By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM– As Israelis begin to talk about elections, two players – one new, the other recycled – are said to be about to form centrist-right parties. The new player is Yair Lapid, a TV personality and the son of the late Tommy Lapid who once had formed a party that had more […]
Israeli party alignment likely to change; policies to stay stagnant Read More »
Middle East
By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO — Our celebration of Chanukah this week made the news reports coming out of Israel even more disturbing and ironic. Chanukah is the festival which celebrates Jews fighting for their rights against the Greeks. In Israel, Jews are fighting for their rights against other Jews. An eight-year-old Israeli girl
Conservative Jews lead demonstrations for egalitarianism in Israel Read More »
Middle EastBy Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM– “Ultra-Orthodox (or haredi) Judaism – it can never be stressed too often – is not Judaism as it was practiced in centuries past. Traditional Judaism was fluid, diverse and accommodated itself to the practical requirements of the day. Ultra-Orthodox Judaism, by contrast, is a modern creation, born out of terror and
Confusing haredi mysogyny with other issues Read More »
Middle EastBy Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California — Like a bad penny, the problem will not go away. It doesn’t seem to matter what people say or do to prevent it. Beth Shemesh is a lot like a train-wreck waiting to happen; actually, it has already happened, but the extent of the damage and
The Sikrikim threaten Haredi and other Jews alike Read More »
Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Lots of news. Less clarity. It’s worth thinking about the details, and whether they amount to a watershed inviting a heroic decision. Khaled Mashaal, the senior leader of Hamas, has ordered his forces to cease attacks on Israeli targets. Mashaal’s expression of non-violence has something to do
Hopeful and discouraging signs on Israel’s domestic and foreign fronts Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East
By Rabbi Ben Kamin JERUSALEM–The so-called prime minister of Hamas—a terror syndicate banned from recognition by the United States and the European Union—is campaigning in European capitals against Israel’s practice of making Jerusalem too Jewish. Here is the verbal equivalent of Hamas’s launching of 10,000 killer missiles into Israeli towns and villages in the past
Jerusalem too Jewish? Is Washington too American? Read More »
Middle East
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 EastBy 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 East