Monday, May 12, 2008

Religion and State in Israel - May 12, 2008 (Section 1)

Religion and State in Israel

May 12, 2008 (Section 1) (continues in Section 2)

Editor – Joel Katz

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


Rabbis delay converts' marriages

By Matthew Wagner, JPost.com May 11, 2008

Rabbis responsible for registering Jewish Israelis for marriage said Sunday they would not register converts for marriage until Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar issues a definitive rejection of a High Rabbinical Court decision that cast doubt on the validity of thousands of conversions.

"Before I can register a convert for marriage as a full-fledged Jew, I'll have to consult with Chief Rabbi Amar," said Rabbi Ratzon Arussi, chairman of the Rabbinate's Marriage Council.

Rabbis in Ramat Gan and Jerusalem concurred with Arussi's call.

"Rabbi Amar has to voice his opinion on this issue," said Ramat Gan Chief Rabbi Ya'acov Ariel. "He is the final authority on conversions."

Meanwhile, Rabbi Yitzhak Ralbag, the official marriage registrar in Jerusalem, said he would operate in accordance with whatever Amar decided.

…Amar's spokesman said the chief rabbi intends to convene the Chief Rabbinate's governing council to discuss the issue and reach a definitive decision. But before the council can be convened new elections must be called.

The term of the previous council came to an end in Nissan and a new council has yet to be chosen. The spokesman said he was unsure how long this would take.


Click here for original Supreme Rabbinical Court decision (Hebrew)

[No need to download – click “Preview” and document will be appear in new window]


Rabbis come to aid of converts

By Matthew Wagner, Jpost.com May 6, 2008

Tzohar rabbis decided to create a hotline and provide rabbis who could defend converts before marriage registrars and rabbinical courts.

"We plan to publicize [the hotline] in the Russia-language media," said Rabbi Rafi Feuerstein, chairman of Tzohar, who stressed that his organization would not do anything against the law.

"We want to send out a message to converts that they are not alone. They should also know that Rabbi Amar has promised to recognize them as full-fledged Jews," he said. "The Talmud says that the rabbinic court is the father of the convert. So we are just trying to fulfill our religious duty."


Friedmann targets decision to annul conversions

By Yair Ettinger, Haaretz May 6, 2008

Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann plans to submit a bill that would allow the Rabbinic Court of Appeals to rehear important cases with an expanded panel of judges.

Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, who serves as president of the Rabbinic Court of Appeals, also opposes the ruling, and would like to convene a special panel of rabbinic court judges to overturn it - preferably before the divorcee in whose case it was issued petitions the High Court of Justice against it.

Amar insisted yesterday that no conversion would actually be overturned by the ruling.


Professor who headed conversion probe: Check rabbinic court for criminal actions

By Yair Ettinger, Haaretz May 7, 2008

Professor Ya'akov Ne'eman told a stormy session of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee…called on the judicial ombudswoman, Judge Tova Strasberg-Cohen, to investigate a number of "defects" - including the fact that they issued their verdict overturning the conversions of the special rabbinic conversion court - in opposition to the direct instruction of the Supreme Rabbinic Court president, Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar.


Chief Rabbi: Decision to Overturn Conversions Won't Stand

By Hillel Fendel, IsraelNationalNews.com May 5, 2008

Rabbi Yuval Cherlow, a leading figure in the religious-Zionist camp:

"If the ruling is not overturned," he concluded, "a genuine conversion authority will be immediately established that will operate according to Jewish Law and not according to politics, and will deal with one of the supreme missions in the Nation of Israel in a manner that is in keeping with the Torah and not via ugly manipulations. We can no longer evade this responsibility..."


Knesset panel worried by conversion ruling

"There is no logic to the situation in which since 1999 until today, people were considered Jewish, and as of 2008 are no longer considered Jewish," said Committee Chairwoman MK Sofa Landver (Israel Beiteinu).

"The State of Israel and Judaism as a whole must 'open its ranks,' bring people closer to Judaism, and not push them away."

Landver added that she hoped that in the future, courts would be prevented from reopening conversion files after the process had been completed, describing the current situation as emerging from a "power struggle between rabbis."

The committee ultimately resolved to call upon the rabbinic courts not to invalidate any conversions and said that it would continue to follow the issue.

In addition, they commended the intent of the [Israel Religious Action Center] to submit an appeal to the High Court of Justice challenging the rabbinic courts' ability to invalidate conversions.


Israeli court revokes 15-year-old conversion, sparking uproar

By Dina Kraft, JTA May 6, 2008

"Our phone has been ringing off the hook with people who have gone through conversions who are deeply concerned about their status and potential converts who are trying to figure out if this whole process is worth the effort,"
said Rabbi Seth Farber, who runs the Jewish Life Information Center, or ITIM, which runs a 24-hour hotline for those seeking assistance on Jewish issues in Israel.


A split from Israeli society

By Menachem Ben Sasson, Haaretz Opinion May 9, 2008

MK Menachem Ben Sasson (Kadima) is the chairman of the Knesset's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee.

The [Supreme] Rabbinic Court is invalidating a legal instance that derives its formal authority from the same source as the Rabbinic Court - an official state appointment. By so doing, it leads the way to having its own courts treated in a similar fashion.

…Pulling the rug out from under the feet of yesterday's converts and digging a hole in front of tomorrow's is unacceptable. It will shatter what's left of the public consensus that the Supreme Rabbinic Court is worthy of running family issues in Israel. The court's revoking past and future conversions is tantamount to destroying the house and everyone inside.


Free Israel!

By Rabbi Benjamin Lau, Haaretz Opinion May 7, 2008

The writer is rabbi of a congregation in Jerusalem's Katamon neighborhood, and heads Beit Morasha of Jerusalem.

Birthdays are generally times for soul-searching and clarifying one's wishes for the next year.

From my narrow world, I look out at the face of the religious establishment in Israel and wish that my fellow citizens and I could manage to break free of the tyrannical regime of ultra-Orthodox Judaism that has nothing to do with the State of Israel.

…Religious Zionism has so far been restrained in its criticism of the ultra-Orthodox, out of a feeling of respect for the Torah sages and a desire to maintain a united religious camp.

No longer! In honor of the state's 60th birthday, we must free Israel, strengthen the Zionist camp - including among the religious - and establish religious services and religious courts that are fundamentally identified with the values of the country in which they operate.


Cruelty under the guise of religion

Haaretz Editorial May 6, 2008

The affair of the annulment of the conversions strongly underlines the urgent need to separate religion from state and to restore civil sovereignty to the state system.

Its first, significant step should be registering all citizens, regardless of religion, as being of "Israeli" nationality in their identity cards.

On the eve of Israel's 60th Independence Day, the time has come to return to the values of the Declaration of Independence and liberate ourselves from the destructive bonds of religious coercion.


Conversion Blues

TheForward.com Editorial May 8, 2008

[Israel’s Supreme Rabbinical Court] may have done the rest of Israel a favor by training a spotlight on the untenable role assigned to the religious establishment in Israel’s evolving society and culture.

…there are signs, in the wake of the ruling, that religious Zionists are finally getting the message — that their home is ultimately with the larger Zionist and Jewish community. That’s the good news, and it’s not a small thing.


Are We Headed For A Split In Orthodoxy?

By Marc B. Shapiro, Special to TheJewishWeek.com May 7, 2008

The writer holds the Weinberg Chair in Judaic Studies at the University of Scranton

[T]his isn’t simply a conflict between the haredi (or ultra-Orthodox) rabbinic leadership and some liberal Orthodox rabbis with regard to this issue. Rather, the haredi leadership rejects the entire notion that there can be Modern Orthodox and Religious Zionist halachic authorities and dayanim, and indeed has attempted to keep non-haredim off the religious courts.

…We have finally reached the point in Israel, and to a lesser extent in the United States, where the non-haredi rabbinate must make a choice.

…Yet before solving the problem of who will be a Jew, we must solve the problem of who is a dayan and who is a halachic authority. The haredim have already given their answer to this question.

One would that think that the Modern Orthodox/Religious Zionists would take the hint and realize that the time has come to go their own way.


RCA Raps New Conversion Ruling

By Michele Chabin, TheJewishWeek.com May 7, 2008

In a May 6 statement, the RCA said the ruling, its language and tone “are entirely beyond the pale of acceptable halachic practice, violate numerous Torah laws regarding converts and their families, create a massive desecration of God’s name, insult outstanding rabbinic leaders and halachic scholars in Israel, and are a reprehensible cause of widespread conflict and animosity within the Jewish people in Israel and abroad.


Vaad HaRabbonim LeInyonei Giyur Backs Beis Din Annulment of Conversion

By Yechiel Sever, Dei’ah veDibur May 8, 2008

The Beis Din determined that presumably the conversion candidate never accepted ol mitzvos, which means the conversion was not annulled — but rather the original conversion was never valid.

…According to ranking chareidi jurists the ruling issued by the High Rabbinical Court has both halachic and legal validity and is not subject to annulment or alteration, just like every other ruling issued by the beis din, and certainly no court in the world has the authority to interfere in halachic matters.


Making do with the Declaration of Independence

By Ze'ev Segal, Haaretz Opinion May 7, 2008

Had the founding fathers enacted the declaration as a constitution, various Mandatory laws that are inappropriate to a democratic state - such as the Emergency Defense Regulations and the Press Ordinance - would have been annulled almost automatically, while laws such as the Rabbinical Courts Law (Marriage and Divorce), which violate the freedom from religion enshrined in the declaration, might never have been enacted.

…Former Shas MKs Aryeh Deri and Shlomo Benizri have been quoted as saying that they would oppose the enactment of any new Basic Law, even one enshrining the Ten Commandments, as long as the Supreme Court was the one interpreting it.


Ben-Gurion's original sin

By Yossi Sarid, Haaretz Opinion May 9, 2008

As Israel's 60th birthday approached, I considered my opinion on the subject of the biggest mistakes made by David Ben-Gurion.

Ben-Gurion's second mistake was to break away from his traditional allies on the way to a state - the Mapam camp, then the second largest party - and align himself with the religious parties in a government coalition.

In so doing, Israel's founding father delivered the newborn into the hands of the rabbinical establishment, a new alliance that exacted a heavy price, one we are still paying - the exemption of yeshiva students from military service. And that is only part of the price.

…The agreement at the time to this original sin had much broader significance. Ben-Gurion ultimately made peace with the reality of a state within a state - a theocracy ruled by the rabbis within a Jewish state where democracy was meant to lead the way.


Religious homosexuals contend with self-hatred and Haredi condemnation

Click here for VIDEO

By Haaretz Staff and Channel 10 May 11, 2008

The ideological struggle between Jewish orthodoxy and homosexuality has been in the headlines since a Haredi man stabbed three people marching in the Jerusalem gay pride parade in 2005.

But that struggle isn't a black and white one. Naturally, within Jewish Orthodoxy, there are many who live their lives trying to reconcile their religious identity with their sexual orientation.


Narrow-mindedness and discrimination

By Tzvia Greenfeld, Haaretz Opinion May 12, 2008

Dr. Gershon German, a family court judge…refused to apply the domestic violence prevention law, and the law governing family matters in general, to a homosexual relationship.

The judge ruled that "the question is whether, in light of these relations conflicting with the values of the state as a Jewish state, these relations should be elevated and given recognition and approval."

…The issue of what exactly a Jewish state means in our time and what its values are supposed to be is an open question that the Israeli populace, which is casting about for its Jewish identity, has yet to clarify seriously for itself.

We need a lot of inspiration for this large task, which needs to be carried out for the first time out of a sense of political independence and moral responsibility.

One thing is certain: If Judge German thinks that discrimination, insults and a revocation of rights can be part of the meaning of a Jewish state in our time, then maybe we would be better off without it.


Rabbi calls to abolish army service for women

By Kobi Nahshoni, Ynetnews.com May 12, 2008

Prominent Zionist-religious leader, Rabbi Shlomo Aviner called on young religious women not to enlist in the army, a move he defined as a violation of Torah laws.

"Never enlist in the army…ever," Aviner wrote, quoting a list of leading chief rabbis and religious leaders who have prohibited such service in the past.

"It is forbidden! Forbidden like kashrut! Forbidden like Shabbat! And especially forbidden like modesty!"


Breaking the Barriers

Click here for VIDEO (see bottom of page)

By Elad Shalev and Amir Kido, IDF Spokesperson Office May 8, 2008

In today’s army, women can serve in 90 percent of all positions.

24 percent of IDF officers, including lieutenant colonels, colonels and even brigadier generals, are females.

Almost three percent of females serving in the army serve as combat soldiers.

The IDF is the only army in the world in which females, alongside males, are obligated to enlist and boasts the highest percentage of women serving in its ranks.

34 percent of the soldiers in the IDF are females.


Prayer under fire

By Hanan Greenberg, Ynetnews.com May 11, 2008

As far as religious practice, the battalion maintains its status-quo;

glatt-kosher field rations, taking turns praying, just like in wartime.

And there aren’t any girls to distract the soldiers.



'IDF's hit parade smacks of religious discrimination'

By Matthew Wagner, Jpost.com May 7, 2008

Tadmit, a Hebrew acronym for "strengthening democracy in the Israeli media," addressed a complaint to Army Radio Commander Yitzhak Tunik explaining that because most of the songs in the contest had been played on Shabbat, religious soldiers had been prevented from taking part in the voting process.


“Religion and State: Fundamentalism or Freedom?”

International Town Hall Webcast presented by the New Israel Fund - May 18, 2008

Panelists - Naomi Chazan, Jafar Farah, Gershom Gorenberg, Frances Raday

Moderator - Michael Greenspan


Religion and State in Israel

May 12, 2008 (Section 1) (continues in Section 2)

Editor – Joel Katz

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

Religion and State in Israel - May 12, 2008 (Section 2)

Religion and State in Israel

May 12, 2008 (Section 2) (continued from Section 1)

Editor – Joel Katz

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


A vision of Reform: First gov't-funded synagogue founded

By Yair Ettinger, Haaretz May 9, 2008

"It took the State of Israel 60 years to provide us with a synagogue," said the leader of the congregation, Rabbi Kinneret Shiryon. "In my eyes, this is the pioneering of our time. This is the new Zionism. People think we have built the Taj Mahal here."

This Taj Mahal, a structure of 200 square meters, cost the state more than NIS 500,000. The Modi'in municipality invested tens of thousands of shekels in landscaping.

"A precedent has been set here," said Rabbi Gilad Kariv, [Associate Director] of the Reform Movement's Israel Religious Action Center, "in that local governments can no longer continue to ignore us.

Without purporting to declare that a taboo has been broken here, this is nevertheless the first time the state has invested money on this scale to advance the life of a Reform congregation.

It is also the first time that we moved from a legal battle to close cooperation. There was a transformation here - from a fight to the finish, to partnership by the Modi'in municipality."

The mayor of Modi'in, Moshe Spector, who initially refused to fund the Reform synagogue, was taken on a tour of Reform congregations in the United States.

He met the president of the [Union for Reform Judaism], Rabbi Eric Yoffie, and apparently became enamored of the idea that members of the Reform Movement would flock to Israel and populate his city.

"The hills will be filled with Reform congregations," the mayor told the crowd, and dramatized his vision by pointing toward the horizon.
Spector spoke of no fewer than "50,000 members of the Reform Movement in the United States" eventually coming to the city, and concluded his speech with a call to the assembled audience: "You must ensure, each of you, that Jews come here, to Modi'in."


First State-Funded Reform temple

By Nissan Ratzlav-Katz, IsraelNationalNews.com May 6, 2008

Reform movement spokespeople said that the prefab "will be the first building of many that will eventually serve as Modiin's center for Progressive Judaism and will include a synagogue, a community center, nursery school classes and a day care center."

…As a result of the Yozma precedent in Modiin, five other Reform and Conservative congregations nationwide are slated to receive funding and land as well.

According to Yozma Executive Director Yossi Aud, an "interesting social dynamic took place between us and the Orthodox community, which included a fruitful dialogue that contributed to the compromise solution."


First State-funded Reform synagogue opens in Modiin

Ynetnews.com May 6, 2008

"This is a major milestone for Israel's pluralistic public," said the Reform Movement. "This move also as bears a refreshing, welcome message to the largest Reform community – that of North America."


See also: Kehilat Yozma and the City of Modiin Invite You to Join the Family

Download an informational brochure about the program


Organizers of Bible Quiz in Israel Get Question of Their Own: ‘Who is a Jew?’

Shlomo Ben-Tzura, who is in charge of [Bible Quiz] Israeli entries:

“We talked with lawyers, but couldn’t do anything,” he said. “Everybody wanted to say she isn’t a Jew, but nobody could do anything.”

He said that as the daughter of a Jewish woman, she meets the standard criteria to be considered a Jew under Halacha, or traditional rabbinic law.

Legally, he added, there was no room to challenge her status, since she is listed as Jewish in her state papers — which do not always follow halachic definitions.


Chief Rabbis call to cancel Bible Quiz

By Matthew Wagner, JPost.com May 7, 2008

Chief Rabbis Shlomo Amar and Yona Metzger in a letter to Education Minister Yuli Tamir:

"The Chief Rabbinate of Israel vigorously protests [the participation] of this representative... Bible quiz participants have always been Jews who believed in the Torah handed down by Moses."

Education Minister Yuli Tamir's representative Lital Apter:

"The point of the quiz is to check the participants' knowledge of the Bible, not to scrutinize their faith. The legal department in the Education Ministry verified that Levi is Jewish according to the criteria of the state. That's good enough for us."


Prisoner of Zion Backs Out of Bible Contest over Controversy

By Baruch Gordon, IsraelNationalNews.com May 7, 2008

When the Ministry of Education refused to disqualify the Christian contestant in Israel's landmark event for Jewish education, Mendelevitch informed the organizers that he would not be there and forbade them to show his video.

"I refuse to support an event which is being hijacked by Christian missionaries to support their agenda," he said. "It is not an issue of public relations, rather a matter of principle."


New Missionary Campaign in Shadow of Bible Contest Controversy

By Nissan Ratzlav-Katz May 5, 2008

Even as the Bible Contest controversy is reaching its apex, in a letter to supporters, the Jews for Jesus organization announced a series of new campaigns in Israel.

"The campaigns are scheduled to begin in 2008 and continue through 2013," the missionary organization announced. "These campaigns could be the most important thing we in Jews for Jesus have ever done...."

Claiming that "only one tenth of one percent (.001)" of the Jews in Israel "believe in Jesus," the missionaries see a positive side in that Israel "is the only place in the world where - when we do street evangelism - we don't need to wonder who is Jewish. All we have to do is walk outside and talk to everyone we meet!"


Faking it when the siren sounds

By Tamar Rotem, Haaretz Opinion May 7, 2008

Perhaps because I was educated in the ultra-Orthodox Beit Ya'akov system, and have lived for years now in secular Zionist society, I am not at peace, to put it mildly, with the siren as a sign of mourning.

[T]he objection to the signal of collective mourning has caused the ultra-Orthodox to become foreign and psychologically distant, and has created the differentiation in which the ultra-Orthodox leaders strived to prevent assimilation into Israeliness and secularness.


Interview with Jonathan Rosenblum - Israel at 60: A Haredi perpective

By Tim Franks, BBC News May 2008

Click here for AUDIO interview of Jonathan Rosenblum [3 min. 39 sec.]

“The aggression towards the Haredi community here is a feeling on the part of the Jewish secular community that they've lost their way of identifying themselves.

We have to understand that the fundamental values of this community are antithetical to the largely hedonistic, secular culture. And that, by the way, is a major reason why I don't believe you will ever find 18-year-old Haredi boys going into the army.

I find that there's a tremendous search for reconnecting to Jewish roots. Many Israelis are now understanding that Zionism itself is inadequate. It created a state. But now that project has been done, what will it do next? And for that, we're going to have to return to some more traditional understanding of ourselves as a people.

We have to show that the Torah is a guide for every aspect of life, not just something for the study halls. Whether it be for child-rearing, for the environment, the Torah has something to say about every pressing, modern issue.”


[Neturei Karta] Ultra-Orthodox attack man carrying Israeli flag in Jerusalem

By Efrat Weiss, Ynetnews.com May 7, 2008

A Jewish man carrying an Israel flag was attacked Wednesday morning by members of the Neturei Karta group in Jerusalem. The man was rescued unharmed by plainclothes police officers.

Several minutes before the siren honoring Israel's fallen soldiers was sounded, a man in his 50s arrived at the Shabbat Square near the Meah Shearim neighborhood.

He was wearing a skullcap and carrying a flag of Israel. Shortly afterwards, dozens of haredim gathered around him and tried to assault him, chanting slogans against Zionism.


Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu: Israel needs religious PM

By Efrat Weiss, Ynetnews.com May 10, 2008

The State of Israel needs a kippa-wearing prime minister, Safed's Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu wrote in an article titled "A religious prime minister – it's possible" distributed at synagogues over the weekend.


Leave kippa out of it

By Elad Kaplan, Ynetnews.com Opinion May 12, 2008

This prime minister can be either religious or secular, as long as he respects all parts of the nation and maintains the country’s Jewish and democratic character, on all this entails.


New Torah Study Program in Law School

By Hillel Fendel, IsraelNationalNews.com May 12, 2008

The Shaarei Mishpat (Gates of Justice) Law School in Hod HaSharon is opening its doors to Torah study - and will provide financial incentives to those who wish to take part. The goal is to increase the proportion of Torah-observant lawyers into Israel's legal system.

The 11-year-old Shaarei Mishpat law school has decided to integrate high-level Torah studies into its law curriculum, and has charged Rabbi Avichai Katzin of Raanana with heading the new program. Shaarei Mishpat announced that it wishes to "jump a level" and integrate "top level lawyers into Israel's justice system who are also Torah Jews specializing in Jewish Law."

Dr. Aviad Cohen, Dean of the College:

"We wish to raise a generation of jurists for whom the Torah and the values of Jewish tradition are the center of their lives, and who excel academically, and who will be the front line of the jurists in Israel."


Friedmann: Keep Supreme Court out of immigration, citizenship laws

Click here for VIDEO

By Tomer Zarchin, Haaretz May 7, 2008

Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann has proposed an amendment to the Basic Law on Human Dignity and Freedom that would exempt laws relating to immigration and citizenship from judicial review.

…Under Friedmann's proposal, however, it would not be able to declare laws relating to citizenship unconstitutional. The proposal would cover laws such as the Law of Return, the Citizenship Law and the Law of Entry, as well as any other law the Knesset might enact on this subject in the future.


400 olim arrive in Israel ahead of Independence Day

By Yael Branovsky, Ynetnews.com May 6, 2008

Four hundred new immigrants from all over the world arrived in Israel on Monday as part of "Aliyah Day", which was marked by the Jewish Agency and the Absorption Ministry.

The new immigrants, who hail from Honduras, Australia the US, Russia, France and other countries were greeted at Ben-Gurion Airport in a lavish ceremony attended by Absorption Minister Jacob Edery and Israel's Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar.


Some 2,500 emigrants return to Israel

By Itamar Eichner, Ynetnews.com May 6, 2008

The Absorption Ministry campaign to return emigrants to Israel ahead of the country’s 60th anniversary has been a great success so far. Since the campaign’s onset, 2,500 people have returned to Israel, the highest number to date. Another 4,500 people are in the process of returning.

…Seventy percent of them are between the ages of 20-44, 66% are families and 64% are from North America. Forty-four percent of them are academics, 38% left as a result of professional advancement and 27% are returning after living outside of Israel for less than 10 years.


Poll: Most Israelis see themselves as Jewish first, Israeli second

By Kobi Nahshoni, Ynetnews.com May 8, 2008

A closer look at the religious community showed that the more devout the sector – the stronger the Jewish definition:

  • Some 78% of those identifying themselves as haredim and 73% of their religious counterparts chose the Jewish identity over the Israeli one, with 0% and 16% (respectively) choosing to define themselves as Israelis.
  • Among those who said they were traditionalist, 55% saw themselves as Jewish and 35% as Israelis.
  • Within the secular community, 49% said they saw themselves as Israeli first and 34% said they were Jewish first and Israeli second.

Comics project aims to bridge gap between secular, religious kids

The joint initiative between Tzav Pius - an NGO that encourages dialogue programs, founded after the assassination of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin - and the Center for Educational Technology (CET) encourages the acquisition of dialogue tools and finding ways to interact with and understand those who are different.

The project, entitled "Getting Out of the Bubble, Talking through Comics," was built around a new Web site where students could build the comics themselves.


Let's be done with all the Talanskys

By Gideon Levy, Haaretz Opinion May 11, 2008

It is time to say to the American Jews directly, as is customary among relatives: Leave us alone. Take your hands off Israel. Stop using your money to buy influence in Israel. Stop "contributing" to advance your interests and views, some of which are at times delusionary and extremely dangerous to the future of the country you're supposedly trying to protect.

…The contribution of American Jewry to Israel may on balance be positive. They financed and built for us quite heavily; we in turn offered them a safe haven and a source of pride.

Neither side of this equation is relevant any longer. We no longer need their money, certainly not at the price of their interference, and it is doubtful we can still offer them that haven or pride.

Let's part as friends, then. Let American Jews attend to their own business, and us to ours. And let's be done with any more Talanskys.


Hebrew Union College-JIR/Jerusalem Celebrates Israel's 60th Anniversary

Israel's 60th anniversary was celebrated on the HUC-JIR/Jerusalem campus with two memorable events on May 5, 2008.

Some 900 Israeli youths in pre-Army and Army programs took over the HUC-JIR-Beit Shmuel-Mercaz Shimshon campus on May 5 for a full day of presentations, study, reflection, and celebration of Israel's 60th anniversary in light of the challenge of "Tzedek and Tzedakah: Justice and Social Responsibility."


On borrowed time

By Meron Rapoport, Haaretz May 9, 2008

The idea that the fate of the land on which the Knesset stands rests in the hands of priests who sit in the stone courtyards of the Greek Orthodox Church compound, in the Christian Quarter, causes many members of the Israeli administration to break out in a cold sweat.

…Last week the transaction being arranged with the JNF was presented to a committee established by the Holy Synod, a kind of board of directors of the patriarchate. And then the storm erupted. The synod's members discovered that the patriarchate had agreed to turn over these hundreds of dunams in the center of Jerusalem for a payment of a mere $9 million from the State of Israel.


Religion and State in Israel

May 12, 2008 (Section 2) (continued from Section 1)

Editor – Joel Katz

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