September 12, 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.
Chabad religious school says no to Ethiopian children
By Danny Adeno Abebe www.ynetnews.com September 8, 2011
Photo: Jewish Agency for Israel (not related to article)
"We don't take in Ethiopian children. We don't think you match our lifestyle and we're not sure about your Jewishness either."
This is what five young girls of Ethiopian descent were told when they arrived with their parents at the [Chabad] "Or Chaya" school in Petah Tikva.
Chabad school refuses to take Ethiopian children
By Talila Nesher www.haaretz.com September 8, 2011
Education Ministry Director General Shimshon Shoshani told the Knesset Education Committee on Wednesday that the principal of one school that has refused to absorb any Ethiopian children - the Chabad-run school Or Chaya - would be summoned to a hearing.
Editorial www.haaretz.com September 7, 2011
The other schools in Petah Tikva, especially the religious ones, will have to admit the Ner Etzion students.
...Contributing to the desire to avoid absorbing these students is the growing competition between the state-religious and the private schools; the latter receive generous state support but have fewer Ethiopian-immigrant students.
The private schools admit only the better students, figures in the state-religious education system say.
Vast majority of Ner Etzion students still looking for somewhere to learn
By Talila Nesher www.haaretz.com September 7, 2011
Photo: Jewish Agency for Israel (not related to article)
MK Nitzan Horowitz (Meretz) said yesterday that he would reintroduce the bill prohibiting discrimination against school children, which would deny funding from schools that discriminated.
Horowitz said that the failure of the bill was directly responsible for the refusal of the private Orthodox Petah Tikva schools to accept children of Ethiopian origin, although these schools receive most of their funding from the state.
Petah Tikva schools in chaos over struggle to absorb Ethiopian children
By Talila Nesher www.haaretz.com September 6, 2011
Parents in the state-religious system are also resisting a mass absorption of Ner Etzion children.
One of the heads of a state-religious parents' forum sent a text message to a municipal education official that read,
"Until we see the full list of placements, no immigrant child is going to be allowed into school."
Interview: Yifat Kasai on Ethiopians in Petach Tikva Schools
By Hannah Katsman Opinion www.amotherinisrael.com September 7, 2011
Q: Two Ethiopian children joined each of my children’s classes this year. Were they from Nir Etzion?
A: Yes, each class in our school took on two additional Ethiopian children. The private religious schools didn’t object as they did two years ago.
They were warned in advance that they would face sanctions if they did not accept the children. Mind you, this is not a great hardship for the schools as the Ethiopian children come with generous funding for the many ancillary services they receive. Some of the children from Nir Etzion will attend schools outside of Petach Tikva.
By Peggy Cidor www.jpost.com September 10, 2011
In Jerusalem had the opportunity to speak openly with a few representatives of the Eda Haredit, on the strict conditions that none of them would be identified.
While the zealots are dictating the harsh tone both inside and outside their community, not all the members of the Eda are happy about it.
On one hand, the Eda is flourishing like never before – lots of children are born (and do not die prematurely, thanks to modern medicine), and the number of yeshivot and synagogues is growing.
But on the other hand, poverty, the infiltration of modernity, of secularism and everything that constitutes the “Israeli” way of life represent an unprecedented threat.
They can't all study all the time
By Nati Tucker http://english.themarker.com September 6, 2011
A recent Bank of Israel report discloses that the number of Haredi students, male and female, rose from 2,000 in 2005 to 6,000 in 2010. Most of the increase was among men, who comprise 42% of ultra-Orthodox students.
That is a drop in the sea compared with the number of Haredim who do not seek training and elect to continue Torah studies their entire lives: 60,000 obtained army deferments because of religious studies. But there is the scent of change in the air.
...There is good reason most of the drive, however, comes from foreign donors. There, unlike in Israel, most young Haredi men don't continue to study Torah. They gain an education and go to work.
"These donors went to university and set up global businesses," Gonen says.
"They think that the Israeli model of studying Torah is overdone. Sure, some students will turn into the intellectual infrastructure of the Haredi world; but all of them? That's unlikely," he concludes.
Former Shas MK Aryeh Deri: Ultra-Orthodox community undergoing profound changes
By Aviel Magnezi www.ynetnews.com September 7, 2011
Former Shas MK Aryeh Deri:
"The ultra-Orthodox community is also undergoing profound changes, and these changes should be encouraged."
Mea She’arim ‘mafia’ harasses, vandalizes businesses
By Melanie Lidman www.jpost.com September 8, 2011
A bookstore in the capital’s ultra-Orthodox Mea She’arim neighborhood is struggling against a wave of attacks by a haredi group called Sikrikim (“Sicarii”) that other business-owners have called the “mafia of Mea Sha’arim.”
Since the bookstore, known as Or Hachaim/Manny’s, opened in March 2010, men have smashed its windows several times, glued its locks shut, thrown tar and fish oil, and dumped bags of human excrement inside.
Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger was harassed and had stones thrown at him while leaving the store last year.
Jerusalem: Police suspect 4 Arabs attacked by Haredim
By Yair Altman www.ynetnews.com September 11, 2011
Four Arab municipal workers were attacked Sunday in Jerusalem's Givat Shmuel neighborhood.
They were taken to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem sustaining light wounds. Police estimate the attack was of nationalistic nature.
200th Torah Scroll Dedicated to the Jewish People's Army
By Elad Benari & Yoni Kempinski www.israelnationalnews.com September 9, 2011
The National Council of Young Israel and the International Young Israel Movement’s Israel region dedicated on Thursday a restored scroll at the Sirkin army base near Petach Tikvah, immediately north of Tel Aviv.
The Torah scroll is the 200th scroll to be donated to the IDF and the first one in the Young Israel donation program that was saved from the Holocaust.
Rabbi Eliezer Melamed: Christians who love Israel are righteous Gentiles
By Rabbi Eliezer Melamed Opinion www.israelnationalnews.com September 9, 2011
The writer is Head of Yeshivat Har Bracha.
That being the case, when it comes to Christians who believe that God chose Israel, and that all of the good prophecies should be realized within Israel, and they are not working to convert us, God forbid, rather, to strengthen us – then all the severe things mentioned about Christians do not apply to them.
On the contrary – great tikun is being made by them, they are righteous Gentiles, and God will reward them.
...There is still room to ask: Maybe there are some missionaries amongst our friends who want to convert us? Indeed, if such a thing is proven – they must be fought.
However, as far as anyone who has not been proven to be a missionary is concerned, we must return to the basic, appropriate conduct – respect and love.
Messianics ‘named and shamed’ in J'lem-area town
By Ruth Eglash www.jpost.com September 1, 2011
In an apparent infringement on personal privacy legislation and in defiance of laws preventing incitement, an anonymous group has taken to distributing flyers “naming and shaming” Messianic Jews (Christians) living in the Jerusalem-area town of Mevaseret Zion.
The personal details of some 10 people, including photographs and home addresses, are displayed on the flyer, which was delivered to hundreds of households in the town of 30,000 residents.
European Christians mobilize to support Israel
By Michael Freund www.jpost.com September 11, 2011
Christians for Israel International, headquartered in Nijkerk, the Netherlands, and the Brussels-based European Coalition for Israel, will hold joint protests on September 13 in The Hague and September 19 in Brussels, with the stated aim being “to defend Jerusalem as the undivided capital of the Jewish state of Israel.”
The groups have also published and distributed a series of articles in Dutch, German and English highlighting the legal, historical and biblical rights of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel, which they have made available on a website aimed at Christians called www.whyisrael.org
By Barry Davis www.jpost.com September 8, 2011
See: The Third Annual Interfaith Tolerance Symposium
The third annual conference on interreligious tolerance will take place at the Ethics Center of the Konrad Adenauer Conference Center at Mishkenot Sha’ananim on Wednesday.
As in the previous two years, there will be high-profile representatives of several local religious communities on various discussion panels and at speakers’ podiums.
These include Sheikh Abdul Rahman Kabha, the Interior Ministry’s inspector general of the Islamic Holy Places in Israel; Dr. Albert Lincoln, the Haifa-based secretary general of the Baha’i International Community; and Rabbi Yuval Cherlow, who runs the hesder yeshiva in Petah Tikva and has a long history of exploring common ground between religious and secular Jews.
By Einat Barzilay Opinion www.ynetnews.com September 8, 2011
The fact that you and I keep the Shabbat, eat kosher and take pleasure in the Torah is no longer sufficient in order to live in the same ideological home. Perhaps we better use different names on the door too. We’ll be called “Religious Zionism” and you’ll be called “Fanatics.”
Our women shall cover their heads, while your women shall put on a burqa. We shall adopt the moderation of Beit Hillel, while you adopt Beit Shamai. We’ll take Rabbi Yehuda Halevi while you take Rabbi Dov Lior. Let’s separate.
Settlers Visit Arab Town, Condemn Arson
By Elad Benari & Yoni Kempinski www.israelnationalnews.com September 7, 2011
Members of the Eretz Shalom movement visited on Tuesday the mosque that was torched Monday morning in Qusra, a village south of Shechem in the Palestinian-Authority controlled areas of Judea and Samaria.
VIDEO: Settler rabbi speaks out against mosque arson
By Benjamin Spier www.jpost.com September 7, 2011
An unlikely meet in the West Bank: Settler rabbi and peace activist Menachem Froman on Tuesday called for the arsonists of the mosque in Qusara to be expelled from Israel.
Rabbi Froman, a resident of the Tekoa settlement, along with his colleagues from the Eretz Shalom movement, visited the Arab village in an attempt to quell tensions following Monday’s alleged "price tag" vandalism act.
Three faiths unite in Israel to heal the planet
By Karin Kloosterman www.israel21c.org September 6, 2011
Since last year, Neril has been building the Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development in Jerusalem.
The six-person non-profit organization recently held the first interfaith meeting to formulate climate change policy, which impressively resulted in commitments of support from Israel's Chief Rabbinate, the Palestinian Ministry of Religious Affairs (Waqf), the Palestinian Sharia Courts and the assembly of the Heads of Churches of Jerusalem.
Haredi, Arab saving lives together
By Akiva Novick www.ynetnews.com September 8, 2011
"An Arab and a haredi are riding a motorbike."
No, this is not the beginning of a joke.
The story of Fadi Bahir and Hezy Roth can definitely be adapted into a feature film: Imagine an ultra-Orthodox man dressed in black, entering an Arab neighborhood in east Jerusalem in order to save someone's life.
Hours later, an Arab man runs into the heart of the haredi neighborhood of Mea Shearim in order to provide medical care.
Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto’s wife weighs in on financial feud
By Yair Ettinger www.haaretz.com September 7, 2011
The center-stage appearance of the wife of an ultra-Orthodox leader, and all the more so in a newspaper interview, over a sensitive family dispute, would be impossible in routine times, but the situation in Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto's court is in no way routine.
The rabbi's wife denies all the accusations of money laundering and says that she and her husband are the only victims here.
Rich and famous flock to wonder rabbi
AP www.ynetnews.com September, 10 2011
A few evenings every month, some of Israel's wealthiest and most powerful people can be found in a living room in the seaside city of Ashdod, waiting to have a few minutes with a rabbi they see as an advisor, guru or miracle worker.
...Unlike most ultra-Orthodox rabbis, Pinto does not press his secular adherents to observe Jewish law and rejects the mixing of religion and government, [psychologist and sociologist Yoram Bilu of Hebrew University in Jerusalem.] said.
New Synagogue in Memory of ‘Baba Elazar’
By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu www.israelnationalnews.com September 7, 2011
A synagogue in memory of murdered Kabbalist mystic, Rabbi “Baba Elazar” Abuhatzeira, will be dedicated in Netanya on Wednesday, the first public dedication in his memory.
"Jewish Authority" Will Stay in Land Given Away by the State
By Elad Benari & Yoni Kempinski www.israelnationalnews.com September 9, 2011
The Jewish Authority makes it very clear that even if the Israeli government decides to give up parts of Judea and Samaria to the Arabs, its members do not intend to be expelled from their homes as was the case in Gush Katif in 2005.
See also: PHOTOS: Judea and Samaria Leaders Declare Independent Jewish Authority
By Mordechai Brener www.demotix.com September 8, 2011
September 12, 2011 (Section 2) (see also Section 1)
Editor – Joel Katz
Religion and State in Israel is not affiliated with any organization or movement
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