Editor – Joel Katz
Religion
and State in Israel is not affiliated with
any organization or movement.
By Nadav Perry
The ultra-Orthodox parties
are therefore facing a difficult detox outside the coalition, without the
instant connection to government establishments and the ability to exert
pressure on government agencies in order to advance their interests.
...But the problem is far
deeper than control of the budget spigot. The ultra-Orthodox politicians, led
by their rabbis and supported by a large public, refuse to understand that the
rules have changed, that they can no longer keep playing the game under the
same guidelines established in recent decades. It’s simply not possible.
UTJ MK Uri Maklev was
quoted by best-selling haredi daily newspaper Yated Ne’eman as describing the
new government as one based on “an axis of hatred and persecution.”
“This axis is itself based
on a campaign of systematic and foundational hostility and harassment to the
Torah world, the haredi education system, the holy things of Israel and
everything beloved of Judaism,” he said. “Its partners established a covenant
betraying God and His Torah.”
Speaking to The Jerusalem
Post, haredi journalist Yisroel Cohen said that the feeling in the
ultra-Orthodox world was one of concern and fear that their situation is
changing.
“It’s clear that the rules
of the game have changed, the haredi parties are on the outside, they’re not in
government, they don’t have their hands on the taps anymore, they don’t have
the influence or power, so this makes it harder to act,” Cohen explained.
UJT MK Gafni, in his
furious address, declared that, “We believe that we (the Jewish people) exist
only because of the merit of Torah, since we stood at Mount Sinai. Without the
Torah, we wouldn’t be here in Israel.”
He slammed the coalition agreements for
outrageously discriminating against the ultra-Orthodox, and said the plans for
drafting the ultra-Orthodox have not been thought through properly and are
unworkable.
By Rachel Azaria
As the new government takes
the oath of office, leaving the ultra-Orthodox parties far from the nexus of
decision making, we have a real chance.
Now is the time for the government to
speak directly to the ultra-Orthodox public – circumventing their leaders. This
is the only way to give the ultra-Orthodox community a future.
By Shmarya Rosenberg
Who can blame the haredim
for thinking this magic bubble would never burst?
And the truth is, it still
hasn’t.
It won’t until thousands of haredi yeshiva students are drafted, refuse
to report, and are jailed; or until haredi yeshivas that in defiance of the law
do not teach the country’s core curriculum are, as the law requires, defunded.
And while either could happen as soon as next week, it could also take years
before either becomes reality.
By Joel Braunold
Importantly, the global
Diaspora has a vital role in helping integrate the ultra-Orthodox. Both the
American and European Jewish communities have large ultra-Orthodox communities
that work and are generally sustainable.
There is a unique opportunity to learn
the lessons of the global Jewish Diaspora and apply it to Israel. The solutions
exist and there are many willing to help out on this problem.
By Uzi Benziman
Outgoing Finance Committee
Chairman Moshe Gafni (UTJ ) told the ultra-Orthodox Yated Ne'eman newspaper
that settlers receive double budgets and double entitlements.
He announced that
he would publicize the double funding of army-affiliated hesder yeshivas and
the billions transferred to settlements.
In the snake pit of Israeli
politics, it could be payback time for Bibi for abandoning his ultra-Orthodox
supporters in order to stay in power as prime minister, and this could have
international repercussions far beyond the local problems of the yeshivot.
The
rabbi has warned that Netanyahu will soon “be sorry” for deceiving him and the
other representatives of the ultras by “shamefully” leaving them out of power.
By Meirav Arlosoroff
In practice, this is a
well-oiled mechanism of exploiting the assistance provided by the state – which
is funded, of course, by Israeli taxpayers – so that the Haredim can continue
not working and not paying taxes.
This mechanism allows the Haredim to maintain
their unique lifestyle: While they have almost no income and are indeed very
poor, at the same time they have very few expenses because their poverty
enables them to receive state assistance.
The Haredim can go on like
this for years. Their poverty does not disturb them as long as they and their
families can survive.
The one that cannot go on like this for years is the
State of Israel, whose taxpayers are going to collapse under the burden of the
allowances and benefits provided to all those who do not work.
The taxpayers’
solidarity with the state will also erode as they see how their work is being
exploited to fund the non-working lifestyle of others.
By Akiva Eldar
UTJ Knesset Member Eichler
wrote: “It is forbidden to enter any melting pot that causes Jews to abandon
their religion. [Exposing them] to the drafting of girls, violations of the
Sabbath, and the lewd environment that one finds among the goyim [Gentiles] is
anti-religious coercion, and not some security prerequisite. Therefore, this is
not a security debate but a spiritual war of survival.”
We know that Refaeli had a
publicized relationship with a gentile actor," said Eyal Cohen, a law
student at the Ono Academic College's haredi campus. "And in this way, she
certainly doesn't represent the Israeli public."
By Jonathan Rosenblum
[MK Ruth] Calderon's embrace of
Talmud study and Naftali Bennett's description of Torah as the source of the
national identity that has preserved the Jewish people throughout the
millennia, in his maiden speech, are expressions of an awareness of Appelfeld's
"black hole" and the desire to fill it.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Members of the extreme
Neturei Karta sect were planning a "welcoming ceremony" Wednesday for
the US president upon his arrival in Jerusalem, urging him to "save us
from the evils of Zionism."
Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid,
the newly appointed Finance Minister, plans to skip this year’s pre-Passover
sale of the government of Israel’s chametz (leavened bread products), Yisrael
Hayom reports.
He will be replaced by
Education Minister Shai Piron, who is number two on the Yesh Atid list.
For the first time, the
Badatz Beit Yosef kosher certification belonging to Shas spiritual leader Rabbi
Ovadia Yosef has lent its highly esteemed stamp to a range of cigarette brands
from the Israeli Dubek tobacco products manufacturer, certifying that they are
free from leaven, or hametz, which is forbidden over Passover.
The pumping of water from
Lake Kinneret will be suspended at the end of next week because of concerns
that it could contain leavening, which Jewish law prohibits the consumption of
during the Passover holiday.
“Cutting off most of the
state from the Kinneret water supply is a continuation of the process of
unbridled extremism that has been forced on us by Haredi politicians,"
said Rabbi Uri Regev, the director of the religious-freedom organization
Hiddush.
In an era in which
"almost everything" has a kosher for Passoverversion, the Chief
Rabbinate has been struggling to come up with guidelines that will prevent
less-knowledgeable shoppers from making a mistake and buying a non-kosher for
Passoverproduct on the holiday.
Yaakov Yitzhak Rata, who
was convicted of rape and sentenced to 16 years at the Maasiyahu Prison's
religious wing, was released from jail last week only to become a rebbe – a
position he inherited from his father, who died during his imprisonment.
By Nehemia Shtrasler
[N]ow, after the
establishment of a new government, there is a chance things could change. With
the Haredim out and Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett in, we could become more
rational.
Without the craziness of the Haredim we might be able to correct
daylight saving time and implement a long list of important reforms that were
impossible under the previous government.
Justice Minister Tzipi
Livni stated Tuesday she would act to prevent the passage of a controversial
bill that would make the state's democratic character secondary to its Jewish
character.
The coalition agreement
signed Friday between Habayit Hayehudi and Likud-Yisrael Beiteinu calls for a
controversial bill for a Basic Law that would make the state's democratic
character subservient to its Jewish character.
This insane law, which was
only removed from the agenda in the past because of Tzipi Livni’s
steadfastness, has now been resurrected due to the strange alliance between
Naftali Bennett’s Habayit Hayehudi and Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid.
As moving as it’s been to
hear Ben-Shetreet’s angelic voice on the few “Voice” videos that have not been
blocked to viewers outside Israel for copyright reasons, the most touching clip I’ve seen has been of her visiting a
synagogue with her mentor, Aviv Geffen.
In it, she has a heartfelt discussion
with the secular rocker about religion and spirituality, explaining how her
belief in God helps her know what she is meant to be doing here on earth.
Near the end of Ruth
Calderon‘s now famous speech to the Knesset on February 12th, 2013, the new
Knesset member added a prayer for her role in the government, written by Dr. Ḥaim Hames of Ben-Gurion University.
http://en.idi.org.il/
In this contemporary
rabbinic responsum, Rabbi Dr. Benny Lau, head of the activities of IDI’s Human
Rights and Judaism project in the field, surveys the halakhic literature on the
question of whether guide dogs are permitted to enter synagogues and concludes
that there is room to allow their admission to the prayer section of the
Western Wall.
After several months of
legal wrangling against superpowers Marvel and DC Comics over selling
unlicensed Spider-Man and Batman kippot, Avi Binyamin, owner of the well-known
Jerusalem yarmulke store Kippa Man, said Tuesday that he had settled both
lawsuits.
Zissels and Shulman’s
claims have also been disputed by Sharansky and Rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich, a
chief rabbi of Ukraine and president of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine, an
organization that, along with Zissels’s Vaad, is an affiliate of European
Jewish Congress.
“We believe it to be both
wrong and irresponsible to politicize the upcoming meeting by relating it to
issues of Ukrainian political discourse,” Bleich said.
As to The Agency, long-time
observers tell eJP they had no choice but to proceed with the meeting barring
either the Israeli or Ukrainian government pulling the plug.
Three years ago
The Agency was forced to cancel their Board meeting scheduled to take
place in St. Petersburg, Russia. A second cancellation in an FSU country would
have been a significant embarrassment to both the organization and Sharansky.
Thirteen young Jewish men
from Morocco began their studies at the Machon Lev academic institution for men
in the Jerusalem College of Technology this year.
These youngsters are part
of a fast-growing phenomenon of Moroccan Jewish families sending their children
to study in Israel, particularly at the Jerusalem institute.
Among the Knesset
committees which Yesh Atid MKs will chair is the Knesset Committee for
Immigration, Absorption, and Diaspora Affairs.
The party's MK Yoel Razbozov
will be the chairman of that committee - and on Sunday, Yesh Atid chairman Yair
Lapid assigned MK Dov Lipman, an immigrant from the US, to be a member of that
committee as well.
The State initiated the
aliyah of Ethiopian Jews, and hence it must compensate families whose loved
one's perished along the way, claim representatives of the Ethiopian community
who filed a like minded High Court petition Thursday.
With a student body of
Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Druze and Buddhists, the Tabeetha School,
now commemorating its 150th anniversary, is like no other in the country.
The Association of Temple
Organizations, refused permission to perform its annual Passover sacrifice
reenactment by the Jerusalem Veterinary Services, has submitted a legal
petition to the Jerusalem District Court requesting that it instruct the
Veterinary Services to issue the permit.
The association says it has
slaughtered a lamb each year since 2008 as an educational exercise to
demonstrate what took place in Temple times.
Editor – Joel Katz
Religion
and State in Israel is not affiliated with
any organization or movement.
All rights reserved.
