses and sidewalks contravene the rules of the game. No coalition agreement can permit such things.”


On mountains and canopies

By Haviva Ner-David www.jpost.com April 23, 2010

The writer is the founding director of Reut: The Center for Modern Jewish Marriage and Shmaya: A Ritual and Educational Mikve at Kibbutz Hanaton. She is the author of Life on the Fringes: A Feminist Journey Towards Traditional Rabbinic Ordination

I, however, recommend to couples that they marry in the ceremony of their choice and not register as married with the state.

Most couples do not realize that even if they do not marry through the rabbinate, once they are registered as married, the only way they can divorce is through the rabbinic courts.

That is why I suggest that they refrain from registering as married and thus avoid putting themselves into (and thus legitimating) the system altogether.


Making the Tal Law work

JPost.com Editorial www.jpost.com April 25, 2010

For the first time in Israel’s history, there are more than 100,000 men who devote their days to the study of the Talmud, Halacha, Jewish philosophy and various homiletic rabbinic literature.

About 70,000 married men receive annual state-funded stipends of NIS 10,000, and 33,000 unmarried young men receive about NIS 5,700 a year. The total annual yeshiva budget is about NIS 1 billion.


Time to wake up

By Yizhar Hess www.jpost.com April 22, 2010

The writer is executive director of the Masorti Movement in Israel.

Without being aware of it, this has become the reality of our lives. We have let the haredim take over everything that has to do with Judaism in the public sphere.

…The Zionist vision of the Jewish state, a vision that was able to combine nationalism and humanism, is slipping away from us like sand through our fingers. It is no longer Herzl who is turning over in his grave, it’s Menahem Begin. Israel is changing. Like a stone tossed in the air, which imagines that it decides the path of its trajectory, we still believe that everything is under control. But it isn’t. Our hearing has become dulled, but the music is deafening.


Q&A with MK Einat Wilf

By Danielle Berrin www.jewishjournal.com April 20, 2010

JJ: You’ve even suggested that your philosophy of peoplehood is on par with rabbinic Judaism and Zionism.

EW: I think it provides an answer to the new world. And Judaism, at the end of the day, always survived by adapting.

JJ: Even if you have to fight a powerful religious establishment?

EW: They’re very powerful, but one of the reasons is that we somehow accepted their narrative that they’re the good Jews, the better Jews, and we are somehow the deficient Jews, and we have to be in a constant state of apology. I absolutely don’t accept that.

JJ: You’ve said that you support the idea of Diaspora deliberation on Israeli policy.

EW: I think there should be a parliament of the Jewish people that serves as a consultative body to the Jewish people and that the government of Israel has structures in place that can hear those views and recommendations.


Pluralism in Holon

By Jessica Steinberg http://israelity.com April 25, 2010

Called Hitchadshut, for renewal, it has created a citywide model for education of Jewish identity. It’s taking place in schools, high schools, community centers and youth centers, and focuses on programs will help educate those who know little about their Jewish identity. They have discussion groups on social justice, Kabbalat Shabbat evenings, Tikkun Shavuot study nights, bible story training for kindergarten teachers and a Chanukah parade.


Some thoughts on Yom Ha'atzmaut

By Rabbi Jay Kelman Opinion www.torahinmotion.org April 24, 2010

The "secular" leaders who founded the State (whatever role the religious played it is more than obvious that without the secular settlers there would be no State of Israel today) are virtues of religiosity by comparison.

The government supports Torah education to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Day schools, high school, yeshivot of all persuasions are funded by the government enabling millions to learn Torah.


The collapse of religious Zionism

By Shahar Ilan Opinion www.haaretz.com April 21, 2010

The writer is vice president of research and information for Hiddush - For Religious Freedom and Equality.

Sooner or later, we will have to get used to thinking of religious Zionists as two distinct communities, or even more. And sooner or later, even supporters of Habayit Hayehudi will have to take sides.

They will either have to join the community that is alienated from the Zionist enterprise, or join the effort to save Zionism from the threats to its democratic character and economic future. And it is vital that this happen before it is too late.


In the frontline of bereavement

By Kobi Nahshoni www.ynetnews.com April 19, 2010

We usually see them in official state and military ceremonies, but their job continues long after the cameras turn off. Military cantors accompany bereaved families in their most intimate moments, at times as the sole representatives of the Israel Defense Forces.

According to the IDF's Personnel Directorate, a military cantor is an active duty soldier or career non-commissioned officer who serves in burial and memorial functions. However, there is a lot more to the role than is implied in the job description.


Chabad soldier awarded for achievement

By Tzemach Brown http://chabad.info April 23, 2010


Photo: www.col.org.il (not related to article)

Rabbi Yossi Farbers commanders noted his relentless efforts to get his male comrades to put on Tefillin and the female soldiers to light Shabbos candles.

Rabbi Farber does a lot of activity in the district, with special classed with various lecturers, surprise birthday parties for co-soldiers and other activities with support from the Yeshiva and Chabad House in Nazareth Illit.


Mamilla Cemetery: The price of tolerance

By Omar Kasrawi and Sommer Saadi http://coveringreligion.org April 21, 2010

The controversy surrounding Mamilla cemetery is not unique in Israel. Protests have been held against many construction plans because of concerns that gravesites will be desecrated.

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups have especially taken up this cause, like in the recent case of the Barzalai Medical Center in Ashkelon, where groups have protested the construction of an emergency ward on top of a Jewish cemetery.

Sometimes building plans are halted and diverted and sometimes they go ahead despite the protests, like in the case of Ashkelon. In a recent decision, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reversed plans to have the ward relocated, citing security and economic concerns.


Interior Ministry official: We have 60 employees watching Muslim clergymen

By Akiva Eldar www.haaretz.com April 21, 2010

The Interior Ministry employs 60 people whose job is to keep an eye on Muslim clergymen, according to testimony given in the Tel Aviv Labor Court last week.

Yaakov Salameh, who heads the ministry's department of religious communities, told the court that his inspectors receive reports from people in "the field" about the family life and ethical behavior of imams serving in local mosques.


Why women should be able to pray in peace

By Sylvia Rothschild Opinion www.thejc.com April 22, 2010

Sylvia Rothschild is a rabbi of Wimbledon (Reform) Synagogue


photo: Women of the Wall

The Women of the Wall have deliberately chosen not to go outside the parameters of halachah: there is no feminist point being made, no Reform agenda being followed.

Nothing they do is prohibited by halachah, though as time has gone on their activities have gone from being perfectly legal under Israeli law, to become the object of increasingly prohibitive rulings under the secular system.

…Attempts to exclude Jews from the Kotel area, besides having no halachic basis, goes against the Declaration of Independence which guarantees "freedom of religion".


Beggars kicked out of Western Wall

By Ari Galahar www.ynetnews.com April 21, 2010

The Western Wall Heritage Foundation and Israel Police have decided to make the fight against beggars more efficient and distributed pictures of all the people forbidden entry to the site after asking for donations.

In recent years, the beggar phenomenon at the Western Wall has reached massive proportions, with dozens of panhandlers roaming the site every day. In a bid to combat the growing trend, any beggar caught asking for handouts is forbidden entry to the site for a full month.


Health Ministry to reexamine problematic brain-death law

By Dan Even www.haaretz.com April 26, 2010

The Health Ministry intends to expand the number of medical examinations that are likely to determine with greater certainty whether a patient is brain dead. The move comes in response to the latest findings, which show a decrease of 40 percent in the ability of hospitals to declare an individual brain dead since a June 2009 law went into effect.

The wording of the legislation - formulated as a compromise between the Chief Rabbinate and the Israeli Medical Association - stipulates the conditions necessary in order to classify an ailing patient as brain dead.


Ramat Beit Shemesh residents jostle over control of mikva

By Ruth Eglash www.jpost.com April 25, 2010

Friction between two religious communities in Ramat Beit Shemesh has surfaced once again, this time over who should take responsibility for the mikve (ritual bath) in a neighborhood that is equally inhabited by both haredi and national religious communities, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

The tension is focusing on a mikve that opened roughly two years ago on Nahal Dolev and was divided in two last summer by the city’s Religious Council so each community could follow its own interpretation of Jewish law.

City councilman Shlomo Lerner, head of the National Religious Party in Beit Shemesh…believes the mikve issue is symptomatic of renewed friction that has started to build up between the haredi and national religious communities.

“It is one small but very, very important part of the picture,” Lerner told the Post.


The Mikva Saga Continues...

By Rabbi Dov Lipman (Guest writer) Opinion http://tzedek-tzedek.blogspot.com April 23, 2010

Tensions are very high regarding the Mikvaot in Ramat Bet Shemesh with fears that this is only the beginning of a takeover of all Mikvaot in the city by Chareidi rabbonim. The timeline of the events is as follows:


Interview with Rabbi Asher (Richard) Hirsch

www.reform.org.il April 17, 2010


What is your vision of the Reform movement in Israel in 10 years?

I prefer to think in terms of 40 years. It may not seem feasible now, but I believe that by the middle of this century, Israel will have one great, established and accepted liberal religious movement. It will comprise what once was the Progressive movement, what was once the Masorti (Conservative) movement and perhaps even some components of what today is the modern Orthodox movement.

The pluralism which characterizes Jewish life around the world cannot forever be stopped at the Mediterranean shore of Israel.

See also interviews with Danielle Sheldon, Yaron Shavit, Rabbi Dalia Tibon, and Yochai Maytal.


Richard Hirsch Becomes First Reform Rabbi Honored at Israeli Independence Day Ceremony

http://rac.org April 19, 2010

Rabbi Richard Hirsch, first director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and longtime head of the World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ), the international arm of the Reform Movement, today became the first Reform rabbi to receive the honor of lighting a torch during Israel’s Independence Day ceremony.


No sexiness, we're Holy City cheerleaders

AFB www.france24.com April 20, 2010

Click here for VIDEO

A dozen dancing girls hit the hardwood floors of a Jerusalem basketball court on a recent spring night with an unusual goal -- show nothing sexy.

These are the Hapoel Jerusalem cheerleaders, and their defiantly flat performances are the result of a long-running saga that has spawned an unlikely alliance of Orthodox Jews and feminists taking on professional sports.

Critics want them off the court and the league will not cave in. The result is a sexless, covered-up performance.


Photo Essay: Boombamela Festival Welcomes Torah Outreach

By Ben Bresky www.israelnationalnews.com April 15, 2010

When Guy Arnon and his wife Galia started producing the Boombamela festival, he didn't expect it to result in a bar mitzvah, especially not his own. The husband and wife team have been coming to Nitzanim beach for the past seven years for one of Israeli's best known and longest running beach festivals.

Like Galia and Guy, they have also been coming to Boombamela for seven years, but as volunteers. Together with a seemingly random group of volunteers from Moshav Mevo Modiin, [the Shlomo Carlebach Moshav], Breslov Chasidim, Rabbi Kook aficionados and whomever else comes to volunteer, Kfar Tefillah makes sure that kosher-for-Passover food is readily available.


World Bible Quiz winner: Or Ashual

By Jonah Mandel www.jpost.com April 21, 2010

Or Ashual, a 17-year-old student at the Kfar Saba Amana girls’ school, became the 2010 winner of the World Bible Quiz competition on Tuesday, which took place on Israel’s 62nd Independence Day at the Jerusalem Center for the Performing Arts.

Both [runner-up Elad] Nachshon and Avner Netanyahu are in the secular education system. Netanyahu’s maternal uncle, Hagi Ben-Artzi – who, like his two brothers, Amatzia and Matanya, is a past winner of the National Bible Quiz and a product of secular schools – pointed out to The Jerusalem Post the magnitude of the achievement, saying that it marked a return of Bible studies to a central place among the nonreligious population after some three decades of religious domination in the contest.


Netanyahu's son stumbles over father's question, takes third place in International Bible Contest

By Liel Kyzer www.haaretz.com April 21, 2010

The finals of the annual International Bible Contest yesterday aroused unusual excitement in the Prime Minister's Office this year, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 15-year-old son, Avner, made it into the finals.

In the end, Netanyahu's son placed third after failing to correctly answer the final question - traditionally posed by the prime minister himself.

Noting that Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, termed the Bible "the foundation of our existence," Netanyahu said he was pleased to see that it is "again becoming the Book of Books of all the people of Israel."


Day of Religious Tolerance – April 26, 2010

  • Is it possible for different denominations in Israel to work together?
  • Religious gays and lesbians share their struggles with G-d, family and community.


School for religious musicians opened

By Elad Rubinstein www.ynetnews.com April 23, 2010

The first music school of its kind will open its doors during the next school year and will focus entirely on Jewish music.

Dozens of applicants have already applied and auditions have recently been heard by the faculty of the new school – jazz musician Daniel Zamir, Rabbi Mordechai Vardi, and musician Itzik Weiss.

The school is already planning high-level musical productions. One of the ideas already being thrown around is creating a rock opera based on the life story of Rabbi Nachman from Breslev.


Religion and State in Israel

April 26, 2010 (Section 1) (see also Section 2)

Editor – Joel Katz

Religion and State in Israel is not affiliated with any organization or movement.

All rights reserved.

Religion and State in Israel - April 26, 2010 (Section 2)

Religion and State in Israel

April 26, 2010 (Section 2) (see also Section 1)

If you are reading in email or RSS feed, please click here to read ONLINE

Editor – Joel Katz

Religion and State in Israel is not affiliated with any organization or movement.


Court rejects Jerusalem bid to up funding for Haredi schools

By Nir Hasson www.haaretz.com April 23, 2010

The Jerusalem District Court yesterday invalidated the Jerusalem municipality's decision to increase funding for Haredi schools.

Judge Noam Sohlberg ruled that the city council's decision of seven months ago "is not egalitarian and is contrary to administrative law and proper conduct."

IRAC activists hope the court ruling will prompt other local authorities to cancel decisions to increase funding for Haredi schools as well.

"The verdict is instructive, and a first," said attorney Einat Hurvitz, who filed the petition with attorney Tali Aviv.

"It is reasoned and takes all the aspects into consideration. The legal advisor's decision to support us will make it difficult for other authorities to set discriminatory criteria that favor ultra-Orthodox schools."


Court: Jerusalem Municipality favors haredi schools

By Ronen Medzini www.ynetnews.com April 19, 2010

Under Israeli law, the State provides funding of 65-75% to recognized unofficial haredi schools, but a few months ago the City Council approved the full funding of the activity of ultra-Orthodox educational institutions, while clearly discriminating against other sectors.

Judge Solberg ruled that the City Council's decision will be cancelled as of the beginning of the next school year.


‘The haredi who made it’

By Peggy Cidor www.jpost.com April 23, 2010

Shock and stupefaction are the major reactions expressed by most of the haredi representatives – whether they are municipal employees or elected – to the news of former mayor Uri Lupolianski’s arrest on suspicion of corruption in the Holyland project.

As for the fact that the major story of the week was hardly mentioned in most of the haredi press, according to Meshi-Zahav the issue was treated the way that media treat any embarrassing issue such as rape or murder. It is simply not mentioned.


Jerusalem police charge Haredi youth for torching Israeli flag

By Liel Kyzer www.haaretz.com April 25, 2010

Jerusalem police on Monday charged a 20-year-old ultra-Orthodox man with disorderly conduct and desecrating the state flag, after he allegedly set Israel's flag on fire in the Shabbat Square in Jerusalem a day earlier.

The suspect is a member of anti-Zionist sect Neturei Karta, which held a rally on Sunday as the Memorial Day siren honoring Israel's fallen soldiers sounded throughout the country, israeli media reported.


PHOTOS: Memorial Day – A Day that Unites

By Yechiel Spira www.theyeshivaworld.com April 19, 2010

In Bnei Brak…a memorial was held on Sunday night in the presence of community residents and rabbonim, paying tribute to the fallen, those who made the ultimate sacrifice for Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael.

The willingness to empathize with the mourners supersedes the need to explain one’s objections to the flag or the secularist nature of the modern state.

…When the memorial siren sounded on Sunday night, Kol Chai Radio called on the tzibur to “avoid chilul Hashem” above all, pleading with those who simply cannot stand idle for one minute to make certain they are indoors, out of the public eye, rather than stirring the fuel of dispute and arouse pain in those who yet do not understand the Torah way.

“Stand still and recite tehillim” was the message from Kol Chai, as the broadcast shifted to the recitation of tehillim with the audible siren wailing in the background.


Israel Memorial Day in Bnei Brak 2010 (Kikar.net)

www.theyeshivaworld.com April 19, 2010

Click here for photos


Israeli Independence Day: The Israeli flag at Ponavez

www.theyeshivaworld.com April 20, 2010

The Israeli flag flown at the Ponavez Yeshiva in Bnei Brak every year on Yom Ha’atzmut


Haredim protest Remembrance Day

By Lahav Harkov www.jpost.com April 19, 2010

Some haredi extremists protested against the State of Israel in Jerusalem on Monday, shortly before the Remembrance Day siren.


Neturei Karta hold anti-Israel protest on Memorial Day eve

By Shmulik Grossman www.ynetnews.com April 18, 2010

Some 150 members of the anti-Zionist sect rioted in Jerusalem's Shabbat Square and waved anti-Israel signs. One protestor went as far as burning the Israeli flag and was promptly arrested.


Mayor Closing Haifa's Separate Beach for Sailing Competition

By Ezra Reichman www.vosizneias.com April 21, 2010

Click here for original Hebrew article

Haifa chareidim are incensed with Mayor Yonah Yahav, who decided to temporarily close down Haifa's separate beach to enable an international sailing competition.

The closest separate beach for religious Haifa residents to use is in far off Kiryat Chaim. The city says the chareidim are ungrateful bordering on the scandalous.


Jewish group files complaint against radio broadcaster

By Kobi Nahshoni www.ynetnews.com April 25, 2010

Representatives of the "Jerusalem Association for Equality", a Haredi public group fighting against religious discrimination on Thursday filed a complaint with the police against radio talk-show host Gabi Gazit, the radio station management and the Second Authority for Television and Radio, in which they claimed Gazit's remarks about haredim being "parasites", "leeches" and "worms" that must be sent out of the country were calls of incitement.


Popular radio host Gabi Gazit: Haredim are 'leeches, worms'

By Gili Izikovich and Yair Ettinger www.haaretz.com April 23, 2010

Popular radio talk show host Gabi Gazit called Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jews "leeches" and "worms" in a monologue on his show yesterday.

His remarks on the regional station Radio Lelo Hafsaka (Nonstop Radio), which broadcasts in the center and north of the country, were in response to Independence Day clashes between policemen and ultra-Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem who oppose celebration of the holiday.


Get Your Kosher Ice Cream: A New Parlor Draws Crowds and Critics

By Yaffi Spodek and Josh Tapper http://coveringreligion.org April 24, 2010

“Besides the food and ingredients, we are very strict about modesty,” said Rabbi Menachem Gorlitz, Rubin’s primary mashgiach.

“There shouldn’t be a mixture of men and women hanging out in an environment that is lacking in modesty. If we see or hear that there are problems in this area, I would definitely take away the kashrut certificate.”

Menachem Friedman, a sociologist and professor emeritus at Bar-Ilan University, said the opening of Zisalek reflects an entrepreneurial spirit in a historically poor community. But communal norms still prevail.

He predicts it’s only a matter of time before Zisalek shuts down. “It only takes one incident where men and women establish relations and that’s it,” he said.


R’ Hager Shlita: Reading HaMevaser and Hamodia is Prohibited

By Yechiel Spira www.theyeshivaworld.com April 21, 2010

Rav Yisrael Hager Shlita, the son of the Vishnitzer Rebbe Shlita, delivered an address to mark the beginning of a new ‘zman’ following the Pesach vacation.

The address was delivered in Brechfeld in Modi’in Illit, during which the Rav stated it is absolutely forbidden to read the daily chareidi newspapers.

Rav Hager stated it is absolutely forbidden for a yeshiva bachur to read the chareidi dailies, adding they should also not carry cellular telephones because they can damage one’s neshama.

Rav Hagar added a bachur should also not travel to Meron on Lag B’Omer, stressing he makes the statements in the name of his father, the Rebbe Shlita.


Chareidi Battle May Shift from Bones to Stadium

By Yechiel Spira www.theyeshivaworld.com April 25, 2010

With Atra Kadisha and the Eida Chareidit vowing to hold a major protest against plans to move graves to permit construction of a new fortified wing of Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon, it appears Ashdod City Hall is planning to construct a stadium to accommodate 20,000 visitors in the Rova Aleph neighborhood, near a chareidi population.

Such a project would result in shabbos sporting events, a most unwelcome reality for the community’s chareidi residents.


Samaria Wines Win Big; Victor Credits Shemittah Year

By Maayana Miskin www.israelnationalnews.com April 23, 2010

Ben-Sheetrit was given an opportunity to address the audience after winning, and he used the opportunity to tell the hundreds of assembled winery owners, wine experts, journalists and tourists that he credits his success to his observance of the shemittah year, and to the fact that his grapes are grown in the portion of the land of Israel belonging to the biblical Joseph (Yosef), who is buried a short distance from Yitzhar.


JA plans radical reorganization

By Haviv Rettig Gur www.jpost.com April 23, 2010

“One issue that is very much on the minds of our constituents [the federations, Keren Hayesod, etc.], is the question of the Jewish identity of Israelis and what role the Jewish people has in connecting young Israelis to a sense of themselves as Jews,” the official said.


Study: Relations with Diaspora Jewry in danger

By Yedida Peretz www.ynetnews.com April 20, 2010

A new study published by the Lifshitz College of Education in Jerusalem ahead of Independence Day shows that the relations between Israel's Jews and the Diaspora Jewry are in danger.

According to the research, the Jewish public in Israel appears to be ignorant when it comes to the Diaspora Jewry, and this may lead to a cultural separation between the Jewish people in Israel and Jews in the Diaspora and weaken the State of Israel's status as the global Jewish center.


Conservative leader laments growing Israel-Diaspora divide

By Johanna Ginsberg http://njjndev.com April 21, 2010

Arnold Eisen is calling for a revisioning of Zionism. Why? The Conservative movement leader views the relationship between American Jews and Israeli Jews as “fraying to the point of dissolution.”

“The answer has to lie in fostering experiences of American Jews involving Israel and fostering experience of Israeli Jews of us. Birthright is the beginning of this,” he said, referring to the free trips to Israel for young people, “but only the beginning, and there’s a lot more that’s needed.

Finally, in order to remedy the lack of relationship between Diaspora and Israeli Jews, he suggested the creation of conversations, or “shared partnerships,” among Jews on both sides of the divide.


Love of Israel: After post-Zionism

By Bambi Sheleg Opinion www.acheret.co.il April 22, 2010

We have discovered the hard way that the individualistic and sectoral society that has developed here in recent years cannot solve the momentous problems that face us.

We must then form a new covenant between the collective and its individual constituents, and between the various sectors of the population itself.


In Budapest, Jewish history came looking for us

By Haviv Rettig Gur Opinion www.jpost.com April 21, 2010

There we were – Jews from every corner of the globe trapped under a cloud of ash in the ghetto where Theodor Herzl was born; eyes stinging from recalling our fallen youth, surrounded by a nation that last week gave 17 percent of its votes to anti-Semites – hearing a call to renewed devotion from a rabbi in a black coat and white beard.

We went to Europe looking for a small parcel of Jewish history. It felt as though Jewish history had come looking for us.


Thoroughly Modern Theodor

By Amnon Rubinstein Opinion http://forward.com April 21, 2010

Herzl believed in the separation of religion and state: Rabbis should be confined to their synagogues in the same way as army officers are confined to their barracks. In the Jewish state, religious freedom and freedom from religion are both ensured.

…This is Herzl’s Judaism: an inclusive religious tradition separated from the state, imbued with Western liberal values and combining the old with the new — offering inspiration, once again, to the world.

Herzl imagines a Friday night in Jerusalem as follows: “throngs of worshippers made their way to the Temple and to the many synagogues…. there to pray to the God whose banner Israel had borne throughout the world for thousands of years.”


Zionism is alive and well – and getting younger every day

By David Breakstone Opinion www.jpost.com April 23, 2010

Good news. I found them. That lost generation everyone is always bemoaning, those between the ages of 25 and 40 whom Jewish organizations perpetually have such a difficult time attracting to their ranks.


Not a danger to the Jewish people

By Alexander Yakobson Opinion www.haaretz.com April 22, 2010

The truth, however, is that these immigrants present no danger to the Jewish people - if we correctly understand the term "people" as a sovereign nation-state. On the contrary, they represent a historic victory of modern Jewish nationhood.

It is no trifling matter that today, in this country, we Jews are not being assimilated into other nations, but others are being assimilated into us. Assimilation, at least in the first generation, need not be decisive and complete to be successful. Who understands that better than Jews?


Building Birthright Alumni Networks

By Sharon Udasin www.thejewishweek.com April 20, 2010

Interview with Morlie Levin, formerly the national executive director of Hadassah, is slated next month to take on the new post of CEO at Birthright Israel NEXT.


Taglit Will Bring 21,000 to Israel this Summer

http://ejewishphilanthropy.com April 20, 2010

Gidi Mark, CEO of Taglit-Birthright Israel, said “We set a goal for ourselves that within the next 7-10 years, half of Jewish youth living in the Diaspora will visit Israel through our program.


BBI Awards for Diaspora Reporting

www.bnaibrith.org April 20, 2010

Tamar Ish-Shalom and Israel Rosner receive broadcast media award for Channel 10 series on U.S. Jewish community; Eliahu Birnbaum receives print media award for Makor Rishon series on remote Jewish communities.

Certificate of Merit to Shmuel Rosner, Chief U.S. Correspondent for "Ha'aretz;" Certificate of Excellence to Or Kashti, Ha'aretz education correspondent; Lifetime Achievement Award to Ma'ariv founder and Editor-in-Chief Shalom Rosenfeld.


Poll: Shabbat connects youth to Israel

By Tzofia Hirschfeld www.ynetnews.com April 23, 2010

The survey was conducted among 2,000 teenagers aged 16 to 18 in a bid to discover the thing which most connects the youth to the country they are living in. Some 43% of the respondents said they view Shabbat and Jewish holidays as their deepest connection to the country.

About 20% of the respondents said the Hebrew language is what most connects them to the country. Hearing the Hebrew language everywhere, the Israeli songs and the Israeli culture make them feel that they are in the right place.


Poll: Model Israeli citizen serves his country

www.ynetnews.com April 22, 2010

The first question asked by the surveyors was: "What do you think it takes to be a model Israeli citizen?": about 80% percent of the respondents said model citizens are those who either serve in the army or perform national service;

According to the poll, secular (74%) and traditional (65%) Israeli Jews are mostly concerned about the honesty and decency of the country's citizens, while the ultra-Orthodox (92%) and religious Jews (68%) want Israel to become "more Jewish."


Our true friends

By Dan Calic Opinion www.ynetnews.com April 22, 2010

Those who will stand with us will be Christian Zionists such as Pastor John Hagee. Some Jews may say the reason the Christian Zionists ‘love’ us so much is more about fulfillment of their own eschatology than genuine love and respect for the Jewish people.

While there may be some element of truth to this notion, as a Jew if I have to choose between those willing to stand with us and support our country vs. those who murder our people, wish to destroy our country and believe in a god who curses us, the choice becomes an easy one.


An unorthodox aliyah

By Lily Galili www.haaretz.com April 22, 2010

The conversation with Father David Neuhaus, S.J., takes place on the three different levels that constitute his identity.

In part, it is an exchange of ideas with a "standard Israeli leftist," a member of a disappearing species.

It is also a conversation with a Jesuit monk, spiced with a pinch of theology, and a discussion with a veteran Jewish immigrant from South Africa, who can draw, or dispense with, similarities and differences between his native land and the country in which he chose to spend his life.

David Neuhaus was born 48 years ago in South Africa to a German Jewish couple that escaped during the Holocaust.


Galilee Diary: Definitions VI

By Marc Rosenstein Opinion http://blogs.rj.org April 20, 2010

A couple of months ago I began a series of entries trying to explain the fine points of difference among the religious "streams" in Israel. Before moving on, herewith a scorecard, to help keep track of the players (in rough order of numbers):


Religion and State in Israel

April 26, 2010 (Section 2) (see also Section 1)

Editor – Joel Katz

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