בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה' אֱלֹקינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, גברים אומרים: שֶׁלֹּא עָשַׂנִי אשָּׁה נשים אומרים: שֶׁעָשַׂנִי כִּרְצוֹנוֹ. Israel Police were forced to rescue Beit Shemesh Mayor Aliza Bloch on Tuesday night after ultra-Orthodox protestors besieged her, rioting and smashing the windows of her car, according to an Israel Police spokesperson.

Israel Police rescue Beit Shemesh mayor from violent haredi protest ...(With Their Tacit Rabbinic Moronic Approval)

 

Ultra-Orthodox protestors besieged Mayor Aliza Bloch at a haredi school while she attended an opening ceremony.

 

 The city of Beit Shemesh had effectively erased its woman elected to be mayor: Aliza Bloch.

Israel Police were forced to rescue Beit Shemesh Mayor Aliza Bloch on Tuesday night after ultra-Orthodox protestors besieged her, rioting and smashing the windows of her car, according to an Israel Police spokesperson.

 

 

The protestors gathered in Ramat Beit Shemesh to violently protest Bloch's arrival for a tour of a new ultra-Orthodox school building that is set to open in the coming school year.

The protestors threw objects at the building and set fires near the school compound as well as throwing stones at police officers who were on the scene, injuring one.

Due to the violence that erupted, Bloch was stuck inside the building for roughly 30 minutes. She was later ushered safely out the back door by police officers.

A couple of hours later, Bloch released a video saying that she knew her attackers represented only a small group among the ultra-Orthodox community and that she wouldn't let them scare her from continuing her work as mayor.

“I spoke last night with Beit Shemesh Mayor Aliza Bloch after the violent attack she experienced," said Health and Interior Minister Moshe Arbel (Shas) on Wednesday morning. "Violence is a sick evil that must be uprooted. I expect law enforcement to act immediately to protect local elected officials from anyone who raises a hand to them."

“I supported Beit Shemesh's Mayor Aliza Bloch this morning following the difficult incident last night," said National Unity leader Benny Gantz on Wednesday morning. "Aliza is an example of a public figure who serves all parts of society - religious, secular, and all Beit Shemesh residents as they are. The extremists' behavior toward her is not only condemnable, but it also endangers and harms Israeli solidarity.

"For years, I've said that Beit Shemesh is a case study of Israeli society with its diverse population, and in this test, we must succeed as one people."

President Yitzhak Herzog spoke to Bloch after she was attacked last night.

“The president strengthened the mayor and strongly condemned the violence shown towards her and emphasized that this is unacceptable and intolerable,” his office said.

MK Ohad Tal (Religious Zionism) expressed support for Bloch, tweeting “The brutal violence directed last night against Beit Shemesh Mayor Aliza Bloch is a shocking event that should not become a norm. Here too, we must not let a handful of violent extremists rule us. The enforcement agencies must punish those violators.”

The mayor of nearby Modi’in Haim Bibas, wrote “I condemn any harm to local government officials. This dangerous phenomenon must be stopped immediately. Violent extremists must not be allowed to harm heads of authorities and candidates from all sectors. The enforcement agencies should act so that there are no more cases like the severe attack experienced yesterday by the mayor of Beit Shemesh, especially these days as we approach the elections for the local authorities.”

Municipal elections are scheduled for October 31 and have already seen heavy partisanship. Yesh Atid and Otzma Yehudit have forbidden their candidates from joining a coalition with the other.

Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai, who is running for re-election alongside former New York consul general Asaf Zamir, and who represents the mostly secular White City, seemed to draw parallels to the current state of politics, writing “Mayors and authorities became targets for harm and elimination. Yesterday evening it was the mayor of Beit Shemesh who was forced to barricade herself in the school building she visited. Such things can happen in a place where democracy and human rights are not respected.”

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-756787?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Israel+Police+rescue+mayor+from+violent+haredi+protest&utm_campaign=August+30%2C+2023&vgo_ee=3lSOv8%2Fzw2dZclEkAZu062BlmSSGJqyCDIue3CKl%2Feyh4w%3D%3D%3A%2BG6bONmF%2BX1wqe0if0D8GyeqzV8k0tym

Jewish Keyword: FREE! Sefaria offers 3,300 Jewish canonical texts online for free.

A decade in, Jewish digital library has revolutionized learning for ‘people of the book’ 

 

Sefaria offers 3,300 Jewish canonical texts online for free. 

The Sefaria website offers a variety of texts. Screen grab

(RNS) — Walk into any yeshiva classroom or rabbi’s study and you will find floor-to-ceiling bookshelves filled with the golden-lettered spines of traditional Jewish texts — compilations of ancient rabbinical teaching, theological treatises and Scripture.

But fewer Jews are reaching for those books these days as a 10-year-old database has digitized almost the entirety of the Jewish canon and many other theological writings — the contents of about 3,300 volumes in all.

The database Sefaria — the word comes from the Hebrew word “sefer,” or book — has revolutionized Jewish online learning, not least in its use among a wide spectrum of Jews around the world. It is not the only Jewish digital library, but it is the most widely used among Jews and is freely accessible, with some texts available in multiple languages.

For its 10th anniversary, which it celebrated earlier this month, Sefaria launched a digital collaboration called the “Global Community Torah,” in which readers can take a small part in “writing” a digital Torah scroll by contributing to one of the Torah’s 304,805 letters. Users first pick their preferred Hebrew typeface and then enter their name and location.

So far, 2,500 online users from 72 different countries have laid claim to one of 22 Hebrew letters and have collaboratively completed the first two chapters of Genesis.

 

Hovering over any of the letters will reveal the names of other participants. One three-letter Torah word, for example, was claimed by three people — one from Taiwan, another from Israel, the third from the United Kingdom.

“We aren’t really sure how long it will take to fill in the Torah,” said Chava Tzemach, Sefaria’s director of marketing and communications. “But we’re hoping to see some good progress over the next few months.”

Sefaria was founded in 2012 by author and entrepreneur Joshua Foer and Google alum Brett Lockspeiser. Back in 2011, Foer searched online for a version of the Talmud that he could read in English. The search yielded as its top result a pirated PDF copy of the multi-volume corpus of commentary on Jewish law, as well as an antisemitic website.

Foer called his friend Lockspeiser, who had just left Google. Over the course of a few conversations, the two began thinking, “Somebody should do something about this,” Foer recalled.

With help from several donors, including the Jim Joseph Foundation, they launched Sefaria in 2013. Their approach came not out of an Orthodox Jewish education but of their native world of digital technology. To make their site as widely accessible as possible, they released their code under an open source license.

In 2016, Sefaria rolled out its first mobile apps. The following year it launched a website for Israeli and Hebrew speakers. Today, Sefaria boasts 700,000 monthly users. Last year’s budget was close to $5 million.

Students of Judaism have applauded Sefaria for offering an in-book search function while also making it possible to search where a given biblical verse appears in other Jewish books. A “topics” page, meanwhile, allows searches of Jewish primary texts for terms like “abortion,” “gun-control” or “environmentalism.” 

Educators, in particular, like Sefaria because they can build source sheets directly on the site, instead of cutting and pasting verses or paragraphs from different books and then trying to format it into one streamlined document.

“Once Sefaria came around and started offering source sheets, it was a game changer,” said Yosef Gillers, founder of Grow Torah, an organization that provides environmental Torah education programs for mostly Modern Orthodox day schools.

“From the validity and the verification of the text, to the sources, the fact that you can choose what translations you use — all of that is just unbelievable. No one else does anything like it,” Gillers said.

The Sefaria website. Screen grab

Sefaria has drawn some detractors, most recently in May, when it added a new translation of the Torah branded by the publisher, the Jewish Publication Society, as “gender-sensitive.” That riled some Orthodox rabbis who argued that removing male pronouns referring to God was not a neutral change.

“Every word or gender reference in the Torah is purposeful, and to disregard them and apparently assume that they do not matter stems from a troubling lack of knowledge,” wrote Rabbi Avrohom Gordimer, an Orthodox rabbi, in an Orthodox Jewish journal.

But for the most part, Sefaria’s clean and easy access to a vast array of Jewish texts makes it popular among all streams of Jewish life. Chabad, the Hasidic Orthodox movement, has its own digital library of major texts. A handful of others, mostly in Hebrew, exist, some requiring paid subscription, but Sefaria’s free, non-sectarian approach makes it the heavyweight of the digital realm. Indeed, some of the other sites were built using Sefaria’s data.

A scholar who works for Chabad told RNS he uses Sefaria, among other sources, but declined to give his name; he didn’t think his bosses would appreciate comments about a competing Jewish library.

The next area of growth for Sefaria, according to its creators, will include access to more modern texts that are not yet part of the public domain. In some cases, Sefaria will pay publishers to post them online.

“We want to make sure that Sefaria is a space that works for all Jews and everyone who wants to use it,” said Tzemach.

For Jews who have for centuries been known as “people of the book,” that’s a true revolution.

 

Jews Are Cheap | Ep. 2 | That's Racist:

https://youtu.be/2jXsL1ZF_o8?si=0RbsaHOOsfIwpOm-

https://religionnews.com/2023/08/28/10-year-old-jewish-digital-library-revolutionizes-the-people-of-the-book/

Israeli criminologist Yitzhak Rosenblum found three salient characteristics in his research on sexual abuse in ultra-Orthodox society: lack of knowledge on the part of perpetrators, victims, and society regarding sexuality in general; the perception that sexual assault is a halachic prohibition similar to masturbation — a sin against God, rather than a harmful act to another human being; and the lack of discourse about sex education in the ultra-Orthodox education system.

Should we care about sex offenders? 

 

When a convicted abuser claims he's teaching you how to keep your children safe, stay far, far away from him and his manipulations 

 

Warning: this article contains material regarding sexual abuse that some readers may find disturbing.

* * *

A few weeks ago, podcaster and comedian Mendy Pellin featured an interview with convicted sex offender Gershon Selinger, who recounted his struggle with pedophilia and sexual offending. Almost immediately, segments of Jewish social media were flooded with reactions. Although the podcast was followed by interviews with sex abuse prevention advocates Dr. Michael Salamon and Patty Fitzgerald, who framed Selinger’s narrative as rationalizations and distortions, many felt that Pellin’s interview irresponsibly provided a platform for a harmful and manipulative abuser. Others felt that Selinger was “brave” for coming forward with his story, seemingly with the goal of protecting children from people like himself.

Many of my mental health colleagues were quick to respond on social media. I was first alerted to the existence of the video by an Instagram post by Rachel Tuchman, a licensed mental health counselor in New York. “I don’t recommend watching the video of the convicted sex offender ‘teaching’ us how to keep our kids safe,” she warned. “That’s not all he does. Instead, he victimizes himself by blaming his victims and minimizing his own crimes. It’s classic abuser behavior, and if you found yourself believing him and sympathizing with him, you learned first-hand how manipulative these offenders actually are.” 

Watching the video, those points resonated. While Selinger talked about understanding the damage he caused, his narrative seemed rehearsed and disconnected from actual remorseful emotions or expressions of empathy for his victims. Additionally, he made alarming statements, which I identified as potentially triggering to survivors of abuse. For example, Selinger described that the little girl he had abused “just came and sat on my lap,” a clear indication that he did not hold himself completely accountable. He also claimed not knowing at the time that what he was doing was hurtful, and had his victim told him to stop, he would have. Sex abuse survivors often battle feelings of guilt for not sufficiently reacting and trying to stop what is happening. Through therapy, they learn that the “freeze response” occurs in order to survive and not because they were consenting. Selinger’s message perpetuates the false belief that the children were somehow responsible for the abuse because they did not ask him to stop. Children do not have the tools to stop abusers from hurting them. It is the abusers who need to stop abusing.

The video was difficult and disturbing to watch. As a therapist, I was skeptical, but was also curious to understand what goes on in the mind of an offender that would allow acting in such a heinous way. I am not an expert in treating sex offenders. I have far more experience treating people who were sexually abused than I do with those who abuse, but I feel empathy for people wracked with shame and guilt over unwanted sexual fantasies or fears that their desires will cause them to violate the boundaries of others.

As an advocate of sexual health, I was particularly interested in Selinger’s claim that the lack of acceptable sexual outlets in the religious world, including masturbation, resulted in his offending, and that insufficient sexual encounters with his wife would trigger him to act out as well. Although disturbing to hear, I wasn’t surprised. According to research, the combination of narcissistic entitlement and distorted cultural messages transmitted to men that they are entitled to marital sex to prevent their sexual acting out may contribute to feeling justified to get their sexual needs met elsewhere. That, of course, does not excuse such behavior. 

Problematic sexual behaviors, including non-consensual acts, are a recognized concern universally, and unfortunately, in the Haredi world as well. Israeli criminologist Yitzhak Rosenblum found three salient characteristics in his research on sexual abuse in ultra-Orthodox society: lack of knowledge on the part of perpetrators, victims, and society regarding sexuality in general; the perception that sexual assault is a halachic prohibition similar to masturbation — a sin against God, rather than a harmful act to another human being; and the lack of discourse about sex education in the ultra-Orthodox education system. 

To understand more about the connection between healthy sexuality and sexual offending, I turned to my colleague Dr. Caleb Jacobson, a clinical psychologist and sex therapist who specializes in treating pedophiles, whom he refers to as “minor-attracted persons.” He makes a deliberate distinction between those who are attracted to minors and those who offend. He cited surprising research that estimates that 10 percent of men are attracted to minors. Dr. Jacobson also cited data claiming that people who are in satisfying sexual relationships are less likely to sexually offend.

The finding that having a satisfying sexual relationship could ward off sexual offending felt uncomfortable to me. I don’t like the implication that people in healthy sexual relationships are less likely to offend because they are getting their sexual needs met sufficiently by their partners. I prefer to believe that people who are in healthy, satisfying relationships both physically and emotionally typically possess relational skills including emotional regulation, the ability to inhibit aggressive behaviors, and the ability to demonstrate empathy, and so they would never hurt others that way. Perhaps it is the lack of empathy, compassion and restraint, the narcissistic entitlement to take what you want, and the lack of concern for others, factors that also preclude being in a healthy romantic relationship, that are more likely to be what drives this anti-social behavior. Furthermore, there are many wonderful, healthy and well-adjusted people who are not sexually active or in a sexual relationship for a variety of reasons and yet they do not offend. I still wanted to formulate a response to Pellin’s interview but needed more clarity.

While this lengthy process prevented an immediate Instagram response, I do co-host a podcast with Rabbi Scott Kahn that I thought could be an appropriate forum to discuss this topic in greater depth. Our podcast, “Intimate Judaism,” has not shied away from topics deemed taboo by many. Sex and intimacy in the context of Jewish law is the main subject of our discourse, with topics ranging from masturbation to sex throughout the lifecycle, premarital sex, LGBTQ, monogamy, consent, pleasure, etc. We have also not avoided discussions of sexual trauma and abuse. Yet, we deliberated a lot about whether to respond to Pellin’s podcast. The last thing we want to do is trigger survivors of sexual abuse or sensationalize a serious and troubling problem.

After much discussion, Scott and I assembled a panel of experts, including Caleb and Shana Aaronson, director of Magen, an organization dedicated to creating safer Jewish communities by advocating for victims of sexual abuse. We met to discuss these questions for the purpose of releasing this discussion as a video and podcast. We did this for two reasons. First, and most importantly, to join the efforts to protect children. The more that is understood about people who offend and why, the better-equipped communities, schools, and parents can be. Second, while there is great stigma attached to “minor attraction,” it is important to know that there are people who specialize in treatment, and this information could ultimately prevent abuse.

Must we understand the experience of sex offenders? Unequivocally no. If you are a survivor of abuse, you are absolutely not required to listen to, understand, empathize, or forgive. But if you are a mental health professional, rabbi, teacher, camp director, community leader, parent, or anyone interested in healthy sexuality and abuse prevention on a global level, we invite you to watch our panel here or listen on Intimate Judaism or Orthodox Conundrum.

 

Talli Yehuda Rosenbaum is an individual and couple therapist and is certified as a sex therapist by The American Association for Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT) , as well as the Israeli Society for Sex Therapy (ISST). She is also an AASECT certified sex therapy supervisor. She cohosts the Intimate Judaism podcast and is co-author of the book “I am For My Beloved: A Guide to Enhanced Intimacy for Married Couples.” and co-edited the Springer textbook entitled “The Overactive Pelvic Floor.” She has authored over 40 journal articles and several book chapters on sexual pain disorders, sexual health, unconsummated marriage, and sexuality and Judaism and is an associate editor of the Sexual Medicine Reviews. Talli earned a Masters in Clinical Sociology and Counseling and a certificate in Mental Health Studies from the University of North Texas in Neve Yerushalayim. She holds a bachelors degree in Physical Therapy from Northwestern University and before training in psychotherapy, treated patients as a physical therapist for 25 years. In addition to maintaining an active private practice, Talli is the academic advisor for Yahel: The Center for Jewish Intimacy. Talli frequently lectures both in Israel and abroad, to lay as well as professional audiences. 

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/should-we-care-about-sex-offenders/

TORAH UMESORAH RABBIS - "TEACHING TORAH VALUES TO OUR 260,000 CHILDREN IS OUR ONLY GOAL" "Transmitting Yiddishkeit in a compelling manner to students"

EVERY LOWLIFE

OUR MISSION - WELCOMING AS GUEST SPEAKER AT OUR CONVENTIONS  EVERY RAPIST/FRAUD/CRIMINAL THAT WOULD PUT ON A YARMULKE AT THE KOTEL!

 

"Transmitting Yiddishkeit in a compelling manner to students"  

NOW AVAILABLE AT 760 TORAH UMESORAH YESHIVAS FOR A $100 DONATION PER ITEM! FULLY TAX DEDUCTIBLE UNLESS IT'S MEZUMEN (WINK WINK)!

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HaRav Dovid Harris
HaRav Elya Brudny

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HaRav Chaim Y. Hoberman
HaRav Yosef Eichenstein

 

760 TORAH UMESORAH YESHIVAS ACROSS THE USA:

https://www.torahumesorah.org/schools

 

 

Rabbi Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz  founded Torah Umesorah to develop a network of Jewish day schools across North America.^[7]

Rabbi Mendlowitz was born in Hungary^[8][9] and was then serving as the head of the Yeshiva Torah Vodaas in Brooklyn, New York. He selected Dr. Joseph Kaminetsky in 1945 as the first full-time Director; Kaminetsky was given the mandate to fulfill the vision of the founding rabbis. He served until 1980, overseeing the establishment of Orthodox day schools at hundreds of sites across the country; he is considered the most influential leader of Torah Umesorah. He had a doctorate from Columbia Teachers College.^[10]

In 1944 there were few Orthodox Jewish day schools in the United States, let alone authentic yeshivas or Beis Yaakov schools. ^[11] The afternoon/Talmud Torah system was deemed "failing to transmit Yiddishkeit in a compelling manner to students who arrived tired in the afternoons and were constantly subjected to assimilationist influences in American culture."^[2]

 

Australian Court Sentences Malka Leifer to 15 Years in Jail for Child Sexual Abuse

But why not arrest the suspect in Israel?

" Gerrer hassid Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman allegedly is protecting pedophiles in his 100,000-member hassidic sect in Israel, and the broader community of the ultra-Orthodox who constitute more than 1,000,000 of Israel’s 9 million people. Litzman has helped at least 10 serious sex offenders obtain improved conditions, including home visits and other benefits, by pressuring state psychiatrists and prisons service officials, according to The Times of Israel. Some of the cases are reportedly being examined by police.

Most notorious of those whom the Gerrer sage-turned politician and head of the United Torah Judaism (UTJ) party has been accused of using his influence to protect is Malka Leifer, who for more than a decade has been fighting extradition to Australia for allegedly abusing students at the Gerrer-affiliated school Downunder."

 

HUMAN GARBAGE CALLED GER REBBE & HIS TOP CRIMINAL YAKOV LITZMAN

The sentencing of the ultra-Orthodox school principal marks the end of a prolonged legal battle that tested Israeli-Australian relations

An Australian court has sentenced Malka Leifer, a former principal of an Australian Jewish school, to 15 years behind bars for the sexual abuse of two young high school students.

Leifer’s sentencing is potentially the final chapter of an extended battle that tested Israeli-Australian relations to bring the 56-year-old Israeli citizen to justice.

• 'I was involved in the Malka Leifer case. It was a mistake on my part'
• How to avoid another Malka Leifer sex abuse saga
• Litzman quits to avoid harsher charges in Malka Leifer case

Leifer cried as her sentence was handed down. She was convicted by a jury earlier this year of 18 charges of sexual abuse, including rape and indecent assault. She was acquitted of nine other charges, including five against the siblings' older sister Nicole Meyer.

Leifer abused sisters Dassi Erlick and Elly Sapper between 2003 and 2007 while she was principal of Melbourne’s ultra-Orthodox Adass Israel School for girls.

Erlick was 14 and Sapper 12 when Leifer arrived at the school from Israel in 2000 first as a head of religion. The sisters told the court in victim impact statements last month that being sexually abused by Leifer broke their ability to trust and was painful to remember.

Leifer returned to Israel in 2008 as the allegations surfaced and fought Australia’s application to extradite her through Jerusalem courts from 2014 until January 2021 when she was flown from Israel with her wrists and ankles shackled.

In May, the Addass Israel School reached a settlement with a former student who claimed to have been molested by Leifer, heading off a high-profile civil trial only a month after she was convicted, and mere hours before the trial was set to begin.

The Tel Aviv-born mother of eight has been in custody since she returned to Australia and has denied all charges. She was convicted of six charges of rape, each carrying up to 25 years in prison. In addition, she was convicted of three charges of sexual penetration of a child, each carrying a potential 10-year sentence, and six charges of indecent assault, which also carries a 10-year sentence.

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-08-24/ty-article/australian-court-sentences-malka-leifer-to-15-years-for-child-sex-abuse/0000018a-25aa-d895-abce-efeb170a0001?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=Content&utm_campaign=daily-brief&utm_content=1b86e4b69f

 

 

Together, we can stop the silence.

Stop the Silence® is a Department of the Institute on Violence, Abuse, and Trauma (IVAT), and has a mission to prevent, expose, and stop child sexual abuse (CSA) and help survivors worldwide. Thanks to the efforts of experts, healers, and survivors and their supporters around the globe, we’re preventing CSA and promoting healing of victims and survivors, celebrating the lives of those healed, and underscoring CSA as social justice and civil rights issues. This brave collaboration brings together real stories and powerful tools from practitioners and survivors who have been on the front lines of the fight for justice and healing. Together, we’re normalizing the conversations around CSA; bringing awareness, training, and education to communities; changing norms; and empowering victims, survivors, and their families and other supporters.

https://www.amazon.com/Stop-Silence-Thriving-After-Sexual-ebook/dp/B0BXJWCSH5/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2F6XLYLMQ8LIX&keywords=stop+the+silence&qid=1678315444&s=books&sprefix=stop+the+silence,stripbooks,172&sr=1-1

Let's listen closely to these amazing women from 40 - 80 tell their stories of courage and truth. At the time of abuse many were children. What do they have to tell you?

 

High Time For Hershel Schachter To Be Put In Cherem!

 

Yeshiva University launches master’s program for Christian students

 

Christian students enrolled in the master's program for Jewish studies at Yeshiva University

The 2-year track at the Modern Orthodox flagship is being called an ‘experiment,’ but what’s certain is that it reflects a growing Evangelical interest in Jewish practices - (and for them to closely mingle with Jews of the opposite sex which will undoubtedly lead to proselytizing, intermarriage or inter-dating at the very least) PM

 

HERSHEL SCHACHTER - YU HEAD LACKEY

 

JTA — Emily Talento grew up with Jewish friends and relatives on Long Island, attending Passover Seders, bar and bat mitzvahs and Shabbat dinners. When she arrived at Cedarville University, a private Baptist university in Ohio, she found herself explaining Jewish traditions to her many classmates who had never met a Jew before.

Now, Talento is continuing her Bible studies at a religious university. But it’s safe to say that she won’t encounter the same lack of knowledge about Jews this time. That’s because she’s one of eight Christian students embarking on a course of study at Yeshiva University that’s designed just for them.

In the two-year Hebraic Studies Program for Christian Students at the Modern Orthodox flagship, Talento and her cohort will take courses on Jewish history, biblical Hebrew, post-biblical literature and more.

“I’m excited that everything is coming from the Jewish perspective,” Talento said.

The new program is a joint initiative of YU and the Philos Project, an organization that says it “seeks to promote positive Christian engagement in the Near East.” Philos is a partner of Passages — a Birthright-style program that brings young Christians on group tours of Israel — and it also organizes Christians to demonstrate against antisemitism.

The launch of the Christian students’ program is a sign of a growing bond between Orthodox Jews and religious Christians, who have increasingly found common cause on everything from conservative domestic politics to support for Israel. It is also an experiment in whether a school founded more than a century ago to accommodate the observances and sensibilities of Orthodox students in a majority-Christian country can now create an intentional space for Christians to study Judaism as well.

“Within the broader Protestant world, but particularly evangelicals, there’s been, I’d say in the last 50 years, just a really intense interest in the Jewish context of the New Testament, in particular Second Temple Judaism,” said Daniel Hummel, a historian of American religion and the author of “Covenant Brothers: Evangelicals, Jews, and U.S.-Israeli Relations.” (Philos, while founded by an evangelical Christian, identifies itself as ecumenical.)

That interest, Hummel said, has required encounters with Jews. “That’s sort of been the pattern,” he said. “You learn from Jews about their beliefs, and then you sort of take that thinking back to the New Testament texts, which then reshape how you read those texts.”

The program is part of an existing master’s degree program at YU’s Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies. YU’s undergraduate programs are separated by gender, are explicitly geared toward Orthodox Jews and combine traditional Jewish text study with a secular college education. But the university’s graduate programs, including Revel, are open to non-Jews, and Revel describes itself as a “genuinely non-denominational school.”

This year’s “pilot class” of eight Christian graduate students, who come from a mix of evangelical, Pentecostal and Baptist backgrounds, began with Hebrew Bible courses this summer. The students hail from California, Texas, Nebraska, Virginia and Mozambique. Five students are studying remotely, and three plan to be on campus in New York beginning in the fall semester.

Christian students enrolled in the master’s program for Jewish studies at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies at Yeshiva University

 

“Our real goal is for the Christian students to gain a deeper understanding of the Jewish roots of Christianity,” said Jonathan Dauber, Revel’s director of external programming and YU’s head of the Philos partnership. “It’s also a program that’s meant to foster dialogue and understanding between Jews and Christians because the Jewish students and Christian students are together.”

What sets the new program apart from the rest of the Jewish studies school is that it is a “curated pathway” for Christian students, Dauber said — though aside from the biblical Hebrew classes, the students will take the majority of their courses with other Revel students. YU also hopes to create space outside of the formal classroom where students can interact, such as on a museum visit or via other cultural activities.

Some Christian groups and individuals have appropriated various Jewish rituals for Christian purposes, hosting “Christian Seders,” blowing a shofar, or ram’s horn, at prayer or marketing Christian takes on the mezuzah. Those practices have also sparked backlash from both Jewish and Christian clergy. But Hummel felt that the Christian students in the YU program would be unlikely to take on Jewish rituals or seek to missionize to their classmates.

“It’s Yeshiva that’s hosting it, and so the power dynamics are a bit different than if it was Christian space,” Hummel said. “It would be a real uphill battle for a Christian to go into Yeshiva University and expect some type of big success with conversion.”(HOW DO YOU SPELL PUTZ? PM)

Institutionally, Yeshiva University is not expecting proselytizing to be an issue either. Ahead of the program’s launch, the university’s rabbinic leadership even issued a ruling that the program was permissible according to Jewish law.

“The Philos students also understand that themselves, that their purpose is to study and to learn about Judaism, that it’s not to try to convince or persuade,” Dauber said. “So that’s really not something that we’re worried about.”

 

Lighting candles at the Cross Life Church in Alvarado, Arkansas.

 

Jews and Christians have studied together in religiously affiliated academic settings in the past. In 2018, Philos ran a leadership program for its Black members at the Reform movement’s Hebrew Union College, where they met with rabbis and African-American pastors to discuss Black and Jewish relations. That same year, David Nekrutman became the first Orthodox Jew to graduate from Oral Roberts University, an evangelical private university, with a masters degree in Christian studies.

The YU program is different because students will undertake sustained enrollment at an Orthodox school.

“This is, in a lot of ways, an experiment,” said Robert Nicholson, president and founder of the Philos Project. “Can Christians and Orthodox Jews study together? Does it even work?”

He added, “Just the mere fact of forging a partnership with an Orthodox institution, to me, is a way of moving the ball down the field in Jewish-Christian relations.”

Hummel said that the partnership “isn’t just out of nowhere.” Modern Orthodox Jews and evangelical Christians also share what Hummel referred to as a “theological framework” around Zionism, which is understood as “a real covenant between God and the Jewish people that entails Jews being able to control their homeland.”

Talento, who came in not knowing the Hebrew alphabet, has enjoyed her classes so far. Learning to read biblical Hebrew is “something I couldn’t even imagine being able to do,” Talento said. Knowing Hebrew, she says, lets her “get more into the mindset of the author than you could reading a translated, English-language” text.

Later, she’ll be taking a class on the history of Judaism from the fall of the Second Temple through the Holocaust, and a class on Paul the Apostle, titled “Paul: Profile of a First-Century Jew.” It will be offered in the fall over Zoom and is open to any master’s degree student.

Talento, who has gone on a Passages trip to Israel, is not sure what she will do when she graduates from the program. She has worked for Passages in the past and has attended pro-Israel conferences held by advocacy organizations such as StandWithUs and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. She is considering pursuing a career in the nonprofit world, working for Philos, or elsewhere in Israel advocacy.

“God only gives me the next step,” she said. “If you would have told me I was doing this a year ago, I would have said, ‘This is so cool — but I don’t even know how I was going to get there.’”

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/yeshiva-university-launches-masters-program-for-christian-students/?utm_campaign=daily-edition-2023-08-17&utm_medium=email&utm_source=The+Daily+Edition

 

והא דינין קום עשה הוא וקא חשיב קום עשה ושב אל תעשה נינהו ואמר ר' יוחנן עובד כוכבים שעוסק בתורה חייב מיתה שנאמר תורה צוה לנו משה מורשה לנו מורשה ולא להם וליחשבה גבי שבע מצות מ"ד מורשה מיגזל קא גזיל לה מאן דאמר מאורסה דינו כנערה המאורסה דבסקילה מיתיבי היה ר"מ אומר מניין שאפילו עובד כוכבים ועוסק בתורה שהוא ככהן גדול שנאמר אשר יעשה אותם האדם וחי בהם כהנים לוים וישראלים לא נאמר אלא האדם הא למדת שאפילו עובד כוכבים ועוסק בתורה הרי הוא ככהן גדול התם בשבע מצות דידהו: ר' חנינא בן גמליאל אומר אף הדם מן החי: ת"ר אך בשר בנפשו דמו לא תאכלו זה אבר מן החי רבי חנינא בן גמליאל אומר אף הדם מן החי מ"ט דרבי חנינא בן גמליאל קרי ביה בשר בנפשו לא תאכל דמו בנפשו לא תאכל ורבנן ההוא למישרי שרצים הוא דאתא כיוצא בדבר אתה אומר רק חזק לבלתי אכל הדם כי הדם הוא הנפש וגו' (רק חזק לבלתי אכל הדם זה אבר מן החי כי הדם הוא הנפש זה דם מן החי) ורבנן ההוא לדם הקזה שהנשמה יוצאה בו הוא דאתא למה לי למיכתב לבני נח ולמה לי למשני בסיני כדר' יוסי בר' חנינא דא"ר יוסי בר' חנינא כל מצוה שנאמרה לבני נח ונשנית בסיני לזה ולזה נאמרה לבני נח ולא נשנית בסיני לישראל נאמרה ולא לבני נח ואנו אין לנו אלא גיד הנשה ואליבא דר' יהודה אמר מר כל מצוה שנאמרה לבני נח ונשנית בסיני לזה ולזה נאמרה אדרבה מדנשנית בסיני לישראל נאמרה ולא לבני נח מדאיתני עבודת כוכבים בסיני ואשכחן דענש עובדי כוכבים עילווה ש"מ לזה ולזה נאמרה: לבני נח ולא נשנית בסיני לישראל נאמרה ולא לבני נח: אדרבה מדלא נישנית בסיני לבני נח נאמרה ולא לישראל ליכא מידעם דלישראל שרי ולעובד כוכבים אסור ולא והרי יפת תואר התם משום דלאו בני כיבוש נינהו והרי פחות משוה פרוטה התם משום דלאו בני מחילה נינהו: כל מצוה 

 TALMUD SANHEDRIN:

https://hebrewbooks.org/shas.aspx?mesechta=24&daf=59&format=pdf

"American rabbonim regularly encounter people who tell them they or their spouse is “Jewish,” or their child is marrying someone “Jewish,” even though the rav knows the person is a “Marilyn Monroe convert.”

 

TRUMP

KLOSS

CLINTON

 by Rabbi Dov Fischer

While Israel is secure and forever, peril faces American Jewry. Not only are non-Orthodox rapidly self-destructing and disappearing, but these fault lines extend into “Modern Orthodoxy”:

1. At least 33-40 percent or more of American “Jews” are not Jews. American Orthodox rabbinic and lay institutions are terrified to reveal they know this and its ramifications. All practicing American rabbonim (Orthodox rabbis) know they secretly undertake lineage investigations before conducting weddings for anyone not engaged in their communities because odds are that one or both prospective spouses is not Jewish. For that same reason — encountering “Jews” who are not Jews — they turn away even relatives of paid synagogue members from being buried in their shul cemeteries and from having their kids “bar- or bat-mitzva’d.”

American rabbonim regularly encounter people who tell them they or their spouse is “Jewish,” or their child is marrying someone “Jewish,” even though the rav knows the person is a “Marilyn Monroe convert.” Because the Orthodox Union and Rabbinical Council of America, terrified to offend members and donors, deliberately evade the issue and stopped educating the public years ago, many Jewish parents affiliated with O.U. shuls and RCA rabbonim have evolved to accept when their boys marry non-Jewish and tell them “Mom, she’s doing a conversion with a reform/conservative rabbi, so it’s OK and you will have Jewish grandchildren, and don’t write me out of your will.” Jewish parents no longer feel stigma: “Well, Rabbi, at least she is undergoing some kind of conversion. Right?”

Wrong.

The local syngogue raibbi is afraid to speak the Truth because he may get fired. He rationalizes: “If I tell them the hard truth, they will fire me, and then what will become of the shul?” (Answer: They will hire someone else with the exact same skills-set but more docile.) Tragically, the RCA and OU, who cannot be fired by local congregants but fear donors, also resist speaking the Truth. That is the meaning of Exile. The lesson for Israel: Jews vigilantly must guard against similar erosion in Israel’s Law of Return and Grandparent Clause. The toxicity poisoning American “Judaism” must not attain a foothold in Israel. This is Judaic life-or-death.

2. Secondly, mainstream American Modern Orthodox institutions proceed with contempt-of-court toward their own Poskim (Torah Authorities) and fear speaking with clarity on issues regarding the pernicious pretense of “Open Orthodoxy.” The “Maharat” Academy (“Yeshivat Maharat”), which contravenes Judaism and ordains “Orthodox women rabbis” (“Maharats”), now proudly and publicly endorses lesbian marriage, even among their own Maharat “Yeshiva” students. Yes, “Orthodox women rabbis” in lesbian marriages.Other “Maharats” advocate for transgender legislation, claiming they speak for Orthodox Judaism. Such “Maharats” amplify the disgrace; one is “Rabbi in Residence” at Missouri’s Episcopal Church of the Holy Communion. Another is a professor of Feminism at the seminary for “Reform Rabbis,” where she is proud to be called “Rabbi.”

The Orthodox Union asked their Poskim to pasken (Judaically rule) on whether “women rabbis” may serve O.U. congregations, and their revered Torah Authorities unanimouslypaskened in an extended learned Teshuvah (Responsum) in February 2017 — more than six years ago — that women rabbis are absolutely forbidden. Yet, to this very day, there are O.U. congregations in public contempt of their own rabbinic judges, and Orthodox Union knows it — because allknow it, because it is so public — and yet O.U. has not implemented the very rabbinic ruling it sought. That is contempt of court.

Even so, the same O.U. “boldly” lectures Israelis on how to deal with their courts. Nor does Rabbinical Council of America conscientiously enforce its own explicit requirement: ". . . [W]e cannot accept either the ordination of women or the recognition of women as members of the Orthodox rabbinate, regardless of the title.” Indeed, RCA even has bumbled into becoming a back-door vehicle for "Open Orthodox" female and male rabbis to gain legitimacy.

And the third “pillar” of American Modern Orthodoxy, Yeshiva University, now has a “Vice Provost for Values and Leadership” who leverages her YU status to legitimize “Maharat women rabbis” in a number of venues. The university’s Cardozo Law School awarded Jimmy Carter their “International Advocate for Peace” award, and 21 of their faculty signed a letter opposing Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination for the Supreme Court. Cardozo even has mandated that all students must take a course in critical race theory to graduate.

How far YU has descended from Presidents Rav Bernard Revel, Rav Samuel Belkin, and Rav Norman Lamm of blessed memory and the overriding spiritual leadership of HaRav Yosef Ber Soloveitchik!

Greater Israel is safe and secure forever. American Modern Orthodoxy?

ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE:

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/375594

To receive Rav Fischer’s Weekly Extensive Torah Commentaries or to attend any or all of Rav Fischer’s weekly 60-minute live Zoom classes on the Weekly Torah Portion, the Biblical Prophets, the Mishnah, Rambam Mishneh Torah, or Advanced Judaic Texts, send an email to: shulstuff@yioc.org

Rav Fischer’s recent hour-long interview on a range of pressing contemporary Jewish issues, ranging from the “Palestine” Myth to apostate Jewish leftists and their like-minded reform rabbis to the weakness of pro-Israel campus Jews who root their advocacy in Victimology instead of Jewish strength, can be found here.

“I know that you feel comfortable being naked, I’m sorry for you."

 

Teen girls told to sit in back of bus, cover up because of Haredi passengers

 

Incident is one of several reports of bus drivers illegally discriminating against women in past week

The flag-raising marked the official start of the work of the new government.The composition of the all-male, all-Taliban government was celebrated by the Knesset.

A bus driver on Sunday ordered a group of teenage girls to sit in the back and cover themselves up, another in a string of recent instances of discrimination against women on public transportation.

When a group of teenage boys and girls boarded the Nateev Express 885 line from Ashdod to Kfar Tavor, the driver told the boys to sit up front and the girls to sit in the back and cover themselves with blankets, explaining that they were on an ultra-Orthodox bus line.

“I know that you feel comfortable being naked,” the bus driver could be heard saying in a recording of the incident obtained by Ynet.

When one of the girls told him that she felt humiliated, the driver responded: “Go tell Channel 12. Enough with this nonsense, you don’t have religious people in your home. You live in a kibbutz, detached from the world. You live in a Jewish state and you should respect the people living here. The fact that you live in a kibbutz and were raised this way, I’m sorry for you.

“I’m done arguing with you, you’re just kids,” he went on. “You’ll grow up and maybe understand that the upbringing you received is the worst possible kind. When you get on a bus where there are religious and ultra-Orthodox people who respect your way of life, you should respect theirs. You need to understand this, this is the Jewish state. This is where you live, and this is what’s happening in this country now.”

When the girls said that it was their right in a democracy to choose how to dress and where to sit, the driver said that “This has nothing to do with democracy. What you’re doing is undemocratic. If you have an issue with what I’ve said, then as far as I’m concerned you weren’t educated properly.

“What’s going on in the country today is because of your opinion. I’m giving you an opinion that maybe you should pass on to your parents at home.”

One of the girls, Shaked Rapaport, 15 from Kibbutz Hatzor, told Ynet that she had spoken with ultra-Orthodox passengers who told her that they had no issue with them sitting with their male friends.

In a statement, Nateev Express said that the company was reviewing the incident and that it condemns all forms of discrimination on its lines.

Bonot Alternativa, a women’s rights advocacy group, said: “This is not a mistake, it’s a policy. The Israeli government is actively working to exclude and erase women from the public sphere.

“There is one captain navigating this dangerous ship, and he is the prime minister.”

Separately on Sunday, Tzefi Erez, an 88-year-old woman from Givatayim, told Kan that a bus driver repeatedly ignored her when she asked him if she had gotten on the correct line. When the woman’s husband asked the driver why he wasn’t responding to her, the driver said that he refuses to speak to women.

“I was deeply hurt. I am a Holocaust survivor,” the woman said. “I’ve suffered enough… I came to the State of Israel, and suddenly I’m in Iran. Tomorrow they’ll tell me to cover my face.”

The Dan bus company put out a statement apologizing for the incident, and saying that it had personally contacted Erez and her husband, though Erez said that no one from Dan had spoken to her.

Two similar instances occurred last week. A bus driver in Ashdod told a woman that she could not board a bus because it was meant only for ultra-Orthodox men, and in Tel Aviv a driver berated a woman for wearing a tank top.

Mehadrin (strictly kosher) buses, which enforce gender separation to accommodate ultra-Orthodox passengers by having men sit in the front and women in the back, operated in Israel until the High Court of Justice ruled in 2011 that the practice was illegal.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/teen-girls-told-to-sit-in-back-of-bus-cover-up-because-of-haredi-passengers/?utm_campaign=daily-edition-2023-08-14&utm_medium=email&utm_source=The+Daily+Edition

Arabs Give Jews The Finger(s)!

 

 

Halal nail polish raises complex discussions among Muslim consumers

 

The halal cosmetic market is growing rapidly, but many customers remain skeptical.

 (The Arabs Caught the OU and Moshe Heinemann dreaming in Black & White - could be Yenta Yachne the Mikve Lady's job does not require nail polish remover - Water Soluble Dye May Not Be Considered a Chatzizah) Y:D 198-17, Chut Shani Nidah 198- pg. 309, Rema ibid -1, L’torah U’lhorah 7 pg. 27 (PM)

 Rabbi Moshe Feinstein ---"The Mishna in Shabbat 65a teaches that a woman is permitted to wear a small piece of cotton in the ear into a public domain on Shabbat.  The Gemara explains that any item which is a chatzitza may not be worn into the public domain on Shabbat. It would seem, accordingly, that a piece of cotton is not a chatzitza.  Rav Moshe explains that the reason for this is as follows.  He says that there are two types of chatzitzot.  The first is a Chatzitza which actually attaches to the skin and impedes the contact of the skin with water.  Examples of this include nail polish and ointments." PM

SEE TUR YORAH DEAH: יורה דעה הלנות טנילה קצח

file:///C:/Users/Owner/Downloads/yd4_138-1.pdf

Tuesday in Love nail polish meets halal rules and offers access to specially produced cosmetic products. 

(RNS) — On her TikTok, Maham Ayaz, also known as @eggdelivery, regularly tests the water permeability of halal nail polish. In a video that received 27,000 likes, Ayaz lay small portions of nail polish film on a paper towel before applying six to seven drops of water to each.

After a five-minute wait, she announced the verdict: The paper towel remained dry. None of these products let water seep through despite advertising to the contrary.

The flow of disappointed users in the comment section revealed the stakes: Making sure water can reach the surface of the nail tip at any time, even with a manicure, is important to many Muslim consumers.

When performing wudu, the ritual purification before each of the five daily prayers, some claim the cleansing isn’t complete unless the water reaches all parts of the face, hands, arms and feet. Including the nails.

Tapping into this booming market, many nail polish companies developed water-breathable formulas in the past 10 years, also known as wudu-friendly nail polish. But there is yet to be an official standard in the halal certification industry to rate the efficiency and reliability of these products.

For Imam Mansoor Rafiq Umar, the CEO and president of Halal Watch World, a halal certification organization, labeling a nail polish as halal is a tricky and complex process.

“It’s very difficult for any company to claim that something can permeate it. I would love to see all the scientific data and papers to be able to show that,” he said.

In 30 years of business, Halal Watch World only certified one nail polish brand as halal for its clean composition, as it didn’t include any prohibited ingredients, such as alcohol, explained Umar. For now, the company refuses to grant wudu-friendly certificates, claiming that existing water permeability tests aren’t convincing enough.

For Umar, certifications should clearly distinguish between the halal composition and the wudu-friendliness of the nail polish. He said this could help strengthen Muslim consumers’ trust in halal nail polish brands. Since the use of the term halal in this context can be misleading, Umar believes such products can’t be considered haram, or sinful in Arabic.

“I think the categorization is actually problematic. You can’t deem something as halal if you can’t make wudu with it. That’s not really a proper classification,” he said.

 

Halal nail polish from Tuesday in Love includes a variety of colors and shades.

Dr. Umar Dar, the CEO and founder of the halal nail polish brand Tuesday in Love, also thinks the halal certification industry should agree on new standards for halal nail polish.

“When it comes to the halal certification industry, there is very little to no central and authoritative organization,” he said.

Dar first got interested in the halal nail polish industry in 2014, when he spent hours testing the water permeability of such products in his kitchen. After months of testing samples of various brands, Dar realized none let water seep through due to the use of nitrocellulose. This compound, used in paint, lacquer and most nail polish, hardens when it dries and creates a solid layer on the nail.

Even if many brands add another chemical in their formulas to alter the nitrocellulose base, it isn’t enough to change the original properties of nail polish and make them completely water-breathable, said Dar.

“I had a chemistry background, I examined it closely, and I was like, this is just a marketing scam. … Breathable nail polish is literally just a regular nail polish jacked up in price,” he said.

Dar developed a water-breathable complex certified by the Canadian Halal Certification and the Islamic Society of North America, and he put a patent on it. He regularly challenges his clients to rate its efficiency with homemade tests.

“We tell our customers: Look, it should be simple enough for you to even do this at home,” he said.

Dar called out halal nail polish brands and the organizations that certified them on his brand’s YouTube channel and TikTok.

Javed Younis co-founded a leading brand in the industry, Maya Cosmetics, a Chicago-based company. He recognized there is a specific way of using these products to ensure efficiency, suggesting consumers let water run on their hands and create enough pressure by rubbing their fingertips.

Maya Cosmetics produces a line of fully halal nail polish

After an audit that included the company’s manufacturing, their subcontractors, and a battery of water-permeability tests using coffee filters, Maya Cosmetics products have been certified halal by the Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America and the IDCP, a Filipino certification organization.

“It’s not just our opinion in that saying this is a safe product, an independent certification body approved the product,” said Younis.

Ever since he founded the company in 2016, Younis said, he has encountered a lot of skeptical clients.

“Despite having certification, there is still a portion of the Muslim population that does not accept it as valid. We are OK with that; that is perfectly acceptable,” he said.

Expected to grow steadily in Asia-Pacific and Muslim-majority countries, the halal cosmetic global market represented $30 million in 2020, according to a recent report by Allied Market Research. Younis said halal cosmetic products are particularly appreciated in countries with a trendy young Muslim population, such as Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa and the United Kingdom. Jewish and vegan consumers are also a growing market.

This growing interest should force halal certification organizations to take the problem seriously, according to Dar, who believes they are trying to avoid conversations on the topic or simply refusing to take positions on these products.

“I think, that’s where a lot of our younger generation gets very frustrated. Just because it’s technology and it’s new doesn’t mean you should dismiss it,” he said.

 

 

https://religionnews.com/2023/08/11/halal-nail-polish-raises-complex-discussions-among-muslim-consumers/