Editor –
Joel Katz
By Naomi Schacter
Yoav and Ayala had
a beautiful civil ceremony in Washington, D.C., in late June, at the residence
of the Israeli ambassador, Michael Oren.
Michael is Yoav's
father. So it turns out that the son of Israel's ambassador to the United
States could not be married in Israel by the rabbi of his choice because that
rabbi belongs to the Reform movement.
By Neri
Livneh
Bus adverts featuring images of
women have angered members of the ultra-Orthodox community, and so Egged has
decided there will no longer be advertisements with people in them on any of
its buses.
Ultra-Orthodox
men curse and spit at woman travelling on a bus from Ramat Gan to Nes Ziona
after she refuses their demand to move to the back of the bus • Egged bus
company says driver told them she does not have to move.
When the Supreme
Court struck down the Tal Law, its intention was to force the government to
draft a better law that would more effectively encourage haredi men to become
productive members of society. Unfortunately, since the law expired last month
the situation has gotten worse.
The
finance and education ministries have doubled the number of classes offered by
the program, launched last year, from 20 to 40, at a total estimated cost of
NIS 40 million.
By Rabbi
Dov Lipman
Religious
students must be exposed to the great secular leaders of the state and come to
understand that secular Israelis also live with values. Secular students must
learn more about the religious and have greater familiarity with their Jewish
heritage. In Lapid’s own words, “A student cannot graduate without having had
exposure to a page of the Talmud.”
By
Lorraine Skupsky
I was
asked if I knew that I was wearing a tallit. I told the officer that I had been
wearing my tallit for over fouteen years.
He asked
me if I was aware that I was wearing it the way a man wears a tallit. I told
him that men wear tallitot many different ways and that my rabbi had taught me
how to put on my tallit.
He tried
to correct me by telling me that I meant a rabbinit. I corrected him and told
him that it was my rabbi.
By Allison
Cohen
This past
week, four women who wore black and white striped tallitot were detained. If we
look past the color of a tallis, beyond the surface, it’s as if they were
punished for prayer…Is that what G-d wants of us…to be punished for prayer?
By Anita
Silvert
To them I
say, “You pay attention to your prayers, and let me do the same” Then, maybe,
the spot known as the Wall will become a place where prayers are really heard,
and all our voices can rise to God on wings of hope, tolerance, love and
righteousness.
Three
organizations from different Jewish streams have launched campaigns calling for
a fundamental reform of the Chief Rabbinate. They may not change the religious
status quo but could shake up the political landscape.
By Emily
Amrousi
Tzohar
advocates the creation of a state agency that would determine whether a person
is Jewish and help immigrants prove their ethnic background through a
diplomatic apparatus tasked with locating the required documents abroad.
The
rabbinate, as a government agency, would be required to leave no stone unturned
in search of proof of the smoking gun that proves "Jewishness."
Private investigator
tracks down man who disappeared and assumed new identity, after refusing to
divorce his wife, thereby stopping her from marrying anyone else
By Carla
Naumburg
After much
thought and debate, study and conversation, I had a conversion ceremony with
three female Reconstructionist rabbis.
I am well
aware that my trip to the mikveh will not hold water with the powers that be in
Israel. Although we are not considering making aliya, I know that it would be
possible for me, as I am the daughter and wife of Jews.
However,
as far as I have been able to ascertain, my daughters and I would not actually
be granted Jewish status in Israel [with the Rabbinate, jk].
By Avraham Infeld
Dozens of
new immigrant students, many of whom have already graduated from their
international programs, have yet to receive the second half of the tuition
assistance. For most, the shortfall amounts to over NIS 13,000.
By Anshel
Pfeffer
The
fundamentalists see their majority beckoning on the horizon if only they can
hold on for another 20 years, perpetuating the settlement program and shutting
off their young from outside influences. It is impossible to foresee whether
they will prevail, but we are giving them a much better chance of success by
not listening to what they say.
By Amir
Mizroch
When we
become haredi we’ll get free housing, I won’t have to do reserve duty anymore,
I can quit my job, join a koylel, read and learn and argue all day with guys
just like me, the rebbes [the geniuses!] will make all of our important
financial, personal, and political decisions for us [what a relief, this was
all getting so complicated] and I can also stop worrying about my son having to
go to the army one day or make a living for himself.
By Ziyad
Abou Habla
By Einat
Barzilay
These
"modesty memos" are commonplace, but it is only now they are being
distributed openly. The religious schools are increasingly intervening in what
is going on in the student's home and forcing religious norms on the child's
parents.
By Anshel
Pfeffer
The
British dayanim have always toed the line set by the sages of Jerusalem and
Bnei Brak, rather than taking the lead of their nominal boss in London.
Britain
may not be a major center of Orthodox Jewry, but if an American modernizer is
indeed given the opportunity of locking horns with the London Beth Din, it
would be a significant moral boost to moderates in Israel and the United
States."
British
Jewry is getting animated over its choice of chief rabbi, with an American
likely to land the role. Even Springfield's rabbi is drawing attention.
By Rabbi
Marc D. Angel
This
article by Rabbi Marc D. Angel was originally published in Mishpetei Shalom: A
Jubilee Volume in Honor of Rabbi Saul (Shalom) Berman, ed. Yamin Levy, NY: YCT,
2010; and reprinted in issue 12 of Conversations, the journal of the Institute
for Jewish Ideas and Ideals.
Editorial: A government that wastes no opportunity to underline the
importance of national heritage sites cannot allow the political privatization
of such an important chapter in the heritage of the Land of Israel.
By Eyal
Meged
The main
element at play regarding circumcision is the majority rule. This rule can only
be broken by regulation from above. Not from heaven, which is too far from our
reach, but from the governing power - a leader with inspiration who isn't
afraid of breaking consensus and slaughtering (pardon the disgusting
expression) holy cows.
Chizkiya
Kalmanowitz was in custody for three days after police accused him of trying to
steal bones on July 26 from a contested archaeological site along Route 38 near
the community of Eshtaol, some 30 kilometers outside of Jerusalem.
See also
summary here
By Dr.
Meir Wikler
I did not
claim that Torah Jews are not represented, at all, at Yad Vashem. Rather, I had
taken issue with the manner and extent to which they are portrayed.
At the
hospital this week, Ben-Yishai's parents consulted Shas spiritual leader Rabbi
Ovadia Yosef over their son's condition after he was declared brain dead and
kept alive [sic] only with the help of a ventilator.
By Zvi
Bar'el
There is a
straight line that runs from a religious majority in Israeli kindergartens to a
nationalist and religious state.
By Hirsh
Goodman
I heard
Eli Yishai, now the interior minister from Shas; tell listeners of a prime time
radio show not that long ago that Reform Jews should be stoned to death for
taking God’s name in vain.
Over six
decades into the modern Jewish State and only just over 10 percent of high
school students in Bnei Brak graduate with a state-recognized matriculation
certificate, the rest left untrained to cope with modern life, let alone
advance in it, ghetto dwellers and strangers in their own land.
By Yossi
Sarid
When the
'supreme leader' collides with his counterpart - as supreme as he is - only God
will save us from the war of the ayatollahs versus the ayatollahs.
Editor –
Joel Katz
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