Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Religion and State in Israel - September 19, 2012

Religion and State in Israel

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Editor – Joel Katz
Religion and State in Israel is not affiliated with any organization or movement.



Asked whether it would be better for a secular Jew who happened to be away from home on Rosh Hashana to pray with a Reform congregation or by himself in a hotel, Chief Rabbi Amar said it would be preferable to pray by himself.
“More than this, it's preferable not to pray at all than to pray with them [a Reform congregation].

Tzohar: “It would be better if the chief rabbi would deal with the actual issues, such as the alarming figures published by the Central Bureau for Statistics which show that a third of secular couples prefer to get married in civil ceremonies [abroad]; converts who are belittled and abused by the institution which he heads; and in general the fact that a large part of Israeli society want Judaism and tradition, but is disgusted by that same Judaism when it comes to them through the offices of the Chief Rabbinate.”


·         85%: Provide freedom of religion & freedom of conscience to all citizens
·         83%: End Haredi military exemptions
·        78%: Reduce funding of yeshivot, large families to encourage Haredi men to join labor market
·         75%: Haredi educational institutions must be forced to teach core subjects
·         71%: Secular-Haredi tensions: most difficult conflict in Israeli society
·         63%: Provide public transportation on Shabbat
·         64%: Orthodox monopoly on conversions must be broken
·         64%: Gender-discrimination in public domain should be a criminal offense
·         63%: Impose economic sanctions on yeshiva students who won't enlist



By Irit Rosenblum
The marriage duration criterion clearly benefits Haredim. The figures speak for themselves as, according to a report in Globes, 93 percent of ultra-Orthodox aged 25-29 are married, compared with 47 percent of the overall Jewish population.
By the time the typical secular Jewish couple marries, the average ultra-Orthodox couple has been married for six years and has three or more children, decisively tilting the eligibility calculation in their favor.
Ultra-Orthodox families will always benefit in this system, since 62.4 percent of them have three or more children, compared with 36.8 percent of all Jewish families.

By Rabbi Eric Yoffie
Yom Kippur is a national holiday in Israel; government officers are closed and certain public activities are appropriately limited.
But the renting of bicycles in Tel Aviv is organized so as to be a private activity, no different than buying a drink from a beverage machine or renting a video from an automatic video dispenser. There is no justification and no excuse for the government to interfere in any way—yes, even on Yom Kippur.

















By Arie Hasit


A poem by Abby Caplin













By Ahmadiel Ben Yehuda




By Shlomo Zuckier
In the absence of clear precedent, how have halakhic decisors proceeded? The approach taken is shaped by the decisor’s understanding of larger questions of how Jewish law works.
The Israeli Chief Rabbinate, following a Religious Zionist approach that seeks a state based on a halakhah applicable to real life and sees the need for a sufficient supply of organs in Israel, has been fairly accepting of the brain death standard; Religious Zionist Rabbis Avraham Shapira, Mordechai Eliyahu, and Shaul Yisraeli have supported it.  
The most vocal opponents of the brain death standard are Haredi, including Rabbis Eliezer Waldenberg and Shmuel Wozner.











Just one day after getting married, Allan Katz and Leora Stroh of New Jersey board plane to Israel as new immigrants




This is Israel’s first WBC qualifier. The team is mainly comprised of American-born Jewish players who are allowed to compete because they can claim Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return. Three of the team’s 28 players were born in Israel—Shlomo Lipetz, Alon Leichman and Dan Rothem—and 10 are from the Los Angeles area.















By Sefi Rachlevsky




By Josh Hasten



Editor – Joel Katz
Religion and State in Israel is not affiliated with any organization or movement.
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