Editor – Joel Katz
Religion
and State in Israel is not affiliated
with any organization or movement.
By Amir Mizroch
The Haredim see the
uninterrupted continuation of Torah study and draft exemption as an existential
issue. There is only black and white here, not 50 shades of grey, not even 2
shades of gray.
The entire power structure
of the haredi political system is based on the complete control that the rabbis
have over their flock. Once young men start serving in the army, national
service, or, God forbid, work for a living – they may start getting their own
ideas.
It doesn't matter that both Bennett and Lapid were proposing gradual,
moderated and meaningful plans to equalise the national burden. There is no
real compromise that the haredim can agree to. For the haredi rabbis [not
necessarily their flock] the prospect of change itself is the end of the world.
Their entire system, all of
their energies, are focused on keeping things as they were in the ghettos of
eastern Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries. Bennett’s party, which includes
a slew of religious Zionist rabbis, was threatening to upend the order of the
world, no less.
Some leaders in the
religious Zionist community are unhappy over Habayit Hayehudi chief Naftali
Bennett's apparent embrace of Yair Lapid, the head of Yesh Atid, ahead of
coalition negotiations with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Rabbi Tzefania Drori, the
municipal rabbi of Kiryat Shmona and a leading religious Zionist figure, issued
a warning to Bennett on Monday over the issue of drafting haredim into the
military.
By David M. Weinberg
The haredi draft issue is
proving to be the sticking point in the current coalition negotiations.
Rightfully so, because focusing on this matter is the key to ending the
chokehold that ultra-Orthodox parties have had on Israeli politics and matters
of religion and state for the past 20 years.
…The insufferable overflow
of self-righteousness, and the hostility toward broader Israeli society,
evident in haredi political behavior needs to be curbed. The haredi political
juggernaut needs to be rolled back. Instead, it is time for moderate religious
Zionism to reassert its place in matters of religion and state and public
policy.
Bennett should not back
down.
By Ari Shavit
[T]here is no practical
justification for a head-on collision with the Haredim in 2013. On the
contrary: We must strengthen the positive process of change they are
undergoing. We must exploit their relative political weakness to reach
unprecedented understandings with them. Instead of excluding Shas, we must
embrace it and offer it a new covenant, one that will advance the Haredi
revolution rather than turning it into a counterrevolution.
Will Shas take the lead on
this issue, or will it be dragged behind the stricter Ashkenazi line on yeshiva
study? Will it be able to deconstruct the Rabbi Yosef sent to President Shimon
Peres last Thursday, according to which “it is necessary to conduct negotiations
with utmost seriousness and find suitable solutions for full-time Torah
scholars”? Shas is signaling that it is willing to talk and resolve the issue,
but it’s only the start.
Joint Shas leader Eli
Yishai said on Saturday night that he feels Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu
prefers to form a new government without Shas.
“I don’t see a way and a
possibility to conscript the Orthodox by force,” said Yishai, adding that the
change would have to be gradual rather than instantaneous.
“Lapid wants a reform in
one day,” he said, warning that Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett, with
whom Lapid has been holding talks, would also object to such over-hasty
reforms.
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid
and Habayit Hayehudi leader Naftali Bennett are coordinating their positions
with the aim of advancing legislation that will equalize the military service
burden.
Also, Yesh Atid is
demanding the chairmanship of the Knesset Finance Committee. The Finance
Committee’s current chief is MK Moshe Gafni from United Torah Judaism. His
predecessor was Yaakov Litzman, also from UTJ.
Eighty percent of the
Jewish public said that they were in favor of creating a government that would
promote an agenda based on civil issues, specifically freedom of religion and
equality in shouldering the civic burden. Amongst Likud Beiteinu voters, 87%
support a civil government and only 13% are against it. Amongst Yesh Atid
voters, 99% are in support; The Tzipi Livni Party, Meretz and Labor- 100%,, and
among ‘Jewish Home’, 68%. Only 38% of Shas voters support the establishment of
a civil government has 39%.
The survey further asked if
the public thinks that Yair Lapid should insist on a government coalition
without Shas and UTJ. A majority of 54% of the Jewish public believes that
Lapid should indeed work to create a government without the two Ultra-Orthodox
parties, while 46% are against it. Amongst secular voters, 70% support a
government without the ultra-Orthodox parties while 93% of ultra-Orthodox
voters are against it.
By Rachel Levmore
Exactly one year ago over
one hundred Orthodox male rabbis and female Torah scholars gathered to build
upon their frustration over the advancement of the ultra-Orthodox stance as the
seeming representation of Orthodox Judaism in Israel.
The group, en masse,
opposes the approach of the Nationalist Haredi stream (Hardal) which has taken
on many of the patterns of thought that were once considered to be the sole
domain of the Haredi world.
But here is the great
mystery: The semi-egalitarian synagogues, the Orthodox trend that began in the
Jerusalem congregation Shira Hadasha in 2001 and in recent years has caught on
in dozens of other places in Israel, from Be’er Sheva to Modi’in and Mazkeret
Batya, has been unable to breach the wall of establishment Modern Orthodoxy in
the United States.
By Laura Wharton
What has the supposedly
rightist government of Netanyahu, about to be re-created, actually done? They
have increased spending on anti-Zionist Ultra-Orthodox education while
virtually liquidating all supervision of these schools.
Under the Nahari Laws,
Ultra-Orthodox schools were given permission to receive funding on an equal
basis to schools following the standard state curriculum; today in such
Ultra-Orthodox centers as Jerusalem, ultra-Orthodox schools entirely exempted
from Education Ministry supervision were even renovated with public funding.
By Rabbi Marc Angel http://www.jewishideas.org/
In 2010, 1.05 billion
shekels (NIS) worth of allocations were added onto the budget, specifically for
religious purposes, which is almost four times more than the budget of the
Ministry of Religious Services in that same year.
In 2011, the amount came
close to NIS 850 million, of which NIS 140 million were categorized by the
committee as "For Gafni Coalition Use," referring to the ultra-Orthodox
United Torah Judaism member and Chair of the Knesset Finance Committee, Moshe
Gafni.
ww.CNN.com
Willing to work and no
longer ready to accept a life of poverty, young Haredim are gradually warming
up to the modern Orthodox and even secular segments of society - but carefully
and on their own terms.
But most of those seeking a
profession that provides a good living are turning to general studies like law
or business administration rather than technology. General study programs are
more accessible, popular and adapted for people working their way through
school or attending yeshiva.
By Yehuda Shein
Once it was politically
correct to disparage the Sephardics and discriminate against them under various
pretexts, when the real reason of course was racism and hatred of the other's
culture. Today this is no longer popular, but it is still okay to vilify
haredim and discriminate against them.
By Zahava Englard
I contend that over the 2
millenium, Judaism has been hijacked and distorted into something that even
Moshe Rabeinu wouldn’t recognize had he popped in for a visit today. And at the
risk of being accused as arrogant by those more knowledgeable than I, I further
contend that the interpretations that view women as men’s property through
various practices camouflaged as halachot must go.
Tnuva Food Industries, the
No. 2 advertiser to the Haredi sector, increased its ad budget by about 20% to
about NIS 3.8 million in 2012, while cutting back overall ad spending by about
20% as well.
The Super-Sol supermarket
chain reduced its overall ad spending by about 50% over the past two years but
increased its advertising budget for the religious and Haredi communities to
NIS 3.23 million, putting it in fourth place.
The "IDF Jewish
Power" (Otzma Yehudit Letzahal) app enables soldiers to be up to date about
Jewish matters 24 hours a day, to listen to words of Torah, and to receive IDF
Chief Rabbi Rafi Peretz's weekly message on the Torah portion, information on
Jewish military law, prayer, and access to the rabbinate's Website and Rabbi
Peretz's Youtube postings, among other things.
The Chabad Hasidim are
furious that Shefa Yamim Exploration and Mining, which is searching for
diamonds near Haifa, has been using the name of the Lubavitcher Rebbe to
promote its business.
"The Rebbe never said
there are diamonds near Haifa," the organization stated: "This is
just how one businessman interprets things he once said."
By Allison Kaplan Sommer
At the very least, these
women are owed the respect of an apology; at most, compensation for their pain
suffering if they received Depo-Provera for years and truly didn’t understand
they had a choice about it.
But sadly, I fear that the frontal assault and demonization of the agencies who worked tirelessly to bring Ethiopian Jewry to Israel will lead to even stronger denials and defensiveness, which will only bolster the paranoid and hate-fueled conspiracy theories.
The victim in all this will
be the truth - and once again, the Ethiopian women themselves.
By Beejhy Barhany
There should be an apology
by no less than the Prime Minister, not only to Ethiopian Jews but to all Jews
worldwide, that their leaders are sorry for participating in such a deplorable
and inhumane act.
...Israel must act
decisively to right this wrong. It must alert all women that were unknowing
recipients of the drug, and provide mental and physical health support to these
women and their families. It must write new laws to ensure this does not happen
again — to Ethiopian Jews or any other minority group. And it should begin a
state-wide campaign of education on the strengths and benefits that Ethiopian
Jews contribute to Israeli society.
Orthodox Rabbi Seth Mandel
returned from Uganda on Wednesday, where he helped the Putti villagers build
their first eruv. He said that while they are not Jewish and do not require
one, they were happy to get it and are actively interested in an Orthodox
conversion.
“They don’t believe that
they are a part of the Ten Tribes and they aren’t interested in moving to
Israel,” he told The Jerusalem Post.
But it has not been a pitch-perfect
journey for the 17-year-old, who is the latest musical phenomenon to emerge
from the African Hebrew Israelite community, also known as the Black Hebrews.
Like Ophir Ben-Shetreet, a fellow contestant who was recently suspended from
her religious high school in Ashdod for singing in public, Pierce has
discovered how difficult it is to achieve superstardom while trying to uphold
her community's values of modesty and discretion.
A meeting Tuesday between
representatives of the Vatican and Israel has brought them closer to ratifying
the Fundamental Agreement governing diplomatic relations between the two
states, which will establish the rights of the Catholic Church in Israel as
well as regulate property and taxation issues.
Editor – Joel Katz
Religion
and State in Israel is not affiliated
with any organization or movement.
All rights reserved.
