February 1, 2010 (Section 2) (see also Section 1)
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Editor – Joel Katz
Religion and State in Israel is not affiliated with any organization or movement.
Knesset panel to weigh expansion of rabbinical court power
By Jonathan Lis and Yair Ettinger www.haaretz.com January 31, 2010
The Knesset Ministerial Committee for Legislation is scheduled to convene tomorrow to pass a controversial bill to expand the authority of rabbinical courts to rule on financial and civil disputes based on Jewish law.
Supporters of the bill said diverting more cases to rabbinical courts could clear the backlog of cases in the state judicial system.
The bill, proposed by MKs Moshe Gafni and Uri Maklev (United Torah Judaism), would grant rabbinical courts jurisdiction over civil matters in cases where the [plaintiff and respondent] agree to hold the trial there.
Rafi Peretz named as new chief rabbi of IDF, replacing Avihai Rontzki
By Anshel Pfeffer www.haaretz.com January 28, 2010
Rabbi Rafi Peretz is to replace Brig. Gen. Rabbi Avihai Rontzki as chief military rabbi this summer. Peretz, who heads the army preparatory program, Etzem, is a helicopter pilot and a colonel in the reserves. He will be promoted to the rank of brigadier general prior to assuming his new post.
Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi decided on the appointment after consulting with Israel's chief rabbis. It was approved by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who met with Peretz on Monday, before the appointed was announced.
After his appointment was announced Peretz said that he hoped that
"God will light my path in this place and that I will be worthy of this major position. I feel that IDF wants me to work toward bringing secular and observant Jews closer, and the people of Israel wants this very much."
Right sees Rabbi Rafi Peretz as overly moderate
By Matthew Wagner www.jpost.com January 28, 2010
Rabbi Rafi Peretz will be the first IDF chief chaplain who does not have a beard, rabbinic sources in the IDF joked Wednesday.
But while Peretz's lack of facial hair may seem trivial, it is seen by some on the Right as representative of Peretz's overly moderate, highly integrationist approach to IDF service for religious soldiers.
…Peretz's appointment is seen by some as politically motivated. IDF commanders want the next IDF chief rabbi to promote the integration of Orthodox soldiers and to downplay differences of opinion between rabbis and army commanders.
Bereaved mothers blame new IDF chief rabbi for sons' deaths
By Yuval Azoulay www.haaretz.com January 29, 2010
The mothers of two Israel Air Force sergeants killed in a training accident in 1992 called on the military yesterday to revoke the appointment of Lt. Col. Rafi Peretz as the new chief rabbi of the IDF, saying Peretz did not allow them access to medical assistance that could have saved their lives.
The IDF's new head rabbi / Same background, but less divisive
By Amos Harel www.haaretz.com January 28, 2010
Peretz will be responsible for the needs of an ever growing number of religious soldiers, who comprise a larger share of both the officer corps and the combat corps than ever before. He will also need to ensure that attempts to accommodate these soldiers do not slide into absurdity, as has happened more than once.
Rabbi Peretz: Too Much Love for IDF is a Good Thing
By Hillel Fendel www.israelnationalnews.com January 28, 2010
Rabbi Peretz said, “If I am criticized for loving the IDF and the Nation of Israel too much, then I am willing to pay any price for this.
Rabbi Peretz, age 53, studied in the Netiv Meir yeshiva high school in Jerusalem. He performs reserve duty by training young helicopter pilots in the army’s aviation school. He and his wife Michal have 12 children.
God! Enough of the Military Rabbinate
By Amir Oren Opinion www.haaretz.com February 1, 2010
This is one more reason to get rid of the Military Rabbinate, in addition to the religious politics that have affected the selection of the chief military rabbi since the era of Shlomo Goren, the first IDF officer to be promoted to major general as a personal rank rather than in accordance with the career path.
Religious services can be provided to the army by Defense Ministry officials - civil servants, not officers in uniform - even to troops on active service, just as units needing intelligence support in the territories are aided by the Shin Bet security service, which is not part of the Israel Defense Forces.
'IDF rabbi should not be appointed by army'
By Kobi Nahshoni www.ynetnews.com January 26, 2010
Head of the Har Bracha Hesder Yeshiva Rabbi Eliezer Melamed called to revoke the military's authority over appointing the chief military rabbi and entrusting it instead in the hands of the chief rabbis of Israel.
According to Melamed, the first Chief Military Rabbi Shlomo Goren was appointed by the chief rabbis, and this tradition, in his view, should be kept ahead of appointing a replacement to Rabbi Avihai Ronzki who is ending his term.
Compromise: IDF band to perform after ceremony
By Kobi Nahshoni www.ynetnews.com January 26, 2010
An Israel Defense Forces band slated to perform in a military memorial ceremony will take the stage only at the end of the event in order to allow members of the Bnei Akiva religious youth movement, who do not listen to women's singing, to leave before the ceremony's musical part begins.
…the band's performance will not be part of the memorial ceremony and each Bnei Akiva member will be able to decide whether he wishes to stay or go up to a nearby hill and wait for the rest of the members there.
By Assaf Wohl Opinion www.ynetnews.com January 25, 2010
Yet here comes into the picture my favorite element among highly sensitive religious souls: The duty to take religious feelings into considerations.
Hence, I would like to make it clear that chauvinistic utilization of Jewish law for the purpose of silencing others and training girls to be submissive and modest hurts my own feelings. So please, show consideration to that as well.
www.mfa.gov.il January 27, 2010
Ma'ariv is alarmed by what it perceives as an increasing trend by Israeli national religious youth towards becoming more ultra-orthodox and argues that this should concern not only the religious Zionist community but also society as a whole.
Bnei Akiva, and the Efforts To Silence Women
By Elana Sztokman Opinion http://blogs.forward.com January 29, 2010
Women can solve the world’s problems by just being a little quieter. That is the message emerging from the resolution of a little fracas in the Religious Zionist world recently.
…Indeed, religious men are systematically taught that to be more religious means to look more haredi. And to “look” more haredi ultimately means to cover women up.
The more silent and invisible women are, the more men can congratulate themselves for being increasingly religious. That is the narrative playing out here.
Rabbi Melamed Considering Resigning
By Kobi Nahshoni www.israelnationalnews.com January 26, 2010
Head of the Har Bracha Hesder Yeshiva Rabbi Eliezer Melamed called to revoke the military's authority over appointing the chief military rabbi and entrusting it instead in the hands of the chief rabbis of Israel.
According to Melamed, the first Chief Military Rabbi Shlomo Goren was appointed by the chief rabbis, and this tradition, in his view, should be kept ahead of appointing a replacement to Rabbi Avihai Ronzki who is ending his term.
Har Bracha students withdraw petition
www.jpost.com January 27, 2010
Following a High Court of Justice hearing on Wednesday, Har Bracha Yeshiva students withdrew their petition against Defense Minister Ehud Barak's decision to remove the institute from the hesder arrangement with the IDF.
The new conversion law is a joke
By Rabbi Seth Farber Opinion www.jpost.com January 27, 2010
The writer is the director of ITIM: The Jewish Life Information Center
In short, the new conversion bill - in its present and apparently final form - is sophistry of the first order and is being promoted as an offering to the immigrant population, with no substance supporting it.
In many respects, the country would be better off if the law wasn't passed and if politicians began studying the core issues and seeking genuine resolutions, rather than trying to simply pass off another bill as a solution to an essential issue threatening the Jewish fabric of Israel.
There needs to be a full review of conversion policy and strategy, and a public relations effort that will make conversion a national priority. Anything less, and we will continue spinning our wheels for another decade.
Lieberman: Conversion laws eroding non-Orthodox Judaism
By Yani Yagna www.haaretz.com January 25, 2010
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman called on Monday for a change to laws on conversion to Judaism, which he said had left thousands of Israelis in limbo.
Speaking at a conference on immigrant absorption in Ashdod, Lieberman, who leads the hard-line Yisrael Beiteinu party, urged the state to allow head Rabbis in all Israeli towns to perform conversions.
"It is unacceptable that over 200,000 immigrants are carrying identity cards that give their status as 'no religion'," Lieberman said.
Israel plans to repatriate ‘lost Jewish tribe’ in India
By Jonathan Cook www.thenational.ae January 26, 2010
The Israeli government is reported to have quietly approved the fast-track immigration of 7,000 members of a supposedly “lost Jewish” tribe, known as the Bnei Menashe, currently living in a remote area of India.
Under the plan, the “lost Jews” would be brought to Israel over the next two years by right-wing and religious organisations who, critics are concerned, will seek to place them in West Bank settlements in a bid to foil Israel’s partial agreement to a temporary freeze of settlement growth.
Haredi plaintiffs take rabbinical judges to Israel's secular court
By Yair Ettinger www.haaretz.com January 26, 2010
For the first time, such senior rabbinical court judges are being sued - by ultra-Orthodox plaintiffs at that - and are having to defend rulings they issued at the Bnei Brak Rabbinical Court of Justice (Badatz).
This is one of the highest rabbinical courts and perhaps the most prestigious rabbinical court in the ultra-Orthodox world, both in Israel and abroad.
It is a private body not associated with the courts of the Chief Rabbinate.
The plaintiffs are asking the Tel Aviv court to issue a restraining order in response to threats and harassment.
Shas, Yisrael Beiteinu trade barbs over amendment to chametz law
By Jonathan Lis www.haaretz.com January 26, 2010
Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu traded accusations as the special ministerial committee tasked with finding a compromise on the bill regulating the sale of leavened products during Passover postponed issuing its decision by another week.
Shas joins WZO: What does it mean for Jewish Agency?
By Jacob Berkman Opinion www.jta.org January 27, 2010
"I am sure there are certain areas where our mission is compatible with theirs and other areas where it isn't," Carole Solomon, the former chairman of the Jewish Agency's board of governors, told me.
"I am not even saying I believe Shas is terrible entity; I don't. But it makes things much more complex," she said.
"Their social service programs, their identity and their traditional approach to identity in and of itself is not a negative thing at all. But I think it will be harder to come to decisions," given Shas' history of feuding with the Reform movement and others.
As it is, the Jewish Agency's board could spend hours upon hours trying to hammer out language regarding Jewish identity, Solomon said.
(And while we're on the topic: Will Shas forces try to stop Jewish Agency funding of projects backed by Reform and Conservative Jews, or vice versa?)
Internal Haredi crisis: Lithuanians against Sephardim
By Kobi Nahshoni www.ynetnews.com January 29, 2010
The Ashkenazi-Sephardic conflict has re-emerged recently over Shas's joining of the World Zionist Organization.
Party members stressed that the move was purely "procedural," however a battle was ignited when Knesset Member Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) made a targeted verbal attack against the movement from the Knesset podium. Nearly a week has gone by and there's no sign of the fight slowing down.
A Dangerous Breach: On the Difference between the Knesset and Zionist Organizations
Editorial http://matzav.com January 31, 2010
The following editorial appeared in the English-language Yated Ne’eman in Eretz Yisroel
We cannot ignore the official announcement of Shas that it has decided to change its basic party platform by embracing the Zionist covenant and incorporating the essential principles as determined by the Zionist movement.
Jewish Agency reconsidering North America strategy
By Jacob Berkman Opinion www.jta.org January 27, 2010
A media advisory went out last week announcing that the CEO of the Jewish Agency for Israel North America, Maxyne Finkelstein, has told agency officials that she would leave her position when her current contract expires in July.
As the CEO of the agency's North American office, Finkelstein was in charge of North American fund raising, public relations and overseeing the 300 emissaries, or "shlichim," posted by the agency in North American Jewish communities.
Some Jewish Agency insiders are whispering that Finkelstein's decision to leave may not have been entirely her own, with all arrows pointing to this one coming from the agency's new top professional, Natan Sharansky.
Jewish Agency wants Central American Jews to choose Israel over US
By Gil Hoffman www.jpost.com January 27, 2010
The Jewish Agency is embarking on an effort to persuade Central American Jews to move to Israel instead of the United States, which has traditionally been their top destination.
NADAV Foundation awards grants to North American NGOs
www.ynetnews.com January 26, 2010
The Israeli NADAV Foundation on Monday announced the recipients of its “Jewish Peoplehood Innovation Grants” given to North American NGOs working to connect Jews from different places and perspectives in order to build collective Jewish identity and strengthen the global Jewish community.
By Yoel Meltzer Opinion www.ynetnews.com January 26, 2010
…the term taglit, at least according to the original intended meaning of Roi, is clearly understandable as a way to fight against assimilation.
Regarding the term “birthright”, however, a term that was given by the North Americans who eventually bought the Taglit program, the meaning is not so clear. In other words, what exactly is the birthright of every young Diaspora Jew?
Some hoping new director will revert Young Judaea course to simpler times
By Raphael Ahren www.haaretz.com January 29, 2010
Expectations are high for the new leader of the largest gap year program in Israel, with some hoping he will reverse the expansionary path of Young Judaea Year Course's outgoing director.
On Monday, London native Adam Jenshil, 39, will replace Keith Berman, who earlier this month surprisingly left Year Course mid-year after leading it for more than a decade. Berman's tenure was marked by unprecedented growth for the program, but some criticized him for diluting the course's roots to attract more participants.
Ketzaleh to Religious Zionists: No Rest until Unity
By Hillel Fendel www.israelnationalnews.com January 26, 2010
MK Yaakov Katz, leader of the National Union party, opened the Religious Zionist Leaders and CEO's Conference in Jerusalem on Tuesday by reiterating the need for “unity in the ranks.”
The First Post-Orthodox - Interview with Yoav Sorek
By Tsur Ehrlich http://menachemmendel.net January 21, 2010
Translation: Michael Pitkowsky
Yoav Sorek, the wild boy of the yeshiva journalists, took off his kippah and stayed religious. The Torah, he explains, needs to remove itself from sectorialism, from the condition of exile and rigidity, and to link up with the people, redemption, and to reality. The secret is secularization and returning to religion.
Did you get confused? He's not.
By Shlomo Brody www.firstthings.com February 2010
Is religious Zionism in crisis?
The 2005 withdrawal from Gaza, and the Oslo peace process that preceded it, have shattered the movement’s territorial aspirations and distanced it from the Israeli mainstream. It’s a curious thing: How did this movement, passionately dedicated to grand ideas of both the Bible and nationalism, find itself savaged by critics as irrelevant fanaticism and bemoaned by its own adherents as a failure?
Jerusalem Streets to Be Named for Religious Zionists
www.israelnationalnews.com January 31, 2010
Jerusalem streets will be named after three late outstanding personalities in the Religious Zionist movement – Rabbi Yosef Kapach, head of Yemenite Jewry and a modern expert on Maimonides' writings, Zevulun Hammer, former leader of the NRP and Education Minister, and Emanuel Medav, one of the architects of scouting for religious youth and a fighter who died in the War of Independence.
The Wiesenthal Center Digs Itself Deeper
By Alana Alpert Opinion www.forward.com January 27, 2010
Alana Alpert is a community organizer and rabbinical student at Hebrew College.
Frank Gehry has insisted that he withdrew from the museum project not because of “perceived political sensitivities,” but rather because his firm was unable to commit its resources to a cost-cutting “redesign” of the museum. He said that he continues to “admire” Hier’s “determination to establish a Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem that will serve as the embodiment of human respect and compassion.”
Hier, for his part, has said that the project will go forward on the site with a new design at half the size and half the cost. But the new plan will neither halve nor diminish in any way the profound damage of this project.
Tolerance Museum leader explains downsizing of Jerusalem center
By Tom Tugend www.jewishjournal.com January 24, 2010
A Museum of Tolerance will open in the heart of Jerusalem within four years, though at half the size and cost previously planned.
…Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, reached in Jerusalem where he is attending his granddaughter’s wedding, said more than $10 million has been spent on the project so far, including some $7 million for Gehry’s work, and more than $3 million for legal, public relations and incidental costs.
Although the long Supreme Court injunction against going ahead on the project prevented Hier from launching a national fundraising campaign, he said he has some $54 million in reserve, available to put toward the cost of the Jerusalem project. The money has been contributed by 48 Wiesenthal trustees and major supporters in cash and active pledges.
VIDEO: Haifa’s Chief Rabbi and the Pope
January 26, 2010
Rabbi Shear Yashuv Cohen is the main dialogue partner between the Vatican and the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, the single most important institution in the Jewish community. He was one of the rabbis who joined the pope during his visit to Rome’s synagogue.
Poll: 60% think Israel should take in Haitian families
www.ynetnews.com January 31, 2010
The majority of the Israeli public believes that citizens should not adopt children who lost their parents in the earthquake as long as there are Jewish or Israeli orphans without a home.
Analyzing the responses according to religious affiliation shows that the ultra-Orthodox, religious and traditionalists on the whole ruled out any option of adopting children from Haiti (93%, 77% and 51% respectively) while 52% of seculars answered that they would regard it possible.
Be’er Sheva City Council to vote on mass mezuzah check
By Yanir Yagna www.haaretz.com January 26, 2010
Be'er Sheva Councilman Ya'akov Ohayon plans to table a motion to have all the mezuzahs in City Hall examined and replaced if necessary, in order to halt "a few unusual events that sowed panic among municipal workers," referring to recent disclosures of financial improprieties and serious illnesses.
By Abigail Klein www.jpost.com January 29, 2010
It is easy to imagine that many of the people who heard Penina Taylor’s life story must have exclaimed, “You really ought to write a book!”
Taylor makes many public appearances as the founder and CEO of Torah Life Strategies, offering motivational lectures on religious issues as well as topics including attention deficit disorder.
Her personal history of domestic violence and drug experimentation, and especially her spiritual voyages, undoubtedly strike a chord with listeners from many different backgrounds. So, too, will her book.
Jerusalem conference to focus on lunar calendar
www.ynetnews.com January 29, 2010
The Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem will host an international conference titled "Living the Lunar Calendar: Time, Text and Tradition" on January 30 through February 1.
Knesset Okays religious education head
By Benjamin Hartman www.jpost.com February 1, 2010
The Knesset on Sunday unanimously approved the appointment of Rabbi Avraham Lipschitz to head the religious studies department of the Education Ministry, on the recommendation of Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar (Likud).
By Joseph Feit Opinion www.jpost.com January 31, 2010
For the 9,000 Ethiopian Jews remaining in the northwestern province of Gondar, Israel’s indecision on their request to make aliya is an agonizing betrayal.
February 1, 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.
