Editor – Joel Katz
*SPECIAL edition on gender-segregation and Haredim in Beit Shemesh coming soon.
By Jeremy Sharon www.jpost.com December 23, 2011
The Interior Ministry has rejected an application
for permanent residency by an Orthodox convert, after the Chief Rabbinate
informed the ministry it did not recognize her conversion.
The woman
converted in 2005 under the auspices of the rabbi of one of the oldest
established Orthodox synagogues in the US (located in New York). The rabbi is a
well-respected Orthodox religious leader.
The
decision by the ministry’s Population, Immigration and Border Authority to
consult the Chief Rabbinate violates a June agreement between authority
director Amnon Ben-Ami and Knesset Committee for Aliya, Absorption and the
Diaspora chairman MK Danny Danon (Likud).
A U.S.-born convert is
taking the Interior Ministry to court for failing to grant him immigrant status
because officials say they have proof he still believes in Jesus and is engaged
in missionary activity.
Several people dealing
with conversions in Israel who have an intimate knowledge of the case also said
they share the ministry's suspicion.
The Israeli Chief Rabbinate has recently rejected the
applications of several Orthodox Jewish converts who have applied to live in
Israel.
This rejection has been reported widely in the Jewish media,
and has generated much discussion--and anger, frustration, disgust. These cases
are being appealed, and we hope that these converts will indeed be allowed to
settle in Israel as Jews.
The Chief Rabbinate only accepts Orthodox conversions
performed under their jurisdiction and/or with their express approval. Orthodox
rabbis who refuse to bend to the will of the Chief Rabbinate are excluded from
the Chief Rabbinate's "approved" list.
This policy is problematic on many levels.
[…]
6. A person who has undergone a halakhic
conversion is 100% Jewish, regardless of anything the Chief Rabbinate says or
does. The halakhot of conversion must not be allowed to be held hostage to the
misguided and extreme views of the Chief Rabbinate or to the Chief Rabbinate's
struggle to maintain power and authority for itself.
By Avi
Woolf Opinion http://aiwac.wordpress.com
December 18, 2011
Those who wish to retain the current system of government
batei din argue that all we need to do is put in “the right people”.
This means either Religious Zionist or at least like minded
black hat dayanim who will rule in the interests of the nation and the
oppressed, even if it means taking heat for being a “mekel” or for relying on
minority halachic views.
In my opinion, this is a hopeless endeavor for two reasons...
By Rabbi Shaul (Seth) Farber Opinion
www.jpost.com December 20, 2011
Rabbi Shaul Farber received his Ph.D. from the
Hebrew University and his rabbinic ordination from Yeshiva University. He is
the founder of ITIM: The Jewish Life Information Center and rabbi of Kehillat Netivot in Ra'anana
where he lives with his wife, Michelle, and their five children.
I got a call this week from a couple who are
trying to get married through the rabbinate. She’s from Ukraine, and was sent
by the marriage registrar to the rabbinical court to “prove her jewishness.”
No problem.
Well, the rabbinical court sent her to their
private investigator.
No problem.
By Gil
Hoffman
www.jpost.com December 20, 2011
Religious
Affairs Minister Ya’acov Margi (Shas) appealed a decision by the Ministerial
Committee for Legislation on Sunday in favor of a bill enabling residents to
register for marriage in any municipality, setting the stage for a clash
between Shas and Israel Beiteinu at next week’s cabinet meeting.
Shas officials said the bill violated the
coalition agreement that bars changes in the status quo on matters of religion
and state without the agreement of all parties in the coalition. But coalition
Chairman Ze’ev Elkin (Likud) said Shas supported similar legislation in the
past, so it cannot veto the bill.
A couple from the
south finalized their divorce on Monday - for the second time in two weeks, due
to the rabbinical court's suspicion that a witness had not signed the divorce
document properly.
Rabbi Yitzhak Dahan, the head of the Be'er Sheva Rabbinic
Court:
“In this case ... a question arose regarding the signature of one of the witnesses. Due to the very slight suspicion, the court decided to arrange a second divorce. The divorce was arranged yesterday to the satisfaction of the parties.”
By Yaniv Kubovich
www.haaretz.com December 25, 2011
The founder of a program designed to encourage graduates of
pre-army training programs and hesder yeshivas (which combine military service
and religious study) to join the police force says his approach is the best way
to place members of the religious Zionist community into key police positions.
...Although
official police policy is that members of the Israel Police must serve anywhere
they are sent, unofficially, the Israel Police have said the recruits from the
hesder yeshivas have been given assurances that they will serve in the center
of the country and will not to be sent to serve in the West Bank.
By Kobi Nahshoni www.ynetnews.com
December 25, 2011
Some 200
Religious Zionism rabbis have signed a letter calling on the government not to
evacuate the West Bank outpost of Migron, but rather find a way to legally
authorize it and continue its development.
The
signatories include Rabbis Yaakov Ariel, Haim Drukman, Zvi Tau, Zalman Nehemia
Goldberg, Shlomo Aviner, Yaakov Yosef, Elyakim Levanon, Eliezer Melamed and Eli
Sadan.
By Rabbi
Shalom Hammer Opinion www.jpost.com
December 22, 2011
Over the
past few weeks, much has been made about the obligation for observant soldiers
to leave IDF ceremonies when its agenda includes women singing, as Halacha
dictates that it is a problem for a man to hear a woman singing live.
...However, what I have found most disturbing is
that this entire episode reflects poorly on religious Zionism and its
leadership, as it reveals that it is incapable to meet one of its essential
duties; dealing with a secular society at large in both a pragmatic and
responsive fashion.
By Joel Braunold
Opinion
www.haaretz.com December 21, 2011
Joel Braunold is a Bnei Akiva alumnus and a former staff
member of OneVoice Europe who is currently studying at the Harvard Kennedy
School of Government.
While there are many
good reasons why we might not want Rabbis to have ideological disputes in
public, I feel that now we need it.
There are thousands of
amazing modern Orthodox educators who have inspired generations of students who
need to speak up and reclaim what it means to be an Orthodox Jew.
They need to do this
to restore the image of what a frum Jew is both at home and abroad.
Earlier this year, Suzi Ayad, a Netanya resident, submitted a
claim in the city's small claims court, demanding NIS 32,000 from the local
Hevra Kadisha burial society. During the funeral of a close friend, the
plaintiff was required to stand, along with other women mourners, behind an
Orthodox religious partition (mechitza).
The foundation for the
claim is the law banning discrimination in products and services, leisure
venues and public places.
By Yair Ettinger www.haaretz.com December 20, 2011
Religious burial societies can establish guidelines for the
conduct of funerals, but they cannot force them on relatives of the deceased, a
senior Religious Services Ministry official told the societies in response to a
number of complaints about discrimination against women attending funerals.
[In contrast to
Ohana, Religious Affairs Minister Yaakov Margi] insisted that separation of men
and women, as well as permitting women to deliver eulogies, are issues of
Jewish religious law that must be subject to the judgment of the individual
burial societies.
By Kobi Nahshoni
www.ynetnews.com December 20, 2011
Religious Services Minister Yakov Margi (Shas)
and the ministry's director-general, Avigdor Ohana, launched a new campaign
Monday aimed at making it easier for families for accept the "multi-level
burial" of their loved ones – the most common burial method in Israel
today.
A group of
ultra-Orthodox men held a demonstration outside the auditorium, claiming that
the innovative method contradicts Halacha and is "not Jewish burial".
The move was blasted by haredi media as well.
By Robin
Garbose Opinion www.jpost.com
December 25, 2011
The writer
has been directing theater, network television and films for nearly 28 years.
In the
context of these issues, it is significant that the Jerusalem Cinematheque, a
bastion of secular Israeli culture, agreed to include my film, The Heart That
Sings, in the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
For the
first time the festival featured a film made exclusively for women, with a
request for men not to attend, in keeping with its mission “to explore Jewish
religious practice and promote crosscultural understanding.”
By Ilan Lior
www.haaretz.com December 20, 2011
For the past several
months, the Belz Hasidic synagogue on Ahad Ha'am Street in the center of Tel
Aviv has been playing a Jewish melody from loudspeakers on the roof of the
building just prior to the onset of Shabbat.
...Now the synagogue's
management has agreed to stop playing the pre-Shabbat music altogether.
By Nathan Guttman
www.forward.com December 20, 2011
In its 30 years of existence, Shas has evolved
from a marginal ethnic political group to Israel’s fourth largest party in the
Knesset and is today the unchallenged kingmaker of Israeli politics.
Now, Shas — or in its full name, the Sephardic
Torah Guardians Movement — is attempting to establish a beachhead among
American Sephardic Jews and, it hopes, replicate its success in Israel. On
December 4, the group launched its United States affiliate, American Friends of
Shas, based in Brooklyn.
The new organization’s goals are still in flux
and, while activists agree its main mission should be raising the profile of
Shas in America, some are also calling for active fundraising to support the
party’s operations in Israel.
... [Rabbi Hanania Elbaz, of the Avenue X
Ahi-Ezer Congregation in Brooklyn and a founding member of American Friends of
Shas] explained that money raised in the U.S. could help Shas fare better in
the next elections and “if Shas is stronger, it will be able to extract more
money from the government for yeshivot.”
The Jewish Agency for
Israel (JAI) is set to launch a international virtual school network later this
week, in an attempt to bolster ties between Jewish students around the world
and Israel.
By Natasha Mozgovaya www.haaretz.com December 22, 2011
"We are not shy about
talking about our values," [Rabbi Richard] Jacobs said.
"There is more than one way to be Jewish, we believe that democracy is essential and Israel is a place that should always welcome those who are seeking homeland, but it also has to be a beacon of what's right - and tzedek [justice] has to be in the heart of this state."
By Jordana
Horn and Rebecca Anna Stoil www.jpost.com
December 21, 2011
Rabbi
Richard Jacobs: “The change has let people see Reform, and other expressions of
non-Orthodox Judaism, as having some possibility,” Jacobs said.
“There is more openness right now to the tradition and bringing the tradition into the modern world. A lot of Israelis are challenged by the ultra-Orthodox monopoly and they have their own battle with that political side of Judaism, but what we’re seeing is a searching and longing for spiritual grounding.”
www.ynetnews.com December
22, 2011
Seventy-six
new immigrants from North America infused Israel with the light of Zionism by
celebrating the first night of Hanukkah as new Israeli citizens.
The newcomers arrived Tuesday morning at
Ben-Gurion Airport on a Nefesh B’Nefesh aliyah flight organized in conjunction
with the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption and the Jewish Agency.
By Shmuel
Rosner
www.jewishjournal.com December 26, 2011
Q: Should
[Israel] allow progressive rabbis to marry couples, should it recognize
progressive conversions?
A: Minister
Yuli Edelstein (Minister of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs):
Israel in fact recognizes the various streams that exist in Judaism. For example, conversions performed by Reform and Conservative Rabbis are recognized for the purpose of the Law of Return.
During the last few years, there have also been changes in a number of areas which demonstrate this including marital registration, easing burial restrictions, etc.
We must also remember that there are a number of streams of Judaism in Israel and as a result no change should offend another significant segment of the population.
By Hanan
A. Alexander Opinion www.jpost.com
December 21, 2011
The writer
is Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary,
Professor of Philosophy of Education at the University of Haifa, and Sr.
Research Fellow of the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute.
The
Schechter Rabbinical Seminary, which prepares Masorti-Conservative rabbis in
Israel, sits at the intersection of at least four overlapping tensions, between
disparate roles of higher Jewish education, rival notions of religious
pluralism, competing understandings of human sexuality and different approaches
to textual reasoning.
The
departure of three senior administrators from the school in as many years,
reported by The Jerusalem Post on
Friday, December 9, is
partly related to these tensions.
By Raphael Ahren www.haaretz.com
December
23, 2011
Two Anglo Jerusalemites last Tuesday launched a new
"incubator for Jewish educational entrepreneurship" in the capital.
Called "Threshold,"
the six-month fellowship seeks to create "a cohort of educators who we
will transform into 'social entrepreneurs,' enabling these exceptional men and
women to begin their own organizations, create their own jobs, and have a
meaningful occupation that will enable them to continue their lifelong dream of
living in Israel," explained Yehoshua Looks, who established the program
together with Rabbi Aaron Leibowitz.
Editor – Joel Katz
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