Editor – Joel Katz
By Elana Sztokman http://blogs.forward.com March 21, 2012
“Women in
her community are being completely neglected – they are at the mercy of the
sikrikim,” Kehat told The Sisterhood, referring to one of Israel’s the most
extreme ultra-Orthodox sects.
Kehat, the founder of the Orthodox women’s group Kolech points out that the issue of Haredi women’s choice
remains dubious.
“Kolech
receives all the complaints of Haredi women who cannot complain in public,” she
said that women who speak out risk being ostracized from their communities.
“To talk
about the community choosing means the men are choosing,” Kehat said, who said
she was saddened that Livnat adopted this language.
El Al passengers are noting a recent phenomenon
involving clusters of ultra-Orthodox men approaching female passengers prior to
take-off and requesting to switch seats, according to El Al customers and tour
operators.
While the phenomenon of lone Haredi men
approaching female passengers is not new, and has in fact gone on for years,
large groups of Haredim - upwards of 15-20 people in some instances - are
reportedly attempting to secure blocs of seats for themselves.
"There's a passive participation or
outright acquiescence from El Al," alleges Mark Feldman, who heads the
Jerusalem-based Ziontours. "Rather than defending the rights of the
passengers, they are enabling this behavior to continue."
A
prominent Israeli sociologist who has studied the ultra-Orthodox community for
nearly 40 years says incidents of Haredi men attempting to switch their airline
seats with women is part of a larger trend transforming the Haredi community.
It is a trend, he says, that also mirrors the growing dependency of struggling
commercial entities on the patronage of large constituencies.
He notes
a Haredi community that has grown exponentially and vastly increased its
political power, to the point of being confident enough to wield its influence
on companies like El Al - and, more recently, Israel's Egged bus lines - with
demands of gender segregation, according to Friedman.
I don't
know who will give ground first," says Friedman, "but at some point
El Al will have to choose whether or not to concede to the Haredim."
By Peggy
Cidor www.jpost.com March 22, 2012
Jerusalem
city councillor Rachel Azaria says that the process began some 20 years ago, as
a reaction to the changes in secular society.
Back then,
she explains, there were not such provocative advertisements (in terms of
women’s appearance), nor were there the kinds of TV programs we have today, and
as such, “there was no urgent need to differentiate [between parts of]
religious society as we see today, both in haredi and in [modern Orthodox]
society.”
Hannah Kehat, founder of the religious feminist
organization Kolech, is more than a little concerned about the fixation on
modesty, calling it “the other side of pornography.”
The
situation has become so serious that recently, the face of Ruth Fogel, who was
murdered in a brutal terror attack in Itamar, was blurred in a religious
leaflet released by Jewish studies institute Machon Meir, for reasons of
modesty.
By Oz
Rosenberg www.haaretz.com
March 21, 2012
Jerusalem police have arrested three
ultra-Orthodox men for allegedly defrauding the Education Ministry of millions
of shekels through a fictitious Torah study center.
Following the arrests on Sunday a fourth man, from Jerusalem, was arrested yesterday in connection with the nonexistent center. Jerusalem police expect further arrests in the case.
"That's
NIS 300 a month multiplied by two years and dozens of 'students,'" a
police officer told Haaretz yesterday. "Do the math yourself."
By Melanie Lidman www.jpost.com March 20, 2012
The suspects submitted lists of names and ID
numbers of the students that were “enrolled” in their kollels to the Education
Ministry.
By Kobi Nahshoni www.ynetnews.com March 23, 2012
Five men are suspected
of fraud and impersonation after attempting to take a rabbinic qualification
exam instead of their classmates on Wednesday.
They admitted they
were paid thousands of shekels by Yeshiva students to take the exam in their
place, since they were not properly prepared. Following the complaint, the
police suspects a larger network of fraudulent Yeshiva students is behind the
scenes.
The High Court of
Justice on Sunday issued an order requiring the state to explain why the
schools in the haredi education system have not started
standardized testing.
Haaretz
Editorial www.haaretz.com
March 21, 2012
Eli
Yishai and Ariel Atias of Shas want inexpensive apartments to go to young
ultra-Orthodox couples.
The two Shas ministers are unwilling to introduce full
exercise of working potential as a criterion for subsidized housing because
most young ultra-Orthodox couples are not employed and are not looking for
work; this is particularly true for the men. They live on state allocations at
the public's expense.
...The
ball is now back in Netanyahu's court. Let's hope he doesn't keep on giving all
the resources to the ultra-Orthodox and instead offers subsidized housing to
the middle class, which is straining under the burden of taxes and reserve duty
and is looking for a little social justice.
By Jonathan Lis
www.haaretz.com March 21, 2012
The Knesset has deferred debate on Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's flagship housing reform due to a dispute over
some of the provisions between two of his coalition partners, Shas and Yisrael
Beiteinu.
By Rabbi
Micah Peltz Opinion www.haaretz.com March 25, 2012
Let me
be clear. I don’t mean to say that observing the laws of Passover, or the
details of halakha in general, is wrong. On the contrary, taking halakha seriously
is important.
But, if
we truly take halakha seriously, then we must apply it to our world – to our
context. Too often, in matters of halakha, we lose the forest from the trees.
When paranoia dominates practice, and we are so absorbed with the minutia of
the law we forget why we are following it in the first place.
Ma’ariv’s
weekend edition has a long
expose in Hebrew on Yehuda
Meshi-Zahav, Eidah Charedis’ former chief operations officer /street captain
who left his anti-Zionist roots after witnessing the aftermath of a terror
attack, and ZAKA, the disaster response organization he founded in response.
By Kobi Nahshoni www.ynetnews.com March 21, 2012
Speaking on Sunday, Ashdod's Chief Ashkenazi
Rabbi, Yosef Sheinin ruled that when a siren is sounded during the reciting of
the Shemoneh Esrei prayer (a prayer recited quietly while standing) the person
reciting the prayer must not stop praying in order to rush to a fortified space
or shelter.
By Kobi Nahshoni www.ynetnews.com March 22, 2012
In a lesson held at the Machon Meir Yeshiva in
Jerusalem, Eliyahu claimed that the brutal shooting of a rabbi and three
children at a Jewish school in Toulouse on Monday was a clear indication that
the world hates Jews because God chose them for his patronage.
By Nathan
Jeffay http://forward.com March 25, 2012
The young
Christians working in the Psagot Winery’s vineyards near Ramallah in mid-March
were members of HaYovel. Last year, this Tennessee-based evangelical ministry
started a large-scale operation to bring volunteers to tend and harvest settler
grapes. They attach epic importance to their work.
“When you
see prophecy taking place, you have the option to do nothing or become a vessel
to it,” said volunteer pruner Blake Smith, a 20-year-old farmer from Virginia.
By Jeremy
Sharon www.jpost.com March 27, 2012
The Ministry of
Interior announced on Sunday that summer time will once again end before Yom
Kippur, on September 23, despite Interior Minister Eli Yishai’s decision last
year to extend daylight savings time into October.
Since 2005, DST has
ended before Yom Kippur so that the fast finishes earlier in the day. DST will
therefore end again this year on September 23, three days before the fast.
By Kobi Nahshoni www.ynetnews.com March 26, 2012
Rabbi
Eliezer Melamed, head of Har Bracha Yeshiva and a prominent Religious Zionism
leader, said Iran does not pose an existential threat to Israel and a military
offense against it was unnecessary.
According
to him, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are
known to be "men of ego," and he fears this is their main motivation
to act against Tehran.
The High Court of
Justice dismissed a petition to stop the Ir David Foundation from operating the
City of David Archeological Park outside Jerusalem’s Old City Walls, concluding
a three-year legal saga.
A
Psalms-quoting geologist with a Texas twang says his first-ever visit to Israel
is complementing a four-decades-old odyssey that began with an historic find on
the grounds of what was once ancient Ethiopia.
James
Aronson, a 69-year-old geology professor at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New
Hampshire, is perhaps best known for calculating the age of the
3.2-million-year-old skeletal fossil nicknamed Lucy.
By Shoshana London
Sappir www.hadassahmagazine.org
February 2012
In the beginning, it seemed like a good idea.
When Hebrew speakers read the Bible in the original Hebrew, they can find it
difficult to comprehend without the help of commentaries; many give up on the
ancient texts. Enter Tanakh RAM, a translation of the Bible into Modern Hebrew.
Yet, this new edition has been called
scandalous, pernicious and fraudulent by critics; the Ministry of Education has
threatened to ban its use in schools; pundits warn of the demise of Modern
Hebrew culture; a university held a seminar about the pros and cons of the new
publication; and the Op-Ed pages and Internet are atwitter.
By Barbara Sofer www.hadassahmagazine.org
February 2012
Celebrating
Sigd in an elaborate way at Hadassah Neurim is part of a strategy by village
staff to instill Ethiopian students with pride in their ethnic roots.
Back in
Ethiopia, teens didn’t have adolescence as we know it,” said Manu Har Sinai,
who conceived the post-Sigd celebration. He is in charge of residential
education at the village and the yearly Sigd activities.
By Jeremy
Sharon www.jpost.com March 21, 2012
To celebrate the festival, The Bahai World Center
in Israel held its traditional New Year’s reception on Tuesday night in
Jerusalem, with hundreds of dignitaries, diplomats, MKs and assorted government
officials in attendance.
Another reception will
be held on Friday in Acre, the final resting place of the Bahai founder Mirza
Husayn-Ali, or Baha’ullah as he became known.
Editor – Joel Katz
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