Tikkun Olam

The Hareidim *, in Israel as well as the United States apparently, have no understanding of the proposed new law drafting the Ultra-Orthodox into the IDF (Israeli Defense Force). In their thinking, it will mean a cancellation of Torah study and a secularization of their bochurim *. They seem to forget, ignore--or are totally ignorant of--the current system which includes what is know as " Hesder Yeshivot ," which combine Yeshiva Torah and Talmud learning with service in the IDF. But that system was for the Dati Leumi - the "National Religious" Israelis, or the "Modern Orthodox." It wasn't for the so-called "Ultra-Orthodox," who learned Torah full-time, excluding army service and even working for a living. The way it stood until now was that the Hareidim were exempt from military service until the expiration of the Tal Law. This exemption dated back almost to the founding of the State of Israel, when then Defense Minister David Ben Gurion ...

 Too many terrible, terrible happenings, some new, some old. Not in any particular order, a huge prisoner release by Israel of Palestinians (read: Arabs who calls themselves Palestinians in order to gain world sympathy, when they were just plain "Arabs" before they lost the 6-day war in 1967), also here --who murdered men, women and children in cold blood , in order to further "peace talks;"  Also here .  A 19 year old youngster asleep on a bus is stabbed to death by a 16 year old Arab from Jenin illegally in Israel. The left-leaning, liberal Judiciary in Israel ruling against Palestinian Media Watch founder's testimony, effectively acting as appeasing the Arabs. Women on some buses harassed and sometimes attacked physically because they are sitting in the front of the bus instead of the back .  Jewish " modesty police " forcing people to comply with their interpretation of halachic rulings. Child molester "Rabbis" who also masquerade as...

 A few tidbits and pieces of information from surfing the Web.  Perhaps they'll peek your interest... Just read about a young Hareidi woman who insisted on serving in the IDF .  She apparently impressed others with the courage of her convictions, and was a role model for others, some of whom became interested in being more observant.  And to top that off--read the article--someone said about this girl that she should have died instead.  What is Judaism coming to??!   Sharia law, that's what.  We must nip it in the bud. Have researched the issue of " Kol Isha " (the voice of a woman), and here is something interesting relating to this so-called 'halacha.'  The opinions have moved very far to the right from even when I was growing up.  I totally disagree with the machmir (stringent) view, as you can well imagine.  The 'rabbanim' have sexualized everything about women-- everything , to the point where we must wonder why G-d created us ...

There is a serious problem unfolding within religious Judaism, which seem very apparent to non-observant Jews, but which many observant Jews are afraid to address. It boils down to the rapid movement towards a Sharia-like fundamentalism prevalent in the Ultra-Orthodox and even in some more modern Orthodox Jewish communities. Non - observant Jews cry out against what is happening, because they see these fringe and not-so-fringe groups of Ultra-Orthodox as representing all Jews, or maybe it's more correct to say all observant Jews.  And they use these terrible behaviors--and I do believe they are terrible--to reinforce their secular way of life, and to reinforce their rejection of the Jewish religion as "fanatic." Here are two articles addressing these issues, both published in the Forward, the authors of which express views 180 degrees opposed to each other.  There are elements of truth in both, but I personally believe that the problematic issues are not being addre...

My loyal readers know how I feel about Judaism (love it), and how I feel about the Haredi* distortion of Judaism with their sexist attitudes (hate it).  I have written often (a sampling being here , here , and in my previous post from yesterday) about the radicalization of halacha (Jewish law), and the terrible situations on some Israeli buses, with the verbal, emotional and sometimes even physical abuse of women who dare not to sit "in their place" at the back of the bus.  Shades of anti Black-American segregation from the sixties... I had also complained (that's what an armchair activist does, complain) that I had not heard any voices speaking up from the Orthodox, or better--Ultra-Orthodox sector about these abuses.  Had not heard, until now (hat tip to Primum Non Nocere for alerting us to this article). Rav Haim Amsalem , a Haredi (or Chareidi, if you will) Rabbi, has now expressed his view of the fanatic, perverted discrimination against women that is going on in...

I am an Orthodox Jew, and I am opposed to public buses being gender-segregated, either in Israel or here in the States.  Note, I said public buses.  The Haredi (Ultra-Orthodox) community, in my opinion, can hire private buses wherever they be, be it Bnei Brak in Israel or Borough Park in New York, and enforce their own rules however they like.  But not on public buses with city franchises. Apparently, this had been going on for quite a while on a route from Borough Park to Williamsburg , with officials looking the other way. Not anymore: Faced with the choice of losing its franchise with the city or allowing women riders to sit where they please, a Brooklyn bus line that is authorized and monitored by New York’s Department of Transportation says it won’t engage in gender segregation. But it appears that in the company’s nearly four decades plying the streets between Borough Park and Williamsburg, government officials may have long known about the company’s impr...

 (nablopomo day 2)  Why is it so hard for people to be honest about what they see?  Why are we Jews afraid to admit that there is a serious, serious problem with Hareidi* Judaism? We experienced this ourselves, in our own family, when our daughter (Rambo) first went to Israel in 2004.  She was fifteen years old, and had completed her first year in high school here in the States. For her next three years of high school, she was in Israel, on the Na'aleh program, first attending high school at Kvutzat Yavneh .  One of their first class trips to Jerusalem took them to the Me'ah She'arim neighborhood, an old  ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in the north-central part of the city.  The class was small, consisting of 7 or 8 girls and 3 boys.  Although it was a modern-religious school, they knew where they were going and were dressed modestly, wearing long skirts and long or three-quarter length sleeves, and walked through the neighborhood quietly ...