Monday, August 4, 2008

Religion and State in Israel - August 4, 2008 (Section 1)

Religion and State in Israel

August 4, 2008 (Section 1) (continues in Section 2)

Editor – Joel Katz

Religion and State in Israel is not affiliated with any organization or movement.


Conversion row sparks suspension of rabbinical court appointments

By Anshel Pfeffer, www.haaretz.com August 4, 2008

Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar has [frozen] the appointment of 22 new Jewish conversion court judges, further delaying reforms aimed at easing the difficult and lengthy conversion process.

Last week, Amar reneged on his decision to approve the appointments this week, in the face of strong objections from the 25 current religious court judges, or dayanim.

The judges are paid per court session. They claim that appointing new judges will reduce the number of cases each judge handles, and threatening their livelihood.

"The fact that presiding dayanim receive their salaries based on the number of sessions they hold means they have no motivation to speed up conversions," said one of the 22 new appointees.

"They have a financial interest in lengthening the process, causing a headache for potential converts. The new religious court judges were going to change that situation, and create a market where different groups compete to treat converts more efficiently and more courteously."


Rav Bin-Nun Leads Civil Service Chief’s List to Replace Rav Druckman

By Yechiel Spira, www.theyeshivaworld.com August 1, 2008

Rabbi Yoel Bin-Nun, a veteran figure in the Gush Emunim movement, appears to be the leading candidate to replace Rabbi Chaim Druckman Shlita as head of the government’s conversion program.

According to the report appearing in the weekly Hebrew Mishpacha Magazine, Rav Bin-Nun is the leading candidate of Civil Service Commissioner Shmuel Hollander, who heads the search committee seeking a new conversion chief to replace Rav Druckman.

It is also reported that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar Shlita that he may bypass the committee and pick his own candidate, but following Olmert’s decision to step down, the chief rabbi may not merit cashing in on the promise.


Lay-led Conversions

B y David Greenstein, www.jrep.com Issue 8, August 4, 2008

The writer is yeshiva head of The Academy for Jewish Religion, New York, an independent, pluralistic rabbinical and cantorial seminary.

The conversion crisis in Israel has reached breaking point.

…What is to be done? The crisis must be met now. Every year that passes lessens the interest and willingness of Israeli non-Jews to seek a means to unify their identities with their existential destiny by means of conversion.


Aliya experts: Reform conversions

www.jpost.com August 4, 2008

The expert is Maurice Singer, Senior Aliyah Consultant at the Jewish Agency. While every care and attention is made to give accurate answers, no responsibility can be taken by the writer or the Jewish Agency if the information offered may prove to be misleading.

Q: I have a friend who went through a conversion with the Reform movement here in the USA. I read in one of your answers in Cafe Oleh that someone who does this must remain in the community where the conversion occurs for at least one year before applying to aliyah.

My question is this: does that year begin after the mikveh and the official date that the conversion papers are issued or does the year include the preparation time spent in the community before the actual conversion took place?

Also, I have heard that this year requirement could be shortened soon. Is this true, and if so what new time requirement is being considered?

A: The year begins after the conversion is officially confirmed. I have no information regarding plans to shorten this waiting period.

Q: I am Italian and I will be soon converted by a Bet Din of recognized American Reform Rabbis. After spending a year with my Reform community in Florence I would like to make aliyah.

Reform communities are not officially recognized by the Italian government (according to a law enacted during the Fascist dictatorship and which should be amended someday).

My question is: am I still eligible for aliyah even if Italian Reform communities are not recognized?

A: If your conversion is through the official Reform Synagogue Movement of USA, then there should be no reason that the conversion is not accepted in Israel for the purposes of Aliyah.

You are however required to spend at least one year actively participating in a Jewish Community abroad prior to your Aliyah. A letter to this effect by a recognized Rabbi should be sufficient.


Does anyone remember freedom of religion?

By Shulamit Aloni, www.haaretz.com Opinion July 30, 2008

…In other words, there is no barrier to adding a conditional get to every ketuba, which would take effect if the husband disappeared for several years or refused to divorce his wife.

…With regard to conversion as well, our ancestors were incomparably more broad-minded and open-hearted than those holy men who serve nowadays, and who pretend to put individual and public welfare at the top of their priorities.


Rabbinical Court wages war against mother who wants to raise secular kids

By Haaretz Staff and Channel 10 August 3, 2008

Click here for VIDEO

If the Rabbinical Court gets its way, Yael, a mother of two young boys, may go to jail in several weeks' time. Yael is not a criminal or a neglectful parent. Her only offense is that she is a secular Israeli who does not want to raise her children in an ultra-Orthodox setting.

Yael’s former husband was also secular when they married. But he became increasingly religious after the birth of their children, and ultimately insisted that they be raised in an ultra-Orthodox household.

He enlisted the Rabbinical Court's help, and they have since ignored a family court ruling.


Shas against women

www.jpost.com

The writer is an educator, researcher and activist specializing in education, society, religion and gender, and a founding member of Mavoi Satum for Agunot and Mesuravot Get, www.mavoisatum.org.

Her blog "For Serious Jewish Women" can be found at www.elanasztokman.com

Yesterday, the women of Israel suffered a major setback in divorce reform as Shas blocked the divorce finances bill by using a coalition threat.

…This bill is vital because it can enable women to achieve at least financial freedom while they are struggling to escape from an abusive life.

This kind of financial freedom - which unlike the get itself is not dependent on halachic rules that determine female passivity in the process - can enable a woman to get on with many vital aspects of her life.

She can set up a new home, become financially independent and free herself from potential blackmail.

She may not be able to remarry without the get, but for many women, the ability to remarry is hardly the main point. All they want is the freedom that they deserve as human beings.


Olmert sells his soul

By Susan Weiss, www.cwjisrael.blogspot.com July 29, 2008

ICAR has proposed an amendment to the law that would allow for the division of marital property prior to the get: when the parties are living apart, for example.

(Almost) everyone agrees that this is a good idea-- Why facilitate extortion? Everyone, except for Shas. They too think that the suggested amendment to the law would cut down, if not eliminate, extortion.

But Shas thinks -- hold on to your hats -- that the Bet Din needs tools of extortion in order to facilitate the get. So the existing law is good, reasons Shas, because it facilitates the extortion that is essential to divorce resolution!!! (So help me, it’s true).


Despite education funding cuts, more money for religious high schools

By Zvi Zrahiya, www.haaretz.com August 3, 2008

Funding for yeshiva high schools, religious girls secondary schools, National Service and pre-army preparatory programs will be increased by NIS 121 million.

The additional funding is the product of secret negotiations between MK Nissan Slomiansky (National Union-National Religious Party), a member of the Knesset Finance Committee and the Education and Finance Ministries, as well as the Prime Minister's Office.

The National Service program, mostly for religious girls who choose this route instead of army service, has 3,160 women who mostly serve as teachers aides or teach "Heritage" coursework in schools.

The budget for national service this year will be NIS 82 million, of which NIS 20 million comes from this additional funding and NIS 22 million was returned from the canceled cuts. This works out to NIS 2,162 per young woman per month.

The pre-army preparatory programs will receive NIS 30 million this year, NIS 17 million from the deal with Slomiansky. This works out to NIS 1,785 per student per month.


Education in the service of politics

Haaretz Editorial www.haaretz.com August 4, 2008

Lev Leviev's Zman Masa (Journey Time) curriculum was rejected in the past by the Education Ministry's pedagogical secretariat, but came back, slightly spruced up, and was approved.

This is a real threat to the state education system - one that is no less grave than that involved in waiving the core curriculum and supporting pre-army training programs and young women teaching "heritage."

The education minister must weigh political survival against the well-being of the state education system, and decide honestly which matters more.


Tolerance, without state funding

www.jpost.comJuly 31, 2008

The haredim will never voluntarily adopt the core curriculum, and it may well be impossible to force them to do so at a price society would find tolerable.

That fact, however, in no way obligates the government to finance this lifestyle choice.

…But perhaps nowhere is this confusion more pernicious than in the debate over drafting haredi yeshiva students.

There is a third alternative, which is almost never discussed: leaving the exemption in place, but ceasing to fund it. Specifically, the government could stop paying stipends to most yeshiva students (a limited number of grants to exceptional scholars, like those offered exceptional university students, should remain).


Less than half of 17-year-olds in Israel qualify for matriculation

By Or Kashti, www.haaretz.com August 3, 2008

In the Orthodox public school system, 64.3 percent of students were eligible for matriculation, compared with 62.3 percent in the non-Orthodox system.

In the ultra-Orthodox system, where relatively few students sit for the matriculation exams, the rate of eligibility was 21.7 percent.


Egged opens another sex-segregated bus line in J'lem

www.jpost.com July 29, 2008


Petitions filed with the Transportation Ministry against the Egged and Dan mehadrin sex-segregated bus lines in 2007 seem to have fallen on deaf ears as Egged opens another bus route for the ultra-Orthodox in Jerusalem.

The new Egged-chartered, separate-seating bus route, 15A, operates in the capital's Har Nof neighborhood.

Many object to bus lines for the ultra-Orthodox on the principle that Egged, as a public bus service, should not cater to a specific segment of the population.

The mehadrin buses often cause inconveniences and delays for the general public, who must either enter at the rear of the bus, separate from traveling partners, or wait for a regular bus.


Chareidim Step Up Shabbos Battle in Haifa

By Yechiel Spira, www.theyeshivaworld.com July 28, 2008

The Vaad L’Shmiras Shabbos in Haifa has sent letters to the mayor, Egged and other city officials calling for the cessation of the nighttime bus service which operates on Shabbos.

The bus service operates during the wee hours of the night on Friday nights [and other nights] in the hope of persuading the youth to rely on the buses and not attempt to operate motor vehicles under the influence of alcohol.

In the letter, the rabbonim write the bus service sets a dangerous precedent, since it may encourage other cities to attempt to launch similar services, thereby resulting in widespread chilul Shabbos by the public transportation company.


More and more yeshiva students choosing Torah over IDF service

By Shahar Ilan, www.haaretz.com July 31, 2008



The number of yeshiva students whose army service has been put on hold because they have declared Torah study as their occupation currently stands at 55,300, as opposed to just over 50,000 last year, according to Colonel Tziki Sela, head of the IDF Department of Planning and Manpower Administration.


Men, women, and religion

By Uri Orbach, www.ynetnews.com Opinion July 29, 2008

When we’re facing the seculars, we’re not always interested in fighting over the public space and its nature. There’s a time and place for everything after all.

Yet when it comes to our women, we the men decide unilaterally what the religious space should look like.


Online Project Tries to Unite Secular & Religious

By Elana Eden www.israelnationalnews.com July 30, 2008

An online project is attempting to reconnect increasingly alienated Israeli subcultures.

The “People-Israel: Guide to Israeli Society” project, created in part by Professor Oz Almog, a sociologist at Haifa University, explores the gap between growing Israeli subcultures, mainly the divide between the religious and the secular.


Yesha Resident Kicks Her Way to Beijing Olympics

By Hana Levi Julian www.israelnationalnews.com August 4, 2008

The Jewish State will be represented at the Olympic Games in Beijing this month by Bat-El Gatterer, a young religious resident of Kochav Yaakov, located in the Binyamin region of Samaria.

Because she is an observant Jew, Gatterer does not travel by car on the Sabbath (Friday night and Saturday) – a complication which in the past has meant that she sometimes has had to walk to her competition venues. At the Olympic Games, the young Israeli will compete on Thursday.

She won't have to starve, however, thanks to the kosher food that will be provided by the organizers. There will also be plenty of kosher food available for spectators, according to Rabbi Shimon Freundlich, who has been living in China for seven years.

A Glatt Kosher restaurant – Dini's – will be open during the Games 24 hours a day. The Chabad office in Beijing, added Freundlich, will also be on call to assist all the Israeli athletes and any other Jewish traveler who goes to Beijing for the Olympics – or after.


Not just another interfaith parley

By Rabbi David Rosen, www.jpost.com July 31, 2008

The writer is international director of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee and interfaith adviser to the Chief Rabbinate.

Published in cooperation with Common Ground News Service

While I had been invited not as an Israeli, but as a Jewish leader in the interreligious field, the fact that I am an Israeli citizen had been excitedly reported in the media.

In the highly choreographed proceedings, there was a moment of some passion.

It came in the wake of an almost inevitable mantra expressed by a panelist in the penultimate session: While dialogue with Jews was permissible (and perhaps even desirable), he said, dialogue with Israel was not. The panelist called on me to respond to his comment.


Rabbi: What I saw at Saudi-led interfaith conference in Spain

By Rabbi David Rosen, www.jta.org July 29, 2008

At the end of the opening, King Abdullah greeted the guests individually.

When my turn came, I introduced myself to him saying in my limited Arabic, “I am Rabbi Rosen from Jerusalem, Israel,” and he replied “Ahalan w’asalan” -- welcome -- but I could see that those around him almost had heart attacks on the spot.


In Good Company

By Raphael Ahren, www.haaretz.com August 1, 2008

The founder and director of the Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel, the New York-born Dr. Ron Kronish, recently received the prestigious Interfaith Gold Medallion "Peace Through Dialogue" for his 17 years of working toward tolerance and reconciliation.

"One of the highlights of my career was when Pope John Paul II came to Israel in March 2000 and I helped explain the visit's meaning to the Israeli public," the long-time resident of Jerusalem told AngloFile.


Suspects freed due to their religion

By Jack Khoury, www.haaretz.com August 4, 2008

Does a defendant's ethnicity affect whether he should be released from custody?

Yes, according to a recent decision by Acre Magistrate's Court Judge Ziad Salih, who released three men suspected of kidnapping a woman at her ex-husband's behest because he said that as a Druze, he does not think religious Druze constitute a threat.

The police appealed the verdict, which was overturned by the Haifa District Court.

The defendants appealed the Supreme Court to overturn the District Court decision to place them in custody.


A higher moral order

By Jeremy Rosen, www.haaretz.com Opinion August 1, 2008

Jeremy Rosen, former headmaster of Carmel College in the U.K., is a writer, Orthodox rabbi and professor at the Faculty of Comparative Religion, in Antwerp.

David Landau, in a recent opinion piece ("The Great Language Heist," July 18), raised the moral and religious issues involved in the recent prisoner exchange. Is this a halakhic debate, or is it, rather, one that underlines a "clash" of values between Israeli civil religion and Jewish law?

…it is Israel's civil values that demand these exchanges more than religious ones.

It does not matter if, as David Landau suggests, the civil religion of Israel contains unhealthy elements that tend to elevate tragedy rather than life.

Every moral code struggles with its history and experiences, and only through engagement and debate can it thrive.


New flights for Breslav tourism

By Shelly Paz, www.jpost.com August 1, 2008

Flights to Kiev will be increased by 16 percent during the High Holy Days to meet the demand from Israelis who want to visit the tomb of Rabbi Nachman of Breslav in Uman for Rosh Hashana.

Both countries will be entitled to operate a second carrier on the Tel Aviv-Kiev route, according to a draft agreement signed by Udi Zohar, director-general of the Civil Aviation Authority, and his Ukrainian colleague Alexander Davidov recently.

Currently, only El Al and Aerosvit Airlines, the largest Ukrainian carrier, are allowed to operate on the route. The deal comes after almost a year of discussions.

Under the agreement, the Israeli and Ukrainian carriers will be able to provide 22 weekly flights starting in the summer of 2009, increasing to 28 in the summer of 2010. At present, there are 16 flights per week.


Religion and State in Israel

August 4, 2008 (Section 1) (continues in Section 2)

Editor – Joel Katz

Religion and State in Israel is not affiliated with any organization or movement.

Religion and State in Israel - August 4, 2008 (Section 2)

Religion and State in Israel

August 4, 2008 (Section 2) (continued from Section 1)

Editor – Joel Katz

Religion and State in Israel is not affiliated with any organization or movement.


Video of Barack Obama's prayer note taken at Western Wall

CoVisions Productions and David Cohen, www.youtube.com July 25, 2008

“Seconds after Senator Obama steps away from the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

Seconds after Obama left the stones, some of his entourage stepped up to the wall (seen dressed in suits) while young men began gathering notes in their hands in what appeared to be the search for Obama's freshly placed personal note.

He is joined by others who unwrap notes and read them.”


Producer films theft of Barack Obama's prayer note from Western Wall

By Haaretz Staff and Channel 10 www.haaretz.com August 4, 2008

Video courtesy of CoVisions Productions and David Cohen

Barack Obama's two-day visit to Israel in late July was somewhat overshadowed by the removal of his prayer note from the Western Wall and its publication in the daily Maariv.

Maariv said a religious student gave the note to the newspaper.

Rabbis condemned the note's removal as sacrilegious and pundits called it an embarrassment for Israel. The perpetrator subsequently apologized for his actions.

But now, the removal of Obama's note itself can be seen, thanks to independent producer David Cohen, who documented the theft.


Kotel rabbi to crack down on note-removers

By Matthew Wagner, www.jpost.com August 3, 2008

Chief Rabbi of the Kotel Shmuel Rabinovitz said Sunday he will fight "the despicable phenomenon" of removing personal notes of prayer from the cracks in the Western Wall.

Rabinovitz's official announcement comes after such a note written by Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee for the US presidency, was removed from the Wall and its contents were published by a Hebrew daily.

…Footage of the aforementioned yeshiva student was broadcast on Israeli television over the weekend, which prompted Rabinovitch to announce that he would post custodians at the Kotel who would prevent the removal of notes.


Panel nixes expansion at Western Wall

By Akiva Eldar, www.haaretz.com August 4, 2008

The Interior Ministry's Jerusalem District Planning and Construction Committee approved the original plan of the reconstruction project for the Temple Mount's Mugrabi Gate on the condition that certain changes be made in it.

At the end of a hearing some two weeks ago, the committee accepted the objections submitted by the Ir Amim organization to the plan for transformation of the area underneath the new bridge into a space for Jewish prayers.

In so doing, it rejected an initiative of the Western Wall's rabbi, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, which had gained the support of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, to take advantage of the collapse of the bridge as an opportunity to expand the women's section at the site.


Porush likely candidate for J'lem mayor

By Matthew Wagner, www.jpost.com August 4, 2008

Haredi sources close to Porush told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that Lupolianski would honor a rotation agreement signed between the hassidic and Lithuanian factions within UTJ.

Lupolianski's honoring of the agreement paves the way for Porush to become the capital's next haredi mayoral candidate.


Agudat Yisrael to name MK Porush its candidate for J'lem mayorship

By Jonathan Lis, www.haaretz.com July 31, 2008

MK Meir Porush (United Torah Judaism) is expected to be chosen today as his Agudat Yisrael faction's candidate for mayor of Jerusalem.

However, since UTJ is a joint list comprising two different factions - Agudat Yisrael and Degel Hatorah - this does not mean he will be UTJ's candidate for mayor.

Before the last municipal elections, Porush signed a rotation agreement with Degel's candidate, current mayor Uri Lupolianski, under which Lupolianski would serve one term, and Porush would be UTJ's candidate next time around.


Hitorerut B'yerushalayim: Youth revolution

www.jpost.com

A new political movement, Wake Up Jerusalem (Hitorerut B'yerushalayim), has been established to focus on creating a viable future for the city's youth.

After the Bridge of Strings inauguration debacle, the group organized an officially approved alternative ceremony.

"For us as a movement, the Bridge of Strings is a scandal regardless of whether you think it's aesthetically great or terrible," says Fisher. "The budget for the opening ceremony alone was NIS 2 million - [nearly] a quarter of the yearly municipal culture budget spent in a single night."

The group is also planning an event for Tisha Be'av, where religious and secular figures will speak about the meaning of mourning.


Gov't may foot bill for Diaspora schoolteachers' Israel trips

By Haviv Rettig, www.jpost.com July 30, 20008

The government may soon help fund trips to Israel for Diaspora educators, under a proposal being examined in the Prime Minister's Office.

On Monday, an internal advisory meeting chaired by cabinet secretary Oved Yehezkel discussed a new track for Masa, a government agency that brings Diaspora youth to Israel for five- and 10-month programs.

"The plan is to create a new path" for teachers in Jewish schools in the Diaspora to come on two-week trips, Yehezkel told The Jerusalem Post Tuesday.

Though still in the planning stages, the project could be underway by 2009, since "the money is there" in unused funds slated for Masa participants, he said.


It's all about money

By Anshel Pfeffer, www.haaretz.com August 1, 2008

The calculation is simple.

The Ethiopians might be hard-working citizens and good soldiers, as their supporters claim, but they are a drain on the economy.

The Westerners, in contrast, bring on average $100,000 each into the country, in capital and business. These are the Jews Israel is after in the 21st century.


Trailblazing through history

By Haviv Rettig, www.jpost.com August 3, 20008

It is easy to see why [Professor Yehezkel] Dror, an emeritus professor of political science at the Hebrew University, would be considered an excellent choice to head the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, which was formed by the Jewish Agency in 2002 to do Dror's brand of strategic thinking for the Jewish people as a whole.

…"My starting point is the future of the Jewish people, which is not assured. The biggest challenge is the detachment between Israel and the Diaspora.

Young Israelis and young Jews in the United States live in a different cosmos, the communities have totally different structures, and how many Israeli ministers even understand what's going on in the Diaspora?"


Holier than thou?

By Peggy Cidor, www.jpost.com July 31, 2008

Interview with Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ)

Different groups of haredim, according to Eckstein, have not been always eager to acknowledge the origin of the money, but still accepted it. This pattern continued until it aroused the anger of city councillor Mina Fenton (National Religious Party), who is neither liberal nor haredi.

Fenton, a prominent anti-missionary activist, succeeded in ending the cooperation between Eckstein's organization and the municipal Welfare Department by the end of 2004 - about a year after Mayor Uri Lupolianski was elected.

Rabbis, whether haredi or Zionist, are divided on whether it is kosher to accept money from Christians who openly admit that their plan is to save the Jews and bring them to the Holy Land in order to quicken the coming of their messiah.

…Fenton is convinced that any cooperation with Christian Zionists spells destruction for Israel. She is particularly concerned with rabbis, whom, she says, are "sinners and stain the community, like in my own party, MK Benny Elon, who serves even as chairman of the Knesset's Christian Allies Caucus. What a disgrace!"


Chief Rabbi Metzger: Married women should give up maiden name

By Neta Sela, www.ynetnews.com July 30, 2008

Married women should give up their maiden name, Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger told hundreds of women at a convention Monday dedicated to Jewish family values and religiosity.

"We are currently in an era of permissiveness and there are many messages that create cracks in the Jewish home's whole structure," the rabbi told the women in attendance.

"The agenda whereby a woman wants to bring the independent entity of her last name to the home should be reconsidered," the rabbi said.

"If this came out of unity it's one thing…but If there is a message that the woman is an independent entity and the husband is an independent entity, this does not unite the home into a whole home."


Women want their voices heard

By Kobi Nahshoni, www.ynetnews.com August 3, 2008

Ynet has learned that women’s organizations are intending on organizing a unique “musical demonstration” in light of the exclusion of female Knesset members from the choir singing "Hatikva" during British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's visit two weeks ago.

Roni Aloni-Sadovnik, one of the protest’s organizers:

“As long as it remains people’s choice at their own personal functions, so be it, but the prohibition of female artists from working at ceremonies organized by the Knesset, the President’s Residence, the municipality and the IDF, is out of the question.”


Goodbye, Jerusalem

By Uri Orbach, www.ynetnews.com August 3, 2008

I don’t care that Meir Porush will replace Uri Lupolianski as mayor of Jerusalem. This is really a small matter. What, should I be scared of him just because his beard is a little longer?

After all, we are dealing with a well-known figure, a deputy minister – what can he do that Lupolianski didn’t?

The fact that he’s considered a little more Orthodox and a little more belligerent doesn’t scare me too much. It’s the same thing more or less; things will remain the same. What’s the difference?


Knesset Passes Funding Law for Pre-Military Academies, 72-0

By Hillel Fendel, www.israelnationalnews.com July 31, 2008

Pre-military academies in Israel currently number 34, nine of which are in the process of receiving recognition.

Of the 25 recognized mechinot, 13 are yeshiva academies, and the others are "general" - either secular or mixed secular/religious.

The first mechina - Yeshivat Bnei David - was established in the Samaria town of Eli 1987, and within two years there were four more.

In 1997, the first non-religious mechina sprouted - Nachshon, currently located in Metzudat Yoav near Ashkelon.


Factory owner introduces 'Jewish incentive program'

By Nissan Shtrauchler www.ynetnews.com July 30, 2008

Is it moral to offer payment for observing mitzvahs? Felix Bilik, who owns Bilik Felix Metal Industries in Sderot, sees nothing wrong with the practice.

Over the past two years, Bilik has offered to add NIS 400 to the wages of any employee who starts observing religious ordinances.

The act, he said, is not a missionary, but rather a legitimate way for his employees to make some extra cash.


Jerusalem Bnei Akiva branch badly vandalized

www.jpost.com

A Jerusalem branch of the Bnei Akiva youth movement was badly vandalized this past week, allegedly by Jewish perpetrators, police said Sunday.

The vandals in the attack on the Bnei Akiva chapter in the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Zeev hurled a Torah scroll on the ground, destroyed the ark where the Torah scrolls are kept, threw holy books on the ground, and scrawled English- and Russian-language graffiti on the walls of the branch's synagogue, said Nariah Meir, a Bnei Akiva leader in Jerusalem.


Religious Zionists Enshrine Gaza Pullout in Mourning Ritual

www.theforward.com

In Avi Ben-Shimon’s home in the West Bank town of Emmanuel, a memorial candle will burn throughout the fast day of Tisha B’Av, which begins at sundown August 9.

It will not, however, commemorate the main theme of the 25-hour fast, which is the destruction of the two ancient Jerusalem temples.

Rather, it will commemorate what Ben-Shimon calls a modern-day “tragedy” — evacuation of the Jewish settlements in Gaza.


National-Religious Parties Considering Historic Merger

By Hillel Fendel www.israelnationalnews.com August 4, 2008

A highly-placed source in the NRP-NU told IsraelNationalNews that "historic talks" are being held between leading members of the NRP, Tekumah and Moledet, and that "one united party - not just a technical list for the purpose of Knesset elections - is likely to be the result."

He said that the problem of "Who will lead?" is to be solved in nationwide primaries.


Chabad Temple seminar rankles Islamists

www.jpost.com

A brief course offered by the Chabad Hassidim about the Temple endangers the Aksa Mosque, Islamic Movement spokesman Zahi Nujidat said Tuesday.

The three-part seminar, which is being held this week and next week at some 200 Chabad Houses throughout the country, comes less than two weeks before Tisha Be'av, which marks the destruction of the Temple.

In contrast to members of the modern Orthodox Zionist rabbinical leadership, Chabad Hassidim do not even ascend the Temple Mount, [Chabad spokesman Rabbi Menachem Brod] said.


Surrounding the walls

www.jpost.com

For seven years, Sivuv She'arim has gathered people from across the country to march around the Temple Mount in celebration of the new Hebrew month. Uniting them is a love of the Land of Israel and a desire to speedily rebuild the Temple.

See also: The Temple Mount Gates by Leen Ritmeyer August 1, 2008


Youths contribute to advancement of Third Temple

By Kobi Nahshoni, www.ynetnews.com July 31, 2008

Mourning over the destruction of Jerusalem is normal in the month of Av, but at the Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faith Movement all focus is on the “big day” - the day in which the Third Temple will be built.

As part of the preparations, hundreds of teenagers are expected to sign the “Temple Treaty” and to proclaim, “We commit to doing everything in our power to abide by this commandment and to devote at least half an hour a week toward this effort.”


The kindest cut

By Raphael Ahren, www.haaretz.com August 1, 2008

Yisrael Campbell had enough of circumcisions. Indeed, the Philadelphia-born standup comedian, who converted from Catholicism to Reform, then to Conservative and finally to Orthodox Judaism, has had his share of foreskin curtailments.

…Campbell has at long last made peace with his Jewish identity. Even if the ultra-Orthodox won't accept him as a full Jew because his last conversion was done under Rabbi Haim Druckman, whose conversions have been declared null and void by their Supreme Rabbinic Court, Israel's leading English-speaking comedian does not intend to go through the process again.

There are aspects of ultra-Orthodoxy that Campbell admires, such as the slow, devoted manner of prayer.

But he still feels strongly about the non-Orthodox movements to which he once belonged. Many Orthodox Jews would say that the Reform and Conservative movements lead Jews astray from authentic religion, but for Campbell they brought him closer.

He became Orthodox more because he longed for regular ritual practice and a sense of belonging than for theological reasons.


Funny, He Doesn’t Look Like a Christopher

By Rebecca Honig Friedman, www.tjctv.com July 25, 2008

Click here for VIDEO interview


A Conversation with Matthew Kalman, Filmmaker

By simone, www.jerusalemite.net August 3 2008

Meah Shearim was the only place where filming was a little dicey.They're more wary of cameras there.

In fact, we had an alternate beginning to the film which showed Yisrael emerging from a group of charedim, but the other charedim in the crowd were none too happy about it, so we decided to cut that part.


Orthodox Comic Converts to N.Y.

By Joshua Mitnick, www.thejewishweek.com July 30, 2008

“When they ask me why did you convert to Judaism,” begins his routine on getting past El Al security, “I say, ‘For the women.’”


Religion and State in Israel

August 4, 2008 (Section 2) (continued from Section 1)

Editor – Joel Katz

Religion and State in Israel is not affiliated with any organization or movement.