Editor – Joel Katz
By Lior
Dattel www.haaretz.com February 12, 2012
Activists from several
student unions plan to submit an urgent High Court of Justice petition on
Sunday against Interior Minister Eli Yishai's plan to exempt yeshivas from
property taxes.
The exemption would
apply to all public institutions that have boarding schools, but the
petitioners say it would mostly help large yeshivas.
It must be dropped or
expanded to include student dormitories at colleges and universities, states
the petition, which has the backing of student unions from eight universities
and colleges.
By Lior Dattel
www.haaretz.com February 10, 2012
The Council for Higher
Education will invest NIS 180 million over the next five years to encourage
Haredim to study and enter the workforce. The CHE approved the plan yesterday
to make higher education more accessible to the ultra-Orthodox population.
Among the proposals
are scholarships, classrooms with separation between men and women, and special
educational materials that take into account and bridge the large gaps in
knowledge in certain subjects.
By Rabba
Sara Hurwitz Opinion http://morethodoxy.org February 7, 2012
Modesty is
the halakha or Jewish code of law, most readily summoned upon as the basis to
exclude women from public leadership roles.
Yet it is
fairly typical for certain Modern Orthodox congregants to also be regular
consumers of “immodest” television programs, films, and entertainment.
These
individuals deal with women in the secular boardroom and courtroom, but they do
not want women standing before a shul because, well, it’s immodest.
My name is Hadassa Margolese, I am
the mother of eight year old Naama Margolese from Beit Shemesh.
...My daughter, if anything, will learn from her mother that we
are powerful, and we can make a change.
We can make things better. Small steps
at a time, but we will get there.
I'm on a mission now to be inspired by all the powerful women
out there. There are so many influential women around me. I am inspired by the
women who are making a difference in the world around them.
Behind the headlines, Orthodox changemakers are working
hard to promote pluralistic, democratic and social justice values in their
community and in Israel at large.
Engage
with these inspiring activists, voices not commonly heard, who are instrumental
in building a strong and democratic Israel on the foundation of Jewish values.
Opening
remarks by Rabbi J. Rolando Matalon followed by conversations with:
·
Shira Ben-Sasson Furstenberg, New Israel Fund
·
Drori Yehoshua, Memizrach Shemesh
·
Hanah Kehat, Kolech: Religious Women’s Forum
·
Gadi Gvaryahu, Yud Bet B'Heshvan Forum and Brit Choshech
Legaresh (Banish the Darkness)
·
Batya Kahana-Dror, Mavoi Satum (Dead End)
I don’t
know why some people find it so difficult to get fully behind the issue of
gender discrimination, why women sitting on the back of the bus is urgent but
women earning 65 agurot on the shekel is not, why the status of women is only
“interesting” if it is connected to something else deemed more worthy.
When
members of the government and the media stay on gender without slipping away
into religion versus state or IDF power, when our leaders are willing to look
at their own sexist practices and not just those in the haredi world, then I
will know that change is truly in the air.
By Shlomo
Brody Opinion www.jpost.com February 10, 2012
...Clearly, however,
many of the phenomena are deplorable, and require redress on three levels: (1)
rectifying the massive desecration of God’s reputation (Hillul Hashem)
created by extremists like the Sikarikim group and their neighbors who fail to
condemn their actions; (2) creating greater understanding on the relationship
between Halacha,democracy, and tolerance; and (3) clarifying the halachic
sources related to these matters, the latter of which will be the focus of this
essay.
By Nir
Elis www.jpost.com February 10, 2012
VIDEO: Racy Haredi-esque photo shoot on bus: Israel
fashion magazine BelleMode taunts Ultra-Orthodox
Fashion magazine BelleMode
caused a splash on the web this week when it released overtly sexualized
high-fashion photos from its forthcoming issue depicting the issue of
ultra-Orthodox gender separation on buses.
In Gur Hasidism, there
is a network of men called commandants, who counsel the young grooms regarding
marital relations. If there is one thing L., a friend of R.'s, could not stand
in her marriage, she notes, it was the commandant's intervention in her
intimate life.
Sara Einfeld, a former Gur Hasid, says: "Men are liable
to use this to control their wives and avoid treating them well, in the guise
of spiritual 'elevation.'"
Y., a Gur Hasid, sent me the following message: "It is
important to me that our outcry reach the sane world," he wrote.
To be clear, I’m not saying that the struggle to integrate
haredim into Israel’s social fabric and economy has succeeded. I’m only saying
that the extremists are right to be worried.
While the media focuses
automatically on the increasing audacity and violence of the extremists, it is
largely failing to notice that all the relevant social trends in the haredi
community point in the right direction.
Haredim are not cartoons. They are real people, as
sophisticated and rational as the rest of Israeli society. So it’s a shame to
see them used as fodder to sell papers, when the reality – that they are
modernizing and abandoning their self-imposed ghetto at breakneck speed – is
being ignored.
By Jeremy
Sharon www.jpost.com February 9, 2012
A small but
significant segment of the haredi population is beginning to emerge, whose
socioeconomic status could be defined as middle class, says a new study from
the Israel Democracy Institute.
According to the
report, unlike other segments of the ultra-Orthodox public, the middle class
haredim
are likely to work outside the community, often in professional
vocations such as accounting or law.
On Wednesday,
February 8, 2012, IDI hosted a conference on the development of the
ultra-Orthodox middle class in Israel.
This event was being convened as part of
the activities of IDI's Nation State project, under the leadership of IDI Senior
Fellow Prof. Anita Shapira, and presented the findings of research
conducted jointly with IDI's Religion and State project, under the leadership of Prof. Yedidia Stern.
February 9,
2012
A small
but significant segment of the haredi population whose socioeconomic status
could be defined as middle class is beginning to emerge.
By Ranit
Nahum-Halevy, Raz Smolsky and Nati Tucker www.haaretz.com February 8, 2012
Take a look at the
questionnaire attached to the sales brochure, titled "The Binu Ami group
is building the city of Harish - the new Haredi city." Beyond the usual
questions (number of children, ID number ), you have to state which religious
sector you belong to - Sephardi, Lithuanian, Hasidic or strictly Orthodox.
Secular is not an option.
The questionnaire asks
what kind of head covering (hat, wig or headscarf ) the mother of the family
wears. And the father needs to state how many hours he spends studying Torah.
Nor will they take your word for all this: applicants need to append a letter
of recommendation from a rabbi.
By Meirav
Arlosoroff www.haaretz.com
February 8, 2012
Haredim manage to buy
homes. How?
1) help from older
generations who worked, and some of whom received Holocaust compensation
payments from Germany.
2) massive low-cost building in the
territories, which enabled the establishment of cheap Haredi cities such as
Beitar Ilit.
3) biased assistance from the state. The
criteria for assistance in purchasing a home are blatantly skewed in favor of
the ultra-Orthodox.
The first two sources are disappearing. What
remains is state subsidies.
By Yair Ettinger
www.haaretz.com February 8, 2012
Three
out of every four Beit Shemesh children entering the first grade in the
2012/2013 academic year will be registered in official ultra-Orthodox institutions,
according to figures published Tuesday by the Beit Shemesh education authority.
Of 7,000
Beit Shemesh five to eight-year-olds, for example, a total of 5,800 will be
ultra-Orthodox.
By Yitzhak
Benhorin www.ynetnews.com February 12, 2012
Recent controversies
surrounding the treatment of women in the haredi community have led officials
in Maryland's Montgomery County to suspend a sister-city agreement with Beit
Shemesh.
By Victor Zapana www.washingtonpost.com February 11, 2012
County Council member George L. Leventhal (D-At
Large) said “good judgment is prevailing.”
“I really support efforts to build bridges, but
we have to be practical . . . ,” said Leventhal, who is Jewish and visited
Beit Shemesh in 2001. “The deeper you get into issues like this, the greater
risk you run of getting your own constituents really mad.”
Council President Roger Berliner
(D-Potomac-Bethesda), who is also Jewish, said people would never imagine
something like this happening with a prospective sister city — “or else you
wouldn’t enter into these discussions.”
By Jeremy
Sharon www.jpost.com February 9, 2012
But one organization,
the ZAKA rescue and recovery organization, seeks to soothe societal wounds
through a coming together not only of the many ultra-Orthodox volunteers in its
ranks but of secular, Zionist and other religious people to bridge current
divides.
By Andrew
Silow-Carroll Opinion www.njjewishnews.com February 8, 2012
The haredi debate, at the very least,
provides a middle ground. Unfortunately for Rabbi Shafran, Prophets and
Protectors alike agree that Israel should be a place where, in Amsalem’s words,
“every Jew in Israel — haredim, ultra-Orthodox, and secular; religious
Zionist and traditional; Ashkenazim and Sephardim; recent immigrants and people
who have lived there for decades — all [work] together to build a Judaism on
the principles of respecting one another.”
It’s regrettable that the issue implicates
innocents in the actions of the minority. But in terms of creating a Zionism
that unites security and social justice, survival and morality, Exodus with
Sinai, it’s a start.
By Gil
Troy Opinion www.tnr.com February 2, 2012
[Netanyahu] should
leverage the generous subsidies the haredim currently enjoy to force the rabbis
to control the bullies and accept more responsibilities as Israeli citizens.
Needed reforms include
teaching a core curriculum of general subjects in schools that receive state
funding, limiting the number of army exemptions, and increasing vocational
training.
In return, Netanyahu
should pass legislation guaranteeing haredim a separate school system and
particular exemptions, so their every benefit is not perennially in doubt.
And Netanyahu must
move all Israelis beyond classical Zionism’s monolithic, tanned, bronzed
secular “New Jews” finding unity in uniformity; today’s multicultural Israelis
should celebrate diversity while sharing common civic commitments.
By Ari Galahar
www.ynetnews.com
February 8, 2012
Students at the Haredi
College of Jerusalem were surprised recently to see a tall screen separating
between men and women at the institution's public cafeteria, in addition to the
gender segregation in classrooms.
By Jeremy
Sharon www.jpost.com February 9, 2012
Culture and Sports
Minister Limor Livnat met on Tuesday with 12 haredi women who in recent years
began to write, produce, direct and shoot films, and who have now been chosen
to take part in a project promoting film in the ultra- Orthodox sector.
The first
tragedy in this drama is the human one.
...The
second tragedy is the massive Chilul Hashem.
My own
prejudices aside, what should be done to counter the tragic
behavior
in Israel of the Chilul Hashem that is bringing shame upon the entire
Jewish
people, upon Torah and upon God?
First:
There should be no coercion on religious matters, no .כפייה דתית
We cannot
force Judaism on others.
By Kobi
Nahshoni www.ynetnews.com February 10, 2012
The Secular-haredi
tensions over the exclusion of women reached new heights in the Jerusalem
neighborhood of Kiryat Yovel where there is a growing haredi community. Local
bulletin boards were recently pasted with pictures of women posing almost
entirely in the nude.
The pictures were put
up during the Sabbath and included a caption that read: "The glorification
of women."
By Ari Galahar
www.ynetnews.com
February 12, 2012
The editors of an
ultra-Orthodox magazine were embarrassed to realize that they have published
photographs featuring smutty language recently.
By David
Sable Opinion www.thejewishweek.com
February 17, 2012
David
Sable, a member of board of directors of The Jewish Week, is an executive in
the marketing and communications field.
But the
problem isn’t really the radical rabbis. Rather it is so-called Modern Orthodox
Jews like me, from the movement’s left wing, open fringes to its more strictly
observant black hatters, who have become enablers of the type of violent
intolerance that is threatening the democratic foundation of the State of
Israel as well as the credibility of our own religion.
By Yair Ettinger
www.haaretz.com February 7, 2012
Rabbi
Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, one of the most revered figures in the ultra-Orthodox
Jewish community, is reportedly in critical condition after suffering from
organ failure.
By Judy
Siegel-Itzkovich and Jeremy Sharon www.jpost.com February
8, 2012
Hundreds of family
members and strangers converged on Monday and Tuesday on the capital’s Shaare
Zedek Medical Center out of concern for the health of Rabbi Yosef Shalom
Elyashiv, the leading haredi Ashkenazi rabbinical arbiter of the generation,
who suffers from congestive heart failure and was in critical but stable
condition.
By Ari Galahar
www.ynetnews.com
February 8, 2012
Eda Haredit members
are fighting back against a recent wave of police arrests. The extreme
ultra-Orthodox faction decided in recent days to step up its battle, and has
begun filing personal lawsuits against police officers.
By Rabbi Zecharyah
Goldman Opinion http://boulderjewishnews.org
February 9, 2012
Many of us have, to
our hearts grief, heard of the recent episode in Bet Shemesh, Israel where an
Ultra-Orthodox religious man spat on a young Orthodox girl who was not — in his
view — dressed modestly enough.
...This case presents
us with the distortion and upending of religious values that are classic
indications of religious insanity. The halakhic laws and values of: respect for
human dignity, of loving your neighbor as yourself, of not damaging another
person physically or psychologically are all dismissed in the abyss of
fanaticism and what is present is the all-consuming value of modesty.
By Nir Hasson
www.haaretz.com February 9, 2012
President
Shimon Peres unveiled on Thursday a new medal of honor, awarded by Israel's
president to individuals and organizations for their contribution to the State
of Israel.
By Ruth Eglash www.jpost.com February 9, 2012
Despite comments made
last week that it is not the role of Diaspora Jewry to intervene in Israel’s
internal social affairs, a letter obtained by The Jerusalem Post on
Tuesday shows that the New York Federation has been involved in calling for the
government to help stamp out discrimination against Ethiopian immigrants.
Leaders of ZAKA, an Israeli medical and rescue
organization best known for its work in the aftermath of suicide bombings, has
launched a program that seeks to work with Muslim and Christian counterparts on
emergency rescues.
By Melanie
Lidman www.jpost.com February 12, 2012
Police prevented
former Likud leadership contender Moshe Feiglin from entering the Temple Mount
Sunday morning, after accusing him and right-wing activists of attempting to
disrupt order.
Editor – Joel Katz
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