Editor – Joel Katz
Rabbi Brian Lurie is
the incoming president of the New Israel Fund.
But there are also
other trends affecting the haredi community that need to be considered.
More haredi women have
entered the workplace. More haredim are going to college, more will join the
army.
Changing the
educational requirements for haredi schools to provide a secular core
curriculum, something we and most Israelis strongly favor, would further
integrate the ultra-Orthodox into modern life.
By Moti Bassok
www.haaretz.com February
14, 2012
[The
IMF] projects that Israel's gross domestic product would be 15% higher than it
is if Arabs and Haredim worked as much as the other population groups.
The IMF
begs to note than in 30 years, Arabs and Haredim will constitute about 50% of
Israel's population (extrapolating from present trends), which will become a
macroeconomic problem if they don't work.
By Jeremy
Sharon www.jpost.com February 15, 2012
Community activists in
Beit Shemesh have written to Montgomery County executive Isaiah “Ike” Legget in
Maryland, asking him to go ahead with a twinning project between the two
locales, despite recent violence aimed at women and young girls perpetrated by
ultra- Orthodox residents of the Israeli city.
Hadassah Margolis,
mother of 8-year-old Na’ama – who was highlighted in a television expose of
extremist aggression directed at students at a Beit Shemesh girl’s school –
wrote to Legget asking him “not to give up” on the sister city initiative.
“We are standing up to
bullies. We are standing up to peoplewho are doing something very wrong,”
Margolese said in her letter. “By you being our twin city, you stand up to
these bullies and extremists everywhere together with us.”
By Melanie
Lidman www.jpost.com February 13, 2012
A Maryland county
considering a partnership with Beit Shemesh is backing off from their proposal
due to sharp criticism of the recent violence by ultra-Orthodox extremists.
By Hadassa Margolese Opinion
http://hadassamargolese.blogspot.com
February 15, 2012
Rather than giving up on being our
twin city, I think that you should be proud to be our twin city.
You should be
proud to be part of the people of this city who have made a change, who are
doing everything possible to continue making a change, and who are an example
for the rest of the country, the region, and the world.
By
Revital Blumenfeld www.haaretz.com February 16, 2012
...Deputy
Health Minister Yaakov Litzman, who is ultra-Orthodox, left a conference on
child safety yesterday when a schoolgirls' choir took to the stage.
After learning that the 12-year-old girls were
due to perform, Litzman was said to have asked those sitting near him how he
could leave the hall and saying that he had an important telephone call to
make.
As soon as the choir finished its performance,
Litzman returned to his seat.
By Noam Barkan
www.ynetnews.com February
16, 2012
Litzman's bureau said in response, "The
deputy health minister does not make a habit of attending events which include
women's singing in keeping with his lifestyle and religious view.
"This does not warrant an apology and one
must show understanding for a person who follows his beliefs. The deputy health
minister does not interfere with the contents of the events to which he is
invited. As for this specific case, he left the room to handle the nurse issue."
Hiddush Director, Rabbi Uri
Regev:
"This project is in protest to the exclusion that has become a regular occurrence, and to show that it is possible and necessary to exclude the excluders.
Those behind this discrimination of women are not just the individuals who spit on little girls and curse at women on the street, but much of the ultra-Orthodox establishment who give these extremists support and inspiration.
When ultra-Orthodox
leadership refuses to include women in roles of leadership, promotes segregated
buses and exclusion of women in the media, and discriminated against women in
rabbinic courts, they give license to the acts of these extremists.
By Tamar Rotem
www.haaretz.com February
15, 2012
It is hard to comprehend how a woman from Bnei
Brak, from a good Haredi family, immerses herself in feminist literature of the
period, or even knows of its existence.
...After
she “crossed the boundaries” and started a revolution unprecedented in our
community, it was clear she needed time to “ripen”: to bring to the light of
day the words and stories percolating inside her.
My
mother’s life story is part of the history of the growing extremism in Haredi
society.
By Ari Galahar
www.ynetnews.com February
19, 2012
Rabbis of the extreme
Eda Haredit faction have waged war against a new technological enemy:
Smartphones in general, and Apple products in particular.
By David
Gonzalez and David Furst http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com February
16, 2012
That
wedding took place this week as thousands of Viznitz Hasidim crammed the
streets for the nuptials of their rebbe’s grandson.
Mr. Balilty, an
Associated Press photographer who won the Pulitzer Prize in 2007 for his memorable shot of a West Bank settler holding off a phalanx of
Israeli security forces, found himself in the middle of the elaborate
celebrations.
“I’m kind
of used to it, but not really,” he said. “It so different from the lifestyle I
live. This is less than two miles from where I live. But it’s so far — it’s
like a million miles, how they live.”
By Yair Ettinger www.haaretz.com February
14, 2012
The
question of Rabbi Elyashiv's successor is not discussed in a public, official
fashion. Yet many ultra-Orthodox are preoccupied with the subject.
...Attorney
Dov Halbertal, who is close to Rabbi Elyashiv, believes the identity of the
successor is not really important.
"No
new Haredi ideological trend will arise," he says, "unless there is
some sort of revolt. Anybody who thinks the way will now be paved for the
introduction of a new educational program for Haredim is mistaken.
The
common denominator linking all these [four] rabbis is absolute defense of the
yeshiva world, in all its branches, against army service, and against changes
in attitudes toward women.
By Kobi Nahshoni
www.ynetnews.com February
19, 2012
After nearly two weeks
of being unconscious Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv awoke from his sleep and
started communicating with his surrounding on Sunday.
By Yair Ettinger www.haaretz.com February 20, 2012
A
spokesman for the Rabbi said, “The condition of the Rabbi is improving, but it
is still defined as serious. This coming week is very significant in
determining whether the Rabbi be himself again or not. Members of the family
ask that people to continue to pray.”
January
2012 http://works.bepress.com
By Dr.
Motti Inbari, University of North Carolina at Pembroke
The
article examines the modesty campaigns led by Neturei Karta circles in the
period 1938–1974 under the leadership of Rabbi Amram Blau (1896–1974). This
study was made possible following the discovery of Blau’s personal archive.
During a
flight from Brussels to Tel Aviv, a group of haredi passengers took out fold-up
cartons and spread them out on the seats where they were sitting to separate
them from other passengers.
The flight
attendants did not say anything to them, and the makeshift partitions remained
in place until landing. "This is not the first time this has
occurred," a passenger on the flight said.
By Jeremy
Sharon www.jpost.com February 21, 2012
Three haredi women
served up a veritable feast of culinary delights Monday afternoon, in a
competition to find the most delectable dish in Israel for today’s large
ultra-Orthodox families and bustling homes.
By Jeremy
Sharon www.jpost.com February 14, 2012
Specialists and
professionals this week highlighted a changing attitude within the haredi
(ultra-Orthodox) community toward reporting suspected sexual abuse of minors.
The
Israeli program was initiated by Dr. Jacob Lavee, a cardiothoracic surgeon who
heads the heart transplant program of Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer.
In 2005,
he had two ultra-Orthodox, Haredi Jewish patients on his ward who were awaiting
heart transplants. The patients confided in him that they would never consider
donating organs, in accordance with Haredi Jewish beliefs, but that they had
absolutely no qualms about accepting organs from others.
By Robby Berman Opinion www.jpost.com February 14, 2012
The writer has an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy
School of Government. He is a freelance writer and the founder and director of
the Halachic Organ Donor Society. www.hods.org.
An Israeli journalist who reports that a
brain-dead baby died upon cessation of heartbeat contradicts the understanding
of the medical community in practically every country in the world, as well as
contradicting the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, the Knesset of Israel and the
Ministry of Health of Israel.
A journalist who uses the term “life-support,”
when she should have written ventilator, contributes to people’s decisions not
to donate organs resulting in the needless deaths of more than 100 Israelis
every year. Choosing our words carefully is good advice for conversation as well
as for journalism.
By Yaniv Kubovich
www.haaretz.com February
15, 2012
Non-Jewish prison wardens will be docked only
half a vacation day for taking off on their holiday eves, in a policy change
granting them terms equal to those of their Jewish peers.
This comes after a warden complained that the Prison Service discriminated against non-Jewish employees.
This comes after a warden complained that the Prison Service discriminated against non-Jewish employees.
By Nir Hasson
www.haaretz.com February
13, 2012
The
rabbi of the Western Wall on Monday filed a police complaint about an Internet
auction site selling stones from the holy site. Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz also
warned that anyone buying the stones from eBay would receive a curse, not a
blessing.
See also: Western Wall stones on sale at eBay
AFP www.ynetnews.com February 20, 2012
Jewish pilgrims, among
them settlers and Israeli politicians, are growing increasingly frustrated over
security restrictions which permit them to visit a revered West Bank shrine
only under cover of darkness.
The site in question
is Joseph's Tomb...
By Nadav Shragai www.israelhayom.com February
17, 2012
Now a book has been released about
the cemetery. “Sambusky: the Story of the Jewish Cemetery on Mount Zion,”
published by the City of David Institute for Jerusalem Studies and edited by
Dr. Eyal Miron, is both fascinating and sad, not only because a story about the
dead and their graves – particularly ones that have been desecrated innumerable
times – can only be a sad one, but also because Doron Herzog died unexpectedly
two years ago at the age of 53, turning his research project into a memorial
for its author.
A former police
officer who witnessed a stoning attack on the Mount of Olives on Monday slammed
the security situation in east Jerusalem, saying it enabled stonings to become
a frequent occurrence at the ancient Jewish cemetery.
By Ehud Kenan
www.ynetnews.com February
17, 2012
The Chabad house
appealed to the hackers with practical advice on better ways to spend their
time, suggesting they try a more meaningful endeavor, like learning the Seven
Laws of Noah, rather than commit a crime.
By Ilana Curiel www.ynetnews.com
February 19, 2012
The Beersheba District
Court determined on Sunday that legal proceedings against a man who was charged
with murdering Rabbi Elazar Abuhatzeira last July will continue in light of a
psychiatric opinion stating he is fit to stand trial.
By Tomer Zarchin
www.haaretz.com February
14, 2012
An
American hit-and-run driver who was finally found in Israel last year, after
fleeing Florida over a decade ago, may not be extraditable because Florida does
not allow its prisoners to receive kosher food.
By Nir
Hasson www.haaretz.com February 21, 2012
"Price
tag" graffiti was spray-painted in Jerusalem again Sunday night, with
vandals this time targeting a downtown church.
Reuters
www.ynetnews.com February 20, 2012
The words 'Price Tag',
a slogan used by extremist Jewish settlers, were also scrawled on the walls of
the Baptist Narkis Street Congregation in a quiet residential neighborhood in
west Jerusalem.
By Michele Chabin www.religionnews.com February
15, 2012
Every year, thousands
of Americans travel abroad for less-expensive fertility treatments, hip
replacements and other medical procedures. Now, an Israel-based tourism company
is offering a package that combines medical care with a pilgrimage to the Holy
Land.
By Yanir
Yagna www.haaretz.com February 19, 2012
Be'er Sheva, the largest city in Israel's
south, does not provide burial accommodations for its Christian population,
Zikaron, a non-profit representing Christian burial rights in Israel, is
claiming.
The NGO's struggle against city policy began
after current mayor Rubik Danilovich reversed a 2001 decision by then mayor
Yaakov Terner to allocate land to serve as the future site of a Christian
cemetery in the city.
By David Lev www.israelnationalnews.com February
16, 2012
The Zionist
Organization of America (ZOA) this week sent a sharply critical letter to
Knesset members government ministers, and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu,
demanding that Jews have the right to “unfettered access and freedom” to pray
on the Temple Mount.
By Nir
Hasson www.haaretz.com February 15, 2012
The model was made 140
years ago by the architect and archaeologist Conrad Schick, whose work in
Jerusalem was supported by the London Society for Promoting Christianity
Amongst the Jews. Its details reveal that its creator had access to places
where no Western scholar of his day was allowed.
Conrad Schick, a 19th
century German missionary, scholar and architect, was described by Dr. Shimon
Gibson as a kind of "oracle" in Jerusalem during his time.
Anyone desiring to
truly understand the city's history, and possibly its future, simply had to
visit and learn from Schick. With the return of some of Schick's most prominent
work to the Christ Church compound in Jerusalem's Old City, pilgrims once again
have the opportunity to do so.
By Nir
Hasson www.haaretz.com February 21, 2012
In the
rear section of the Western Wall plaza, in the spot where the Western Wall
Heritage Foundation intends to erect a large building that it calls "the
Core House," Antiquities Authority researcher Shlomit Wexler-Bedolah
discovered an ornate and broad Roman street, complete with shops on each side.
This is the eastern cardo, along whose path Hagai Street would later be paved.
By Nir
Hasson www.haaretz.com February 13, 2012
The
Jerusalem District Planning and Construction Committee approved on Monday the
construction of a new visitors’ center at the City of David National Park in
Silwan.
The Israel Antiquities
Authority, the National Parks Authority, and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat all
gave their blessing to the project at the District Committee meeting on
Monday...
Editor – Joel Katz
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