By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — Jewish legal tradition, better known as “Halachah,” teaches that silence is “tantamount to admission.” The moral implications ought to be clear enough for anyone to readily grasp. When somebody is attempting to do something wrong and illegal, one cannot dissociate oneself from the situation and […]
The guilty silence of some Haredi rabbis Read More »
Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, Middle East
By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM–One simple yet helpful way of describing the public discourse in and about contemporary Israel is to view it as a struggle between security (sometimes coupled with the quest for survival) and values (often equated with morality and prophetic justice). I heard Steven Cohen, the American-Israeli sociologist, suggest in a talk
Armenian genocide question divides Israel between values and security Read More »
Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — The Municipality of Beit Shemesh removed the signs indicating which sidewalk was to be used by women and girls. Haredim began replacing them 10 minutes later. One of the prominent spitters was jailed and released after a short time. It sounds like the treatment given Religious Zionist (Orthodox)
Secular versus religious laws in Israel Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — There’s talk of elections in Israel in 2012. One indication is that the primaries in Likud – the party of Prime Minister Netanyahu that in the end will decide when to call an election if it’s ahead of the four-year mandate, as it would be in 2012 – have
Standing up for women in Israel Read More »
Middle EastBy Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — One of the most colorful figures of the 18th century, who almost single-handedly raised the morale of the Jewish people, was a man named R. Yisrael ben Eliezer, a.k.a., the famous “Baal Shem Tov,” (literally, the “Master of the Good Name.”) When one looks back in
The Baal Shem Tov would be horrified Read More »
Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, Middle East
By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–My resolution not to write so often lasted only a few hours, until I found myself enraged by a television report about Heredi extremists in Beit Shemesh. We’ve known about the Beit Shemesh community for some time. Religious friends from the US and a secular Israeli colleague initially settled there, then
Beit Shemesh incident shows intolerance extends to little girls Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM –This time I travelled to Israel in the company of Daniel Kahneman, the 2002 Nobel Prize winner in economics. Not in the flesh, of course, but with his bestseller, Thinking, Fast and Slow. The book has much to teach on many subjects. Inter alia Kahneman seems to be implicitly supporting
Why doing nothing appeals to both Palestinians and Israelis Read More »
Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — This is a complex world with many players and numerous conflicts. So what else is new? In this holiday season when wise commentators summarize what happened, what is happening, and what will happen, it is appropriate to remind ourselves of the obvious, trivial, and continuing realities. We members
We often forget that Israel-Palestine battle only one of numerous conflicts in the world Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Rabbi Dow Marmur ASIRA AL-QIBLIYA, Palestinian Authority — I’ve heard many Jews who live inWest Banksettlements tell journalists that, despite the toxic politics, they’ve good relations with their Palestinian neighbors. But that’s not what I heard last Wednesday in Asira Al-Qibliya, a Palestinian town of some 2,500 people south of Nablus and close to
Palestinian town bullied by Jewish settlers Read More »
Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Here it is impossible to go to a public place in the evening without hearing a blessing on the Chanukah lights. Chabad has placed a large Chanukiah (9-armed menorah) in the most prominent of French Hill’s traffic circles, along with other efforts to make the festival more important than its ancient
By Yaacov Lapin WASHINGTON, D.C. (JINSA) — The Egyptian military’s weakening grip on power is the last obstacle standing in the way of an alliance between a Cairo under Islamist rule and the Hamas regime in Gaza. Two out of three phases in Egypt’s parliamentary elections are now complete, and the results are unequivocal. A
Egypt-Gaza alliance against Israel likely as Islamists gain in elections Read More »
Middle EastWASHINGTON (JINSA) — Officially, our war in Iraq is now over. The Saddam loyalists, the Sunni insurgents, al Qaeda in Iraq, and the Shiite militants of Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army were all defeated by the U.S.-led international coalition. Today, the relative calm is maintained by Iraq’s own security forces, trained primarily by Americans. In many
U.S. must strengthen relations with Iraq Read More »
InternationalBy Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM–Tanya Rosenblit, the 28-year old producer of Israel’s Channel One English news, has by now had more than the proverbial 15 minutes of fame. Boarding a bus one day last week from Ashdod to Jerusalemand dressed “modestly” even by Orthodox standards, she refused to yield to ultra-Orthodox (haredi) demands to sit
Bus incident symbolizes growing anger at haredi sexism Read More »
Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM –A recent installment of television news began with the outpouring of unrestrained wailing in response to the death of the “dear leader” of North Korea, a replay of the mournful voice, choked with tears announcing his death on North Korean television, and then commentary by a South Korean journalist and an
When praise for a leader goes over the top Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East