February 21, 2011 (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.
Rabbis defend ‘Torat Hamelech’
By Jonah Mandel www.jpost.com February 17, 2011
The tenets of the Torat Hamelech book are taken from senior Sephardi adjudicator Rabbi Ovadia Yosef’s Yecheve Da’at book, his son Rabbi Ya’acov Yosef told a packed Jerusalem synagogue on Wednesday night, noting that his father received the Israel Prize for that composition.
Rabbi Lior: What was our crime?
By Maayana Miskin www.israelnationalnews.com February 20, 2011
Rabbi Dov Lior:
“Our problem is with those who run the state through pettiness, people who cut themselves off from the past, and have reached the point of cutting themselves off from the Torah and from parts of the land of Israel,” he said.
He added, “Rabbis need to state their interpretation of Torah, and whoever does not do so fails to fulfill his responsibility to the public.”
May we allow gentiles to purchase land in Israel?
By Rabbi Shlomo Riskin www.jpost.com February 18, 2011 "Strangers in our midst"
The writer is the founder and chancellor of Ohr Torah Stone Colleges and Graduate Programs, and chief rabbi of Efrat.
Several months ago, a widely publicized letter signed by 40 prominent Israeli religious-Zionist rabbis stated that “it is biblically forbidden to sell (or rent) a house or a field in Israel to a gentile, as it is written ‘You shall not give them a resting place on our land (Deuteronomy 7:2).’
In the Jewish state, only Jews seem to be persecuted
By Israel Harel Opinion www.haaretz.com February 18, 2011
The zealots of the prosecution who in their stupidity dispatch policemen and arrest warrants to deal with the rabbis, force moderate rabbis who hold very different views from those of Lior and Shapira to stand by them.
Proposed law calls for free speech immunity for rabbis
By Jonathan Lis www.haaretz.com February 17, 2011
The National Union, Shas and United Torah Judaism parties have submitted a bill that would provide rabbis with immunity from prosecution for religious edicts or things said when referring to religious matters.
The bill states that a rabbi will not "bear criminal responsibility and would be immune to any legal action following the publication of a religious essay, agreeing to the publication of a book, or expressing an opinion on Torah related matters, orally or in writing."
By Roni Sofer www.ynetnews.com February 16, 2011
The bill further asserts that "it's impossible that rabbis…as result of laws limiting freedom of expression, would refrain from issuing religious edicts or distort ancient Jewish law as result of their fear of the prosecutor's office."
Rabbi: Officer died in Carmel fire due to past actions
By Raanan Ben-Zur www.ynetnews.com February 20, 2011
Nava Boker, wife of Brigadier-General Lior Boker who was killed in the Carmel fire disaster last December while trying to rescue prison guard cadets, filed a complaint Sunday against Rabbi Rafael Bublil accusing him of incitement.
‘You shall not wrong a stranger’
By Rabbi Reuven Hammer Opinion www.jpost.com February 18, 2011
The writer was the founding director of the Schechter Rabbinical School.
I was shocked recently, however, to see a newspaper report recently that there is a Jewish organization here that is planning to give “kashrut certificates” to stores and companies that can prove that they do not employ “enemies of Israel,” which the head of the group explained means Arabs.
Fighting for the right to steal
By Shahar Ilan Opinion www.haaretz.com February 17, 2011
The writer is deputy director of research and information at Hiddush - For Religious Freedom and Equality.
Too late, the Education Ministry published a new and strict procedure for oversight of yeshivas.
The procedure was decided on after police revealed suspicions of false reporting of student numbers in 37 yeshivas and religious schools.
...The struggle to repeal the new inspection procedure illustrates why this happens. Instead of shunning the thieves, the Haredi parties and leading Torah luminaries start a fight whose significance is clear: The cheating will continue, the thieves will celebrate.
In battle over Israel's key rabbinical posting, ethnic underpinnings surface
By Yair Ettinger www.haaretz.com February 17, 2011
A clash between Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman and Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar may further delay the appointment of a new head of the rabbinical courts - a post that has been vacant since August.
...In other appointments that have stirred strong controversy, the committee is also expected to vote on three judges for the High Rabbinical Court.
Increase in Haredim draftees in IDF slowing down
By Amos Harel www.haaretz.com February 18, 2011
Following several years of sharply increasing numbers of ultra-Orthodox Haredim being conscripted into the ranks of the IDF or serving civilian national service, this increase slowed down significantly last year.
...The slowing down in the rate of increase of new Haredi conscripts may indicate that the current solutions offered by the IDF have been maximized.
It may also mean that the absence of significant external pressure means there is no real incentive for Haredim to apply for military or civilian service.
Haredi national service volunteers told to punch the clock
By Chaim Levinson www.haaretz.com February 17, 2011
In an attempt to crack down on haredim who don’t fill their weekly quota of volunteering as a substitute for military service, Sar-Shalom Jerbi, head of the Civilian and National Service Authority, recently ordered the installation of attendance clocks in all institutions served by haredi volunteers.
Haredi civilian volunteers ordered to clock in
Being religious in the Israel Navy
By Kobi Nahshoni www.ynetnews.com February 17, 2011
Once these were the young men from the kibbutz who dominated the Israeli Defense Forces combat units and senior military staff; today, it is the national religious public that is taking over the army.
This considered, it is no surprise that Neil Friedlander, Adiel Shauloff and Amiad Wolbromsky, all products of religious kibbutz education, have made it far: The three graduated on Tuesday from the Naval Officer Course – one of the IDF's most prestigious and grueling training programs.
...Various Jewish law issues are raised aboard the 60-meter ship, upon which the soldiers often find themselves confined for an entire week.
By Rafi Goldrich Opinion www.jpost.com February 18, 2011
But to restore hesder’s luster, it must become like all other special programs: Enrollment must be limited not only to assure high standards, but to not overly burden the country.
Boys must be accepted not by haredi-like entitlement but by merit, and must uphold the conditions of their service throughout, as verified by formal oversight...Only then will hesder become a program of which the national religious community can be proud.
PHOTO: New IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz places note in Western Wall
Photo: Demotix.com
Chabad gift to new IDF Chief of Staff
Chief Rabbinate issues warning over kashrut problems
By Jonah Mandel www.jpost.com February 18, 2011
The battle over the halachic validity of military conversions appears to be approaching the kashrut industry, with the Chief Rabbinate warning the Badatz Eda Haredit’s kashrut division recently of the consequences it would face if it did not swiftly resolve irregularities found in a few of its slaughterhouses.
Forget switchboards, Haredi women can be great engineers
By Guy Grimland http://english.themarker.com February 20, 2011
Mansdorf says 3Base is proof that with the right training, Haredi women can be excellent computer engineers who can compete with any programmer in Herzliya or Ra'anana. Most of the company's programmers work with advanced technologies, he says.
...Employees come to 3Base after they finish Haredi women's seminaries at age 18. At that point, their options are becoming housewives or finding part-time employment with comfortable hours near home.
Most Haredi women choose to work because they are their households' main breadwinners - their husbands generally dedicate their lives to religious studies. But cultural norms restrict them to same-sex environments, and few challenging jobs are available to them. In addition, they start having children young, which means they are unlikely to go on to college.
Haredim who train integrate better into secular work
By Jonah Mandel www.jpost.com February 14, 2011
The study showed that despite apprehension, haredi employees manage in a secular, gender-mixed work environment.
Some 83 percent of the women and 88% of the men said they had no problem maintaining their haredi lifestyle in such a setting. And while 47% of the women said they would not leave it in favor of an equivalent haredi place of work, 67% of the men would prefer to stay where they were.
Service program would train Haredim, Arabs
By Zvi Zrahiya http://english.themarker.com February 20, 2011
The Israel Defense Forces, the Histadrut labor federation and private employers will work together to help manage a national service program for all, including ultra-Orthodox and Arabs, under a preliminary plan hashed out with MK Moshe Matalon (Yisrael Beiteinu) over the weekend.
Lawyers: Planned Haredi-only city is unconstitutional
By Ron Friedman www.jpost.com February 16, 2011
Human rights lawyers are attempting to challenge a government decision designating the planned city of Harish as a haredi-only town.
...According to the ministry spokesman, Construction and Housing Minister Ariel Attias had instructed planners to ensure that the current population of Harish, 300 secular families, would have a separate entrance to the city, enabling them to come and go during Shabbat.
Green Movement: Israel's high birth rate not sustainable
By Zafrir Rinat www.haaretz.com February 14, 2011
"The current population growth rate does not allow for sustainable development in Israel," [Prof. Alon] Tal, an environmentalist, told conference participants, adding that he intends to put the country's high growth rate on the public agenda.
Tal said that political parties should work toward eliminating allowances and other incentives designed to encourage families to have more children.
'I said I was from Sudan and was attacked'
By Yoav Zitun www.ynetnews.com February 14, 2011
The 23 year-old Sudanese asylum seeker, who was stabbed Saturday evening on a Bnei Brak street, is still hospitalized at the surgical ward of the Chaim Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer.
...On Saturday evening, as he was sitting at the entrance to a small public while arriving to visit his brother who lives in the northern neighborhood of the ultra-Orthodox city, the two were brutally attacked by a group of local young men, who they say were wearing skullcaps.
Study: The Ultra-Orthodox Education System for Boys in Jerusalem
http://jiis.org 2011
This study presents a unique phenomenon in the field of Israeli education – the
Haredi education system for boys.
The paper describes a system that has created a meaningful alternative to the regular state education in Israel, employing its own methods and teaching means.
The system has inculcated the Haredi worldview to hundreds of thousands of graduates and achieved meteoric growth over recent decades.
VIDEO: Israel Channel 2 TV Special on the “Taliban Mother” in prison (Hebrew)
J'lem concerts protest cancellations
By Hagai Hitron www.haaretz.com February 17, 2011
Hundreds of people attended two concerts in churches in Jerusalem's Old City yesterday, to protest the city's surrender to ultra-Orthodox pressure.
'Holy dove' drives yeshiva wild
By Akiva Novick www.ynetnews.com February 17, 2011
Rumors about the righteous bird became the talk of the day in Jerusalem, and students watching the dove with binoculars discovered that it would visit the rooftop of the nearby Vizhnitz yeshiva as well.
Yehud: 10 Haredim arrested during rally against dig
By Eli Senyor www.ynetnews.com February 20, 2011
Ten ultra-Orthodox were arrested for suspicion of disturbing the peace during a demonstration against archeological excavations in Yehud.
By Allan Nadler www.jidaily.com February 17, 2011
Allan Nadler is a professor of religious studies and the director of the program in Jewish studies at Drew University.
A great historical irony lurks in this scenario of an emerging theocracy in the land of Israel. It could all have been avoided had the leading haredi figures, during the country's nascent years, heeded the strong admonitions of the most virulently outspoken anti-Zionist rabbi who ever lived.
Ministers put off debate on change to clock
By Jonathan Lis www.haaretz.com February 14, 2011
The Ministerial Committee for Legislation decided yesterday to put off for another month discussion of a bill to move the end of daylight saving time.
The bill is due to be brought before the Knesset for a preliminary vote on Wednesday.
C'tee postpones vote on daylight saving time extension
Ministers to deliberate on daylight saving time in 1 month
Drivers beware! Rabbinic grave-hopping ahead
By Yair Ettinger www.haaretz.com February 15, 2011
It now appears this was all organized by the Shuvu Banim Bratslav Hasidic community in pursuit of the movement's mysterious Rabbi Eliezer Berland, who has been making a series of nighttime visits to the graves of righteous men (tzadikim ) in the north. The rabbi has encouraged his followers to chase after him.
To pave road for Cohanim, eucalyptus trees have to go
By Yair Ettinger www.haaretz.com February 15, 2011
...But according to a document by Israel Antabi, the municipality's deputy director general and head of engineering and projects, the trees were removed not because of plans to create a four-lane road.
The plan is to pave a street for Cohanim - Jews who, according to custom, face certain restrictions such as avoiding graveyards.
Jerusalem: Man buried in wrong grave
By Kobi Nahshoni www.ynetnews.com February 16, 2011
A serious error occurred in the Mount Olives Cemetery in Jerusalem this week when a man was mistakenly buried instead of another. The mistake was discovered only several hours after the burial. The body was exhumed and the distraught family held a second funeral.
C'tee rejects appeals against Western Wall plaza construction
By Michal Margalit www.globes.co.il February 15, 2011
The appeals subcommittee of the National Planning and Building Commission has rejected appeals against plans to expand buildings along the northern side of the Western Wall plaza in Jerusalem's Old City, despite anger among religious, environmental, and planning communities.
The Jerusalem Regional Planning and Building Commission approved the plan to expand the façade and roof of Beit Strauss, in part for a new police station, in 2009.
Rabbi Moshe Tendler thinks you’re wrong, and he isn’t afraid to say so
By Ben Harris www.jta.org February 15, 2011
After the January shootings in Arizona and the resultant calls for greater civility and moderation in the national discourse; after an acrimonious back-and-forth over the Jewish legal approach to death and organ donation; and after still more calls for a gentler, more civil public discourse, Rabbi Moshe Tendler stood up in a Jerusalem synagogue and accused his fellow Orthodox rabbis of perpetrating one of the worst desecrations of God's name in American Jewish history.
VIDEO: Understanding Brain-Stem Death – Animation
Halachic Organ Donor Society http://www.hods.org/
By Noam Stadlan http://text.rcarabbis.org February 16, 2011
Adhering to a logically incoherent position that flies in the face of medical and scientific knowledge is perhaps a much greater break with the process of how Halacha has been established in the past.
As such, it behooves the ICC advocates to properly clarify their criterion for determining death.
See also: Symposium on the Ethics of Brain Death and Organ Donation
intro, I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX X
February 21, 2011 (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.
