September 13, 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.
Haaretz Cartoon by Amos Biderman September 6, 2010
"Winter, Jews, Winter"
Shas Interior Minister: Daylight Saving debate scapegoats religious Jews
By Dana Weiler-Polak and Jack Khoury www.haaretz.com September 12, 2010
Interior Minister Eli Yishai told Army Radio on Sunday that a public debate over daylight saving is unfair, as it targets the Israeli religious public.
Earlier this year, more than 220,000 people signed a petition calling on their fellow Israelis to ignore the time change until the European Union moves to standard time on the last Sunday in October.
Haaretz Editorial www.haaretz.com September 12, 2010
[Shas Interior Minister Yishai] can make his mark if he introduces a government bill in the Knesset that would set daylight time for the same period as in Europe - from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October.
Shas would thus prove that it doesn't aim to impose its will on the secular majority, but rather looks after the Israeli public as a whole.
A new spat in Israel: What time is it?
By Matti Friedman, AP www.forbes.com September 12, 2010
On Sunday, a popular program on Army Radio interviewed Roni Hefetz, who said his venture capital firm unilaterally decided not to move back the clock. For the host it was 9:20 a.m.; Hefetz insisted it was actually 10:20 a.m.
"Didn't you start your program an hour late?" Hefetz joked.
"We are continuing to behave as if the clock never changed," Hefetz said, though he admitted that in deference to the official time he had not dropped his children off at school an hour early.
Haaretz Cartoon by Eran Wolkowski - September 12, 2010
"Getting ready?" "I get to sleep another hour"
By Noah Kosharek and Chaim Levinson www.haaretz.com September 7, 2010
A local political party in Givatayim is calling on the city to set its own daylight saving period, regardless of the rest of the country.
Politicians fight over setting the clock back
By Rebecca Anna Stoil and JPost staff www.jpost.com September 6, 2010
Science and Technology Minister Daniel Hershkovitz (Habayit Hayehudi) denied that the clockchanging fight had any connection to friction between religious and secular Jews.
“The early transition to the winter clock does not help religious or traditional people, and I do not see any reason not to leave daylight savings time and to create savings in the economy,” he said.
JPost Editorial www.jpost.com September 6, 2010
What religious value is there in “saving” an irreligious Jew by shortening Shabbat, thus making it less likely that he will desecrate the holy day of rest?
Isn’t this gain more than canceled out by the negative impression supposed representatives of Judaism make on their irreligious brothers by coercing them into cutting short the many benefits of daylight savings? A groundswell of public opinion is building against our too-short daylight savings.
Eli Yishai weighs suspending daylight saving for Yom Kippur - then backs down
By Yair Ettinger www.haaretz.com September 6, 2010
The religious parties in Israel have generally opposed daylight saving time, which the country has instituted on and off since 1948.
In 1976 the National Religious Party's Yosef Burg said "summer time" could cause people to violate Shabbat because movie theaters and buses might start operating before the Sabbath ended.
Rescuing Brooklyn Jews from Daylight Savings Time
By Nehemia Shtrasler Opinion www.haaretz.com September 6, 2010
My heart goes out to the Jews of Brooklyn, London, Paris and Antwerp. How do they manage to suffer the fast, which ends very late because of the long days of the daylight saving clock?
And how can they face up to this challenge without the assistance of the genius rabbis Eli Yishai and David Azoulay?
Israeli in custody for stabbing Ukrainian man in Uman
By Ben Hartman www.jpost.com September 11, 2010
An Israeli citizen was in police custody on Saturday in Uman, Ukraine after he reportedly stabbed a Ukrainian citizen in the Jewish quarter of the city Friday night.
Uman: Riot erupts between pilgrims and Ukranian police
By Ben Hartman www.jpost.com September 10, 2010
Hundreds of Jewish pilgrims rioted with police in the Ukrainian city of Uman Friday during a pilgrimage to the grave of a Jewish sage. Local police used dogs, violence, and pepper spray to disperse a crowd of about 500 Jewish pilgrims which had surrounded two Ukrainian men in a parked car they allegedly caught stealing from a residential building rented out by Jewish visitors.
50,000 Hasidim mark New Year in Ukraine
AP www.ynetnews.com September 10, 2010
Tens of thousands of Hasidic Jews from around the world gathered in a small Ukrainian city Thursday to mark the Jewish New Year at the tomb of their spiritual leader – an apparent record for the annual all-male pilgrimage banned for decades by the Soviets.
‘Every facet of Judaism’ at gathering around Rabbi’s grave
By Ben Hartman www.jpost.com September 8, 2010
On Monday, Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger said,
“They talk about moving the bones every year, but it never goes anywhere. Mainly because they [the Breslav hassidim] themselves are against it. He wanted people to come there, it’s what he told them.”
A video of Ben Gurion International Airport as thousands of people make their way to Uman for Rosh HaShanah
Video by Yehuda Boltshauser & Yossi Bodenheim / Kuvien Images September 6, 2010
Sight unseen en route to rabbi's tomb
By Akiva Novick www.ynetnews.com September 7, 2010
Trips to visit the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov in the Ukrainian city of Uman have long become a phenomenon crossing all sectors, common among celebrities and the average Joe alike, but this year, those waiting to boards the flight to Ukraine were privy to an unusual sight – Hasidim in veils.
This year in Uman: Hasids don 'veils' en route to Rabbi Nachman's tomb
By Zohar Blumenkrantz and Yair Ettinger www.haaretz.com September 7, 2010
This year the idea caught on that immodest sights may also be a threat outside the airplane - in the airport terminal, for example. So pilgrims are being encouraged to bring scarves along.
The leaflet notes that even if people laugh at someone wearing the scarf on his face, those covering their eyes "will be rewarded a thousand fold."
Thousands leave on holiday pilgrimage to Uman
By Ron Friedman www.jpost.com September 7, 2010
When asked about the ticket costs, [Transportation Minister Israel] Katz said that the best solution would be to have the rabbi’s remains brought to Israel and in that way, save the hassidim the expense of flying to Uman.
Now, It's the Jewish Men Who Are Wearing Burqas
By Allison Kaplan Sommer Opinion http://blogs.forward.com September 7, 2010
This is clearly an innovative solution that need not be restricted to flights to the Ukraine. If extremely pious men can’t handle looking at women, let them take responsibility for themselves and cover their faces.
I propose it be adopted by any men who truly feel that they are unable control their lustful urges in a modern world that permits women to reveal their hair, legs, shoulders and even the occasional décolletage.
Those who feel uncomfortable walking down a city street can simply hang their lycra rag in front of their face. Veil the men, not the women. It’s the perfect solution.
By Yoaz Hendel Opinion www.ynetnews.com September 7, 2010
Those who close their eyes neutralize their faith’s connection to reality, and mostly its connection to the other parts of the Jewish people.
Living is easy with eyes closed
By Ezra Resnick Opinion http://norighttobelieve.wordpress.com September 10, 2010
There is something tragically poetic about the latest Haredi self-imposed restriction: menveiling their own eyes when traveling, so as not to see forbidden sights.
By Yair Ettinger www.haaretz.com September 8, 2010
Why shouldn't Israeli Haredim learn English and mathematics in their yeshivas, serve in the army, work for a living, and have picnics on Independence Day?
In Beit Shemesh, ultra-Orthodox Anglos and native-born liberal Haredim have decided to open their society to the real world.
Baruch Chait: Broadening the narrow bridge
By Nati Tucker www.haaretz.com September 6, 2010
[F]or 25 years Chait has been building bridges from the reclusive Haredi world to employment and general studies. He has carved out a niche in a community that fights tooth and nail against efforts to introduce nonreligious studies into its schools.
His yeshiva is one of the few in the Haredi world to combine religious studies with an advanced liberal arts curriculum. Maarava Machon Rubin takes pride in the fact that 99.9% of its graduates enter the real world with matriculation (bagrut) certificates.
Israel's hi-tech future: Haredi women
By Oren Majar www.haaretz.com September 8, 2010
The obvious solution is that men who aren't iluim (Talmud prodigies) should work. But without an academic education, how would they to find decent jobs?
Adina Bar Shalom (eldest daughter of Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef):
"I wanted them to have not only money from Haredi charitable organizations and Passover food baskets, but a salary that would let them earn a living year round," she says.
By Kobi Arieli Opinion www.ynetnews.com September 12, 2010
Every time the haredim intervened in a dispute they should have had nothing to do with; every time they took things out of proportion, cooperated with their dangerous radicals, responded in a disproportional and illogical manner to incidents that could have easily been ignored – every time this happened, it prompted a much greater incident, which ended up hurting the haredim unfairly.
Simply put, this is called crime and punishment.
Haredi rioters indicted for threats, trespassing
By Shmulik Hadad www.ynetnews.com September 6, 2010
"We will find you. We will come to your home. We will burn you. We will hurt you. We will exterminate you. Nazi, rebel, murderer, despicable person. We will take care of you and will kill you."
These are just some of the threats hurled at a Barzilai Hospital security officer by haredim protesting the relocation of graves on the site, according to an indictment issued Monday against 11 of the rioters.
By Rabbi Avi Shafran Opinion www.tabletmag.com September 7, 2010
The writer is director of public affairs for Agudath Israel of America
There is nothing wrong with making a case for multiple conversion standards in Israel, for a variety of public prayer service styles at the Western Wall, for denying a particular community the right to mold a government-supported school in its own image, or for the separation of religion and state in Israel. Differences of opinion are fine. But vilification isn’t. Name-calling is not an argument.
By Akiva Novick www.ynetnews.com September 6, 2010
The Vizhnitz Hassidim seem to invest the greatest effort, and in recent weeks set up a giant prayer tent on the border of Bnei Brak and Ramat Gan, just east of Tel Aviv. The tent will accommodate 8,000 people.
Rosh Hashanah in Secular Kibbutzim
By Hillel Fendel www.israelnationalnews.com September 12, 2010
The Ayelet HaShachar (Morning Star) outreach organization ran special Rosh HaShanah prayer services over the three-day holiday in 12 secular communities, some of which have not seen traditional services in decades.
Last week, at secular Kibbutz Beit Keshet in the Lower Galilee, the Sadovsky family – which has been living there for six years, courtesy of Ayelet HaShachar – announced that a synagogue had been dedicated in the kibbutz.
Shofar comes to Netanyahu this Rosh Hashana
By Herb Keinon www.jpost.com September 12, 2010
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was a prisoner of his security detail over Rosh Hashana, unable to go to the nearby Great Synagogue in Jerusalem because of security considerations that would seriously have inconvenienced the other worshipers.
Leil Selichos at the Kotel - Elul 5770
So many ways to say sorry in Jerusalem this month
www.gojerusalem.com September 8, 2010
The High Holidays offer Jerusalem a chance to shine in an area not normally thought of as fertile for cultural phenomena: repentance.
Before the Jewish New Year and Yom Kippur descend upon the city, the ages-old Jewish liturgy of slichot, or repentant prayers, fill the air, their poetry as heartrending as the travails they aim to push away.
Safed's 500-year-old Torah scroll
By Oshrat Nagar Levit www.ynetnews.com September 7, 2010
Meir Karsenti, 80, a manager (gabbai) at the Abuhav Synagogue in Safed, was particularly excited last week as he geared up to take out what is thought to be the oldest Torah scroll in the world which can still actually be used.
By Akiva Novick www.ynetnews.com September 12, 2010
Crosses, newspaper pages, and empty plastic boxes – these are just some of the things the Chabad Youth's "mezuzah patrol" has uncovered. Out of 15,000 mezuzot inspected ahead of Rosh Hashanah, only 38% were deemed fit for kissing.
A sustainable synagogue
By Ilana Teitelbaum www.jpost.com September 8, 2010
A Jerusalem congregation plans to pray in a new, eco-friendly building, as part of a campaign to raise awareness about environmental issues in the Jewish community.
Survey: Most synagogues inaccessible to the disabled
By Melanie Lidman www.jpost.com September 9, 2010
More than 60 percent of the nation’s synagogues are not accessible to people with disabilities, according to a survey by Access Israel, released to coincide with the holiday season.
Nine out of 10 synagogues have no way for the disabled to get on the elevated bima, where the Torah is read, the organization reported.
By Zoheret Cohen www.ynetnews.com September 12, 2010
Before Bat Melech was founded about 15 years ago, there was no organization in Israel that dealt expressly with religious and haredi women while taking into consideration the complex social implications abuse has in the sector. Therefore, many religious women had no options for breaking the cycle of violence in which they were consumed.
The Hakhel Festival of Jewish Learning
Israel’s Major Annual Event of Jewish Pluralistic Culture on September 26, 2010
Panim organizes and produces the Hakhel Festival of Jewish identity and Israeli culture held every year during Sukkot.
Since the first Hakhel in 1997, this happening of Jewish pluralistic culture has been bringing together people from Israel’s entire religious and political spectrum.
Situation grave for J'lem Ashkenazim
By Nir Hasson www.haaretz.com September 7, 2010
A severe shortage of gravesites in Jerusalem has forced some local burial societies to adopt high-density burial methods - which are not always looked on favorably by the families of the deceased.
By Yakov Gunchel http://acheret.co.il September 5, 2010
Jewish law as it was kept in Ethiopia, until the community's emigration to the pot of destruction, was based on an oral tradition in its purest form.
Sons watched their fathers' actions and held on to them, and girls walked in their mothers' footsteps. Yakov Gunchel described the crisis of Ethiopian youth are restless due to their encounter between their unique Jewish culture and the rabbinic Judaism of Israel.
Christians unite in Israel for mass baptism
By DPA and Haaretz Service www.haaretz.com September 7, 2010
Click here for PHOTO slideshow
1500 Christian pilgrims from 35 different countries participated in a mass baptism on Monday in the Jordan River. The religious ceremony was conducted at Yardenit, one of the sites along the Jordan where Jesus is supposed to have been baptized.
Protesters use helium balloons in fight against hotel
By Melanie Lidman www.jpost.com September 6, 2010
Part of the plan, according to community organizers, is to evict the Armenians from the Saint Gregory Church and turn it into a community center or events hall. The church holds services once a week.
“Armenians have been here for more than 60 years, and we’re not giving up on our church,” said Father Koryoun, a priest who has been in Israel for 15 years.
Danon: Chief Rabbi permits building during Sukkot
By Rebecca Anna Stoil www.jpost.com September 8, 2010
MK Danon told the Jerusalem Post that he had requested a special dispensation from Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar clarifying that it was permissible to engage in building projects during the interim days of the festival.
During interim days of week-long festivals Sukkot and Passover, traditional Jews try to reduce their work burden as much as possible to increase the celebratory atmosphere.
Heart-Wrenching Holiday Pilgrimage to the Temple Mount
By Chana Ya'ar www.israelnationalnews.com September 8, 2010
The family of Yitzchak and Talia Imas made a special pilgrimage up to the Temple Mount on Tuesday in lieu of the murdered couple, their parents, who traditionally made the trip on the eve of each holiday. Their father went up to the Mount every week.
September 13, 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.
