Editor – Joel Katz
By Jeremy
Sharon www.jpost.com March 13, 2012
In January 2011, the
Conservative and Reform movements in Israel decided to freeze petitions they
made to the High Court of Justice to have conversions done under their auspices
recognized by the state.
In return, the government agreed to set up a framework
for negotiations between the Interior Ministry, the Jewish Agency and the Conservative
and Reform movements to produce a clear set of criteria by which to approve or
deny the application for immigrant status by someone who converted outside of
Israel.
To date, there has
only been one meeting between the relevant parties, which took place at the
beginning of 2011.
Rabbi Gilad Kariv, the
executive director of the Israeli Movement for Progressive Judaism:
“Instead of
establishing a clear policy, it prefers to maintain an ambiguous situation, and
once again the government is showing that converts from overseas are not truly
welcome in Israel.”
By Kobi Nahshoni
www.ynetnews.com March
7, 2012
Following the retirement of Rabbi Haim Druckman
from his position as head of the Conversion Authority in February, all of the
conversions awaiting approval have yet to be signed due to the government's
inability to find a consensus figure to direct the authority.
The certificates act as proof of Judaism and are given to those seeking to acquire Israeli citizenship.
By Nathan Hersh
Opinion
www.haaretz.com March
11, 2012
Nathan
Hersh served in a combat unit of the Israel Defense Forces until 2011. He
currently studies at the International Program in Conflict Resolution and
Mediation at Tel Aviv University and is a contributor to FriendaSoldier.com.
Increased
Haredi presence in the army will not bridge the gap between ultra-Orthodox and
secular Israelis. Instead, it will bring the problems that already divide
Israeli society to the military, and the military is not built to handle it.
...Religious
soldiers are often under especially great pressure to put the army’s needs
before their religious obligations, sacrifices that assure the army’s cohesion
and ability, guaranteeing its power.
But ultra-Orthodox soldiers will face even
greater pressure to adjust. And it is clear that the ultra-Orthodox are
incapable of that adjustment.
By Michael
C. Dorf Opinion http://verdict.justia.com March 12, 2012
Michael C. Dorf is the Robert S. Stevens
Professor of Law at Cornell University Law School.
President
Beinisch offered two main responses to Justice Grunis’s point. First, she
observed that the principle of equality protects individuals, not groups.
A
majority of non-haredi Israelis could think it appropriate to exempt haredim
from military service, but that exemption might still be unfair to the
remaining non-haredim who resent and oppose the difference in treatment, and
who must serve in the military when haredim need not do so.
Second,
President Beinisch challenged the assumption that haredim lack political power,
relative to non-haredim.
Three distinct sorts of arguments are
in the air - divided along the themes of assimilation, segregation, and
accommodation.
The assimilationists argue that
drafting the haredi population is essential in order to integrate them into
Israeli society as quickly as possible.
...In contrast, several voices in the
public sphere argue strongly for continuing the exemption. They point to the
special political character of Israel as a state that has always valued the
rights of distinct sub-groups.
...The High Court’s decision offers
yet a different model of the character and commitments of the state and its
deepest values. The Court stressed the importance of equality: the equal
sharing of burdens.
68%, more than two-thirds of the Jewish
population of Israel, including 81% of Likkud voters, support withholding
public funding for yeshiva students if they refuse to enlist in military or
civil service.
82% of the
Jewish Israeli population hold that in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s
ruling that invalidates the Tal Law, a new law must be passed to enforce
mandatory conscription of all or most yeshiva students into service.
69%
support the Supreme Court’s decision to invalidate the Tal Law.
By
Charlotte Silver http://ipsnews.net March 11, 2012
"The
judges don’t know what they’re talking about because they are coming from a
secular background and don’t know the rules of Judaism. They shouldn’t be making
these decisions," Rabbi Simon Hurwitz [Aish Hatorah Yeshiva] told IPS.
Rabbi
Hurwitz moved to Israel nearly 39 years ago from Baltimore in the U.S. He
explains that after living a mostly secular life in America, he became
observant after being properly exposed to Judaism.
By Lahav
Harkov www.jpost.com March 11, 2012
Knesset Constitution,
Law and Justice Committee chairman David Rotem (Israel Beiteinu) has proposed a
bill that seeks to undo one of the legal ramifications of the Tal Law’s
cancellation, by passing separate legislation on yeshivas that combine Torah
studies with army service.
By Ilan
Ben Zion www.timesofisrael.com March
12, 2012
The Knesset approved a bill on Monday evening
that will crack down on women who dodge Israel’s compulsory draft by claiming
to be religious.
The Knesset approved the law with a vote of 21
for and five against. The new law aims to minimize the number of exemptions
granted to women who falsely claim to be religious by requiring them to provide
evidence to that effect. Until now, in order to get an exemption, women were only
required to affirm they were religious.
By Elana
Sztokman Opinion http://blogs.forward.com March 7, 2012
Agunot are women
who still believe in Jewish law, who are still trying to work within the system
of traditions that they call their own, who still rely on religious authority
figures – who are all male and for the most part thus far unhelpful – to
determine their personal status.
In this sense, they are more like Esther than
Vashti. Because if they were really fighters, they would walk away.
By Dvora
Meyers Opinion http://blogs.forward.com March 7, 2012
But what
the Friedman case demonstrates is that none of the rabbinic machinations are
all that effective.
Friedman
has ignored the rulings of more than one Jewish court and all of the public and
media pressure exerted thus far.
So what to do in those instances where none of
the legalistic maneuvers and traditional methods of coercion have worked?
In an interview
with the Jewish Review about the issue of agunot, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, the
spiritual leader of the Efrat in the West Bank, was asked why some of the
halachic proposals that would enable a rabbinic court to dissolve marriage
contract even without the husband’s consent haven’t been accepted by the
Orthodox community.
His answer
was pointed: “I think to a certain extent there is a lack of judicial courage
in our time.”
See also: The Agunah - Finding a Solution: An Interview with Rabbi
Shlomo Riskin, Volume 3
, Issue 1 (Sept, 1989 | Tishrei, 5750)
Dr. Rachel
Levmore Opinion http://blog.jofa.org March 5, 2012
Stating
that the agunah problem -in the United States, Europe and Israel – has not been
resolved in the past year would be an understatement.
Although
significant progress has been made in Israel in the increased signing of the
Israeli Agreement for Mutual Respect, which is a preventative step that has
gained recognition amongst Israeli rabbis, there have been no systemic
solutions implemented to resolve agunah cases which exist.
Moreover, at least in the US, the agunah problem
has moved out of cloistered Jewish circles and is becoming part of general
knowledge of non-Jews.
By Jeremy
Sharon www.jpost.com March 6, 2012
Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, along with
several other senior rabbis, issued a public statement on Tuesday warning the
public that visiting the Temple Mount is forbidden by Jewish law.
According to the statement, the warning is being
issued at this time because of increased organized attempts to go up to the
holy site.
Rav Chaim
Richman, Director of the International Dept. of the Temple Institute, issued a
dissenting opinion to the proclamations by the chief Rabbis regarding the
proihibition of ascent to the Temple Mount.
By Ilan Lior
www.haaretz.com March
13, 2012
When a cemetery was opened on land belonging to
Kibbutz Givat Brenner nearly a decade ago, it was intended to provide eternal
rest for people of all religions who would not be granted a religious burial,
or just don't want one.
The civil service has proved so popular that
the cemetery, called Menuha Mehubedet (Hebrew for "dignified rest"), is
running out of land and has built a 33-meter-long, four-level hillside
structure for burial.
"The
religious establishment supports us because we're their Shabbes goy," said
cemetery director Aryeh Abir...
By Uriel Heilman www.jta.org March 1, 2012
Bradley Chalupski, Israel’s best hope for a medal
on the bobsled track at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, in 2014, is,
technically speaking, not even Israeli.
His only visit to Israel came last year on a Birthright trip, and the Israeli Olympic Committee isn't even aware of his existence. Moreover, Chalupski competes in skeleton, a sport that’s virtually unknown in Israel and the rest of the world.
By Mordechai I.
Twersky
www.haaretz.com March
9, 2012
The
State of Israel stands to lose as much as $12 million in transfers from North
American Jewish Federations, and untold millions more from U.S. charitable
funds, if a proposal by the Obama administration to tax charitable giving is
approved, according to senior public policy officials.
"I
am worried," says William Daroff, vice president for public policy and
director of the Washington Office of the Jewish Federations of North America.
By John S.
Ruskay Opinion http://ejewishphilanthropy.com
March 11, 2012
There is
much talk today of the distancing of the next generation of our people. That’s
true, but I still believe that Israel has the magnetic power to reignite young
and old to an equivalent odyssey of an obsessive and life-long positive
relationship.
This will
require a combination of the experiential – teen trips, Birthright, Masa – with
opportunities to continuously wrestle with the complexities of Israel today.
Editor – Joel Katz
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rights reserved.
