So this week's New York jewish Week chronicles the fall-out over Matisyahu's revelation that he "no longer identifies" with "the Lubavitch sect" of Chassidus. The revelation, to quote the Jewish Week, "lit up" the Orthodox blogosphere.

Well I wouldn't call the frum blogosphere "lit up" but there is definitely spirited dialogue.

Rabbi Levi Brackman -- a rabbi who I have continuously held in extremely high esteem since I began reading his (often the sole) frum perspectives on YNet -- voices his regret for ever having backed Matis:

His lyrics no longer really reflect deep Jewish spirituality and his behavior on stage is becoming increasingly secular. Now that he has publicly distanced himself from Chabad/Lubavitch I am admitting that I was wrong to ever promote Matisyahu. It is my hope that he keeps his faith and does not go off the deep end and thus take others with him.

It makes it even worse when you hear how irresponsibly he speaks. We don't want our kids listening to Jay Z and sipping wine to relax. Thats not how a frum yid should act....I think Shluchim might need to reconsider how involved they get with him or his shows. I think we have to worry about what he could still say or do...

I really hope that Matisyahu does well. Both phy$ically and spiritually. I hope and wish him well, but I'm officially OFF the Matisyahu fan club train...because of his comments and his attitude. He may be doing a lot of good for the non religious world and maybe even the goyish world. But for the Frum world I'm afraid that he can only do harm.

Perhaps there's a kabbalistic term for the emotional source of all these blog posts. Perhaps we could call it "Olam ha'Overreaction." As Yossi B (future hiphop stage name?) writes on his blog ChaBlog-Lubavitch, Matisyahu is being misunderstood and overly criticized, and Yossi blasts Rav Brackman's equating Matisyahu with a "secular Jewish" musician saying:

You know, [you're] right. Bob Dylan and Matisyahu are pretty much the same. One barely licked the edge of Torah his entire life, and one says Chitas and Davens every day, but no, your right he is like every other secular Jewish singer. Matisyahu is not made for your little kids in your house, and I hope you don’t have a problem with your teenage ones listening to him because that’s just… odd.

...I think you need to ask yourself who is the good Jew in this situation. No disrespect intended.

I think this is symptomatic of a breakdown in understanding between those religious Jews who were raised religious (FFB) and ba'alei tshuva/converts. For FFB Jews, much of this soul-searching process does not happen -- my father was Yekkish (German Jew), my grandfather was a Yekke, I went to Yekkishe yeshivos, I pray at a Yekkishe shul, so I'll be Yekkish until the Next World. The most dramatic paradigm shift is for girls who get married, when they switch from "minhag X" to "minhag Y". Those of us who are religious by choice, however, have no such pre-fab outlooks, we are constantly re-evaluating, constantly re-examining ourselves and seeing whether or not we feel "at home" anymore.

Continue reading "King Without A Crown (or a Yellow Flag)" »

Posted by Y-Love at 04:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)

The University of Manchester (UK) released today it's findings on World Jewry.

Basically, the future face of world Jewry -- or at least European and American Jewish populations -- will have a beard and a head-covering.

The Charedi Orthodox Jewish population is increasing far faster than its secular counterpart, and by 2050, the majority of the European and American Jews could be charedi:

Ultra-orthodox British and American Jews are set to outnumber their more secular counterparts by the second half of this century according to research by a University of Manchester academic.

Historian Dr Yaakov Wise says the increase in religious British Jewry - recognisable by their traditional dress - is now outstripping the decline in the overall Jewish population which has been shrinking by one to two per cent each year since the 1950s.

European ultra-orthodox Jewry is expanding more rapidly than at any time since before World War Two. Almost three out of every four British Jewish births, he says are ultra- orthodox who now account for 45,500 out of a total UK Jewish population of around 275,000 or 17 per cent.

According to Dr Wise and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Professor Sergio Della Pergola, Israel is experiencing similar changes. Dr Wise said: "If current trends continue there is going to be a profound cultural and political change among British and American Jews - and it's already well on the way."...

"Approximately half of all the Jewish under fives in Greater Manchester are Ultra-orthodox. And in Greater London the Ultra-orthodox now account for 18 per cent of the Jewish population, up from less than 10 per cent in the early 1990s."

He added: "My work and that of Professor Sergio Della Pergola reveal a similar picture in Israel. By the year 2020, the Ultra-orthodox population of Israel will double to one million and make up 17 per cent of the total population."

"A recent Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics report also found that a third of all Jewish pupils will be studying at haredi schools by 2012, prompting emergency meetings at the Education Ministry."

In America too, where the Jewish population is stable or declining, Ultra-Orthodox Jewish numbers are growing rapidly. Professor Joshua Comenetz from The University of Florida says the Ultra-orthodox population doubles every 20 years, which he says may make the Jewish community not only more religiously observant but more politically conservative.

OK, first of all, I pray that G-d allows me to have a hand in separating those two distinct terms: "religiously observant" and "politically conservative" are, especially in America, not the same thing, and may even be diametrically opposed. The current Right Wing regime in America violates Scriptural tenets routinely. And fellow Jewschool blogger Josh Frankel turned me on to the fact that Torah Law written before Roe v. Wade was often unflinchingly pro-choice, whereas after Roe v. Wade, "moral majority"-type language began to push its way into halachic responsa. (His findings are noted in a to-be-released research paper.)

But this, I feel, is going to underscore the fact that -- if by virtue of no other reason than sheer numbers -- the haredi population is becoming much more diverse and much less monolithic. "Ultra-Orthodoxy" will look very different in 2050. By 2050, I will surely not be the only charedi Orthodox hiphopper -- perhaps we will see Jewish hiphop charts routinely posted in Jewish bookstores. Matisyahu will certainly be old hat.

By 2050, perhaps all yeshivos will be online and have broadband access. Perhaps ShalomTV will expand into a number of networks and we will have Torah-friendly TV programming available in all observant homes.

And G-d willing, Moshiach will have long since come.

Perhaps by 2050 we will even have a new category: "mega-Orthodox", to distinguish from the progressive ultra-Orthodox people beginning to get more of a voice. Perhaps the ultra-reactionary elements will split off and form more groups determined to make their world into a perfect replica of 1650 (instead of the current status quo of 1850).

But regardless, with expansion inevitably comes change, and I think as these "under 5s" grow up, their world will change rapidly with them. And they're going to view all of it through the lens of Torah.

Ken yirbu.

Posted by Y-Love at 02:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Kol ha'kavod, Netanya! One love, nothing but love, and hi-fives all around.

The Netanya City council passed a by-law yesterday forbidding the sale of pork within city limits. YNet brings us the story:

The Netanya City Council approved a bylaw prohibiting the sale of pork in the city on Tuesday. Those opposing the law called it "religious coercion and violation of the dominant status-quo in the city".

The bylaw was passed despite the legal council’s opinion that it would not be approved by the Interior Ministry or the High Court of Justice due to the fact that before such a decision is reached a poll must be taken among the population in areas where non-kosher meat vendors may choose to set up shop.

Netanya Mayor Miriam Fierberg urged also Israeli MKs to legislate a law to completely prohibit the sale of pork products in Israel.

Some 70 stores specializing in pork products can be found in Netanya's city center, and most of their customers are immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

And let us not forget that a large percentage -- and in recent years, a slight majority -- of the immigrants coming in from the Soviet Union are not Jewish. One non-Jewish Russian IDF soldier was even found to be a Neo-Nazi, and Israeli neo-Nazi activity is on the rise.

Fifty percent of Netanya's City Council members are religious or traditional, which led to the passing of the bill, with only three out of 25 council members opposing it; one council member abstained.

When a country calls itself "the Jewish state" and you move there, you might think you would pay just a little respect to Judaism. No one is asking for strict kosher supervision, no one is mandating even the Scripturally ordained separations between meat and dairy. All the Netanya city council is saying is that someone must go elsewhere to buy their pork chops.

While I can't see Israeli MKs lining up to pass an all-out ban on pork products in Israel, Ms. Fierberg's sentiments are coming from the right place. She wants to see at least some semblance of Judaism transposed onto "the Jewish state". And the reason I can't see it happening is, to me, quite lamentable -- you simply can not force people to respect the faith of their ancestors. You simply can not compel people to believe that G-d cares about them in their daily lives, down to what they ingest. You simply can't.

The chiloni (non-religious -- "secular", as I found when I was there, is actually a bit of a misnomer with many) Israeli is becoming increasingly detached from Judaism. Much of this is because of corruption in the Rabbinate, much of this is because of a breakdown in (or downright absence of) dialogue between religious and non-religious communities. And you have outreach organizations working round-the-clock to try to fix these rifts. And, G-d willing, the problems with the religious communities will be repaired at some point, and we will see people making religious decisions based on what they are turned on to, not what they are turned off from.

But you have to draw the line somewhere. Somewhere there has to be someone saying, "if we have a star of David on our flag, and Hebrew as our language, we've got to have some Judaism over here."

And if the line can't be drawn at pornography, can it at least be drawn at pork?

Posted by Y-Love at 09:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Russian-Israeli billionaire Arkady Gaydamak has reportedly bought the Israeli Tiv Taam supermarket chain for an undisclosed sum, and is doing what some consider the unthinkable: he's making the entire chain kosher.

From the New Zealand Herald:

With robust insouciance for the sensitivities of all three great monotheistic religions, Hermina Schlinger eyed with satisfaction her large purchase of pork frankfurters at the checkout counter of Rishon Letzion's Tiv Taam supermarket in Rishon Letzion just south of Tel Aviv this week and declared, "There it is: the Last Supper".

What Schlinger, 60, was referring to was the weekend announcement by the Russian-born billionaire Arkady Gaidamak that he has bought the entire Tiv Taam supermarket company and he proposes to make its famous food counters kosher from now on.

No more highly convenient - if defiantly non-religious - opening on Shabbat. No more ham, salami, shellfish, pork sausages and all the other non-kosher food - that has brought Schlinger and tens of thousands of her Israeli fellow shoppers to the 24-store chain over the past 15 years.

The shock waves sent through Israel by Gaidamak's purchase and plans are underlined by the urban myths it has already generated. Schlinger, whose origins are Romanian Jewish, is from Tel Aviv and confesses to being "very angry" about the impending transformation of her favourite supermarket chain.

Either "you're damn skippy" or "it's about damn time".

Gaidamak was not at Rishon Letzion to hear these complaints. But he flatly gave his answer, in an interview to Army Radio on Sunday. "I believe that in a Jewish state," he declared, "in which there is a large Muslim minority, selling pork is a provocation."

Pork will still be legal, no one has criminalized shellfish, and indeed, anyone is free to open their own ham- and sausage-laden deli counter. The, as Time Magazine reported, "Jerusalem delicatessen counters brimming with bacon, pork chops and pate of wild boar" (chalila) will still be there, just not under the name "Tiv Taam". No one has made any serious run to criminalize pork in Israel since the 90s.

Columnist Uri Orbach calls those who oppose the move fundamentalist secularists. I am inclined to agree with this -- no one is forcing anyone to buy anything. One can order pork online, have it imported, buy it from "mom-and-pop" stores, or raise one's own pigs. This is not religious coercion, this is an attempt to make Tiv Taam more inline with "Jewish tradition" as Gaydamak says, and as Uri Orbach says:

The fact that an ideological group of Jews makes a living by producing and marketing pork, is horrifying. The children’s studies, the dining hall, the extra-curricular activities, the cultural events, the assembly hall and the lawns – were all obtained through the same thing - pork.

The people of Aristobulus, while sieging the Temple Mount, sent in a pig as a sacrifice instead of the kosher beasts they used to send till then. Following the shock aroused by the act, it was said, “Damned be the man who raises pigs in the Land of Israel.”...

Even if it’s unpractical to use state laws to ban the production of pig meat, surely the national heritage and Jewish instincts should arouse the necessary repulsion.

If you don't want Israel to be Jewish, stop calling it such.

Tiv Taam. Kosher l'mehadrin. Ken yirbu.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, Arkady Gaydamak is not going to buy the chain. But it would have been a huge kiddush Hashem (literally, sanctification of the Divine Name) if he would have.

Posted by Y-Love at 02:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

In this past week's Jewish Press, an anonymous Op-Ed piece decries the tzedek hechsher being advocated by the Conservative Movement.

The Conservative movement has long proclaimed its fealty to Torah and mitzvot and the authenticity of Conservative dogma as an expression of halacha. Yet its wanton revisionism has been such that the Conservative claim to halachic legitimacy has been recognized only within its own ranks – and even then not universally. And movement leaders have long chafed at the rejection.

So it should not come as a surprise that the Conservative movement would try to burnish its credentials by establishing a halachicniche of its own by way of a “hechsher tzedek.”

The principal advocate for this effort is Rabbi Morris Allen of Beth Jacob Congregation in Mendota Heights, Minnesota....

To Rabbi Allen, wrote JTA’s Sue Fishkoff, this means “paying attention not only to what kinds of foods are consumed and how the food is prepared…but also but also how those who produce the food are treated: Are they paid appropriately? Are their working conditions safe? Is their dignity as human beings respected?”

“The new label,” wrote Ms. Fishkoff, “isn’t intended to replace existing kosher certification, which is under Orthodox supervision, but it constitutes a broader definition of kosher food that incorporates ideas of social justice from the Torah and Talmud.”

In other words, according to Rabbi Allen it is no longer sufficient for kosher certification to be granted solely on the basis of proper Jewish methods of inspecting and slaughtering animals.

Furthermore, we have already seen one hechsher be removed for extra-culinary infractions, such as having alcoholic beverages and music too close together.

I have only one question for Mr. Jewish-Press-Editorial-Board -- why can't Hooters in Tel Aviv get a hechsher, then? Were one to import Beit Yosef Glatt meat (one of the highest standards in the world for slaughtering) and clean the kitchen of any remnants of dairy or dairy utensils, would we see -- just by virtue of having fulfilled the Divine obligations to separate meat and dairy and to have properly slaughtered meat -- kosher certification on a place with half-naked servers?

Yet Mr. Editorial-Board continues, and places his foot squarely into his esophagus with this next line, which I hope "did not come out as intended":

Moreover, this effort will serve to dilute the place of halacha. Working conditions are fundamentally matters of economics, sociology and labor negotiations. Are issues such as minimum wage, vacation, sick leave and health coverage properly viewed as matters of halacha? Are they on the same level of halachic application as shechita, mixing meat and dairy, soaking and salting, etc.?

Hours are "working conditions".

Granted, no one would suggest full EEOC or Dept. of Labor audits, and also granted, American Labor Law contains minutiae and legal considerations which are external to Torah. Yet, even so, Rav Weiner said that a kashrus certification requires that one fulfill ALL of their civic obligations, which would include OSHA safety regulations as well as labor laws.

But to, with one fell swoop, doom an entire chapter of the Talmud to invalidity is unconscionable. What makes Yoreh Deah (the volume of the Code of Jewish Law dealing with food and forbidden mixtures) more valid than Choshen Mishpat?

I don't think the "Editorial Board" realizes the far-reaching implications of what they are saying. For instance, Chiquita Brands International was forced to pay a $25 million fine for the actions of its Colombian subsidiary from which it divested in 2004.

The agreement ended a lengthy Justice Department investigation into the company's financial dealings with right-wing paramilitaries and leftist rebels the U.S. government deems terrorist groups.

Prosecutors say the Cincinnati-based company agreed to pay about $1.7 million between 1997 and 2004 to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, known as AUC for its Spanish initials.

The author of said piece needs to wake up and smell the corruption. There is such a thing as mesayei'a l'ovrei aveirah. We are not supposed to assist sinners in committing sins. Exploiting one's workers or leaving a blood-trail behind one's product is patently sinful. (And if one of the workers is Jewish, it's also a question of standing idly by one's brother's blood, forbidden explicity in Scripture in Leviticus).

Everything matters. And to restrict kosher certification exclusively to what goes on in the kitchen is an egregious violation of, not the nebulous "spirit of the law", but of codified case law in the Code of Jewish Law.

It's either halacha -- the whole halacha -- or kosher Hooters. And I invite the anonymous op-ed writer to make his or her choice.

Posted by Y-Love at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

...the erev rav, the "mixed multitude" who left Egypt and were responsible for the Golden Calf -- the worst national show of idolatry in the history of the nation of Israel?

Is this a true statement?

“Before the coming of the Mashiach most of the Rabbanim will be from the Erev Rav etc. Because Israel in themselves are holy, but the Erev Rav work only for their own benefit as we can clearly see that the Rabbanim and the Chassidim and many regular Jews of the generation are, due to our many sins, mostly from the Erev Rav and want to rule over the public, and all their actions are only for their own sake, to acquire honor and money, and one should therefore only join with those who truly serve, who sacrifice themselves to Hashem not in order to receive any benefit”.

And their site, while not wholly on the same page with me (for instance, his views on family court and feminism are drastically different than mine), definitely has a revolutionary spirit worth checking into. The site contains stingingly critical PDFs which decry much of the goings-on today's generation of Orthodox Jews.

At a minimum, Mishpat Tzedek and I have three things in common.

We're both fed up. We both love Hashem and His Torah (as codified through halacha/Jewish Law, the practical manifestation of His Will), and we both know that, if the long-awaited Redemption is to come now, we're going to need to get it together.

Posted by Y-Love at 02:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Today The Los Angeles Times ran another perspective on Jerusalem's demographic shift, that of Richard Boudreaux, an LATimes columnist. He writes, looking back on Jerusalem's recent history:

Forty years ago, when Israel captured East Jerusalem and absorbed the Arab neighborhoods, it set out to maintain a large and sustainable Jewish majority in the city it was declaring its eternal and undivided capital. Instead, Jerusalem is gradually becoming more Palestinian and less Jewish.

Thousands of Jews leave the city each year, many of them alienated by an ascendant ultra-Orthodox minority that is asserting its socially conservative values and political power. Even as Jerusalem attracts a growing number of Palestinians, polls show that many less devout Jews are becoming estranged from it and are more willing to consider dividing it again.

Israeli analysts say one reason many Israelis would accept dividing Jerusalem is their estrangement from the city. The Jerusalem Institute poll showed that nearly two-thirds of Israelis thought of their capital as "a city of the ultra-Orthodox," nearly half said it was poor, and one-third considered it "scary to live in."

"Jerusalem is dismal, depressing. People there are nervous, agitated and cross," said Sharon Daya, 38, a swimming instructor who lived in the city all her life until she moved five years ago to a western suburb with her husband and three children. "I miss nothing about it. I go to great pains to avoid going there."...

They tend to be repelled by the city's poverty, threats of Palestinian violence and tensions with haredim, who have thrown rocks to stop Jerusalem traffic on the Sabbath and burned clothing stores for selling "immodest" attire. These less devout Jews often look to Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities as more attractive alternatives.

"More secular Israelis are beginning to relate to Jerusalem as culturally alien," said Yossi Klein-Halevy, a senior fellow at the Shalem Center, a Jerusalem research institute.

"That is potentially devastating for Jerusalem's centrality in Israel and within world Jewry," he said.

"The more Jerusalem turns haredi, the more secular Israelis will turn away, and that will have political consequences as future Israeli leaders decide whether to keep the city intact."

Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox community is like no other in the world. And while it is only fitting for the Holy City to have a different air than, say, Arkansas, the haredi world itself is fragmented, and is radicalizing out even many of its own members.

Continue reading "Clashing Values in the Holy City" »

Posted by Y-Love at 03:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

"For these things I cry; my eye, my eye runs down with water; because the Comforter is far from me...my children are desolate, because the enemy hath prevailed." -- Lamentations 1:16

Has the enemy prevailed?

Has the f-your-neighbor-f-the-poor attitude of secular right-wing culture done so much damage?

TwinCities.com reported today about one Minnesota (Conservative) Rabbi who has "stirred up controversy" by backing the tzedek hechsher, the Conservative Jewish movement's justice certification:

A dozen years ago, Rabbi Morris Allen stood before his congregation in this Twin Cities suburb to announce a program called Chew by Choice.

In the past year, however, Allen has extended his concern with kosher standards from adherence to religious ritual to commitment to social justice.

His drive to create a "hechsher tzedek," a justice certification, on the basis of how kosher food companies treat their workers, has brought him into intense conflict with the Orthodox authorities who traditionally have dominated the certification process.

Last month, the hechsher tzedek received formal endorsement from the Rabbinical Assembly, the national association of Conservative rabbis. In voting to support Allen's initiative with an unspecified amount of "volunteer and financial support," the assembly invoked a verse from Deuteronomy declaring, "You shall not abuse a needy and destitute laborer, whether a fellow countryman or a stranger."

While the catalyst for Allen's action was a series of articles in the Forward weekly newspaper about accusations that workers at a large kosher slaughterhouse in Iowa are exploited, the resulting conflict has far wider import...By religious tradition and in some cases state law as well, kosher certification generally rests with Orthodox boards. The Orthodox Union, the largest force in certification, oversees more than half the kosher items in circulation. So the entrance of the Conservative movement into the field represents a challenge to the Orthodox authorities not only on ethical grounds but also on market share.

From R' Chaim Ozer Grodzienski to the Chofetz Chaim to today's Orthodox leaders, the idea of "interdenominational cooperation" within the various Jewish "denominations" is largely eschewed at worst, and severely curtailed at best. With the possible exception of anti-missionary campaigns, there is virtually no issue regarding Jewish observance that will get the "denominations" -- which range in belief from "personal autonomy" and "decide your own laws" to "do not depart from your ancestors' ways in the slightest" -- to "agree upon." And indeed, this was a primary if not the main issue when when the Jewish Press ran the article in January:

In December 2006, a call came from outside the sphere of Orthodox kosher certifiers for a tsedek heckscher or justice certification that would ensure that kosher food producers “have met a set of standards that determine the social responsibility of kosher food producers, particularly in the area of worker rights.”

The [Orthodox Rabbinical Organization] views the suggestion as an attempt by those outside the observant community to infiltrate and dilute the existing framework of kashrus certifications.

These things need to be addressed by the haredi communities themselves.

Prefacing everything with the caveat from Rav Weiner:

Addressing the issue at a meeting of rabbis in Flatbush was Rabbi Moshe Y. Weiner, rabbinic administrator of the Kosher Information and Service of Boro Park and Flatbush. Rabbi Weiner stressed that a kashrus certification could not (and must not) be awarded to a food-producing establishment that does not meet all of its required civic and legal obligations.

Without the necessary municipal and other mandatory permits on full display as mandated, no kashrus certification could be valid, stressed Rabbi Weiner.

Would we buy free porn for masturbatory teenagers? Would we offer "free fill-up on premium for all getaway cars"? Obviously not. We do not give people additional sins or "beef up" people's already-being-committed sins.

While external, nebulous "standards" derived from "verses in Deuteronomy" do originate from "alien impositions" as the Jewish Press Op-Ed piece stated (apparently), my fear is that we could create an environment where, for the food service industry, the entire Choshen Mishpat, the entire body of Jewish civil and labor laws, is effectively relegated to irrelevance and impertinence.

And here's why the "velt" or "the system" is not at fault:

The universally highly-regarded HaEdah HaCharedis Kashrus Beis Din in Jerusalem as well as Rabbi Shmuel Wosner, author of Shevet Levi and leading posek, have been alerted to the suspicious machinations of those attempting to impose the so-called hekhsher tzedek.

It is my opinion that the Orthodox community should be the most vocal in trying to rid all theft and oppression from its communities, to shake off the dust of theft which covers so many of us, like the Talmud says. Every crumb of chometz/leaven must be removed from our homes before Passover, and this leaven, we are taught represents our own Evil Inclinations which try to tempt us to sin. Will we allow this huge breadbasket of materialism-driven pooh-poohing of gezeilah and oshek while punctiliously checking freezers?

Where are we?

I pray that only the truth of halacha comes out of this interplay, and more importantly, I hope that G-d's Will -- for all people, and all paychecks, involved -- gets done.

If we can get food lelo chashash tevel orlah u'shvi'is, we should be able to get food lelo chashash gezel, oshek v'ribbis. Ha'meivinim yavinu v'yaskilu.

Posted by Y-Love at 04:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

As YNet reports today:

Head of the rabbinical conversion courts in Israel, Rabbi Haim Druckman, slammed on Sunday a rabbinical judge from Ashdod for his decision to annul the conversion of a woman who converted 15 years ago.

Druckman criticized the judge, Rabbi Avraham Atiya, for his harsh statements regarding the conversion courts in Israel, and spoke against "the closed haredi clique."

The Ashdod rabbinical court recently announced that the convert and her children were no longer Jewish, after the woman admitted to Rabbi Atiya that she never observed the mitzvot. After declaring the woman's conversion invalid, Atiya also stated that the conversion courts were run by "heretics and criminals who annihilate the Jewish people and push it toward assimilation."

My personal instinct is to side with Rabbi Atiya. And not just because I'm charedi.

Jewish Law contains a principle called giluy da'at -- by someone's actions afterwards, you can judge retroactively what their mindset "must have been" at a point in time. Conversion requires that the convert "accept upon themselves the yoke of the commandments". If a person were to say, go directly from immersion (the culmination of the conversion process) and order a BLT, we would say that "this eating a BLT shows that this person never intended to keep kosher".

If this woman for any amount of time would have been observant, this would not be an issue, she would be no more than any other Jew who goes through a rough time with observance. Even 15 years of laxity doesn't render someone a non-Jew.

But her "never" having kept mitzvot -- this shows something. She either must not have accepted them on herself as binding, or she just wanted to get G-d angry (ch"v).

Either way, while her heart-wrenching story may incense some, Rabbi Atiya's ruling remains -- as far as the halacha is concerned, she never performed an integral part of the conversion process: accepting G-d's rule, through His Law, over her life.

And it's kind of hard to have a legitimate conversion without that.

Posted by Y-Love at 02:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

One of my friends from MySpace.com told his father about my previous article, where I detailed an email I received, signed by two prominent rabbis, about how Crest toothpaste may be made with ingredients derived from pork fat.

His father went -- not to his phone, but directly to a Crest employee at a recent "Hygiene Extravaganza". Well that Crest employee went apparently to Bill Landrigan, of Procter & Gamble's Professional & Scientific Relations department. Here is P&G/Crest's newest official response:

Continue reading "Joint KOSHER and HALAL Products Update: Crest Toothpaste and Pork Fat" »

Posted by Y-Love at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Sometimes I feel like a lone voice denouncing racism in the charedi world. Many of the same households in which people are ejected from Shabbos tables or have their conversations quickly cut short at even the mention of a non-Jewish song lyric or mythological deity will pooh-pooh some of the most virulent racist language.

And, when derogatory terms for non-Jews like "shaiggitz" and "shiksa" began to fall out of vogue, "shvartzer" remained and still is acceptable language in some circles.

Indeed, I even have myself witness words like "shvartzer" (or "spic") nonchalantly "just slip out" of the mouths of even people close to me derogatorily -- something which would never happen with, say, the F word.

So a post as brilliant as Chabakuk Elisha's on A Simple Jew stands out among its peers in the JBlogosphere. In a place where there are no leaders, Mr. Elisha is trying to lead.

His six paragraphs give us an insight into his feelings about this overlooked problem:

Disdain for people and belief systems that oppose Yiddishkeit (Judaism) I can understand, but the old-fashioned, peasant-like, uncivilized and coarse commonly accepted hatred and speech regarding other races can be more than just disgusting.

Obviously, not everyone is this way, but it is prevalent enough that it is tolerated by even those that do not share the view. I've heard the ugliest terms and opinions about other races in all kinds of places, and 99% of the time nobody objects...

I have had the sit-down meeting with each of my older children when they have uttered a disgustingly racist word or idea – heard in school from classmates or even teachers or faculty members; they didn't even realize there was anything wrong with it. I sit down with them and we discuss it...

Mr. Elisha's post concludes with his hopeful attitude and realism:

I must clarify that "heimishe" racism isn't about violence; I've never heard someone express a desire to take up any action, even if they themselves were materially damaged in some way. And other than the occasional individual caught in the commission a crime (in which case, Hashem yerachem), it's not common to hear anyone express a desire that any violent action be taken up – nevertheless, the hatred is there.

So, while I know I can't change the guy that told me he wouldn't call them "nig..rs" if they didn't act like it," and I can't change the guy that told me he wishes, "they were wiped of the face of the Earth" – I have wasted enough time debating these morons – and I realize that the 20 year old Klausenberger camp counselor that teaches the bunk a song with the line about slapping the goy in the face...isn't going to change into a better person, I can continue to speak with my children and complain to administrators, and maybe sometimes it'll make a difference.

I can't change the overall attitudes; I know, but in my area of influence, I can still try.

The latter is building our exile.

Posted by Y-Love at 03:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

No commentary really necessary on this one -- this has been all over the wires this entire past week.

See the Navy Times. See the slightly sensationalistic KCRG who reported Navy vet David Miller as saying:

Miller also claims a chaplain repeatedly pushed Christianity on him. He says he had to yell for nurses to remove the chaplain.

Miller called VA staff, “Fundamentalist Christian predators who spread their cancerous tentacles through the American military and Veterans Administration."

Hospital spokesman Kirt Sickels says they're taking Miller's complaints seriously. He says it's standard practice to conduct a spiritual assessment of each patient.

After speaking with hospital administration and writing a letter to Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, Miller said he will sue. "I think this is pretty offensive," he said. "This is the only access to health care that I have as a disabled veteran. They tried to convert me when I was hooked up to a heart monitor, twice...."

Posted by Y-Love at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education (PEJE) released findings today on Jewish day school alumni. "This survey validates what we have long seen anecdotally across the country, which is that Jewish day schools are effectively preparing students for college, while ensuring they will carry a solid grounding in Judaism," said Rabbi Joshua Elkin, executive director of PEJE.

Some of the topline findings of the study:

JUST SAYING NO: Former Jewish day school students are more resistant to social pressures that lead to binge drinking and other risky behaviors than their public and private school peers.

-- BURSTING THE SOCIAL BUBBLE: Jewish high school alumni develop diverse social networks that extend well beyond their day school connections. Only a small minority (11%) indicated that most of their friends continue to be those they met in high school.

-- SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE: Students who attended Jewish day school for at least six years are more likely to become involved in socially responsible activities, such as community volunteerism and advocacy, than their public and private school peers.

Ho-hum. Another day, another case for religious education.

Posted by Y-Love at 01:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Iranian delegate Mohamed Sadiq Husseini and American Jewish delegate Joseph Ehrenkrenz got into a shouting match at the 5th Doha Conference on Inter-Faith Dialogue this past Wednesday following Ehrenkrenz's making what Husseini took as inaccurate accusations against Iran. Husseini, an advisor at the General Secretariat for the Centre for Iran-Arab Cooperation in Tehran, angrily interrupted when Ehrenkrenz who said Tehran wanted to eliminate all the Jews in Israel.

Speakers included Dr Souad Al Hakim, from Lebanon; Joseph Ehrenkrenz, from the US; David Lazar, from Israel; John Taylor, from the US; and Jerald Whitehouse from Venezuela. Professor Saad Harib, from the UAE; and Dr Mohamed Ben Breika, from Algeria, were the moderators.

Qatar's Peninsula Daily reports:

An Iranian delegate stunned the audience at an international inter-faith dialogue here yesterday when he angrily interrupted an American panelist who said Tehran wanted to eliminate all the Jews in Israel.

Joseph Ehrenkrenz was in the middle of his speech when Mohamed Sadiq Husseini shouted back at him.

"Ya, Yahud!," (Oh, Jews!), he said loudly, putting his microphone on, "Iran does not have any such agenda. What you are saying is a lie. Contrarily, your designs are suspect…Look, what you are doing at ‘Guatenamobay’."

Ehrenkrenz said that in the 1930s, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem congratulated Hitler for his anti-Jewish stance and "sought his help"...

The biggest challenge before the rabbis (Jewish spiritual leaders) today is to protect the community. Palestinians have influenced Muslims around the world. "We are getting threats from Tehran. Their decision is to eliminate all the Jews in Israel. The UN is not taking any action," said Ehrenkrenz.

No sooner than he finished his sentence, Husseini, who is advisor at the General Secretariat for the Centre for Iran-Arab Cooperation in Tehran, interrupted him with an angry protest, speaking in Arabic.

However, this, in the big picture, may prove irrelevant if everyone takes the same plan of action as the Israeli delegate David Lazar:

One-to-one meetings between delegates representing the three different faiths have been taking place on the sidelines of the convention on sensitive community and religious issues and on how to further dialogue, especially between Muslim and Jewish leaders.

"We will keep in touch with one another through e-mail and personal visits. This is important," said Lazar.

Posted by Y-Love at 05:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From the Canadian Jewish News:

A retired U.S. Navy chaplain says his experience as a rabbi in the armed forces taught him that focusing on common social issues is the best way to improve relations between Christians and Jews.

“The secret of the chaplain corps was not talking about theology first...Instead, we rolled up our sleeves and talked about shared concerns [first] – [soldiers] in pain, those in fear, those suffering from doubt or loneliness,” Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff told the the 21st annual Neighbourhood Interfaith Dinner...

Rabbi Resnicoff said it’s possible to be moved by the faith and teachings of others, noting that he was inspired to become a rabbi by a Christian chaplain who served with him in the Vietnam War...He said Jews and Christians have “conflicting visions of the end of days,” and so he stressed the importance of working together on issues in the here and now, such as poverty and homelessness.

“The more we focus on getting through today – making this a better day – the more we can agree. Therefore, focus on poverty, crime, injustice and discrimination. Work on projects like Habitat for Humanity, which help the homeless.”

Rabbi Resnicoff outlined three pitfalls to avoid in interfaith dialogue, which he calls the “rules of engagement.” Firstly, he said comparisons between religious groups can’t be a comparison between “our best and their worst.” Secondly, one can never compare “our teachings to their actions.” Thirdly, in a comparison of teachings, don’t compare “our beliefs to their words” because beliefs are learned in context while words can be taken out of context from others’ holy books.

What did he call for religious citizens to form a united front to combat?

Poverty, crime, injustice and discrimination.

Four things which no religion advocates, yet four things which are often caused by disunity. Actions and gestures of interfaith unity deserve the utmost of respect.

Posted by Y-Love at 05:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Jerusalem's demographers have released their census projections for the near future for Jerusalem. The Holy City has seen a Jewish population increase of 140% since it was reunified in the Six Day War.

On the "Arab" side, however, the population has increased 257% over the same period, outpacing their Jewish counterparts by 83%. If current trends continue, Jerusalem is in for a huge demographic shift.

The Jerusalem Post reports:

The capital's Arab population has increased at more than twice the rate of its Jewish inhabitants over the last decade, according to a survey released by the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies on Monday. By 2020, if current trends continue, 60 percent of Jerusalem residents will be Jews, while the remaining 40% will be Arabs.

The city's population is currently 720,000, 66% Jews and 34% Arabs.

Its population has increased by 170% from 300,000 since it was reunified in the Six Day War. In the last four decades, the Arab population of Jerusalem has grown by 257% (from 68,000 residents to 245,000) while the number of Jewish inhabitants has increased by 140% (from 200,000 to 475,000), the survey shows.

The Arab growth rate over the last decade was 3-4%, the survey found, more than double that for Jews.

"If these trends continue, we could reach the 60/40 rate by 2020, and by 2035 we could see the same number of Jews and Arabs in the city," senior institute researcher Dr. Miya Hoshen said.

Tens of thousands of Israelis continue to migrate from the city to the suburbs, a trend that began in the 1980s.

...Among the main reasons cited by those who have left the city are better job opportunities and more affordable housing.

And let's remember, Jerusalem is not Tel Aviv. The average salary in Jerusalem is actually 18% less than in Tel Aviv with the average salary in Jerusalem (of all workers) being about (again using the same rule-of-thumb rate) $1800 per month gross.

And let's not forget about employment status: perhaps another reason that the Jerusalem demographic is changing could be the fact that the Arab employment rate is higher than its Jewish counterpart with 76% of Arab households containing employed persons, as opposed to 66% on the Israeli side.

We need to see economic development initiatives increasing exponentially in the Jerusalem area. The residents of Jerusalem need economic empowerment. We need to see a proliferation of things like Startup Jerusalem to draw entrepreneurs and small business. The Jerusalem Development Authority should continue to draw investment and business development to the region.

The poverty rate in Jerusalem has increased 40% since 2000 to the point that 1 in 3 Jerusalem families were living in poverty in 2005. And this is not explained by a simple, curt "oh, they're haredim learning in kollel somewhere."

These ultra-luxury complexes going up in the Holy City are beautiful, and are bringing, baruch Hashem, many American and European Jews who may not have otherwise come. But they're driving out Israeli Jews and no one is replacing them. Moshe Q. Tzibbur simply can't afford to pay 50% or more of his Israeli salary in housing expenses. The Jews leaving are primarily young adults aged 20-34, perhaps newly married religious couples going off to start a new life in affordable Beit Shemesh, or secular people going off to make more money in Tel Aviv. Regardless of their psychographic, the 20-34 age group is always a key group to innovation, driving a city's economy and a city's general vibrance.

I'm sure Jerusalem will miss them.

We see, now, perhaps, some of the preliminary effects of the gentrification of Jerusalem. And it is most ironic that in Jerusalem, the Holy City of all places, there seems to be a dearth of affordable housing.

May G-d save us from a world in which corporate greed and real estate luxe takes over His Holy City as we see in many metropolises around the world. May the Holy City never become an exclusive playground for billionaires. I believe with all my heart that the same Holy City which three times a year made space for all of the Nation of Israel to enter its gates surely can hold under a million Jews in adequate affordable living situations. Should the privilege of living in the Holy City come with a Lower Manhattan pricetag?

Jerusalem can't let this gentrification continue. Economic development and affordable (rent-stabilized perhaps?) housing of some type must be a priority in Jerusalem, and the rest of the world.

Posted by Y-Love at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

to love Israel. Or to support IDF soldiers in their faith or to provide IDF soldiers with a holiday celebration.

The world-renowned kabbalists, Harav Ya'akov Hillel shlit"a and Ha'Rav David Batsri shlit"a will G-d willing, this Sunday, Lag Ba'Omer, be addressing a group of 500 IDF troops in Jerusalem. As the Jerusalem Post tells us:

Rabbi Ya'acov Hillel, head of the Ahavat Shalom Yeshiva and Rabbi David Batzri, head of Yeshivat Hashalom are scheduled to address the soldiers in Jerusalem Sunday on the anniversary of the death of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, who, according to Jewish tradition, authored the Zohar, the basic text of Kabbala.

Batzri's son, Yitzhak, who is also slated to speak before the soldiers, said Kabbalists and soldiers had complementary roles in fighting Israel's enemies....

Both Batzri and Hillel are students of Rabbi Salman Mutzafi, who was a senior member of the virulently anti-Zionist and now defunct Sephardi Edah Haredit. Like their teacher, neither Batzri nor Hillel vote in Israeli elections.

"We do not want to be participants in a state that passes laws inimical to Judaism," said Yitzhak Batzri. But Batzri said that defending the Jewish people was a tremendous merit.

"By protecting the Jewish people those soldiers are doing an incredibly important mitzva," he said. "Only Torah study is more important. But if a Jew is not learning Torah then he is obligated to enlist in the army."

"But if a Jew is not learning Torah then he is obligated to enlist in the army."

GASP!

May the actions of these rebbeim contribute to achdus Yisra'el by helping to quell one of the biggest rifts in Israeli society -- the haredi vs. hiloni split over military service.

Whether or not this statement changes an individual's decision as to whether or not to enlist in IDF service or to remain in learning is irrelevant. Regardless of how the individual Jew or Jewish institution paskens, the statement has been said. By the son of a chacham.

[Said Yitzhak Batzri], "We learn from [the teaching of Jacob's wrestling with the angel] that in every generation there are two planes of struggle: The primary one is spiritual and the secondary one is material. One takes place in the heavenly realm, the other on the battlefield."

"By protecting the Jewish people those soldiers are doing an incredibly important mitzva," he said.

L'ma'an ha'Torah, that's got to have some validity.

And keep in mind, these are gedolei Yisra'el, great Rabbis of Israel, who learned under anti-Zionists. And here they are, telling IDF soldiers that they're doing a mitzva. Just for saving lives and defending lives of Jewish people.

You don't have to be a Zionist -- you don't even have to support the medinah or vote in elections -- to support Jews, Israel, or even, apparently, IDF personnel. So, hopefully, once and for all, this will end the "oh, you don't consider yourself Zionist? So you think Israel should be destroyed and millions of Jews killed?" question.

And again, this has nothing to do with the ins and outs of Zionism or how "right" it is (or whether or not it is right, or what it even consists of in 2007). It just needs to be delineated: there's such a thing as "Zionism" and such a thing as "supporting Israel" (and/or "supporting Jews"). Let's delineate the two and enable ourselves to, like Offspring, keep them separated in our minds.

Posted by Y-Love at 07:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

From The Jerusalem Post:

The haredi community launched what might prove to be the nation's largest-ever consumer bloc on Sunday.

Dozens of yeshivot, seminaries, women's schools and other educational institutions from all walks of haredi society - Lithuanian, Hassidic and Sephardi - plan to concentrate their buying power. Working together, these institutions hope to eliminate the middlemen and pressure wholesalers to lower prices.

The official creation of the consumer bloc was announced Sunday at a conference at Airport City near Ben-Gurion Airport.

But when potentially millions of shekels go walking, the businesses come talking. In Yiddish and lashon ha'kodesh. With a rabbi in front of them.

"We hope to achieve savings on staple products and food of as much as 30%," said former Knesset Finance Committee Chairman Ya'acov Litzman (United Torah Judaism)...

Every fourth baby born in Israel is haredi and so is 52% of the Jewish population under 18 year old.

Haredi demand for some products - such as diapers, soft drinks and public transportation - far exceeds the community's relative size in the general population. This became apparent during the El Al boycott: Haredi consumers, guided by their spiritual leaders, put pressure on the national airline to stop flying on Shabbat by brandishing their disproportionately high demand for aviation services as a bargaining chip.

"No other consumer group enjoys such discipline and unity," said Dr. Shlomo Ness, an attorney and accountant who chairs the professional advisory committee that will help the amalgam of haredi institutions organize under a single banner.

Orthodox institutions from all over Israel, uniting under a single banner, to make sure that Torah-observant consumers have their concerns addressed and their needs met. Making sure Torah gets a fair shake in the Israeli business arena.

A new application of Torah im derech eretz -- Torah together with the business world.

Posted by Y-Love at 01:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In my previous post, I vented what I was feeling inside regarding what I felt to be an unfair double standard placed on Orthodox Jews. We are supposed to compromise our beliefs and observances to be more "modern", more "with it", more "accommodating", and, quite often, if we dare say words like "must" or "supposed to", we're accused of being overbearing sticks-in-the-mud.

One commenter said, as a result of reading my post, "I didn't know that (perfect faith) was a prerequisite to not being treated like (crap)." Reactions like this always lead me to scream the same anguished yelp, "Why don't people realize that I'm not advocating this?"

Who would advocate people being treated like crap. "Not giving someone an aliya" is not a blanket permission to treat someone like crap, all I was implying that, by not giving a Conservative rabbi an aliya, the person wouldn't necessarily be halachically in the wrong. For treating someone like crap, however, someone would be halachically in the wrong.

The Shabbos guest should politely decline, the aliya can easily be passed off to the rabbi's son/brother/gabbai. There is no reason necessarily for a halacha-based difficulty to turn into an interpersonal issue. And this is beautifully demonstrated by today's In the Trenches blog on the JPost site. First Mr. David Harris brings up the Rav Mordechai Eliyahu quote. Then:

And in the second incident, Micky Boyden, a Reform rabbi who moved to Israel and lost a son serving in the army in Lebanon, had his invitation to chant (k)El Moleh Rahamim at the local commemoration for Israel’s war dead rescinded by the local council in Hod Hasharon after some...threatened to disrupt the solemn ceremony because he is Reform.

Forgive me, but are we nuts? An ordained rabbi leaves Britain and moves to Israel with his family. His son makes the ultimate sacrifice for his adopted nation. And yet local officials...deny him the opportunity to lead a prayer at a public event in connection with Memorial Day.

The previous post referred to simple actions like not giving an aliya. Here is someone not being refused a religious honor, but the congregation being told, "if you give this guy this honor, we're going to bring the ruckus."

There is a big difference between the two, and I hope that such a distinction is readily apparent.

Posted by Y-Love at 01:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So today my initial survey on Judaism and events went live.

Please take a moment to fill it out. It is my hope that this initial excursion into polling will eventually lead to a more comprehensive gauging of just...well...where people are at.

Posted by Y-Love at 04:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

From Malaysia-based JUST International (The International Movement For a Just World) comes this story of Jewish-Muslim co-operation and dialogue.

A contingent of about seventy Jews and Muslims from throughout Western Europe who are involved or interested in creating interfaith dialogue on a community level met last week at the Conference on Jewish-Muslim Dialogue held in Brussels. The article relates:

What is the role of the Middle East conflict in Jewish-Muslim dialogue? Is the media a positive force for change in inter-religious relations? How can local communities be successfully engaged in dialogue? These were a number of the questions tackled by representatives of Jewish and Muslim organisations at a Conference on Jewish-Muslim Dialogue held in Brussels...

Addressed by speakers including Imam Dr Abduljalil Sajid (Chairman of the Muslim Council for Religious and Racial Harmony UK), Rabbi Michel Serfaty (Founder & President of Amitié Judéo-Musulmane de France) and European Commission Culture Director Vladimir Sucha, participants were reminded of their shared religious and cultural heritage and were encouraged to join forces rather than working against each other.

A key outcome of the Conference was the establishment of a European Platform for Jewish-Muslim Co-operation to both encourage and to raise the profile of local, national and Europe-wide dialogue and co-operation initiatives.
In providing a forum for the sharing of experiences, ideas and good practices, the Conference also witnessed the initiation of new partnerships

In providing a forum for the sharing of experiences, ideas and good practices, the Conference also witnessed the initiation of new partnerships between organisations and the development of project ideas in the arts, media coverage of Jewish and Muslim issues, religious diversity training, grassroots involvement, academic co-operation and joint lobbying efforts. Awards for best practice in Jewish-Muslim co-operative initiatives were also proposed....

Ken yirbu, and considering the rise in both Muslim and Jewish visibility and community size in places like France and the UK, dialogue like this is only going to prove itself more and more necessary as time goes on.

Posted by Y-Love at 12:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Jerusalem Post today ran the story about the new Israeli census. Today , Israel stands at 7.15 million, a 1.8% increase over last year. 75.7% of Israel's population are Jews.

Israel's population increased by 121,000, or 1.8 percent, since last year's Independence Day, reaching a total of 7,150,000.

The Central Bureau of Statistics released the data ahead of Independence Day, which starts Monday evening.

The population growth was mainly a product of a high birthrate. Some 148,000 babies were born in 2006, and 18,400 new immigrants arrived.

According to the latest CBS figures, out of 24,000 Israelis who left the country in 2004 for a period of more than 12 months, 10,000 have returned.

Israel's 5,415,000 Jews and 310,000 "others" - mostly non-Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union or those whose Jewish status is undetermined - make up 80% of Israel's population. The Arab and Druse population numbers 1,425,000, or 20% of Israel's citizens.

The country's five largest cities, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Rishon Lezion and Ashdod, account for a quarter of the population, or 1,810,300 people. Another 462,200, or 6%, live in small towns, while just 119,700 - less than 2% - live on kibbutzim.

The Jerusalem Post also referenced a less readily-available study:

Approximately 47% of the population would, if born again, prefer for that to happen somewhere other than Israel, according to an "alternative survey" conducted by the Geocartographic Institute's iGeo subsidiary.

The survey, conducted in early April among 500 Israeli Jews, found that 70% of Israelis from the FSU would prefer to be reborn outside Israel, 19% of them specifying Russia as their country of choice and 15% the US.

Among wealthy local-born Israelis, 62% said they would like to be reborn abroad, 18% in the US or Canada, 8% in Switzerland and 6% in Sweden.

The survey revealed surprising findings from pensioners; 59% said they would rather live abroad. Twelve percent would choose the US, 9% Switzerland, 6% Australia and 3% would seek retirement in New Zealand.

Among the poor, 58% would have preferred to be reborn abroad, a figure close to that among the wealthy, which stands at 52%. Most in both groups mentioned the US and Canada as their chosen alternative homeland.

In contrast, 83% of the modern Orthodox sector, 80% of those living in rural towns and kibbutzim, and 65% of Israel's well off pensioners said they would choose to be reborn in Israel.

Posted by Y-Love at 04:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

You have wearied the Lord with your words, and you say, "How have we wearied [Him]?"-By your saying, "Every evildoer is good in the Lord's sight, and He desires them," or, "Where is the God of judgment?" - Malachi 2:17

While I am the first to admit that there are lamentable shortcomings in the Orthodox World, and the bitter lack of ahavas Yisra'el not being the least of them, some things are just not justified and only serve as fodder for anti-charedi prejudice. Haredi Jews are the one group of Jews, it seems, that it is always kosher to diss in any and all forums, and the one group that people seem loath to defend. Once someone raises the banner of Torah, they apparently lower the banner of their own dignity.

Jonathan Schorsch, an instructor of Jewish Studies at Columbia University, graced the pages of the Jerusalem Post today with a piece so melodramatic it seems to seek to evoke pathos with the same efficacy as syrup of ipecac. Putting non-Orthodox clergy squarely into the "victim" category, Schorsch's article is symptomatic of the same anti-haredi spin I hear far too often in Jewish media:

Why many Jews might feel the Orthodox do hate them

By JONATHAN SCHORSCH

I vividly recall sitting in a shiur years back at a synagogue one Shabbat afternoon. The rabbi, a man from Iran who got his ordination at Yeshiva University, followed a digression that led him to proclaim, to shout, really, that it would be better to be a Christian than a Conservative or Reform Jew. He cited as support Rabbi Moshe Feinstein's teshuva that an Orthodox air conditioner repairman may not enter a Conservative or Reform synagogue even if only to repair the equipment. It is forbidden, went the logic, to enter a place where one knows a priori that there is no kedusha.

REMEMBER one motz'ei Shabbat when I heard a lecture by the head of a very liberal Orthodox organization. He insisted throughout on the importance of not drawing lines between Jews. Afterward, during the informal conversation some audience members had struck up with him, it turned out that some lines were, indeed, critical. He said, for instance, that a Conservative rabbi should not be given an aliya at an Orthodox synagogue.

Why? I asked.

Because one cannot be sure that when he says the blessing (no mention was made of women rabbis) that he has in mind the same idea of God. Astounding narishkeyt! Does anyone really believe that the Baba Sali and Yosef Soloveitchik held the same idea of God?!

The JTS, the main seminary for Conservative Judaism, contains on its website guidelines for how to introduce highschoolers to the Documentary Hypothesis, an intellectual theory that the Torah, G-d forbid, had multiple human authors, none of whom were a Divine Entity. In other words, this institution is teaching that four guys, who lived at various times, wrote the Torah, and not G-d(Rachmana litzlan). This, in the eyes of Maimonides (whose 13 affirmations of faith are repeated in various forms in synagogues throughout the world) and according to at least one Talmudic opinion, constitutes heresy, kefirah. It renders he who holds this belief a kofer, a denier of the Divinity of the Torah.

To say that "not giving rabbi X an aliya" is an action equatable with anti-Semitism, racism, or any other sociological division is preposterous. This is an action, essentially, which has nothing to do with "denominational lines", it is simply a statement of faith. The bottom line is that the Orthodox rabbi was calling up people to read from a holy, G-d-given text, whereas the Conservative rabbi may see himself as being called up to hear words from a text written by four ancient Israelites.

A non-Orthodox rabbi once told me that what he liked about Judaism is that there were no "loyalty oaths", that one could believe whatever they wanted and it still be "Judaism". One could see how such a viewpoint would not jibe well with those who see the Talmud as being Divine, halacha/Jewish Law as being Divinely guided, or those who see the Hebrew Scriptures as a Divine text.

The Torah Jew says, "I believe with perfect faith that the Torah given to Moses is the same one in our hands", this man believed that Moses may or may not have ever existed (ch"v).

What Schorsch is in effect saying is that the exhortations of the Code of Jewish Law, of the Talmud, of Maimonides sho