Monday, September 27, 2010

Religion and State in Israel - September 27, 2010 (Section 1)

Religion and State in Israel

September 27, 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.


The dangerous misconceptions of Rabbi Amar

By Rabbi Eric Yoffie Opinion www.jpost.com September 26, 2010

Rabbi Yoffie is the President of the Union for Reform Judaism.

Rabbi Shlomo Amar, the Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel, has no understanding of American politics, and his misconceptions are dangerous to the well-being of the State of Israel.

...I happen to agree that the involvement of Congressmen in Israel's religious affairs is troubling at any time and particularly now.

I suggest, however, that instead of issuing blistering attacks on Reform and Conservative Jews, Rabbi Amar should do two things: endorse the efforts of Natan Sharansky to find a compromise on the conversion bill acceptable to all, and consider promoting a democratic, "free-market" religious system that will restore the honor of Torah in the Jewish state and lead to a true flowering of Jewish life.


Good intentions, wrong solution

By Rabbi Uri Regev Opinion www.jpost.com September 24, 2010

The writer is a rabbi, and attorney and the executive director of Hiddush – For Religious Freedom and Equality.

The state should be supporting religious services and choices of all Jews (and non-Jews), just as it supports cultural and educational services, but should not impose one religious school of thought over others, so long as they comply with the civil law and public order.

Israel should fully and equally recognize all conversions and marriages performed by the major religious streams as well as allow for civil marriage. There is no other worthy solution, and the sooner we recognize that, the better.


‘Yated Ne’eman’ slams Amar for accepting IDF conversions

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

The mouthpiece for the Lithuanian-Ashkenazi-haredi rabbinic leadership slammed Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar on Monday for his recent statement that conversions conducted in the IDF are halachically valid.

“Rabbis and senior rabbinical judges in the Holy Land and Diaspora are openly and firmly protesting the severe breach in maintaining the pedigree and sanctity of the people of Israel, following the chief Sephardi rabbi’s declaration” on the validity of the military conversions, Yated Ne’eman’s Page 2 read.


Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein on Conversion Bill

By Gil Hoffman www.jpost.com September 22, 2010

Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein:

I will bring specific proposals to the committee that is working on reaching a compromise, in an effort to enable Russian immigrants and other potential converts to have more possibilities for Orthodox conversions without antagonizing and excluding non- Orthodox Jews.


Time for a new Jewish conversation

Tzipi Livni Opinion www.jpost.com September 21, 2010

The writer is leader of the opposition and head of the Kadima party.

First, if Israel is to realize its mission as the national home of the Jewish people, it must act like one. It must find ways to welcome rather than alienate Jews regardless of their opinions or the stream of Judaism with which they are affiliated.

It must embrace an inclusive and pluralistic Jewish agenda that respects our traditions without denying the legitimacy of difference.


Police call for pressing charges against Torah-carrying activist at Western Wall

By Raphael Ahren www.haaretz.com September 24, 2010


"Not that I'm looking forward to having my freedom curtailed, but oftentimes you have to pay a personal price for your beliefs," said Anat Hoffman, who is also executive director of the Reform movement's Israel Religious Action Center, about the prospect of a prison sentence.

"I will find it extremely surprising if someone in the [prosecutor's office] will actually pursue this. But if they will pursue it, I am willing to pay the price," she added.

Hoffman insists her actions are anything but a provocation.

"We've been doing this for 22 years," she said about Women of the Wall's monthly prayer group. "We're there all the time. What has changed is not us, what changed is the powers that be, the power of the state behind the most fanatic Orthodoxy," she said, adding that over the last half decade many changes occurred at the Wall that seem to cement an Orthodox grip on the site. "It became an Ultra-Orthodox synagogue."


Atara Kenigsberg, could you become director of the Rabbinical Courts?

By Chaim Levinson www.haaretz.com September 21, 2010

Women are demanding the right to serve as director of the rabbinical courts. One of the would-be candidates is Atara Kenigsberg, executive director of the Ruth and Emanuel Rackman Center for the Advancement of the Status of Women at Bar-Ilan University.

"The office is administrative - just as they would accept any new administrator. There's no reason to refuse to work for one who is a woman. They are employed by the civil service, and there's no excuse for inequality in the civil service."


Women demand right to serve as director of Israel's rabbinical courts

By Yair Ettinger www.haaretz.com September 20, 2010

Three women are threatening to ask the High Court of Justice to declare unconstitutional a law requiring the director general of the rabbinical courts to be able to serve as a municipal rabbi or rabbinical court judge - titles awarded only to men.

Alternatively, the High Court petitioners want Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman to seriously consider their candidacy for the director general job in spite of the law.


A woman’s place

Jpost.com Editorial www.jpost.com September 21, 2010

In the coming days, Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman, in consultation with Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, will choose a new administrative head for the rabbinical court system.

A qualified woman should be given a fair chance at the job. But due to Israel’s problematic mixture of religion and politics, which often leads to appointments guided more by political efficacy than the better good, there is little hope of this happening.


High Court reveals anonymous donor paid men to grant bills of divorce

By Tomer Zarchin www.haaretz.com September 21, 2010

The rabbinical courts' administration already has an arrangement to pay men who refuse to divorce their wives in certain cases, as an incentive to grant the divorce. The money is budgeted by the state. However, the verdict shows that in 2004-2005 an anonymous donor gave the rabbinical courts money to pay off dozens of men and even a few women, to divorce their spouses.

CWJ attorney Aviad Hacohen:

"They refuse to tell us who the donor is. We don't know the exact sums he donated in every case. Is it conceivable that a private donor give the courts' administration - the equivalent to the rabbinical courts' administration - funds to pay civil litigators with no supervision or follow-up?"


The emperor has no clothes

By Rivkah Lubitch Opinion www.ynetnews.com September 26, 2010

Rivkah Lubitch is a rabbinic court pleader who works at The Center for Women’s Justice

For the past 13 years all sorts of figures in the Jewish world have been trying to convince Zevulun Siman Tov from Afghanistan, who refuses to divorce his wife, to give her a get.

Rivkah Lubitch thinks that the story reflects the powerlessness of the wife and the rabbinic court against a man who married a woman and refuses to divorce her. And when will we understand that this situation cannot be allowed to continue?


To Remarry, Jewish Widow First Kneels to Custom

By Michele Chabin www.womensenews.org September 22, 2010

When Sarah presented the registrar with her late husband's death certificate, he asked if her deceased husband had any children. When she said no, he asked whether her late husband had any brothers. Sarah said yes.

"Then you need to do the halitza ceremony," the registrar told her, she said. "Otherwise you won't be able to marry, ever."


Petition slams Yishai's Shabbat payment shut down decision

By Jonah Mandel www.jpost.com September 24, 2010

A petition against the planned disabling of online payments to the Interior Ministry on Shabbat and holidays is slowly gaining steam.

“Of course it is not hard to guess where this prohibition will lead: If you can’t make transactions on Shabbat, in the future we won’t be able to surf the Internet on Yom Kippur or enter Facebook on Shabbat – and I thought that we should at least protest. This is the only means [of action] I have, unlike Yishai,” Omer Barak added.


Religious party puts up Shabbat pay-wall

By Anshel Pfeffer www.thejc.com September 21, 2010

Interior Minister Eli Yishai has opened a new front in the battle between state and religion by ordering his ministry's website to close down its payment facilities on Shabbat.

Meanwhile Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman of United Torah Judaism has also decided to close his ministry's online payment facilities on Shabbat, though it is unclear yet whether other ministries controlled by religious politicians will follow suit.


Army Radio head: Soldiers will not work on Shabbat

By Kobi Nahshoni www.ynetnews.com September 21, 2010

Head of Army Radio Yitzhak Tunik announced he would stop the formulation of a General Staff order which is to determine regulations for Shabbat and holiday broadcasting.

He also intends to gradually reduce the work of soldiers serving with the radio station so that eventually only civilians will be working on Shabbat.


Guide for the perplexed ex-soldier

By Anshel Pfeffer www.haaretz.com September 24, 2010

Inside the beit midrash - study hall - at the Israeli Academy for Leadership, Ein Prat, women and men sit hunched over rows of rectangular tables loaded with volumes of Talmud, Bibles and philosophy texts.

...There is one substantial aspect that sets the Ein Prat academy apart from other Jewish spiritual study programs. Despite the human diversity in the small study hall, everyone is between the ages of 22 and 28, a social stratum of "post-army, post-India, pre-university."

Click here for VIDEO


Judaism without labels

By Anshel Pfeffer Opinion www.haaretz.com September 24, 2010

You have by now probably reached the same conclusion I have, that all this business of labeling a person's religious persuasion is a mug's game. I don't have a survey to back me up on this but there are growing numbers of Israelis who simply will not be tied down to one category and in recent months it seems almost as if I have been meeting people like this every day.


Secular, thank God

By Alexander Yakobson Opinion www.haaretz.com September 20, 2010

How good that there is a large secular public in Israel and a strong, well-developed and confident secular culture.

With all its faults and weaknesses, it is a free society - not always free enough, but free compared to the alternative. Israel is a free country first and foremost because of this public and this culture. To appreciate freedom, one must only look at what happens when it is absent.


Working in Jerusalem: Seal of approval

By Mark Rebacz www.jpost.com September 17, 2010

“When I started my involvement in Bema’aglei Tzedek, I didn’t know that Judaism could be pluralistic and humanistic and strive for justice.
I grew up thinking of Judaism as mostly restrictions. So I feel that what we are doing here is more than just workers’ rights, etc. It’s also about emphasizing the importance of justice within the Jewish tradition, which is something that I felt was absent while I was growing up.”


Wiesenthal Center unveils new J'lem museum design

By Gil Shefler www.jpost.com September 21, 2010

The Simon Wiesenthal Center has unveiled a new design by Chyutin Architects for its planned Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem, which will be built at an estimated cost of $100 million.

The Chyutin design replaces an earlier one by renowned architect Frank Gehry, whose estimated cost of $250m. dollars made it too expensive to build.


New designs revealed for Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem

By David Ng http://latimesblogs.latimes.com September 21, 2010

The new design, which was created by the Israeli firm Chyutin Architects, calls for a six-story structure -- three stories below ground and three above -- with approximately 150,000 to 160,000 square feet of space. By comparison, the Center's main facilities in Los Angeles total about 110,000 square feet of space.

The front of the new museum will face a commercial area while the back faces Independence Park in Jerusalem. The Center said the back features glass walls from top to bottom, seen below, to create a warmer and more inviting atmosphere.


Frank Gehry responds to our post on Jerusalem museum

By Christopher Hawthorne http://latimesblogs.latimes.com September 22, 2010

Gehry added that he also produced a design for a smaller version for the museum -- one closer to the 150,000-square-foot proposal released Tuesday -- but that ultimately he and the Wiesenthal Center couldn't see eye to eye. "I'm glad I got out of it," he said.


Shir Hadash: A new community center in Jerusalem

By Greer Fay Cashman www.jpost.com September 22, 2010

Rabbi Ian Pear's dream is to have a community center that encompasses a kindergarten, a synagogue and other religious facilities with educational and cultural programs that are dedicated to bringing Jews closer to Judaism and closer to one another.

The laying of the [Shir Hadash] cornerstone is due to be held on September 27, with Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky as guest speaker.


No room for improvement

By Gail Lichtman www.jpost.com September 26, 2010

The absence of a statutory building plan has Jewish Quarter residents battling extensive fines and even prison sentences for violations.

The land on which the Jewish Quarter lies is state land administered by the ILA. The land was leased en masse to the company in 1968 for restoring and developing the Jewish Quarter.


I couldn't have said it better myself

By Raphael Ahren www.haaretz.com September 24, 2010

Through her website, YourJewishSpeech.com, the 36-year-old offers to write talks for all Jewish lifecycle events, from naming ceremonies for girls through house warming parties to award speeches and eulogies.


Poll: 21% of Jews 'more religious'

www.ynetnews.com September 24, 2010

Some 72% of Israeli Jews over the age of 20 reported visiting a synagogue in 2009, while 21% said that they are now more religious than before, according to a survey conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics.

Meanwhile, 14% of poll respondents said they are now less religious than they were before.


10 years from aliyah: An immigrant family marks a decade in Israel

By Marcy Oster www.jta.org September 21, 2010

It wasn't easy to pack up and leave our family and friends to come here, though we were greeted by both family and friends when we arrived. It was not easy to adjust to a new culture, a new language, a new way of life.

But we knew Israel would be the best place to raise our Jewish children, where they would learn about their Jewish past, participate in their Jewish present and prepare for their Jewish future, and where we would have a front-row seat to Jewish history.


Jewish Federations and overseas partners reach funding deal

By Jacob Berkman www.jta.org September 22, 2010

The Jewish Federations of North America and its two primary overseas partners have reached an agreement in principle over how to divide the money raised by local federations.

The Jewish Agency for Israel and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee have been struggling with the JFNA for nearly two years over how to split the more than $100 million raised by the federation system for overseas needs.

The two overseas partners have traditionally split the money using a formula that gives 75 percent of the funds to the Jewish Agency and 25 percent to JDC.


VIDEO Interview with Jerry Silverman, president & CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America

http://www.shalomtv.org/ September 24, 2010

Click here for VIDEO

Jerry Silverman, president & CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America,
discusses his own Jewish background and shares his vision for the Jewish future.


Throngs of Christian pilgrims to be in Jerusalem for Succot

By Ron Friedman www.jpost.com September 21, 2010

Thousands of Christian pilgrims will visit Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles celebration later this week.

According to the Tourism Ministry, roughly 7,000 Christian from 100 countries will participate in the event, which is sponsored by the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem.


Israel's best foreign ambassadors

By Akiva Novick www.ynetnews.com September 19, 2010

They're Israel's best unofficial spokespeople around the world, creating monuments for Jews, aiding in bringing Jews to Israel and campaigning to defend Israel's international reputation after such events as the deadly raid on Gaza-bound flotilla.

They are some 600 million evangelical Christians who believe salvation will come only after the Jewish people return to their homeland – Greater Israel.


Religion and State in Israel

September 27, 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 - September 27, 2010 (Section 2)

Religion and State in Israel

September 27, 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.


40,000 throng Western Wall Plaza for Birkat Hakohanim

www.jpost.com September 26, 2010

Some 40,000 Jewish worshipers thronged the Western Wall Plaza Sunday to take part in the bi-annual Priestly Blessing, which usually occurs on the second intermediate days of Sukkot and Pesach.

Click here for VIDEO

Video by Kuvien-Yehuda Boltshauser & Co.

Thousands attend Priestly Blessing in Jerusalem

By Kobi Nahshoni www.ynetnews.com September 26, 2010

Some 15,000 people participated in the traditional Priestly Blessing in the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Sunday.

Among the worshippers were Israel's Chief Rabbis Yona Metzger and Shlomo Amar as well as Shmuel Rabinowitz, rabbi of the Western Wall.


Court: Renters can build courtyard sukkah over owners' objections

By Yair Ettinger www.haaretz.com September 21, 2010

Do tenants have the right to build a sukkah - a temporary structure erected to celebrate the Sukkot holiday - in the courtyard of an apartment building over the objections of the building's owners?

According to Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court Judge Idit Berkowitz, the answer is yes.


No shortage of palm fronds anticipated

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

Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon recently informed Religious Services Minister Ya’acov Margi that no shortage of palm fronds is expected this year, since the barriers to the import of the lulavim have been successfully removed.


As holiday nears, growers say summer heat ruined etrogim

By Eli Ashkenazi www.haaretz.com September 21, 2010

The growers need to be aware of the specific demands of each community: Lithuanian Haredi Jews don't place too much importance on whether or not there is a pitam, a stigma at one end of the fruit, while some Hasidic communities see it as a priority.

[A]fter years in which the market knew only small quantities of etrogim from Italy and Morocco, Mexico has begun exporting the fruit to America. Some 100,000 non-Israeli etrogim are marketed in Jewish communities abroad, mostly for those who object to buying produce from Israel.


'Tis the season, to smuggle etrogs

By Amiram Cohen www.haaretz.com September 22, 2010

Customs inspectors at Ben-Gurion International Airport yesterday caught no less than seven people, most of them from France, trying to sneak in a total of 400 of the inedible fruits, one of the Four Species used as a symbol during the Feast of the Tabernacles holiday.


A mitzvah of art

By Tamar Rotem www.haaretz.com September 24, 2010

Aryeh Grossman, a reporter for the Haredi newspaper Yated Ne'eman, who also remembers those sukkot from his childhood, says that children no longer go to see sukkot. Maybe that's because the booths have disappeared from the courtyards and moved to the balconies.


Feminists march in Mea Shearim

By Kobi Nahshoni www.ynetnews.com September 24, 2010

The Eda Haredit's consideration to bar women from the main street in the haredi Jerusalem neighborhood Mea Shearim during the Sukkot holiday has sparked a secular-religious clash that is likely to peak over the holiday.

A group of Jerusalem women announced that it will hold a demonstration in the epicenter of the extremist haredi stronghold in the city in protest against the increasing radicalization and damage to haredi women's status within the community.


Burning questions, not burning bridges

By Tamar Rotem www.haaretz.com September 22, 2010

During the first Beit Meir conference, Rabbi Adler presented a survey about the newly observant, conducted by him for the American-based Wolfson Foundation, which supports Orthodox educational projects and institutions.

Adler interviewed people who work to convince secular Jews to become Orthodox, and heads of yeshivas and other religious institutions attended by hozrim betshuva.

He indicated that problems faced by the newly observant constitute a "time bomb" for the Haredi world. Indeed, in recent years it seems that the latter was not prepared for the mass influx of hozrim betshuva - among them people belonging to marginal social groups, even criminals.

Today, for the first time, the established ultra-Orthodox community apparently doesn't want some of these people among its ranks.


The new Haredim: Educated, surfing soldiers in the army

By Nati Tucker www.haaretz.com September 21, 2010

On the one hand, the rabbinic and political leadership is trying with all its might to preserve the principle of separateness, even to the point of not having an idea about how Western society works. The goal is to do everything possible to prevent young Haredim from desiring the permissive world of the non-religious - even at the price of poverty.

On the other hand, the ultra-Orthodox community is no longer a small and conformist community. Under the surface, things are starting to boil over.


Bank of Israel chief to fight poverty in ultra-Orthodox sector

By Nati Tucker www.haaretz.com September 21, 2010

Central bank governor Stanley Fischer:

"...I think we have to look at the other side: the problem of education that would enable people to succeed in today's Israel."

"To find good jobs the men need academic studies," he said. They can study Torah in the morning and then work in the afternoon, the governor added.


Bank of Israel: Only 39% of Haredi men work

By Nati Tucker www.haaretz.com September 21, 2010

Among Haredim, only 39% of the men work, Flug said - though the trend of finding jobs, among both men and women of the community, has been modestly increasing.

There are grounds for optimism as far as education is concerned. The number of Haredim studying at institutions of higher education rose fivefold, from 375 in 2005 to almost 2,000 last year.


First learn Haredi values by heart

By Yossi Elituv Opinion www.haaretz.com September 21, 2010

The author is a rabbi and journalist, a member of the council of the Second Authority for Television and Radio and the deputy editor of the Haredi newspaper Mishpacha.

Many of the numbers in the headlines simply do not match reality. Real employment is much higher than what the figures show. The desire to work of those who do not sit and study Torah all day, after receiving permission from their rabbis, is much much greater than any of the studies pretend to show.


Haredi extremists versus visitors - women are not invited

By Yair Ettinger www.haaretz.com September 22, 2010

The posters put up Tuesday in Mea She'arim, a Haredi neighborhood of Jerusalem, answered some questions about what to expect during the week-long Sukkot holiday, and especially the mid-holiday Simhat Beit Hasho'eva celebrations. On one hand, contrary to rumors, women will not be forcibly prevented from entering the neighborhood. On the other, women are definitely not invited.


Haredim want King David statue moved

By Tzipi Malkov www.ynetnews.com September 21, 2010


A large statue of King David, currently overlooking the ancient figure's tomb on Mount Zion, may be moved soon because of haredi pressure.

According to Jerusalem Municipality's art advisor, David Suzana, officials are already searching for a new spot to place the statue. "It just makes my blood boil," he says.


Haredi protest may bring down King David

By Melanie Lidman www.jpost.com September 14, 2010

[U]ltra-Orthodox city council members, including Deputy Mayor Yitzhak Ze’ev Pindrus, announced they were asking to move the statue to a different place on Mount Zion farther from the tomb, or a public park.

Some opposition members are worried that honoring this demand will lead to a host of other requests to move statues in the capital.


En route to theocracy?

By Assaf Wohl Opinion www.ynetnews.com September 21, 2010

[T]he Shas movement is in the process of completing its build-up and acquisition of political clout. Now it no longer makes do with activity that aims to benefit its constituency.

While Ashkenazi haredi parties mostly care about budgets, IDF service exemptions, and other communal bonuses and maintain a low profile on matters that to not pertain to their internal affairs, Shas aims much higher.


Haredim spend average NIS 1,300 on clothes for High Holidays

By Meirav Crystal www.ynetnews.com September 24, 2010

Ahead of the High Holidays, the haredi public spent about NIS 100 million (about $26.7 million) on clothes for their families, according to a study performed by Mutagim Market Research for the haredi sector of Habetzefer Advertising School.


What happens when Rabbi Ovadia dies?

By Gil Hoffman and Jonah Mandel www.jpost.com September 24, 2010

Shas’s critics believe that when the rabbi goes, so does his party, and the country’s political landscape will change dramatically overnight.

The six or seven mandates Shas gets from people who are not haredi could return to secular parties. Shas will no longer be the kingmaker in coalition horse-trading. A secular national-unity government that could then more easily be formed could make vast changes in the framework of Israeli politics and society.


How politics hurt Israel's Rabbi Ovadia Yosef

By Anshel Pfeffer www.thejc.com September 21, 2010

So who is the real Rav Ovadia?

A sophisticated man of peace or a racist rabble-rouser? The leading halachic theorist of his generation or a populist reactionary?

Shas, a permanent fixture in almost every government since 1984, may have consolidated his political power and public influence, but it has also taken away attention from his real life's work; over 40 volumes of responsa, halachah and commentary designed to update Jewish law to
a daily modern law.

It has also forced him to acquiesce to the party's right-wing line rather than alienate voters.


Teen Shas backers celebrate Ovadia Yosef's 90th b-day

By Yair Ettinger www.haaretz.com September 21, 2010

Scores of young Shas supporters turned up yesterday at the house of the movement's spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, to mark his 90th birthday.


The Murder Midrash

By Kamoun Ben-Shimon www.jpost.com September 19, 2010

A controversial treatise, ‘Torat Hamelekh,’ raises questions about a purported ‘Jewish morality’ and the role of rabbis in society.

Rabbi Yuval Cherlow, head of the army affiliated yeshiva in Petah Tikva and considered one of the most prominent moderate voices of the religious Zionist camp, denounced the meeting in the harshest terms.

“Whoever convenes a meeting solely on this topic [the alleged insult to the Torah] and does not, at the same time, completely distance himself from what is written in this book is a sinner,” he tells The Jerusalem Report.


Overhaul in Israel's Bible education

By Tamar Trabelsi-Hadad www.ynetnews.com September 20, 2010

The new program will also make it mandatory for students of the 7th-12th grades to use the Bible text and Jewish commentaries alone and no longer be aided by various booklets.

It was revealed that many students have never opened an actual Bible during their studies as there were aid books offering short summaries in easy language at hand.


Mind the Gap: An Inside Look at Israel’s Education System




Yossi Vardi on Core Curriculum in Haredi Schools

High tech not connected to economy

By Noa Parag www.globes.co.il September 21, 2010

Yossi Vardi:

"I view with horror the State's response to the High Court of Justice regarding studies in math and English (NP: the petition to enforce the core curriculum in the Haredi-ultra orthodox sector).

Without those two subjects, I do not believe it is possible to be involved in anything connected to the 21st century. I would be happy to see this topic being put in its appropriate place."


Body of man murdered in Uman to be flown to Israel

By Kobi Nahshoni www.ynetnews.com September 26, 2010

The body of Shmuel Tubul, the 19-year-old Breslov Hassid who was stabbed to death in Uman, Ukraine during a brawl with local youngsters was released from the hospital after an autopsy was performed only on the stab wound area, ZAKA chairman Yehuda Meshi-Zahav said Sunday.

Tubul's funeral is scheduled to take place in Jerusalem on Monday after his body is flown to Israel.


Shas ministers trying to prevent Breslov man's autopsy

By Jpost.com staff and Ben Hartman www.jpost.com September 26, 2010

Interior Minister Eli Yishai announced Sunday that he would intercede with Ukrainian authorities to prevent an autopsy from being performed on the body of stabbing victim, Shmuel Menachem Tobol.

"If it is necessary, I will fly to Uman to prevent the autopsy," Yishai said.


Breslov Hasid murdered in Uman

By Kobi Nahshoni www.ynetnews.com September 26, 2010

Shmuel Tubul, a 19-year-old Breslov Hasid, was stabbed to death early Sunday morning in the town of Uman, Ukraine, and his brother was lightly injured in a brawl between several local residents.

The murder dumbfounded Breslov community members in Israel and around the world, and Ukraine's chief Rabbi expressed fear that local authorities might attempt to whitewash the grave incident.


Resurrection of the dead.com

By Akiva Novick www.ynetnews.com September 20, 2010

Chevra Kadisha, Israel's burial society, has never known a recession, which naturally makes sense, as death never takes a vacation.

Over the past few months, the burial society has invested significant resources in upgrading its technological services, in the hopes of helping those looking for a loved one's final resting place to find it more easily.


ZAKA expanding to Druze, Arab towns

By Ahiya Raved www.ynetnews.com September 23, 2010

Voluntary rescue organization ZAKA is to expand its activities and set up units among the non-Jewish population in the north of Israel.

"Just as in our courses a rabbi guides us on how to handle the deceased, in courses for the new volunteers there'll be a sheikh or qadi (Druze religious leader)," Farkash said.


Karaite Jews prepare for Succot with a lemon twist

By Gil Shefler www.jpost.com September 22, 2010

[T]he biggest Karaite Succot gathering of about 300 people is expected to take place at their ancient synagogue in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City on the third day of Succot. But if you’d like to show up at the event and witness the unusual traditions of this branch of Judaism, just remember they’re on a slightly different time than the rest of us.


Religion and State in Israel

September 27, 2010 (Section 2) (see also Section 1)

Editor – Joel Katz

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

All rights reserved.