This will destroy your stereotypes of Haredim
Translation: And if you've had enough of stereotypes: Haredi youths came to the memorial service for Shira Banki z"l (of blessed memory) and distributed popsicles to the participants. Lovely! Photography: Elimelech Zilberschlag.
Labels: Haredim
Huh? Satmar going Zionist
Members of the Satmar Hassidic sect are
going Zionist and moving to Israel (Hat Tip:
Mrs. Carl).
The Satmar Hassidic sect is infamous for its anti-Zionist creed, but according to a weekend exposé by Zvika Klein of Makor Rishon & NRG,
a small group of the hassidim in New York City is secretly planning to
make aliyah and establish a Zionist agricultural community.
The organization is named “Zoreah – Hassidim for Settling the Land of
Israel” and includes mostly Satmar hassidim, as well as some hassidim
from other dynasties. They were all raised to hate Zionism and the state
of Israel, and some of them even attend anti-Israel protests to this
day. But they all decided, after deep study, that making aliyah should
be their main goal in life.
"There is great hatred for Zionism in the community I live in,” one
of them told Klein. “Anything I say that can be understood as support
for Zionism, will haunt me and my family. There is a real mafia out
there that can threaten to throw my children out of the educational
institutes, and since we do not have an alternative at the moment, I and
the rest of my friends cannot expose our identities yet.”
Instead, the hassid said – they are opting for an approach to their
dream that is gradual – “like everything having to do with the
Redemption.”
...
The plans to make aliyah are very real. Members of the group have
already visited Israel in search of a suitable location for their
agricultural community. Aaron visited Givat Ze'ev, became enamored with
the scenic view and the proximity to Jerusalem, and told the other
members – “this is the spot.”
The members' wives and children speak Yiddish and some English.
However, Jerusalem, Bnei Brak, Bet Shemesh and other haredi
concentrations are “irrelevant for us,” Aaron said, because the haredim
in Israel “are not in love with the Land they live on, like we are.”
Finding the right place is not easy, he conceded: “finding a
Yiddish-speaking congregation that is not anti-Zionist is very hard. If
you are a nationalist, you do not speak Yiddish.”
The first group of Zoreah olim will take a few years before it makes
aliyah, according to Aaron, but he does not intend to wait. He plans to
make aliyah this summer, with his family.
Messiah's times!
Labels: aliya, Haredim, Satmar Hasidim
Israel to hold elections on March 17
Prime Minister
Netanyahu fired Ministers Yair Lapid and Tzipi Livni on Tuesday, effectively bringing about the government's fall. It's been less than 21 months since the last election.
One reason he felt comfortable doing this is the tweet above. Lapid's party (which currently has 19 seats) will be cut in half, while I've seen polls that indicate that Livni's party will disappear.
The likely beneficiary of the move is the Jewish Home party leader,
Naftali Bennett.
Bennett stands to gain because, according to every single poll, his
party is the only one that can be expected to grow by 50% or more in the
ballots. Presently, Jewish Home has 12 MKs. The polls predict 17, 19,
maybe more. These numbers are commensurate with those Bennett had in the
polls in late 2012, before an extremely hurtful – and self-injuring –
Likud election campaign reduced his public support.
Bennett is now the likely candidate for minister of defense, come
April. Since defense is Bennett's forte – although finances are
certainly not a point of weakness for the all-Israeli hi-tech superstar
economics minister – this is without a doubt the position he is angling
for. The public is not ready for Bennett as prime minister, and people
close to him, like Minister Uri Orbach, say so too. But a successful and
dominant defense minister who brings security back to the Israeli
streets, and possibly spearheads a strike on Iran's nuclear industry,
later in his term, is a shoo-in to replace Binyamin Netanyahu at the
country's helm, when the time comes.
Leaks from Netanyahu and Bennett's immediate surroundings confirm
that Bennett has been talking to Netanyahu about the position of defense
minister, post-elections, and that Netanyahu has come to accept that
Bennett will be his most senior partner in the next government. Bennett
confirmed as much – most likely intentionally – when he scolded Minister Uri Ariel
the other day, and told him that his insistence on taking up more space
on the Jewish Home list than Bennett is willing to give him will cost
the party the defense minister's position.
For more analysis of Bennett's moves,
read the whole thing.
Others who may benefit from the March 17 elections (which were agreed upon by party heads on Wednesday morning - the government should officially fall on Wednesday afternoon) are the
Haredi parties.
Primaries will be held in Likud and Jewish Home in early
January, with votes on the head of the Likud on January 6 and similar
votes for leadership of Jewish Home the day before.
Hareidi MK Menachem Eliezer Moses (United Torah Judaism) spoke about
the recent polls that indicate Netanyahu will need the hareidi parties
in order to form a new coalition, saying "according to the polls we see
that without the hareidim it's impossible to move, no?"
Netanyahu accused Lapid the night before of trying to form an
alternate coalition to replace him with the hareidim, even as Lapid
denied siding with the hareidim in pubic statements. Netanyahu likewise
denied reports he had sought out a coalition with the hareidim.
The election's timing is likely to help the Haredim. It occurs on the Tuesday before the end of the winter semester in Yeshivas and Kollelim (the semester ends on Thursday the 19th in most of them). That means the final run-up to the election won't interfere too much with studies, while the vote will take place before many of the scholars leave for the Passover holiday. Hmmm.
For those who are wondering about my relative silence over the last couple of days, I have been busy earning a living this week....
Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Haredim, Jewish Home party, Knesset elections 2015, Naftali Bennett, Tzipi Livni, Yair Lapid
'Fool me once, shame on you...'
Rav Aryeh Leib Shteinman, Shlita (May he live good and long days), the acknowledged leader of the Lithuanian Haredim in Israel, has ordered the Degel HaTorah (Lithuanian) component of the United Torah Judaism party not to agree to any deals with Prime Minister Netanyahu, effectively
killing for now any rapprochement between Netanyahu and the Haredi parties. But Netanyahu actually has to be pretty happy about this.... Note the bold language below.
Netanyahu hoped that UTJ and Shas would promise to recommend to
President Reuven Rivlin that he form a coalition after the election.
The prime minister was rejected Saturday night by Shas leader Arye Deri and MK Ya’acov Litzman of UTJ’s Agudat Israel party.
Shteinman,
100, put the final nail in the coffin of Netanyahu’s plan in a meeting
with Degel Hatorah MKs Moshe Gafni, Uri Maklev and Ya’acov Asher
Sunday.
“We will not sign any document with Netanyahu now,” Gafni
told Army Radio. “We will meet with Netanyahu after the election,
hopefully when we have more strength and [Yesh Atid leader Yair] Lapid
has been weakened.”
Litzman said in an interview with Ynet that
“If they want us in the coalition, they will have to turn the clock
back on anti-haredi [ultra-Orthodox] legislation.”
Degel
Hatorah, Agudat Israel and Shas have been coordinating their strategy
regarding political maneuvers. They all decided against joining any
alternative governments that could be formed by Labor leader Isaac
Herzog or Lapid without an election.
“We will not form a
government with Yair Lapid or form a coalition with him,” Gafni said.
“We will support the prime minister if he initiates elections. We won’t
let anyone else form a different coalition.”
Looks like we're going to have another election soon....
Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Haredim, Israeli elections, Rabbi Aaron Leib Steinman, Yaakov Litzman
Are we going to new elections?
Channel 2 reports that Prime Minister Netanyahu may ask to
dissolve the Knesset this week and go to new elections - just a year and a half after the last elections.
According to the report, Netanyahu is considering three options, but
it is believed that his preferred route would be to dissolve the
Knesset.
The first option is for Netanyahu to wait until March 31 without the
state budget for 2015 passing its second and third reading in the
Knesset, which by law requires an election at the end of June.
The second option is to approach President Reuven Rivlin and ask him
to dissolve the Knesset. In such a case, 21 days will given for an
alternative government to be formed before elections are called,
possibly paving the way for Finance Minister Yair Lapid or Opposition
leader Yitzhak Herzog forming an alternate government with the hareidim.
The third option is a bill to dissolve the Knesset. According to Channel 2,
Netanyahu's associates are attempting to find out whether the other
parties in the Knesset would support the dissolution of the Knesset if
it is brought to a vote next week. Either way, Netanyahu is expected to
decide on the issue within days, the report said.
Netanyahu and the parties in his coalition have been at odds over
several issues, the latest being the controversial Jewish State Law,
which passed a Cabinet vote this week but which Lapid and Justice
Minister Tzipi Livni are opposed to and have threatened to vote against
when it comes to a vote in the Knesset.
I don't see Lapid forming an alternative government with the Haredim, and although Herzog could, his party's Knesset delegation is too small to pull it off. Arutz Sheva goes on to report that Netanyahu offered the Haredi parties a deal on Wednesday, but that the Haredi parties are denying it.
But the Haredi website Kikar Shabbat reported this morning that in fact Netanyahu has offered a deal to the Haredim and is awaiting a response from
R. Aaron Yehuda Leib Steinman (link in Hebrew). The deal on offer would have the Haredim agree to recommend that Netanyahu form the next government after the elections in exchange for being assured that they will be part of that government.
In Maariv's Friday edition, columnist Ben Caspit reported that Rav Steinman may veto the idea - recalling that Netanyahu made promises to the Haredim that he did not keep after the last election, and not wanting Haredi 'demands' to become the key issue in the election.
Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Haredim, Israeli elections, Rabbi Aaron Leib Steinman, Tzipi Livni, Yair Lapid
Tuesday's terror and the Haredim
This comment ought to be read and re-read, because for once someone writing in a publication associated with the Left
actually seems to get it.
The citizenship and piety of the victims is largely immaterial—this
was simply brutal, ideological murder. But the choice of victims does
tell us something about where these murders come from, and what they
mean politically.
In recent weeks, the usual hum of low-grade
Palestinian incitement has been raised to a fever pitch. There have been
allegations of murder and paranoid rumors of Israeli plans to dismantle
Muslim sanctuaries. Lone-wolf terrorists have rammed their cars into
crowds and stabbed young commuters at bus stops. The Israeli security
forces, expert in disrupting networks and intercepting infiltrations,
have found themselves helpless to stop it. How do you predict an attack
by a single local resident armed only with a car and a kitchen knife?
There
is irony in the latest attack. The synagogue was in Har Nof, an
ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in West Jerusalem. The worshippers lived in
internationally recognized Israel and almost certainly never served in
the army. They would never approach the Temple Mount, the holy site
where recent visits by Jews have supposedly triggered the latest wave of
Palestinian violence, because they believe that God’s law forbids it.
In other words, these worshippers should be among the least offensive to
Palestinians.
This is not to say that, for instance, last week’s murder
of 26-year-old Dalia Lemkus was less obscene because it happened near a
West Bank settlement. But the senselessness and brutality of the
synagogue assault, and the otherworldliness of the victims, lays bare
the inadequacy of rational political explanations for terror. No doubt
the murderers had their grievances (and some perhaps were reasonable),
but the butchery in Har Nof shows that any sense of strategy has been
overwhelmed by hate. The murder of non-Zionist Torah scholars is an
attack on Jews more than Israel, and explaining it requires an
understanding of hatred, not of politics. Perhaps the current celebrations throughout the West Bank and Gaza—replete with songs of praise on mosque loudspeakers and the festival-like delivery of sweets to children—goes at least part of the way to providing that.
Rarely has it been clearer: these men were killed simply because they
were Jews living in the land of Israel. That they were rabbis killed at
prayer is a potent symbol of the attack's senselessess, but their
orthodoxy also serves as evidence of how utterly self-defeating
Palestinian terrorism is.
Read it all.
Labels: Haredim, Muslim Jew hatred, Palestinian anti-Semitism, Palestinian terrorism
So you wanted Haredim in the army?
This year is the Shmittah (Sabbatical) year in which Jews are commanded to allow the land of Israel to lie fallow. About 150 years ago, a 'work around' was developed that involves selling the land to non-Jews. But many Orthodox Jews in Israel (including yours truly) do not rely on the 'work around' and use only produce that comes from abroad or that is grown by non-Jews or that was grown in previous years and cold-stored.
With the increasing number of Orthodox Jews (and particularly Haredim) in the IDF, the IDF itself has signed an agreement,
barring the use of produce from the 'work around' (which is known as
heter mechira).
If
we turn back to the induction of so many chareidim and frum soldiers
over recent years we see another issue that applies today, shmitah. IDF
Chief Rabbi Brigadier-General Rafi Peretz signed on an agreement that
would result in the IDF using non-shvi’is or heter mechira produce
towards accommodating the growing number of frum soldiers. He is now
under attack from the minister of agriculture, the National Kibbutz
Movement and many others, who feel his unprecedented move to accommodate
chareidi soldiers and officers is “anti-Zionist” and they insist that
he reverse his decision to observe shmitah l’chumra. They are outraged
that the IDF will be buying produce from goyim instead of kibbutzim,
unwilling to hear any halachic considerations that override their
Zionist ideals.
Hmmm.
Labels: Haredim, IDF, Shmittah
Lapid to be thrown out of coalition in favor of Haredim?
Yair Lapid and his Yesh Atid party may be
replaced in the coalition by the Haredim.
Knesset Coalition Chairman MK Yariv Levin (Likud) on Saturday
indicated in a TV interview that the coalition may be in for a shake-up
in the near future - and that "childish" Finance Minister Yair Lapid
(Yesh Atid) does not have high chances of being invited back in.
"We must weigh the possibility of a change in the coalition composition through the addition of the haredi parties," Levin told Channel 10. "It might be that there's no choice but to leave Lapid out."
Lapid has long been at odds with the hareidi parties of Shas and
United Torah Judaism (UTJ), particularly through his push for the
Enlistment Law requiring a mandatory hareidi IDF draft, and recently
through his 0% VAT bill that would give those who serve in the IDF
benefits buying their first home.
The latter bill has received such harsh criticism that one hareidi MK from UTJ recently threatened "apartheid" Israel with an "Arab rebellion" over the bill.
Levin also slammed Lapid for his statements during Operation
Protective Edge in Gaza; not long after Israel reached a ceasefire with
the terrorist group Hamas, Lapid called for a return to the "diplomatic"
process, urging a return to peace talks.
"If such not serious, irresponsible and even childish behavior
continues, then we certainly must consider the possibility of a change
in the composition (of the coalition)," said Levin, subtly targeting
Lapid.
The Coalition Chairman added that because of the need to consider a
change, he is not worried about Lapid's threats last Wednesday to quit the coalition if taxes are raised following Operation Protective Edge.
This would really be rich if it happened.... But don't hold your breath waiting for it to happen.
Labels: Haredim, Shas, United Torah Judaism party, Yair Lapid, Yesh Atid party
What's a Haredi?
If this weren't so totally at odds with the idea that we are one Jewish nation, it might even be laughable. Naftali Bennett's Ministry of Economics has made a pathetic attempt at defining what a Haredi is for purposes of employment programs run by his ministry. Many Haredim are going to find themselves outside the definition (does that mean he doesn't care whether they work?). See how many holes you can poke in
this one.
A chareidi woman must meet one of the following criteria:
1. The woman’s children must be learning in a chareidi school until the age of 18, placing an emphasis on ‘recognized but not official’ schools. This would include many Chabad yeshivos and Chinuch Atzmai. (The ministry is looking for a school with a license recognized by the Ministry of Education).
2. The woman’s husband learned in a yeshiva ketana and she studied in seminary.
A chareidi man must meet one of the following criteria:
1. His children must be learning in a chareidi school until the age of 18, placing an emphasis on ‘recognized but not official’ schools. This would include many Chabad yeshivos and Chinuch Atzmai.
2. Must have studied in yeshiva ketana.
3. Must has served in the IDF or recognized national program as per paragraph 6 (the law permitting one to push off military service after one declares limud Torah a full time profession).
4. Has been entitled to a minimum of a year during the past five years of a studies program to assist avreichim to integrate into the workplace.
The criteria will be problematic for many including baalei teshuvah, Shabbos observant Jews who recently became chareidi, those who attend yeshivos that are not recognized by the Education Ministry and others.
Talk about pigeonholing....
Labels: Haredim, Naftali Bennett
Happy!
We need to get in the mood for this astounding post first.
Let's go to the videotape.
An astounding
88% of Jerusalem residents say they are happy with their lives despite rampant unemployment and poverty.
Jerusalem’s population at the end of 2012 stood at 815,300 people –
making it the largest city in Israel, according to a report released on
Monday by the Central Bureau of Statistics ahead of Jerusalem Day.
There
are 515,200 residents, comprised of Jewish, non-Arab Christians or
other religions, marking 63 percent of the total city population; while
the Arab population stands at 100,300, or 37% of the city's residents.
Among the Jews residing in the city, 35% defined themselves as
ultra-Orthodox, 18% as religious, 12t as traditional-religious, 14% are
traditional but not very religious and 20% defined themselves as
secular.
...
According to the findings, the percentage of people who "feel poor"
in Jerusalem was the highest among all major cities in Israel. Some 28%
of people felt poor in 2013, 18% of the Jewish population and 45% of the
Arab population. In comparison, in Tel Aviv and in Haifa, less than 10%
felt poor.
However, the report cited that of the adult population
(aged 20 years old and above) in Jerusalem, 88% said they are satisfied
with their lives, compared to 85% of the population of other cities -
90% of Jews and 85% of Arabs, compared to the national average of 88%
and 70% respectively.
Furthermore the report indicated that 64% of
Jerusalem residents believe that in the coming years their lives will
improve, 58% of Jews and 76% of Arabs.
Who is happy? He who is satisfied with his lot.
Labels: City of Jerusalem, Dancing in Jerusalem, Haredim, poverty rates
It's that time of year again
Last night, as my son and I drove back from the north, we made a bathroom stop at a rest area on Route 6 South. It was distinctly uncomfortable. The entire service area was filled with Arabs, who were behaving wildly. The restaurants were closed, the gas station was closed, and although 4-5 people were inside the supermarket, no one else was being allowed in between 6:45 pm (shortly before we arrived there) and 6:00 am. Because the traffic on Route 6 - the country's main north-south highway and only toll road - is constant, the rest areas are supposed to be open 24/7/365. By definition, by the way, the restaurants therein are not Kosher (because they are open on Shabbat), but you can usually buy pre-packaged food that is Kosher.
Sunday night was the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day. It was also one of the last days on which high school and post-high school yeshiva boys are on vacation - they return to their studies on Wednesday and are there until August. Many of them took advantage of the warm weather to go on one last trip. And many of them did not return home before sundown.
But this is the time of year when the Israeli media trains its cameras on yeshiva boys - looking for any who move a muscle during the siren (which is in the morning only on Holocaust Memorial Day - in our family, we always stand still for it) or who otherwise behave in ways deemed improper or disrespectful. Last night, one such group was 'caught' in Beit Shean, and another in Jerusalem's Sacher park. But a secular group behaving even more rowdily was ignored, because
they weren't part of the agenda.
The one news site that reportedly did not veer from the annual "tradition" of hunting down hareidim "desecrating" the day was Walla!,
which on Sunday reported that "dozens of hareidi families arrived at
Jerusalem's Sacher Park, occupied themselves with barbecues, and started
the work of grilling."
What remarkably was not covered by the news source was the jovial
game of soccer held by a group of secular Israelis directly adjacent to
the hareidi barbecue.
The selective reporting angered more than a few journalists on
hareidi issues, who posted enraged responses on their Facebook pages.
Reporter Yedidya Meir, whose photographs of the soccer game were published on the site Hareidim 10, wrote sarcastically "certainly tomorrow (the soccer game) will be on (Walla!'s) front page."
"It's already played out," a hareidi businessman from Jerusalem told Arutz Sheva. "Galloping over to Sacher Park to 'trap' hareidim eating dinner has worn itself out, and I'm happy for that."
"Just like we don't expect that seculars will not hold barbecues on
Shabbat and holidays because 'they celebrate the Shabbat differently,'
the time has come for you to understand that a hareidi 'caught' eating
in Sacher Park isn't, Heaven forbid, due to the disrespect he has for
this day," noted the businessman.
It is worth noting that the date for observance of Holocaust Memorial
Day was instituted by the Israeli Knesset in 1951, and that a number of
rabbis did not adhere to the practice, arguing instead that the Ninth
of Av has been set aside as the day to mourn national tragedies to the
nation of Israel. Similarly the Chief Rabbinate previously in 1949
decided on the Tenth of Tevet as the date for memorial, given that it is
the date of the siege of Jerusalem by Babylon.
When we got back into our car last night, I told my son that the rest stop is open on Shabbat, open on Yom Kippur and open on the 9th day of Av. Perhaps it is like the edict under Jewish law that we are more stringent with rabbinic prohibitions because they are more in need of strengthening. And even more stringent with post-rabbinic (rabbis cannot make new edicts today) prohibitions that have no basis in Jewish law.
Labels: Haredim, Holocaust Memorial Day, Israeli media bias
Vishnitzer Rebbe instructs followers not to report for draft
Until now, all Haredim have been reporting for the initial screening at the IDF draft headquarters with the exception of
followers of Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach. And it has been the followers of Rabbi Auerbach who have been arrested. If all the Haredim en masse were to refuse to even show up for the draft - a tactic that was discussed and deferred shortly after the 'equalization of the burden' law was passed - the government would be left in the untenable position of mass disobedience of the law, and not enough jail cells to hold those who refuse to register.
Now, it seems that at least one large group will stop appearing for draft registration. The Vishnitzer Rebbe has told his Hasidim
not to show up for the initial registration and screening.
"People are walking around in a state of embarrassment and confusion,
there are harsh and terrible decrees here in Israel on military
affairs," the rabbi wrote.
"They send letters to come and report to the recruitment bureau, and
if one fails to report – they threaten to jail him,” he added. "People
receive letters – the first summons, the second summons, the third
summons – and it says that their child must report, and
they do not know what will happen, and start to think – 'here come the
police to take our son into custody.'"
"So the first thing is not to panic, and to trust the Creator... do
not pay any attention to all the letters that arrive from them," he
counseled. "Parents should treat the order as if it is just some kind of
note, and ignore all letters from the army. Of course, as I have said,
you must increase Torah study, and thus the decrees will be cancelled."
Despite the recent changes in legislation regarding hareidi military
service, the three councils of hareidi Torah sages have not changed
their longstanding decisions regarding service. This means that the
haredi public has continued to report to the first summons, except for a
faction of the followers of Rabbi Auerbach who ignore the summons.
The real question is how many more will follow. The more Haredi leaders who tell their followers not to report, the greater the chance for a mass insurrection. One can only look on with amazement at the fact that the Knesset did not anticipate this.
Labels: draft, God, Haredim, IDF, Torah
'Miracle' saves Haredi soldier and two rabbis
A Haredi soldier and two rabbis who were traveling with him were saved Friday morning when a
'Palestinian' terrorist's gun jammed at the Adam junction in Samaria just north of Jerusalem. .
The terrorist tried to shoot at the three, but somehow his weapon
jammed; after realizing he was powerless to harm the soldier and rabbis,
the Arab terrorist turned tail and fled the scene.
At the time of the attempted attack, the rabbis were on their way to
Jerusalem from the Peles Nahal Base in the Jordan Valley, a training
base for the Hareidi Brigade (Nahal Hareidi). The hareidi soldier had
joined them leaving the base.
At Adam Junction when they slowed down, a young Arab terrorist jumped
into the junction with a pistol in his hand, and charged at their car.
"We let another car that arrived from our left go first," said one of
the rabbis. "Suddenly I see a young Arab in his 20s jump from the side
of the road with something black in his hand. It took me a second to
realize that it was a pistol."
"The youth ran towards the back seat and tried to shoot at us, but the pistol didn't fire," added the rabbi.
The rabbi notes that "after a few seconds that seemed like eternity,
when I was shaking and hunched over to take cover, I turned to see where
he (the terrorist) was and why there was no sound of gunfire. I
realized he was trying to shoot at one of the rabbis who sat next to the
driver, and there too the pistol didn't work. At that point I shouted
at the driver to get us out of there."
...
Immediately after the attack, the rabbis and soldier continued to the
nearby Hizma checkpoint, where they notified security forces who began
searching for the terrorist immediately, arresting several suspects.
After several hours of investigation, the rabbis and soldier were sent home by security forces.
"It was simply a miracle. We were at the junction and therefore were
driving very slowly. If his weapon had worked, it could have ended
terribly," noted one of the rabbis. "We were returning from cultural and
Torah-based activities that we have done for years with the hareidi
soldiers, and there's no doubt that stood to our credit in Heaven to be
saved from the shooting."
Indeed.
Labels: God, Haredim, IDF, Palestinian terrorism, Torah
Netanyahu bakes matzoth at Kfar Chabad, matzoth have to be thrown out
Prime Minister Netanyahu baked matzoth at Kfar Chabad this week.
Let's go to the videotape.
But citing the Hebrew Haredi website Kikar Shabbat, the JPost reports that
the matzoth had to be thrown out.
The haredim have a long list of grievances against Netanyahu, most
recently legislation enacted to draft haredi men and criminal sanctions
against draft dodgers. His visit to the bakery was hotly contested in
the haredi community, according to the report.
Kfar Chabad denied the implication that the matza was discarded as a
petty extension to a political feud, claiming that the matza was simply
left on the table for too long, reported Kikar HaShabat.
Chabad added that Netanyahu's matza dough was kneaded without proper
oversight, and that he hadn't washed his hands or cut his nails, leading
to concerns that hametz (yeast-based products not allowed on Passover) caught under his nails might have gotten into the dough.
Tempest in a teapot.
I wasn't there, so I cannot tell you that the matzoth were left to rise for more than the 18-minute maximum, but having baked matzoth in Israel, I call tell you that the chabura (group) leaders don't let you near the dough until your hands are washed, your nails are cut, and your clothes are covered with a plastic apron.
Besides, Chabad are the least likely of the Haredim to look for a fight with Netanyahu.
Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Haredim, Lubavitch, Pesach
What a surprise: There's employment discrimination against Haredim (and Arabs)
I'm sure that you Israelis will all be shocked - just shocked - to hear that a sizable number of Israelis (and an even more sizable number of Israeli employers) is willing to admit an
unwillingness to work with Haredim.
A survey of employers and employees, commissioned by the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), reveals disturbing data about
the willingness employees and employers in Israel employ various workers
to work alongside them.
The survey was conducted among 500 respondents, a representative
sample of the adult Jewish population and Hebrew speakers. The results,
which were revealed Sunday, note that politics have a considerable
impact on the type of person employers are willing to hire.
Half of respondents (46%), both employers and employees, expressed
reluctance to work with Arab men. 30% of respondents expressed
reluctance to work with a hareidi man, and 28% are reluctant to work
with educated Arab women.
Employers show particular prejudice, according to the survey. 42% of
employers showed reluctance to employ Arab men; over a third of
employers (37%) expressed a reluctance to employ hareidi men; and 13% of
employers were unwilling to employ married women with small children
from any sector.
Read the whole thing. If you can't get a job because of prejudice and there are no government handouts, on what are you supposed to live?
You all might recall that Naftali Bennett admitted that
discrimination against Haredim was an issue when I heard him speak in January.
Labels: discrimination, employment, Haredim, Naftali Bennett
Haredi national service enlistment hits lowest point since December 2008
Only 29 Haredim enlisted in national service during the month of March according to this report on YNet (which has been printed out and hung up as a giant poster in some Haredi neighborhoods). That's the
lowest monthly enlistment number since December 2008 (link in Hebrew).
According to the article, 108 Haredim enlisted for national service in February (which was already a
decline), which means that the month-to-month decline from February to March was 73%.
The article goes on to report on the trend of Haredi leaders subscribing to 'extremism' in which all Haredi boys will be told not to report at all to IDF recruitment centers. If that were to happen and the boys were to listen (which they likely would), the IDF and the police would be faced with a Hobson's choice of arresting thousands of AWOL draft-age boys, or admitting that they cannot enforce the law.
According to the article, the 'extremists' are seeking another joint meeting of the three branches of the Haredi leadership (Lithuanian, Sephardi and Hassidic), with a view toward calling for all Haredi boys not to appear at the recruitment centers, while the 'moderate' camp (or so YNet claims) is trying to defer such a meeting.
Last week, a Haredi boy who had been arrested for not appearing at a recruitment center was released, causing a mass nighttime celebration in the center of the city.
There are wall posters in all of the Haredi neighborhoods in Jerusalem, which call on the boys to go to jail rather than the army. At the demonstration, there were signs that said "come and get me at 3:00 am also" - a reference to the military police method of operation of searching 'missing' boys' family homes at 3:00 am in order to harass the family. To date, the police have yet to appear at any yeshiva, and since the Tal law was canceled, the boys are no longer obligated to notify the IDF once every six months where they are studying.
Labels: draft, God, Haredim, IDF, Torah
Waiting for the other shoe to drop: Haredi civilian service enlistement dropped 70% in months leading to February
In the months leading up to the passage of the 'equal burden' law, Haredi enlistment in civilian service alternatives to the army
dropped 70% compared with previous levels.
Speaking to Kol Barama haredi radio station on Wednesday, director of
the Civil Service Administration Sar-Shalom Gerbi said that numbers of
haredi men enlisting to the program had dropped from an average of
between 70 to100 a month to around 30 a month in the period leading up
to February 2014.
Extremist elements in the haredi community have conducted an
aggressive campaign against haredi men who perform any form of national
service, military or civilian, and have labelled such people “hardakim,”
meaning a weak minded haredi person.
The general haredi community has also expressed anger at the terms of the new conscription law,
which has been framed as an attack on the community, and led to
protestations against service by even more moderate elements who did not
oppose it in the past.
“People are embarrassed to come and enlist
for the Civilian Service [program] in light of friction that has been
created because of the conscription law,” Gerbi said, describing the
decrease in enlistment as “dramatic.”
The Civilian Service program
is a key component of the new law for haredi conscription that was
approved by the Knesset earlier this month.
The 'hardakim' campaign - which started as a campaign in the Haredi neighborhoods against cellular phones with internet connections and has been going on for quite a while - has clearly been appropriated as a campaign against both army and civilian service. Gerbi adds:
Gerbi said however that he believed that the numbers of conscripts would
begin to rise again once the immediate tensions and discord surrounding
the passage of the law dissipates.
That may be the case with respect to civilian service, but with respect to serving in the army, which requires wearing a uniform on the way to and from the base, that is far less likely to happen and will take much longer.
We have not yet been told that there's been a drastic decline in Haredi enlistment in the IDF as a result of the new law, but that is
clearly the case.
Labels: draft, God, Haredim, IDF, Torah
IDF decides to forget about separate Haredi recruitment center... for now
Facing threats of mass desertion, the IDF has dropped - for now - a plan that would have separated Haredi recruits from their yeshiva mates and forced them to endure
5-6 hours of 'recruiting videos' (deemed brainwashing by the Haredi community) when they report to the IDF to seek deferments of service.
The haredi daily newspaper Yated Ne’eman published a report
on Friday saying that haredi youth and yeshiva students who receive
induction notices, or who go to obtain their deferrals or exemptions,
would be required to attend the new haredi induction centers, where
they would receive information about the IDF and the benefits of
enlistment.
The haredi leadership was extremely concerned that
some of the yeshiva students would be tempted to enlist after being
exposed to the information provided at the new centers.
The article in Yated Ne’eman said that if yeshiva students
were required to attend the induction centers the haredi rabbinic
leadership would instruct students to refrain from reporting for the
preliminary enlistment process, as they have done until now.
Such
a step would create serious upheaval and social unrest since anyone
who does not present themselves to the IDF enlistment offices when
called is considered to be a deserter, and is liable to arrest by the
military police.
In the year-and-a-half since the “Tal Law,”
arranging haredi military service deferrals, expired in July 2012, the
rabbinic leadership has instructed yeshiva students to report to the
enlistment offices for preliminary processing – though none of them
were drafted during this period.
Yeshiva students associated with
a hardline minority haredi faction have however refused to report,
some of whom have subsequently been arrested.
Were the mainstream
leadership to instruct the majority of yeshiva students not to report,
the army would be faced with the task of arresting several thousand
haredi youths and yeshiva students.
Bayit Yehudi faction
chairwoman Ayelet Shaked told haredi website B’Hadrei Haredim on Sunday
morning that she had held discussions with Brig.-Gen. Gadi Agmon, of
the IDF Manpower Directorate, and the senior haredi leadership, and
that an agreement had been reached not to operate the haredi induction
centers at this time.
She said that there would be no change in the enlistment processing procedures.
...
In February, the three rabbinical councils of the mainstream haredi
political movements banned yeshiva students from enlisting and said
that if legally obligatory service were mandated in the new
legislation, which it was, they would reconvene shortly thereafter to
consider banning yeshiva students from reporting to enlistment offices.
Because
the haredi induction centers will not be operated, haredi sources told
The Jerusalem Post that the councils will not convene on the issue
until after Passover, when conscription orders for haredi youth under 18
years of age are scheduled to be sent out.
It is believed that
the majority opinion among the senior haredi leadership is that to ban
yeshiva students from reporting to the IDF enlistment offices at this
stage is unnecessary, since under the terms of the new law no one will
be legally obligated to enlist until 2017.
In light of this
situation, much of the rabbinical and political leadership is of the
opinion that it is not worthwhile taking the drastic step of banning
haredi youth from reporting for preliminary processing.
From what I am hearing in the streets, sometime between now and 2017, either the law will be changed (most likely), a compromise will be reached (least likely) or there's going to be an awful lot of prison construction in this country.
Labels: draft, God, Haredim, IDF, Torah
For Lapid, it's all about Haredim and not about their army service
Some of you might recall this post, in which I reported that Finance Minister Yair Lapid wants to exempt first-time home buyers from our 18% value added tax,
unless they are Haredim. Some of you actually thought this was fair - after all, why shouldn't the government give a break to those who serve in the army?
It turns out that Lapid's proposal isn't just designed to get Haredim who don't serve in the army. It's also designed to ensure that those Haredim who do serve in the army still have to pay the tax if they buy a new home. Many Haredim who serve in the army do so through the
Shachar program, to which one cannot be admitted after age 22. The Shachar program only includes 16 months of active duty. Lapid's VAT concession requires
18 months of active duty (link in Hebrew).
Coincidence? I think not.
Labels: God, Haredim, IDF, Israeli taxes, Torah, Yair Lapid
Nahal Charedi soldiers play key role in elimination of three terrorists in Jenin
Soldiers from Nachal Charedi (not these guys) played a key role in the
liquidation of three terrorists in Jenin in the wee hours of the Sabbath morning. You can watch video from inside one of the soldiers' helmet cameras
here. This is from the first link.
The unit was instrumental in surrounding the house where Hamza Abu Alheja, 20, a member of the Hamas military wing, was hiding. An Islamic Jihad terrorist and a Palestinian Arab civilian
from the Palestinian Authority were also killed in the clashes, which
erupted after Jenin residents rioted at IDF soldiers; two SWAT members
were injured during the operation.
Netzach Yehuda oversees a large swath of Palestinian
Authority-controlled territory, including the Jenin area. This is not
the first time the hareidi unit has been instrumental in a crucial IDF
raid.
The Nahal Haredi Foundation noted that last year the battalion was
responsible for nearly 300 arrests in Jenin and Tulkarm, and helped
wound 14 terrorists rioting against IDF soldiers - the highest record in
the infantry and paratroop battalions.
Tell that to the next person who tells you that there are no Haredim in the IDF.
Labels: Haredim, IDF, Jenin, Nachal Charedi, Palestinian terrorists
