November 15, 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.
Over a thousand TAU students protest kollel stipend bill
By Jonah Mandel www.jpost.com November 11, 2010
Tel Aviv University Student Union chairman Ran Livne blamed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for succumbing to political extortion, by preferring to fund kollel students to maintain his coalition rather than “invest in the future generation of doctors, engineers, and economists of Israel.”
Netanyahu has expressed the sentiment that funding kollel students is something the state has been doing for already over 30 years. Livne equated the struggle against the bill to a struggle for the national identity of Israel, which ought to encompass equality between different sectors in the population.
By Rabbi Levi Brackman Opinion www.ynetnews.com November 14, 2010
But without the rank and file member of the haredi demanding it nothing will change. The Israeli government must reform how they give out the stipends to yeshiva students.
But the average person in our community must also work towards a more practical and reasonable approach to religious life, one that allows every member of the community – not just those born to be scholars – the possibility of fulfilling their purpose in the world in its entirety.
Protesters: Bibi favors yeshiva students
By Tomer Velmer www.ynetnews.com November 11, 2010
Filmmaker and journalist Guy Meroz also spoke at the rally, saying,
"The government must understand that if there is no equality in education then there will be no security. Education towards ignorance and illiteracy will destroy the system we have built here."
Educ Min. Sa'ar slams kollel stipend bill, calls for Haredi dialogue
By Jonah Mandel www.jpost.com November 10, 2010
Sa’ar reiterated on Tuesday that his ministry would cut funding from haredi schools that do not teach core curriculum subjects.
He noted that tenders had been issued to increase the number of supervisors enforcing that decree, a step which should, he said, fix the “destructive processes” shared by all past governments.
“The state is responsible for overseeing the execution of the minimum due, as defined by the state,” he said at the opening of the international Van Leer Education Conference on Teachers and Teaching Policies.
'We must promote a society that ensures shared core values'
By Jonah Mandel www.jpost.com November 10, 2010
“I respect the difference and uniqueness of different sectors in the Israeli society,” [Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar] said of the haredim.
“There are different faiths. I have no intention or will to change that. But I won't keep my eyes shut and enable the destructive processes that all previous governments promulgated that bring Israeli society to collapse into tribes, with less and less in common.
We must act to promote a society that ensures shared values in its core, joint responsibility and solidarity.”
MK Gafni defends stipend bill in student debate
By Ronen Medzini www.ynetnews.com November 10, 2010
MK Gafni claimed that even if financial support was taken away from yeshiva students, it won't necessarily make it into the pockets of secular students instead.
"Let's say you've won the battle – and another NIS 123 million (about $33 million) goes back into the treasury, then what? You think it will go to students? The father will continue to study Torah and you'll be depriving his children from food," Gafni asserted.
Finance Ministry nears compromise on yeshiva allowances
By Meirav Arlosoroff www.haaretz.com November 9, 2010
The compromise will most likely include two parts, granting students with children the same allowances and making the criteria stricter.
The idea is to find ways to encourage yeshiva students to join the workforce.
Students' bill: Stipends only for those who work
By Roni Sofer www.ynetnews.com November 8, 2010
The student union's proposal was drafted by excelling students, economists, and professors over the past few days as an alternative to the bill granting yeshiva students millions in state funds.
According to the proposed bill, those who own an apartment or vehicle will not be eligible for a grant, except those owning a motor-scooter. The sum will be fixed in the annual budget law.
Haredim, Arabs should have less kids, says Steinitz adviser
By Jonah Mandel www.jpost.com November 10, 2010
Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz's senior adviser Dr. Avi Simhon said on Tuesday that public figures should call on haredim and Arabs to decrease their birth rates.
“You should tell them it's irresponsible, you are harming your children, your society,” he said in an address at the Sderot Conference for Society.
“A regular person checks how many children he supports, and his taxes are allocated to those who have eight children without the means by which to support them.”
Israel's Ultra-Orthodox Welfare Kings
By Evan R. Goldstein http://online.wsj.com [WSJ subscription] November 12, 2010
In Israel, where modernity coexists uneasily with tradition, hand-wringing about the country's ultra-Orthodox Jewish minority is a national pastime.
By Moshe Dann Opinion www.ynetnews.com November 8, 2010
Why should Israel Broadcasting Authority receive a billion shekel subsidy per year? Why does the Ministry of Defense subsidize Army Radio?
Why should Habima Theater receive NIS 20 million a year? Or the Cameri Theater NIS 12 million? Why should actors, artists, and professors who call for boycotting Israel be subsidized, and not yeshiva families?
Shas MK: Torah Students Should Support Themselves
By Hillel Fendel www.israelnationalnews.com November 11, 2010
MK Chaim Amsalem – still a member of the Shas party, though apparently not for long – brings letters from one of the leading Sephardic Torah sages, Rabbi Meir Mazuz, stating the need for Torah scholars to support themselves via their own labor.
MK Rabbi Amsalem:
“Since the law permits Torah students of age 23 and up to study 45 hours a week and to work some hours [without jeopardizing their army-free status], they should do so, rather than have the Torah be scorned because the scholars have to beg for meager stipends from the government.
When fraud is certified kosher
By Tamar Rotem www.haaretz.com November 14, 2010
Tel Aviv District Court Judge Michal Agmon-Gonen harshly criticized the ultra-Orthodox rabbinical court in Bnai Brak - which is headed by Rabbi Nissim Karelitz and operates outside of the state's judicial system - ruling that this court had validated an illegal agreement, the aim of which was to defraud the Jewish Agency and the Tax Authority.
As the deliberations at the rabbinical court are not open to the public, the judge relied to a large extent on the testimony provided by the litigators themselves.
Now in US: Shufersal for Haredi market
Calcalist www.ynetnews.com November 14, 2010
Over the past two years Yesh has won the favor of Israel's religious public, due among other things, to the troubles suffered by its competition Shefa Shuk which belongs to Blue Square (Ribua Kahol). The haredi population boycotted Shefa Shuk over an ongoing dispute with the Dor Alon group, protesting the group's refusal to close branches of its AM:PM supermarkets on the Sabbath.
By Menachem Gsheid Op-Ed www.ynetnews.com November 9, 2010
For ages, it has been clear to us, the haredim, that we are not really wanted in the army en masse. They certainly don’t want to see us rising to senior positions. Our lifestyle is different and is incommensurate with the IDF atmosphere, slang, and conduct. We’re not really “one of the guys.”
This is also the reason why we have no chance of integrating into the army as individuals sent to the various units.
Military Rabbinate presents: Shabbat-adapted touch screen
By Kobi Nahshoni www.ynetnews.com November 9, 2010
The Military Rabbinate unveiled a line of electronic devices enabling observant soldiers to perform various duties they are required to do on Shabbat last Tuesday. Among the new developments: Touch screens, light-bulbs, flashlights, water-coolers etc.
Bnei Brak rabbis: Don't rent to refugees
By Yoav Zitun www.ynetnews.com November 8, 2010
A few months after the publication of a rabbis' petition calling to avoid renting apartments in Tel Aviv to African immigrants, rabbis in Bnei Brak issue a similar halachic ruling Monday, prohibiting residents to rent out apartments in the religious city and its surroundings to African refugees and illegal immigrants at large.
According to the halachic ruling, signed by six leading rabbis from the city's haredi sector, "This appeal is against a horrible act of lawlessness, by which apartment owners rent their property to illegal immigrants etc'. This phenomenon has grown into gigantic proportions, and nowadays the situation is intolerable," it read.
Chief rabbi: Mezuzah mandatory in yachts
By Ofer Petersburg www.ynetnews.com November 12, 2010
Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger issued a halachic ruling stating that mezuzot must be installed on yacht doors. The ruling was issued in response to a query by Itamar Shimoni, CEO of Atarim, which operates the Tel Aviv marina.
Shas MK: "Women today are already educated enough"
Women need support for technological careers, MKs told
By Judy Siegel-Itzkovich www.jpost.com November 11, 2010
Shas MK Nissim Ze’ev:
“There is a division of roles between men and women,” he told [a joint meeting of Knesset Committees on the Status of Women and Science and Technology]. “Women today are already educated enough.”
“Women today are already educated enough.”
Bringing the environment to Israel's ultra-Orthodox
By David Shamah www.israel21c.org November 11, 2010
While awareness of the importance of protecting and nurturing the environment is on the rise in Israel, recognition of the significance of this issue has largely bypassed the insular ultra-Orthodox communities, says Rabbi Yehuda Gannot, whose organization, Haredim L'Sviva (Haredim for the Environment), aims to educate and raise consciousness about environmental issues in this sector of the population.
Praying Hard for the Rain to Fall
By Arieh O’Sullivan www.themedialine.org November 11, 2010
It’s been said that everyone talks about the weather but no one does anything about it.
Well, seven years of drought in the Holy Land has been so bad that it brought together Muslim, Christian and Jewish clerics to offer prayers for rain.
Government to approve airlift of 8,000 Ethiopian Falashmura
By Nir Hasson www.haaretz.com November 14, 2010
The cabinet is expected to approve plans today to bring another 7,846 members of the Ethiopian Falashmura community to Israel over the next four years. Activists who support the rights of the Falashmura to immigrate to Israel have promised to end all lobbying activities on their behalf if the proposal is approved.
...The proposal stipulates that 200 members of the Falashmura will be brought into Israel each month in an operation that will span four years. Subsequently, barring specific humanitarian cases and special individual requests, no additional members of the community will be allowed into Israel.
8,000 Ethiopian Falash Mura to make aliyah to Israel
www.jpost.com November 14, 2010
Immediately following the government's decision, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews founded by Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, said it would give NIS 10 million to assist in the absorption of olim from Ethiopia on top of the NIS 40 million it already allocates to help newcomers to Israel.
Kabbalah gathering transcends religious boundaries
By Reuven Weiss www.ynetnews.com November 11, 2010
Lovers of the Kabbalah from 54 countries – 4,500 Israelis and 2,500 visitors from other nations – gathered on Tuesday at the Trade Fairs Center in Tel Aviv for the Eighth Annual World Kabbalah Convention. The mostly non-Jewish visitors hailed from Turkey, Germany, China, South Africa, Sweden, among others.
Kabbala confab to bring the world love
By Jonah Mandel www.jpost.com November 9, 2010
The event’s activities will be broadcast via the Internet and television, and roaming cameras will allow convention attendees to share their impressions with tens of thousands of worldwide viewers in a nonstop three-day broadcast on www.kab.tv and on Israel’s Channel 66.
Pamela Anderson visits Western Wall
By Eran Bar-On www.ynetnews.com November 8, 2010
Speaking at a press conference earlier Sunday, the former "Baywatch" star said she would try her powers of seduction while in Israel on an unlikely audience – ultra-Orthodox Jewish lawmakers.
Anderson, an honorary director of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, is in Israel to participate in the local version of "Dancing with the Stars."
An anti-fur bill has been put on hold in Israel over concerns by ultra-Orthodox leaders that it could impact production of the characteristic fur hats worn by some men from Hassidic sects on holidays and other festive occasions.
Pamela Anderson calls for ultra-Orthodox to go topless
www.news.com.au November 8, 2010
"I urge you to support this historic bill and speak up for the millions of animals who are bludgeoned, electrocuted, and skinned alive for their pelts each year," Anderson wrote in the letter.
She also sent the minister a video of animals being killed for their pelts.
"Surely you will agree that the ways in which animals suffer and die in the fur trade violates Jewish principles, which strictly prohibit causing unnecessary suffering to animals," she wrote.
November 15, 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.
