April 14, 2008 (Section 2) (continued from Section 1)
Editor – Joel Katz
Religion and State in Israel is not affiliated with any organization or movement.
After their verbal sparring, Hagee and Yoffie may meet
By Ron Kampeas, JTA/JPost.com April 9, 2008
"I was told he was interested in meeting with me," said Yoffie, the president of the Union of Reform Judaism, in an interview with JTA. "I'd be delighted to sit down and talk to him."
Hagee's spokesman, Juda Engelmayer, confirmed that the pastor was considering such a meeting.
The rabbi, the preacher and love of Israel
By Shmuel Rosner, Haaretz April 11, 2008
Hagee wonders why Yoffie preferred a public clash to a discreet meeting.
Who knows, maybe there will still be a meeting. Maybe it will be the beginning of a wonderful friendship.
But it won't provide a solution to the fundamental question: Does the friendship of personalities like Hagee help Israel or harm it?
Gentler Hagee Seen Gaining New Traction
By James D. Besser, The Jewish Week April 9, 2008
Despite withering criticism from the leader of the Reform movement, there is growing evidence that America’s leading Christian Zionist, Pastor John Hagee, is winning acceptance in pro-Israel circles. And some politicians are taking note.
On Reform Judaism and Christian Zionism
By Amotz Asa-El, JPost.com April 13, 2008
By welding itself to a particular peace formula and elevating it to a degree of an article of faith, Reform is actually losing sympathy, certainly in Israel.
To us, statecraft, geopolitics, diplomacy and strategy should be divorced from faith, worship and ritual.
That goes for Catholicism, Lutheranism, Calvinism, Evangelism, Islamism, Shi'ism, Hassidism, Conservatism, modern Orthodoxy, ultra-Orthodoxy - and Reform Judaism, too.
You, Rabbi Yoffie, bring to all this the very same political non-authority that plagues Hagee, Robertson, Parsley, Mordechai Eliahu, Haim Druckman or Moshe Levinger or for that matter Muqtada a-Sadr.
Like them, you're no statesman; heck, you're not even the junior spy that Nelson Glueck was. You're clergy, and that's already plenty of work in its own right. Stick to it.
New York Times, Letter to the Editor April 10, 2008
Re “For McCain, Little Talk of a Controversial Endorsement” (news article, April 8), about the Rev. John C. Hagee and the organization he founded, Christians United for Israel, and the reaction to his efforts on behalf of Israel:
Pastor Hagee has been a true friend of Israel for many years. Christians United for Israel is among the strongest supporters of Israel in the United States.
The signers of this letter have been chairmen of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, and we appreciate and respect Pastor Hagee’s dedicated efforts and those of Christians United for Israel.
Harold Tanner
James Tisch
Mort Zuckerman
Mel Salberg
Lester Pollack
Shoshana Cardin
Ken Bialkin
New York, April 8, 2008
Secular and Zionist - Interview with Aharon Barak
By Ari Shavit, Haaretz April 11, 2008
It is clear to me that if we are to live here together, secular with religious, we must compromise. I am ready to compromise. I do not demand my hundred percent. I proposed a compromise on the issue of Bar-Ilan Street [in Jersualem].
I am not very rigid in the matter of drafting yeshiva students. I understand that both the Sabbath and yeshiva study are the most cherished values of the religious public. But I expect that just as I acknowledge what they hold precious, they must acknowledge what I hold precious.
Regrettably, many of them believe that [according to an old parable] their cart is full and mine is empty, so my cart has to make way for theirs on the bridge. I cannot accept that. My cart is not empty.
I endorse the state's support for religion, for example, as long as it is on the basis of equality. It does not bother me if the public space possesses a certain religious cast.
But I insist that in exchange, the religious public recognize my most cherished values: equality, freedom of the individual. A striving for that balance characterized my judgments in all my years on the Supreme Court.
Rabbi Metzger: Abuse stems from distortion of Kabbalah
By Neta Sela, Ynetnews.com April 14, 2008
"If, as a result of studying practical Kabbalah, this person's mind has been disrupted, and if it is true that this 'rabbi' (Elior Chen) explained this acts of abuse as a repair of the soul, this is horrifying proof of what can happen when Kabbalah is studied without being supervised and guided by the greatest sages of Israel who are known to all as having superior knowledge of Kabbalah's wisdom."
Don’t politicize child abuse case
By Rabbi Levi Brackman, Ynetnews.com April 14, 2008
Horrific story of rabbi-inspired abuse must not be used to stigmatize haredi society
Breaking the haredi 'conspiracy of silence' on domestic abuse
By Calev Ben-David, JPost.com April 11, 2008
It seems to me the haredim cannot have it both ways - arguing on one hand that behavior like this is exceptional in their environment, usually committed by someone not "really haredi," yet still showing reluctance to expose crimes being committed right in their own backyard in order to stop (or prevent) them.
This is an issue on which the haredi media should be taking a lead among their public - as has been the case with the secular media - and not holding it back by reinforcing negative patterns of behavior.
'If he said jump off the roof, you'd jump'
By Uri Blau and Yair Ettinger, Haaretz April 11, 2008
…The married men of the group were Chen, Fischer and D., the husband of the mother suspected of child abuse. D. and she were born and raised in the United States in Zionist, Orthodox families.
After they immigrated, they lived for a few years in a settlement in Gush Katif in Gaza and then moved to the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem.
There D. abandoned the values of religious Zionism and began to take an interest in mysticism. The couple and their children felt comfortable in the Jewish Quarter, where there are many foreign residents who join the ultra-Orthodox communities in the city; D., who dresses in a white robe, is familiar to the residents. The couple sent their children to a relatively liberal Talmud Torah (school for young boys).
…Gabai and Kugman took control of the home in the Jewish Quarter and later of the villa to which the wife moved two months ago. The villa, part of the prestigious Wolfson complex in the Shaarei Hessed neighborhood of Jerusalem, belongs to the wife's mother, who lives in the United States and is the proprietor of a well-known Jewish newspaper.
By Michael Fox, Haaretz April 11, 2008
A representative sample of Israel's Jewish population was questioned as to its level of happiness.
Of those who claimed to be "very happy," the poorest sector of the country's Jewish population, the Haredim (ultra- Orthodox), romped home by a furlong: sixty-two percent claimed to be very happy, a condition boasted by only twenty-two percent of respondents who described themselves as secular.
…I still wonder how the questioners got their answers. I would like to have been a fly on the wall while the questions were asked, because there are surely grave difficulties in obtaining replies from Haredim to such intrusive questions.
Evangelicals urge police to act on harassment of messianic Jews
By Daphna Berman, Haaretz April 14, 2008
A leading evangelical organization in Israel has called on local police to stop "overlooking" cases of "harassment, intimidation and even physical violence" against messianic Jews, in the wake of last month's attack, which seriously injured a member of Ariel's small Christian missionary community.
In an open letter released Sunday, the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem condemned the attack against 15-year-old Ami Ortiz, son of prominent messianic pastor David Ortiz, breaking some three weeks of silence on the subject.
Needed: A New Path to Our Jewish Roots
By Bambi Sheleg, Special to The Jewish Week April 1, 2008
Bambi Sheleg is the editor of Eretz Acheret, a bimonthly magazine that probes the complexities of Israeli and Jewish identity.
How do we transform a culture that evolved in the diaspora, absent of any sovereignty, into one whose focus of development is sovereignty?
…What exactly should be the relationship between our heritage and the concrete reality in which we live?
What is the metamorphosis that Jewish traditional thought needs to undergo in order to realistically contend with Jewish sovereignty and all its many and sundry challenges?
The challenge facing the Jewish state today is to formulate an approach that is true to the Jewish past as well as the present — a present that demands real solutions rather than mythic ones.
The return to religion: A state-funded fashion
By Uzi Benziman, Haaretz April 13, 2008
The return to religion is not a process that is undergone solely for the sake of heaven;
…The time has come to stop the state's financial support for this movement.
It's impossible to name the exact figure of the national budget that is earmarked for religious revival organizations. The money is spread throughout hundreds of individual budget items under various and sundry names.
…Every person is free to choose his own way of life, but it isn't the state's job to fund the private whims of its citizens. The Haredi sector receives generous budget allocations that fund its spiritual needs; those who decide to found and operate institutions for religious proselytizing should raise the funds for them on their own.
The secret of the Israeli mosaic
By Alexander Yakobson, Haaretz April 9, 2008
During her visit to Israel, Fadela Amara sensed the fruit of this accomplishment - a society where people take ethnic differences for granted more so than in many societies that take pride in their openness and acceptance of the other.
…If Amara consulted with experts on nationalism, they no doubt told her that one may join the Jewish people only through religious ritual. Israeli reality, however, tells a different story.
By Sarah Shapiro, Special to The Jewish Week April 1, 2008
Bar Ilan, whose name would henceforth signify not only a physical route connecting disparate sections of the capital but the fault line running through Israel’s heart (and mine) is a utilitarian six-lane thoroughfare.
Michael Oren is author, most recently, of “Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present” (Norton).
Serious efforts must be mounted to loosen the Chief Rabbinate’s stranglehold over personal affairs — marriage, divorce, and burial — to rid the kashrut system of corruption, and reform the conversion process.
Major resources must be invested in facilitating dialogue between Israeli Jews from various religious backgrounds as well as between Israeli and diaspora youth.
The Taglit-birthright israel program that has strengthened Jewish identity worldwide by bringing nearly 160,000 young Jews to Israel should be expanded to enable more Israelis to experience different forms of Jewish spirituality in America and elsewhere.
National priority must be given to convincing all of Israel’s citizens that the state can be made more Jewish without rendering it less Israeli.
By Sarah Shapiro, Special to The Jewish Week April 1, 2008
Bar Ilan, whose name would henceforth signify not only a physical route connecting disparate sections of the capital but the fault line running through Israel’s heart (and mine) is a utilitarian six-lane thoroughfare.
By Gideon Lichfield , The Economist Apr 3, 2008
Direct link to VIDEO INTERVIEW
Ideals and Ideologies: Israel at Sixty - A conversation with Jeffrey Goldberg
Aliya fair wins over ex-Israelis
By Michael Lando, JPost.com April 11, 2008
An estimated 19,000 Israelis leave the country every year. But the number of Israelis who return to Israel has been steadily growing since 2000, according to ministry numbers. That year, 2,641 returned, and in 2007, 4,070 returned. This year, given the tax breaks, more are expected.
The longer Israelis stay abroad, the less likely they are to return, according to the Immigrant Absorption Ministry.
One-third of returning Israelis go back after four or fewer years abroad; another third return after five to 10 years abroad; and 27% return after 11 or more years abroad. Less than 10% who have lived abroad for 20 years or more return.
Birthright for mixed marriages
By Rabbi David Forman, JPost.com April 13, 2008
Quite the opposite from being a "disaster," not only does Judaism come to life in Israel; it informs the life of every Israeli Jew.
Indeed, programs like birthright, which provides a 10-day free trip to Israel for college-age Diaspora Jews, are predicated on the thesis that even a short visit to Israel is perhaps the best way to strengthen Jewish identity.
Why not establish a trip to Israel as a mandatory part of any conversion course and as an integral part of outreach programs to interfaith and mixed-married couples?
New Religious High School for English Speakers
A new yeshiva high school for the English speaking public will open in Jerusalem in the coming school year. Rabbi David Samson, noted author and educator, is founding the new program and accepting 9th and 10th grade boys in the first year.
The program answers a need, according to the founders, of many new immigrant families who are concerned about their children's integration into the Israeli yeshiva high schools. Some students don't adjust well in the Israeli frameworks, and the new program, called Yerushalayim Torah Academy, offers an alternative.
More on women and Torah scrolls
…And especially in a generation when Torah and Talmud study for women is burgeoning, with major Orthodox institutions in America and Israel teaching Bible, Talmud and Codes to women on the highest levels, is it any wonder that some women also desire to embrace the Torah and demonstrate their love of it by dancing with scrolls on Simhat Torah?
If Halacha says it is permissible, why remove their religious satisfaction on the day marked by rejoicing in the Torah?
The writer is the founder and chancellor of Ohr Torah Stone Colleges and Graduate Programs, and chief rabbi of Efrat.
See also “Blood sisters”
Hence, it would seem to be that on Simhat Torah and family occasions where all of one's crowd comes to shul, women can certainly come, grasp and kiss the Sefer Torah, and when the opportunity permits - behind a proper mehitza or in a separate all-women's congregation - even read from the Torah.
The numbers are astonishing. By the end of 2007, there were 7,884 street youth aged 14-26, known and registered in various ways with the Youth Advancement Division.
As for the "newcomers," the numbers are even more dramatic: "For years, we hardly ever had more than 10 cases of youth from the religious Zionist community," says Amedi. "But today, we know of at least 1,000 of them, which means about 1,000 in addition to those with whom we still have no contact, which could be twice that figure."
Religious-Zionist youth, many of whom belong to Bnei Akiva, have had to deal with the hard questions which arise as a result of this reality - questions for which their leadership doesn't always have answers.
As is true of the national-religious-Zionist population that fills its ranks, the Bnei Akiva youth movement is becoming both more religious and more ideological. Torah study as an activity inside the branches is increasing, and for the first time in its history, the youth movement has a rabbi as its secretary-general. There are about 40,000 youths across the country who spend a significant part of their Shabbat at Bnei Akiva branches.
A man who visits a prostitute should be sent to jail, according to a special religious opinion drafted by prominent Religious-Zionist Rabbi Yuval Sherlo.
"The desire to prevent prostitution in Israel should be one of the major moves in maintaining the sanctity of Israel and the status and dignity of women," Sherlo wrote in his response to MK Orlev's query. "Therefore, one should seemingly be a party to any initiative that advances this reality."
West Side Story, Meah Shearim style
By Neta Sela, Ynetnews.com April 9, 2008
The bride's parents objected, rabbis protested and the public took to the streets – but the young couple refused to give up.
Against all odds and despite violent demonstrations outside the wedding hall, a young ultra-Orthodox woman from overseas and her Jerusalemite fiancé were married in the capital Tuesday evening.
Vaadas HaRabbonim Approves New Exchange for Kosher Cellcom Subscribers
By Yechiel Sever, Dei’ah veDibur April 10, 2008
Due to the large number of Cellcom subscribers using kosher phones, phone numbers with a prefix reserved for kosher phones have run out and the company had to make a new exchange prefix available.
After receiving the approval of Vaadas HaRabbonim LeInyonei Tikshoret a new kosher prefix is set to open with the numbers beginning 052-71.
Since the special prefixes were introduced, each of the cellular companies has set aside a two-digit prefix capable of accommodating 100,000 subscribers.
Now Cellcom, which has the largest number of kosher cell phone users, has become the first cellular provider exhaust its supply of kosher phone numbers.
Growing 'Gush Katif-style' produce
By Yoav Stern, Haaretz April 10, 2008
A few Arab farmers are hoping this shmita year will give them the added advantage they have been waiting for in order to establish themselves in the Israeli agricultural market.
One such farmer is Abu Nasser. "Write the name of my company," he says. "Alei Hasharon L'Mehadrin." So next time you buy vegetables, check the label.
Is The Western Wall In Danger Of Crumbling?
According to reports the stones that make up part of the wall that was built in the 19th century in the days of Moshe Montefiore are slowly disintegrating [not the ancient stones stemming back to the days of the Second Temple].
Because Halacha forbids the replacing of the stones, scaffolding will be erected in the area where worshippers pray to prevent them from being harmed by falling pieces, and the stones will be sprayed with water in an attempt to strengthen them.
The Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch told reporters that while the situation does not present any immediate danger to worshippers, the problem has to be dealt with.
Renovation he said will begin after the Passover holiday and work will be coordinated with the National Antiquities Authority and in strict accordance to Halacha.
Rabbonim Denounce Turning to Secular Courts to Stop Expansion Project at Rashbi Gravesite in Meron
By Yechiel Sever, Dei’ah veDibur April 10, 2008
Gedolei Yisroel are voicing strong objections to Sephardic site overseers at Meron who have turned to the secular court system in an effort to block expansion of the area set aside for prayer at the gravesite for R' Shimon Bar Yochai in Meron — for unclear reasons. Recently they have even sought a court injunction to halt expansion work and to raze tefilloh rooms already under construction.
In their letter, gedolei Yisroel shlita write that the site is often overcrowded and bringing the case to a secular court is a grave prohibition — "dehavei mecharef umegadef beharomas yad beToras Moshe Rabbeinu." The rabbonim urged them to bring the case only to a beis din and "to make every effort to elevate this great house of prayer."
"The Holy Temple and the Approach of Passover”
Throughout the seminar demonstrations [were] conducted in order to illustrate various aspects of the Passover offering, including the following topics: checking for blemishes; proper slaughter; the Hallel service; the current production of the Priestly garments
…in successfully flouting the politically correct doctrine of the post-modern godless humanism they were attempting to foist not only upon us, but upon the entire Jewish nation, we did experience an inkling of what the Israelites must have felt when, while still in Egypt, they performed the original korban Pesach in full view of the horrified Egyptians, who worshipped as gods the very lambs that were being slaughtered.
Who's Afraid of the Passover Lamb?
Arutz Sheva Radio "Temple Talk" with Rabbi Chaim Richman and Yitchak Reuven
April 14, 2008 (Section 2) (continued from Section 1)
Editor – Joel Katz
