Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Religion and State in Israel - May 11, 2009 (Section 1)

Religion and State in Israel

May 11, 2009 (Section 1) (continues in Section 2)

Click here to read ONLINE

Editor – Joel Katz

Religion and State in Israel is not affiliated with any organization or movement.


Pope Visits Israel



Pope’s Visit in Israel – News Sources

Haaretz Cartoon by Amos Biderman May 5, 2009 - Visit of the Holy See


“Take down that mountain over there for me, and that one too.”

JPost.com Pope Visit Coverage


Rare Shas, Meretz unity in criticism for pontiff

The pope's visit to Israel is an impossible balancing act

His flock in the Holy Land

'Popeophobia' hits Holy Land ahead of tour

Trembling before the pope

Rav Kook Shlita – Vatican Must Turn Over Mt. Tzion

Chief Rabbinate: Holy Land assets cannot be turned over to Vatican

A different pope, a different Holy Land

Pope: Catholic Church and Jewish people united by 'inseparable bond'

Chief Rabbis Won’t Greet Pope at Airport

Rabbi: Pope Visit contradicts Judaism

Peres calls for Vatican control of Christian sites

Op-Ed: Papal trip to Israel is not time to focus on problems

An Unfulfilled Vow to Vatican Continues to Vex Ties as Pope Heads for Israel

Depths of despair

Chabad Rabbi to Shun Pope


Marketing the Holy Land

By Etgar Lefkovits www.jpost.com May 7, 2009


"What we have that no one else has is the Holy Land, with Jerusalem at its center," the former marketing manager adds this week in an interview with The Jerusalem Post.

Seeking to hone in on what he sees as the three key tourist groups - evangelicals, Catholics and Russian Orthodox - Misezhnikov is planning a worldwide tour this summer to meet with key evangelical and Catholic leaders this summer to promote tourism.


Good Morning from Mount Meron

By Yechiel Spira www.theyeshivaworld.com May 12, 2009


Police at midnight reported some 400,000 plus visitors already arrived in Mt. Meron for Lag B’Omer

Soap, ban on cars clean up Mt. Meron's Lag Ba'Omer show

By Eli Ashkenazi www.haaretz.com May 12, 2009

Last year, the state comptroller criticized state authorities for poor organization at the mass gathering, leading to radical changes this year.

"They even provided soap for the bathroom sinks," a Magen David Adom medic who attended the gathering yesterday said.

The new tunnel, meant to facilitate access to the site, was one change. In addition, makeshift huts and illegal structures that covered the area last year were cleared, and some 4,000 police officers took up key positions to prevent overcrowding.

Finally, a complete ban was imposed on private cars entering the Mount Meron area, despite attempts by prominent community members to obtain special permits for their vehicles. Dozens of buses offered worshipers free transport to the site from three different car parks nearby.


Lag b'Omer Draws Fire of Israeli Environmentalists

By Michele Chabin www.thejewishweek.com May 6, 2009

Judy Siegel, the Jerusalem Post's longtime health reporter, attributes some of this apparent ignorance to the fact that environmental science is rarely taught in fervently Orthodox schools.

"The rabbis don't know anything about air pollution. [Non-haredi] kids in the youth movements know more, but haredi kids very little."

Some members of the haredi world are working to change this.

Rabbi Yosef Juliard, co-principal of the Torat Habayit network of haredi boys' schools, integrates environmental awareness into his school's religious curriculum.

Juliard said his environmental curriculum - very uncommon in fervently religious schools - involves every holiday.

"We teach that it is a Jewish imperative to care for our surroundings. This is the way I was raised, and I was shocked when I saw how others celebrate the holiday. We focus more on the spiritual aspects than the physical."


Advertising lends new twist to Lag Ba'omer festivities at Mount Meron

By Eli Ashkenazi www.haaretz.com May 7, 2009

Another charity, Hilula D'Rashbi, distributes sandwiches and cold drinks to the visitors. This year, however, it is also hoping to take commercial advantage of the anticipated throngs: The organization is offering various advertising opportunities at Mount Meron. The most expensive package entitles the advertiser to two giant billboards - one near the plaza where the dancing will take place and the other at the site where the main bonfire will be lit - and costs NIS 150,000. A single billboard will run NIS 50,000.

Yosef Shvinger, director of the Center for Holy Sites at the Religious Affairs Ministry, also expressed surprise at the plans to sell advertising. "In principle, advertising is not allowed there," he said.


Bar-Yochai's grave to be marketed as tourist site

By Sam Greenberg www.jpost.com May 6, 2009

The Tourism Ministry will begin marketing the grave site of Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai as a tourist attraction to the haredi community, Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov said on Wednesday.

"The central event on Lag Ba'omer attracts around 400,000 people, and around a million visitors visit the site throughout the entire year. In the coming months, the ministry will begin marketing operations in haredi communities around the world," said Misezhnikov in a press release.

Every Lag Ba'omer a memorial celebration is held at Rabbi Shimon Bar- Yochai's grave in Meron, as per his request before he died.

To accommodate the large crowds, the Tourism Ministry has spent NIS 7 million developing the area over the past year. Most of the money went to improving walkways, parking lots, traffic planning, lighting, water systems and trash facilities. Money was also invested in improving the security, firefighting, ambulance and police services in the area.

"This place has huge potential that hasn't been fulfilled yet," said ministry spokesman Amnon Lieberman on Wednesday. According to him, this is the second most visited religious site in Israel, after the Western Wall.

Lieberman said the ministry expects that its investments in the site and on publicity will be offset by the additional tourists.


Tel Aviv City Hall to Distribute Wood for Lag Ba’Omer

By Yechiel Spira www.theyeshivaworld.com May 6, 2009

Tel Aviv City Hall has announced cut trees will be made available for Lag Ba’Omer on Sunday. Trucks packed high with wood will be stations in three areas towards making the free legal wood available.

City officials are hopeful residents will take advantage and thereby reduce the instances of well-intentioned people taking wood without permission and in some cases, causing damage and monetary loss to people and property.


Jewish Philanthropist Prefers Meron to Meeting Pope Benedict

By Hana Levi Julian www.israelnationalnews.com May 12, 2009

Jewish philanthropist Guma Aguiar turned down a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI Monday and headed north with hundreds of thousands of Jews who made their way to the Galilee mountain gravesite of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai.

The philanthropist, who reportedly is considering buying the Jerusalem Beitar soccer team, was one of the notables who opened the Lag b’Omer holiday ceremonies at the gravesite of the Mishnaic Sage in the village of Meron.


Messianic Jews demand Israeli citizenship

By Aviad Glickman www.ynetnews.com May 6, 2009


Three Messianic Jews residing in Britain filed a petition with the High Court of Justice Wednesday in an effort to convince Interior Minister Eli Yishai to grant them citizenship.

The petition states that Christopher's grandfather and Nina Aires' grandmother were Jewish, which grants them the right of return by law.

They claim they have appealed to the Interior Ministry a number of times but were rejected because they are Messianic Jews. They say the ministry sees members of their faith as missionaries and has denied their appeals for this reason.


Three priests

By Donald Snyder www.jpost.com May 7, 2009

…Twelve years after his ordination, when his mother was hospitalized, he asked her about his origin. She told him that his birth parents had been Jews and that they had died in the Holocaust.

Weksler-Waszkinel wants to immigrate to Israel under the Law of Return, which permits anyone with a Jewish parent or grandparent to be eligible for automatic citizenship.

His application may fail because of a 1962 Israeli Supreme Court decision which denied a bid for citizenship to Daniel Rufeisen, a Polish Jew who converted to Catholicism and became a Carmelite monk.

The court argued that the average person would agree that Rufeisen was not Jewish. The lone dissenting opinion, by an Orthodox Jew, said that Rufeisen should be considered a Jew because Halacha says that a Jew cannot repudiate his or her Jewish identity.


One on one - Interview with Dr. Arye (Arik) Carmon, founding president of the Israel Democracy Institute

By Ruthie Blum Leibowitz www.jpost.com May 7, 2009

…But major concessions will be made by the secular population, as well.

We say that there are four core issues that should be exempt from the constitution: marriage and divorce; conversion; Shabbat; and kashrut observance in official public places. Judicial review will not be exercised on these core issues. Instead, they will remain in the hands of the Knesset.

In other words, the four core issues that have to do with our Jewishness will be out of judicial bounds.


Bless the Sabbath, enjoins Super-Sol

By Adi Dovrat and Nati Toker www.haaretz.com May 12, 2009

In an attempt to strengthen its relations with the ultra-Orthodox community, the Super-Sol grocery chain published a flier in last weekend's Yedioth Ahronoth calling on readers to perform the Sabbath blessing.

This move was coordinated with the boycott underway against its rival, Blue Square's Shefa Shuk. The flier comes after advertisements by Super-Sol offering special deals on products related to the Sabbath dinner.

The renewal of the campaign may be related to Supersol's attempt to counter a boycott being conducted against it.


Who will be Mr. Haredi education?

By Yair Ettinger www.haaretz.com May 5, 2009


Meir Porush

No less than three members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government are claiming the title of minister of Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) education: Meir Porush, the deputy education minister; Meshulam Nahari, a minister without portfolio in the Prime Minister's Office; and Moshe Gafni, chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee.

Each sees himself as responsible for the Haredi school system and its budget. And though three is a crowd, Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman, chairman of United Torah Judaism, is attempting to advance the appointment of Avraham Horn, of the Gerrer branch of Hasidim, as an official adviser to the prime minister on ultra-Orthodox education.


Jerusalem city hall flouts rules in order to give Haredi kindergartens more cash

By Yair Ettinger www.haaretz.com May 6, 2009

When it comes to ultra-Orthodox kindergartens, the Jerusalem municipality flouts Education Ministry rules for financing schools. All kindergartens are supposed to have at least 31 children enrolled to qualify for state funding - but the city passes state funding on to Haredi schools even if they do not meet this requirement.

Moreover, the city gives additional hundreds of thousands of shekels a year of its own money to ultra-Orthodox kindergartens. This has enabled them to open in non-Haredi and even secular neighborhoods, which outrages many residents.


Shas' female workers forced to wear full head covering

By Ari Galahar www.ynetnews.com May 6, 2009

A new regulation at Shas' Ma’ayan Torah education network prohibits female workers from showing up to work without a head covering that covers their hair completely.

A letter ordering women to dress accordingly signed by the network's Director General Yoav Ben-Zur has been distributed to all employees this week. Shas' school network caters to tens of thousands of children across the country and receives funding from the state.

Another worker stressed that the new rule bans women from wearing wigs and requires them to only wear scarves.


Study: Supreme Court Use of Jewish Law

By Maayana Miskin www.israelnationalnews.com May 7, 2009

The study was conducted by Doctor Yuval Sinai of Yishma, the Implementation of Hebrew Law group at Netanya Academic College.

Justice Elyakim Rubenstein was most likely to quote Jewish sources, Sinai found, and did so in 77 rulings, which constituted 27 percent of his total rulings.

Sinai also examined the behavior of past judges and found that Justices Jacob Turkel and Mishael Cheshin were both relatively likely to quote Jewish sources, with 18 percent and 12 percent of their rulings respectively citing Jewish law. Former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak quoted Jewish law in six percent of his rulings.


Religion and State in Israel

May 11, 2009 (Section 1) (continues in Section 2)

Click here to read ONLINE

Editor – Joel Katz

Religion and State in Israel is not affiliated with any organization or movement.

Religion and State in Israel - May 11, 2009 (Section 2)

Religion and State in Israel

May 11, 2009 (Section 2) (continued from Section 1)

Click here to read ONLINE

Editor – Joel Katz

Religion and State in Israel is not affiliated with any organization or movement.


Non-Orthodox Judaism disappearing

By Matthew Wagner www.jpost.com May 12, 2009


The Reform and Conservative Movements are disappearing, Yeshiva University Chancellor Rabbi Norman Lamm said over the weekend.

"With a heavy heart we will soon say kaddish on the Reform and Conservative Movements," said Lamm, head of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, in an interview with The Jerusalem Post.


Saying Kaddish for Conservative Judaism?

By Rabbi Andrew Sacks www.jpost.com Opinion May 11, 2009

The Orthodox religious establishment is making itself increasingly irrelevant. Please take note that I am not suggesting that Orthodox Judaism is becoming irrelevant. But many of its institutions are.

The brouhaha over the sale of lands during the Shmita year, the refusal of the Israeli Rabbinate to accept converts form most mainstream American Orthodox rabbis, the ugly reception given to the Pope during his visit to Israel by some leading rabbinic figures, the corruption in the area of Kashrut, the discrimination against Sephardi children in Haredi schools in Israel, the continuing plight of Agunot, the refusal of the Orthodox establishment to accept rabbis who study at more progressive Yeshivot all bode poorly for drawing unaffiliated Jews close to the Orthodox world.


Why Wait?

Rabbi Chaya Rowen-Baker www.ynetnews.com Opinion May 7, 2009

The writer is the Rabbi of Masorti congregation Ramot Zion in Jerusalem.

Rabbi Navon and religious Zionists: Take care not to let your timidity bring about destruction.

Lift up your heads, gird your loins and declare: 

Not ordaining women as rabbis, as qualified to answer religious questions, and to serve as congregational leaders is a serious mistake that deprives the Jewish people of divinely inspired leadership and opens our tradition to accusations of misogyny, oppression and discrimination. It should be rectified at once!

…The feminist religious revolution is happening, with you or without you.


Where is Orthodox aliya?

By Michael Freund www.jpost.com Opinion May 6, 2009


…Why isn't there large-scale Orthodox aliya? Sure, Orthodox Jews are said to make up the bulk of new immigrants arriving here each year from the West. But the numbers remain small - just a few thousand annually - and most religious Jews in the Diaspora seem content to remain where they are.

This situation brings to mind the words spoken by Joshua to the people of Israel more than 3,000 years ago, when he asked, "How long will you be remiss in coming to possess the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given to you?" (Joshua 18:3).

Indeed, it has never been easier to move to Israel, now that we have been blessed with the existence of our own sovereign and independent Jewish state.

I don't mean to stand in judgment of anyone's personal decisions. But I do mean to suggest that Orthodox Jews in the West at least need to start asking themselves, and their rabbis, the question. 

After all, if they seek halachic guidance about what they put in their mouths, isn't it time they also ask about where they put their lives and bodies as well?


Orthodox gender separation

By Elana Sztokman http://blog.elanasztokman.com Opinion May 10, 2009

Over the past few months, Israeli society has witnessed a whole series of newly constructed practices for what are undoubtedly extreme views of the need for gender segregation:

• Separate sides of the street designated for a Sukkot holiday public festival in Jerusalem.

• The corpse of a woman removed from its burial place because it was next to a man in Tiberias

• Separate cashiers at the supermarket for men and women in Ramot.

• Separate public buses for men and women in Bnei Brak, Jerusalem, and more

• Separate El Al airline flights for men and women

• Separate offices for men and women in Modi’in Illit (some companies will not hire women in a company where men work)

• Separate exit times from synagogue in Safed (women were locked inside until all the men left)

• Banning of women from cemeteries in places including Elyachin, and silencing of women’s cries of mourning.

• The removal of all pictures of women from public advertisements – even women politicians, like Kadima head and former prime ministerial candidate MK Tzipi Livni

• The Photoshopped “erasure” of women cabinet members from Orthodox newspaper photos
• The covering up of dancers during a bridge opening ceremony in Jerusalem.

• Soldiers walking out of an army convocation ceremony because women were singing.

• Separate sections in the pharmacy for men and women in Bnei Brak.


A day in Jerusalem

By Yehudah Mirsky www.jpost.com Opinion May 8, 2009

...Zehava Fischer from Har Nof had made copies of a responsum by Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, a towering 20th-century halachist, permitting mixed seating on public transportation on the grounds that this was not erotic contact, and that one who experienced it as such should engage in painful introspection 

…We talked a few minutes more. One of them had never heard of Rav Moshe Feinstein. And when his friend assured him that this was a big rav indeed, and I said that he had ruled it permissible to ride on buses with women, he was incredulous and a little intrigued.


Egged Begins Distributing Chareidi Weekly

By Yechiel Spira www.theyeshivaworld.com May 5, 2009


Egged is beginning to distribute a weekly newspaper to its chareidi commuters, the ‘BaDerech’, which will be given out to riders on lines with a high percentage of chareidi riders. The paper will be distributed weekly from Wednesday to Erev Shabbos.

Egged marketing official Eyal Yechiel explains that on chareidi lines, the bus driver does not play a radio for passengers, and during intercity routes, which are at times lengthy; the newspaper will fill the void for travelers wishing to read it, providing relevant content for the chareidi public.

The newspaper will contain divrei torah on the current parsha, a section on halacha, daf yomi and more. There will also be a children and family page.

The project will be funded by adverts appearing in the newspaper from firms who view reaching the chareidi market in their strategic interest.


El Al appeals to European gays

Yoav Zeitun www.ynetnews.com May 6, 2009

Tel Aviv City Council member Rabbi Naftali Lobert said in response to the report: 

"This is a disgrace. Just as El Al was sensitive to the ultra-Orthodox community and refrained from flying on Shabbat and serves kosher meals, it shouldn't take part in this. And in general, this whole pride parade – it would be better to watch a show at the circus than this parade."


The Lubavitch Rebbe’s Views Cited in Israel’s Supreme Court Landmark Decision

By Zalman Nelson http://lubavitch.com May 4, 2009


Working parents can deduct childcare expenses from their taxes, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled Thursday in a landmark decision which upheld a Tel Aviv District Court decision.

In supporting their unanimous position, the five-justice panel of Eliezer Rivlin, Miriam Naor, Edna Arbel, Elyakim Rubinstein and Esther Hayut said they view childcare expenses as a necessary expenditure that enables parents to work and earn an income, calling it “a necessary result of natural parental responsibility for their children."

For Rubinstein, his decision was helped by Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson’s writings on the laws and practice of charity in a book entitled Mitzvat HaTzedaka (The Mitzvah of Charity), later published in a second edition named Shaarei Tzedaka.


In the service of his country

By Rotem Shtarkman and Sarit Menachem www.haaretz.com May 7, 2009

Interview with Prof. Omer Moav, economic advisor to Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz

"The problem in the ultra-Orthodox sector is that its education is economically unproductive: They study only Torah. 
It is scandalous that the state funds education that produces nothing in the workplace. And it is unfair to those children: They are denied choices and doomed to poverty."


CNN Video - Pictures behind closed doors

www.cnn.com April 2009

Photographer Menahem Kahana explores the closed and often secretive world of the ultra-Orthodox community in Israel.

Click here for VIDEO


Belz and Gerrer Rebbes Featuring VIP Shabbosim to Major Donors

www.vosizneias.com May 8, 2009

The chareidi community in Israel, which depends on a lifeline of donations from abroad, has come up with creative ideas during these days of economic distress.

This coming week, thirty gvirim from Israel and abroad will spent a VIP Shabbos with the Belzer rebbe in his retreat in Telz-Stone. They will eat at the rebbe's table and daven in his private minyan. 

For this privilege, they had to separate from at least $200,000. The gvirim's identities remains a guarded secret, but it is known that most of them are not from Israel.

This follows a pattern spearheaded by the Gerrer Chassidim. Only one and a half months ago, they offered a similar cozy Shabbos with the rebbe, for gvirim who donate upwards of $250,000 for the experience.


Haredi housing shortage worsening

Shai Pauzner, Calcalist www.ynetnews.com May 11, 2009

It's hard to find a second-hand apartment in the haredi market due to families' low turnover rates. The strong natural increase in haredi families makes it difficult for households to move to larger apartment often due to the economic limit, and thus they are forced to live in great crowdedness.

The crowdedness problem leads to solutions such as partial expansions of existing apartments, taking advantage of the apartment height by placing children's beds in floors, and making efficient use of every niche as a storage area.

"The housing distress in the haredi sector is a time bomb and its dimensions are getting increasingly worse. Therefore, the decision makers must address this matter immediately and come up with concrete solutions," Degani says.


Litzman may be just what the doctors ordered

By Judy Siegel-Itzkovich www.jpost.com May 10, 2009

Before the Rebbe dispatched him to a political career in the Agudat Yisrael party, Litzman was director-general of Beit Ya'acov Girls schools in Jerusalem and initiated hassidic neighborhoods in Tel Aviv, Ashdod, Beit Shemesh and Arad.

Unusually for a haredi, Litzman hopes to have a woman - Ruth Ralbag, a former Jerusalem Municipality counsellor who did financial work in the Health Ministry - work closely with him. "I appreciate her and know her from when I was Finance Committee chairman. I would like her to be here, and it was a mistake when she was let go a few weeks ago."

Litzman says he does not want to turn the ministry into a haredi enclave. He has decided to appoint a committee of halachic experts to advise him on touchy issues from organ transplants and fertility treatments to dealing with graves in a spot where Ashkelon's Barzilai Medical Center wants to expand. But he will not fill hospitals with rabbis, he promises.


Litzman says he would serve as minister

By Judy Siegel-Itzkovich www.jpost.com May 5, 2009

Deputy Health Minister Ya'acov Litzman (United Torah Judaism) would be willing to serve as a full minister if the High Court of Justice required it and his rabbinical arbiters - primarily the Gerrer rebbe, Rabbi Ya'acov Aryeh Alter - approved it.

But Litzman, in an exclusive interview with The Jerusalem Post on Monday, said he did not think the court would accept the petition filed by the Israel Medical Association, which demands that a full minister be appointed.


Growing Internet Connectivity in Chareidi Homes

By Yechiel Spira www.theyeshivaworld.com May 12, 2009

According to data released by the Ministry of Trade & Industry, 24.6% of chareidi homes with computers are connected to the Internet, almost a surprising 25%. The ministerial study also reveals that 41% of chareidi homes have computers.

The study conducted by a branch of the ministry sought to document the extent of computer usage in chareidi homes as compared to other segments of Israeli society. The data was pulled primarily from the database information accumulated by the Census Bureau from 2002-2007.

The report adds that 21.2% of chareidi homes use the computer for work [as opposed to 50.4% among secular and traditional homes]. 

15.5% of chareidim use the computer for educational purposes [as opposed to 26% in secular and traditional homes]. 

Chareidi men are more likely to use the computer (19%) as compared to women (12%) and that chareidi men are connected in larger numbers (27%) than chareidi women (22.5%)


To serve the nation, again

By Samuel Sokol www.jpost.com May 5, 2009


The strictly Orthodox soldiers who performed their mandatory service in the IDF's Netzah Yehuda Battalion will soon begin to perform reserve duty, according to a precall-up notice obtained by The Jerusalem Post.

The more than 2,000 former soldiers who served since 1999 in the combat unit, known as the Nahal Haredi, do not currently perform reserve service, as there is no suitable framework for them. This has been a source of consternation for many of the men who volunteered to fight in this unit.

In 2007, 100 former soldiers sent a petition to the military demanding to serve in the reserves.

The IDF released the following statement. "When the [reserve] battalion becomes active, all efforts will be made to maintain all of the conditions that existed in the regular service battalion of Netzah Yehuda."


Behind the Beard, Without the Kippa 

By Elisheva Rosenblatt www.ou.org April 30, 2009

Click here for photo gallery by Abba Richman

The goal of Mashiv Haruach is to expose Tzahal’s (IDF) secular soldiers to the beauty and complexity of the Land of Israel, to Torah and to religious life. The program seeks to inspire soldiers to connect with their land and their people.

According to Rabbi Avi Berman, Director of OU Israel, Mashiv Haruach takes one day in a soldier’s service and breaks several barriers. A great divide has managed to split the people of this small land so that there is little dialogue between the secular and religious populations, and even less understanding. 


State Comptroller Documents Kashrut Deficiencies in Major Cities

By Yechiel Spira www.jerusalemkoshernews.com May 6, 2009

State Comptroller Justice Micha Lindenstrauss on Wednesday (May 6th) released his semi-annual report, a 63 chapter comprehensive volume addressing many aspects of Israeli life, including kashrus.

The state Comptroller’s report cites serious flaws pertaining to the process of issuing kashrut certificates in Israel, addressing the state’s authorized body, the Chief Rabbinate and local rabbinical councils. 

Members of the state comptroller’s staff were out in the field, seeking to meet with the mashgichim, but to their dismay, in many instances, too many, the mashgichim were ‘no shows’.

The report cites that some mashgichim are responsible for numerous places, drawing more than one salary, while not even showing up for one job.


New study: Jewish identity stronger among Israelis in New York than American-born brethren

By Raphael Ahren www.haaretz.com May 6, 2009

Israelis living in New York are much more connected to their "Jewishness" than American-born Jews, according to a new study released earlier this week by United Jewish Appeal-Federation of New York.

The surprising results might be partly due to the relatively high percentage of Orthodox Israelis in the area. 

The study claims that Israelis "far outscore" Americans in terms of synagogue attendance, kashrut observance, participation in Jewish charity events, volunteering to aid needy Jews, visiting Jewish museums and Web sites, as well as in membership in Jewish community centers.


Religion and State in Israel

May 11, 2009 (Section 2) (continued from Section 1)

Click here to read ONLINE

Editor – Joel Katz

Religion and State in Israel is not affiliated with any organization or movement.