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In our last newsletter we share with you the answer to the question “What are Israel's upcoming elections really about?”. We brought to your attention the findings of IDI's monthly survey, The Israeli Voice, from the previous month. This is not a coincidental finding. As we have been emphasizing for a long time: Israeli Jews are greatly concerned and challenged by issues of religion and state.
What are the upcoming elections about? What are the main emphases of the Likud party led by Benjamin Netanyahu, which all the polls predict will be the largest?
It has now become increasingly apparent that that whoever is going to serve as Israel's next prime minister aspires to include the Haredi parties in his Coalition. Even though the current Coalition did not fulfill the great expectations [and promises] that it made relating to religious freedom and equality, it was still light years ahead in this area, compared with past coalitions that were dependent on Haredi political support. We will publish a more detailed account on this topic soon. This worrisome prospect demands much more attention on the part of both Israelis and responsible Jewish leaders in the Diaspora, since it adversely impacts both Israel-Diaspora relations as well as Israel's domestic civil rights, human dignity, religious freedom, and equality.
This week, the Jewish Agency Board of Governors proudly announced that they had unanimously voted for a compromise resolution, which was reached with the support of an ultra-Orthodox rabbi (who has previously backed protests against Women of the Wall) condemning what it called a “despicable” protest at the Western Wall’s egalitarian section last month by Orthodox extremists
Today, after an extremely turbulent year, a new chapter has opened in Israel’s political whirlwind. The Knesset has dispersed, and Israel is returning for another bout of elections, the fifth within the last three years!
The Knesset Research Center prepared an update for a meeting of the Knesset Committee for Religious Services and National Enterprises that was held this week, addressing the integration of the ultra-Orthodox sector in the workplace.
There is no more just and vital initiative, than the recently published plans by Minister of Finance Avigdor Lieberman to reduce funding for ultra-Orthodox education networks by 25% (at an estimated NIS 1 billion per year) under the next Economic Arrangements Law.
How Pindrus and his colleagues perceive Israel: two trees, side by side: portraying Israel’s Independence as a rotting or burned black tree, bearing the stinking fruits of corruption, licentiousness, terror, bereavement, etc. while the tree of the exile bears a glorious display of the finest and brightest fruits such as Shabbat, holiness, kashrut, education, etc.
Passover is the festival of freedom and liberty. This has been one of its most important themes, ever since the Children of Israel escaped from slavery to freedom.
The events of recent days have changed the public, political, and media agenda overnight, of course. Nevertheless, religious issues and the path of the Jewish state play a central role in the current discourse.
Let us hope and pray, in the spirit of the month of Adar and the holiday of Purim that we mark today, that the encouraging words of the Scroll of Esther come true for us all, for the Ukrainian people are suffering from a vicious attack that has already resulted in killing, destruction, and millions of refugees…
We hope and pray that reason prevails and international pressure will prove effective. May the invasion of Ukraine be withdrawn. However, until then, we amplify President Zelensky’s call (in Hebrew) to the Jewish people: “Cry out against Russian invasion!” This is a call that should not only be heeded by world Jewish, but also by Israel as a Jewish state.
It's time to change direction; and, instead of illusions and creating friendlier-acting Orthodox substitutes for the Chief Rabbinate, Israel’s politicians should recognize that the real and only solution is turning the Declaration of Independence’s promises of freedom of religion and equality into constitutionally protected principles.
The political system has largely lost its sensitivity to hypocrisy, hate speech and religious coercion. In the eyes of many of its leaders, buying the votes of the ultra-Orthodox parties justifies paying the price of surrendering to their demands, even knowing that they are hurting the country's economy, its security, and the freedom of religion promised by the Declaration of Independence.
On Tuesday, Hiddush filed a complaint against senior rabbis in ultra-Orthodox Judaism following their declaration that city rabbis who dare to act in accordance with the law after the adoption of a kashrut reform in the Knesset and certify food as kosher outside their city limits will have their kashrut certification banned everywhere, including in their own cities, and they will be considered as " having departed from the congregation of God and transgressing against the will of God." The declaration is signed by Rabbi Shalom Cohen, the spiritual leader of the Shas movement and Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky and Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, the leaders of the ultra-Orthodox-Lithuanian community.