Porush added his best wishes to students of the yeshiva currently serving and engaged in the “battle against the vile murderers” of Hamas.

 Porush Takes Chutzpah To A New Level!

Haredi minister upbraids national religious for opposing military draft exemptions

 

Speaking at flagship yeshiva of religious Zionist movement, Meir Porush says it ‘is not appropriate to criticize the order of our conduct’

Minister of Jerusalem Affairs and Jewish Heritage Meir Porush - Makes Arye Deri Look Like a Saint!

 

Addressing students at the flagship yeshiva of the religious Zionist movement on Wednesday, Jerusalem Affairs Minister Meir Porush condemned members of the more modern religious community who criticize the ultra-Orthodox effort to secure widespread military exemptions for their youth.

“I don’t deny the complexities between us, the differences in attitudes, but we need to resolve this between us. On both sides, there are public figures of sufficient stature, who can gather in a room, and reach a proper and respectful solution that preserves the world of Torah and yeshivas,” the senior United Torah Judaism lawmaker declared during a Jerusalem Day speech at Mercaz Harav Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

“But it is not appropriate for individuals from religious Zionism to criticize our conduct and our policies of continuous Torah study,” he insisted.

He added his best wishes to students of the yeshiva currently serving and engaged in the “battle against the vile murderers” of Hamas.

Haredi women and male yeshiva students are generally exempt from military service due to controversial longstanding arrangements that have generated significant criticism and resentment among the general population.

With the courts deeming those arrangements illegitimate, the government is currently caught in a contentious public dispute over the future of the Haredi draft.

Responding to Porush’s comments, Yehuda Veld, the director general of the Religious Zionism party, tweeted a quote from Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook — the former dean of the yeshiva and the son of its founder — stating that exemptions from army service constituted a “dishonor of the Torah.”

“To come to his yeshiva and speak against him is simply impudence and contempt for scholars,” Veld declared.

In 2017, the High Court of Justice invalidated the Haredi draft exemptions as discriminatory and ordered the government to pass a new conscription law. The government has since been unable to agree on legislation, repeatedly extending the non-conscription policy, while Haredi politicians have sought to pass legislation cementing the exemptions.

On March 28, the High Court ordered the state to cut funding for yeshiva students eligible for the draft who do not enlist as of April 1, prompting Porush to accuse it of “imposing economic sanctions against those who chose to study the Holy Torah.”

“This is a serious violation of our right to exist in the Land of Israel – the highest judicial authority of the State of Israel seeks to throw Torah scholars into prison,” he declared at the time. “We will not put up with this situation and will fight to cancel the decision immediately, along with the effort to quickly regulate the status of yeshiva members so that they can observe the Torah without interruption.”

 

Students pray at Mercaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem

 

During a high-stakes hearing Sunday on petitions demanding the immediate conscription of thousands of yeshiva students, a panel of nine High Court justices was sharply and unambiguously critical of the government’s claims that ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students should not be drafted into the army.

The nine justices presiding over the hearing, including conservatives, expressed intense skepticism — bordering at times on anger — toward the claims and remarks of the legal representatives of the government and the state-funded Haredi yeshivas, accusing them of “word games” and “going round in circles,” and even appearing to mock their arguments.

The sharp and at times caustic responses of the justices to the government’s arguments appeared to suggest the court’s patience with the decades-long failure of successive governments to deal with the Haredi enlistment conundrum has run out.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/haredi-minister-upbraids-national-religious-for-opposing-military-draft-exemptions/?utm_source=The+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=daily-edition-2024-06-07&utm_medium=email

SBC leaders do just enough to make it look like they care (Agudath Israel Take Note), without any real progress. You have more in common with the Xtians than you'll admit to.

 

SBC abuse reform task force ends its work with no names on database and no long-term plan 

 

Their report marks the second time a proposed database for abusive pastors has been derailed.

(RNS) — A volunteer Southern Baptist task force charged with implementing abuse reforms in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination will end its work next week without a single name published on a database of abusers.

The task force’s report marks the second time a proposed database for abusive pastors has been derailed by denominational apathy, legal worries and a desire to protect donations to the Southern Baptist Convention’s mission programs.

Leaders of the SBC’s Abuse Reform Implementation Task Force say a lack of funding, concerns about insurance and other unnamed difficulties hindered the group’s work.

“The process has been more difficult than we could have imagined,” the task force said in a report published Tuesday (June 4). “And in truth, we made less progress than we desired due to the myriad obstacles and challenges we encountered in the course of our work.”

To date, no names appear on the “Ministry Check” website designed to track abusive pastors, despite a mandate from Southern Baptists to create the database. The committee has also found no permanent home or funding for abuse reforms, meaning that two of the task force’s chief tasks remain unfinished.

Because of liability concerns about the database, the task force set up a separate nonprofit to oversee the Ministry Check website. That new nonprofit, known as the Abuse Response Committee, has been unable to publish any names because of objections raised by SBC leaders.

“At present, ARC has secured multiple affordable insurance bids and successfully completed the vetting and legal review of nearly 100 names for inclusion on Ministry Check at our own expense with additional names to be vetted pending the successful launch of the website,” the task force said in its report. 

Josh Wester, the North Carolina pastor who chairs the ARITF, said the Abuse Response Committee — whose leaders include four task force members — could independently publish names to Ministry Check in the future but wants to make a good-faith effort to address the Executive Committee’s concerns.

Task force leaders say they raised $75,000 outside of the SBC to vet the initial names of abusers. That list includes names of sexual offenders who were either convicted of abuse in a criminal court or who have had a civil judgment against them.

“To date, the SBC has contributed zero funding toward the vetting of names for Ministry Check,” according to a footnote in the task force report.

Earlier this year, the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission designated $250,000 toward abuse reform to be used by the ARITF. Wester hopes those funds will be made available to ARC for the Ministry Check site. The SBC’s two mission boards pledged nearly $4 million to assist churches in responding to abuse but have said none of that money can be given to ARC. 

The lack of progress on reforms has abuse survivor and activist Christa Brown shaking her head.

“Why can’t a billion-dollar organization come up with the resources to do this?” asked Brown, who for years ran a list of convicted Baptist abusers at a website, StopBaptistPredators.org, which aggregated stories about cases of abuse.

Brown sees the lack of progress on reforms as part of a larger pattern in the SBC. While church messengers and volunteers like those on the ARITF want reform and work hard to address the issue of reforms, there’s no help from SBC leaders or institutions. Instead, she said, SBC leaders do just enough to make it look like they care, without any real progress.

 

READ MORE: 

https://religionnews.com/2024/06/04/sbc-abuse-reform-task-force-ends-its-work-with-no-names-on-database-and-no-long-term-future-plan/

More than 300 million children across the globe are victims of online sexual exploitation and abuse each year, research suggests.

 Debi Fry, a professor of international child protection at the university, said the issue affects children “in every classroom, in every school, in every country”.

More than 300m children victims of online sexual abuse every year

 

First global study of its kind exposes ‘staggering scale’ of crime, with one in nine men in the US admitting to the offence

More than 300 million children across the globe are victims of online sexual exploitation and abuse each year, research suggests.

In what is believed to be the first global estimate of the scale of the crisis, researchers at the University of Edinburgh found that 12.6% of the world’s children have been victims of nonconsensual talking, sharing and exposure to sexual images and video in the past year, equivalent to about 302 million young people.

A similar proportion – 12.5% – had been subject to online solicitation, such as unwanted sexual talk that can include sexting, sexual questions and sexual act requests by adults or other youths.

Offences can also take the form of “sextortion”, where predators demand money from victims to keep images private, and abuse of AI deepfake technology.

The research suggested that the US is a particularly high-risk area. The university’s Childlight initiative – which aims to understand the prevalence of child abuse – includes a new global index, which found that one in nine men in the US (equivalent to almost 14 million) admitted online offending against children at some point.

Surveys found 7% of British men, equivalent to 1.8 million, admitted the same.

The research also found many men admitted they would seek to commit physical sexual offences against children if they thought it would be kept secret.

The chief executive of Childlight, Paul Stanfield, said: “This is on a staggering scale that in the UK alone equates to forming a line of male offenders that could stretch all the way from Glasgow to London – or filling Wembley Stadium 20 times over.

“Child abuse material is so prevalent that files are on average reported to watchdog and policing organisations once every second.

“This is a global health pandemic that has remained hidden for far too long. It occurs in every country, it’s growing exponentially, and it requires a global response.

“We need to act urgently and treat it as a public health issue that can be prevented. Children can’t wait.”

Stephen Kavanagh, the executive director of Interpol, said traditional law enforcement approaches were struggling to keep up. “We must do much more together at a global level, including specialist investigator training, better data sharing and equipment to effectively fight this pandemic and the harm it inflicts on millions of young lives around the world,” he said.

Grace Tame, a child sexual abuse survivor, who founded the Grace Tame Foundation, said a centralised global research database was essential to safeguarding children.

 

Rabbi Pinchas Scheinberg, an Orthodox Jewish rabbi and bais din judge.

"If he doesn't penetrate, you can wait" "If the pants don't fit, you must acquit"

https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/may/27/more-than-300m-children-victims-of-online-sexual-abuse-every-year

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/more-300-million-children-face-230100531.html

Let's float this Joe -- We'll bomb the Al-Aqsa Mosque to the ground in 48 Hours if our hostages are not returned!

 

Israel Says Biden Omitted Key Detail From Gaza Ceasefire Plan, No Long-Term Truce With Hamas in Power

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said that US President Joe Biden had disclosed only part of the proposal aimed at achieving a ceasefire in Gaza and securing the release of Israeli hostages, and added that he had not agreed to end Israel’s military operations against Hamas.

“The proposal contains more details that Biden did not mention,” Netanyahu was cited in Israeli media reports as saying at the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of Israel’s parliament, the Knesset.

“Biden omitted one crucial detail regarding the second stage” of the deal, Netanyahu said. “Israel didn’t agree to end the war, but only to ‘discuss’ its end,” Netanyahu said, adding that such a discussion would occur after the hostages were returned and “only on our terms.”

“Despite what President Biden said, the number of hostages that will be released in the first phase has not yet been agreed upon. There are many details in the deal, and the war will not end without us achieving all of our objectives. We will not give up on absolute victory,” he said.

In a speech on Friday, Biden disclosed that a day earlier, a new three-phase Israeli proposal for a hostage deal was passed onto Hamas through Qatar and detailed some of its main terms.

Biden said the deal would “bring all the hostages home, ensure Israel’s security, create a better day after in Gaza without Hamas in power, and set the stage for a political settlement that provides a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.”

There is widespread dissatisfaction among senior Israeli officials who feel Biden’s remarks lacked specifics on how the stated goal of dismantling Hamas would be accomplished, fueling criticism that the US president misrepresented the full scope of Israel’s uncompromising stance in fully defeating the Palestinian terror group.

“People have unfortunately been led to believe that a permanent ceasefire kicks in without Israel’s conditions being met,” senior Netanyahu adviser Ophir Falk told The Algemeiner.

“The notion that there will be a permanent ceasefire before Hamas’ military and governing capabilities are destroyed and all our hostages are home is a non-starter,” he added.

Hours after Netanyahu charged Biden with omitting key elements of the deal, US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters: “We’re confident that [Biden’s speech] accurately reflects that proposal — a proposal that we worked with the Israelis on, so I know of no gaps to speak of.”

Kirby said that Biden’s decision to disclose details about the deal was “about putting some public pressure on Mr. [Yahya] Sinwar and Hamas, who have repeatedly refused to accept what Israel has put forward.”

“We don’t typically go through the details of these kinds of proposals,” Kirby said. “But in this case, given where we are, given how much longer the hostages have now been held, given the fact that Hamas has reneged on several past occasions, on proposals that were sent to them, and given the fact that the Israelis really did work hard to come up with this proposal, and did so in good faith, the president felt it was important for the first time to publicly lay that out.”

“This wasn’t about jamming the prime minister or the war cabinet,” he said.

The far-right flank of Netanyahu’s governing coalition has sworn to collapse the government if a deal falls short of allowing the complete destruction of Hamas, which rules Gaza and launched the ongoing war with its Oct. 7 onslaught across southern Israel.

“This was about laying bare for the public to see how well and how faithfully and how assertively the Israelis came up with a new proposal — how it shows how much they really want to get this done,” Kirby said.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Monday confirmed the deaths of four more hostages: Haim Perry, Yoram Metzger, Amiram Cooper, and Nadav Popplewell, all from Kibbutz Nir Oz.

Three of the four — Perry, Metzger, and Cooper — appeared in a propaganda video released by Hamas on Dec. 18, in which the hostages urged Netanyahu “not to let us grow old here.”

According to the IDF, the four were murdered in Khan Younis shortly after the video was filmed.

Osnat Perry, the wife of Haim Perry and chairwoman of Nir Oz, released an open letter on Monday to Netanyahu calling on him to make the “moral, courageous, and correct decision” to bring home the hostages.

“The outline of your proposal, as presented this week by the president of the United States, is a sustainable and feasible outline that can put an end to the ongoing suffering that we and our friends from the Western Negev are experiencing,” Perry wrote.

On Oct. 7, Haim saved Osnat’s life by confronting the terrorists, purposefully leading them outside so that she had time to run and hide. A quarter of Nir Oz’s residents were murdered or taken as hostages to Gaza.

https://www.algemeiner.com/2024/06/03/israel-says-biden-omitted-key-detail-gaza-ceasefire-plan-no-long-term-truce-hamas-power/

The Two Most Powerful Countries on The Planet --- are waiting for a response from terrorists....What's wrong with this picture?

 

Israel, United States await Hamas's response on proposed Gaza ceasefire deal

 

Israel agreed to a tentative ceasefire deal laid out by Biden that calls for the release of all the hostages, an aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed.

Israel has accepted a framework deal for winding down the Gaza war now being advanced by US President Joe Biden, an aid to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed on Sunday, as Jerusalem waited for a Hamas response.

The three-phase proposal, which Hamas has yet to accept and which the war cabinet discussed on Sunday night, would see the return of the remaining 125 hostages.

In an interview with Britain’s Sunday Times, Ophir Falk, chief foreign policy advisor to Netanyahu, said Biden’s proposal unveiled on Friday, was “a deal we agreed to – it’s not a good deal but we dearly want the hostages released, all of them.

The proposed deal

“There are a lot of details to be worked out,” he said, adding that Israel’s conditions, including “the release of the hostages and the destruction of Hamas as a genocidal terrorist organization,” have not changed.

US National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby told ABC that the proposal itself was an Israeli one, which was transmitted to Hamas already on Thursday night.

“We’re waiting for an official response from Hamas. We would note that publicly, Hamas officials came out and welcomed this proposal,” Kirby said.

“So what would we hope would happen is they would agree to start phase one as soon as possible,” Kirby said, explaining that “phase one would allow for some hostages – the elderly, sick, women – to get out over a period of six weeks.

“While that’s all going on, the two sides would sit down and try to negotiate with Phase Two could look like and when that could begin,” Kirby said.

“We have every expectation that if Hamas agrees to the proposal as was transmitted to them and Israeli proposal that Israel would say yes,” Kirby added.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that the defense establishment was exploring day-after governing plans for Gaza that did not include Hamas.

“We will isolate areas [in Gaza], remove Hamas operatives from these areas, and introduce forces that will enable an alternative government to form – an alternative that threatens Hamas,” he said.

He stressed that Israel would not accept the rule of Hamas in Gaza at any stage in any process aimed at ending the war.

Biden, whose initial lockstep support for Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has given way to open censure of the operation’s high civilian death toll, on Friday aired what he described as a three-phase plan submitted by the Netanyahu government to end the war.

The first phase entails a truce and the return of some hostages, after which the sides would negotiate on an open-ended cessation of hostilities for a second phase, in which remaining live captives would go free, Biden said.

That sequencing appears to imply that Hamas would continue to play a role in incremental arrangements mediated by Egypt and Qatar – a potential clash with Israel’s determination to resume the campaign to eliminate the Iranian-backed extremist Islamist terrorist group.

Biden has hailed several ceasefire proposals over the past several months, each with similar frameworks to the one he outlined on Friday, all of which collapsed.

The primary sticking point has been Israel’s insistence that it would discuss only temporary pauses to fighting until Hamas is destroyed. Hamas, which shows no sign of stepping aside, says that it will free hostages only under a path to a permanent end to the war.

In his speech, Biden said his latest proposal “creates a better ‘day-after’ in Gaza without Hamas in power.” He did not elaborate on how this would be achieved, and acknowledged that “there are a number of details to negotiate to move from phase one to phase two.”

Falk reiterated Netanyahu’s position that “there will not be a permanent ceasefire until all our objectives are met.”

Netanyahu is under pressure to keep his coalition government intact. Two far-right partners, the Religious Zionist Party and Otzma Yehudit parties, have threatened to bolt in protest at any deal they deem would spare Hamas.

Minister-without-portfolio Benny Gantz, who heads the National Unity and is a member of the war cabinet, wants the deal considered.

Hamas has provisionally welcomed the Biden initiative, though a senior official from the group, Sami Abu Zuhri, said on Sunday that “Hamas is too big to be bypassed or sidelined by Netanyahu or Biden.”

A day earlier, another Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, told Al Jazeera, “Biden’s speech included positive ideas, but we want this to materialize within the framework of a comprehensive agreement that meets our demands.”

Hamas wants a guaranteed end to the Gaza offensive, withdrawal of all invading forces, free movement for Palestinians, and reconstruction aid.

Israeli officials have rejected that, as an effective return to the situation in place before October 7, when Hamas, committed to Israel’s destruction, ruled Gaza. Its fighters precipitated the war by storming across the border fence into Israel, killing 1,200 people and seizing 252 hostages.

In the ensuing Israeli assault that has laid waste to much of the impoverished and besieged coastal enclave, Hamas has reported that 36,000 Palestinians have been killed, verifying only close to 25,000 deaths so far. Israel has said that 14,000 of the fatalities are Hamas combatants.

Officials from the United States, Israel, and Egypt ended a meeting in Cairo on Sunday, with Egypt sticking to its position that Israel must withdraw from the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing for it to operate again, according to two Egyptian security sources.

Israel seized the crossing on the Gaza side in May during its offensive in Rafah along the enclave’s southern edge, angering Egypt, which said it would stop cooperating with Israel on the crucial artery for aid into the enclave, and evacuations out of it.

The Egyptian security sources said Sunday’s meeting was positive despite there being no agreement on reopening the crossing. Egypt’s delegation at the meeting said it would be open to European monitors at the border to oversee its operation by Palestinian authorities if they agreed to resume work.

Israeli and American officials said they would work quickly to remove the obstacles to the operation of the crossing, the Egyptian sources said.

Tensions have risen between Egypt and Israel over the takeover of the southern border, which Israel said had been completed on Wednesday.

While Egypt facilitated the entrance of aid through the Kerem Shalom crossing last week, the re-opening of Rafah is crucial as humanitarian agencies warn of looming famine in Gaza.

https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-804653?

דיון בעתירות שעניינן גיוס תלמידי הישיבות ומימון המוסדות התורניים High Court debates haredi IDF conscription in high-stakes hearing The hearing could lead the court to give a final order to begin drafting haredi men, which could have dramatic social and political ramifications.

 

 

High Court justices demand to know why 3,000 Haredi men can’t be conscripted immediately - (That would be a fraction of the alleged "bench kvetchers" pounding the pavement on the streets of Tel-Aviv)

 

Israel's High Court of Justice began on Sunday morning a hearing on the contentious issue of the long-standing exemption of ultra-Orthodox men from IDF service. The hearing could lead the court to give a final order to the state to begin drafting haredi men, a move that could have dramatic social and political ramifications.

The two issues at the heart of the hearing

The hearing centered on two issues: First, whether or not the government could continue to avoid recruiting haredi men into the IDF; and second, whether or not the government could continue providing funding for haredi yeshivot for students of military age who no longer had a legal exemption from IDF service.

These two issues were first heard on March 28. The High Court ruled following that hearing that the government must begin drafting haredi men, and that it could no longer provide funding for haredi students whose exemption had expired. However, this ruling was temporary, and the question at the heart of the hearing on Sunday was whether to turn this temporary order into a permanent one.

 

Adv. Doron Taubman, who represented the government, argued that the government did not dispute the fact that it was legally required to draft haredi men, and to refrain from doing so was illegal. However, the defense ministry had the prerogative to decide when and how to enlist these haredi men into the IDF, and that the court should not intervene.

On the issue of funding, Taubman agreed that yeshivot should not receive funding for haredi men who ignored draft orders. However, even though the law exempting haredi men expired, they had not actually been summoned yet, and therefore were not violating any draft orders. The government could thus continue issuing the funding, Taubman argued.

The hearing was held in a packed courtroom, and in front of an enlarged bench comprising nine justices. Some of the exchanges between the attorneys and the judges were heated, and at a certain point Likud MK Tally Gotliv, who sat in on the hearing but was not a side to it, attempted to interrupt the judges and make an argument. Some statements by Taubman were met with incredulous laughter from the crowd.

The case was heard by an extended nine-member bench led by Interim Chief Justice Uzi Fogelman. The judges constantly interrupted Taubman with a number of questions. On the issue of the general exemption, the judges pressed Taubman on whether the defense ministry could continue delaying the exemption indefinitely. The Attorney General's Office wrote in a submission to the court on Thursday that the IDF was prepared to draft 3,000 haredi men into the IDF until the end of 2024, and the judges pressed Taubman on whether, for example, the defense ministry had the legal prerogative to refrain from doing so.

Israel's Supreme Court ruled in the famous "Rubinstein principle" in 1998 that the government did not have the authority to exempt an entire group from service in the IDF, as this amounted to discrimination. A number of laws have been proposed since then to regulate the issue. The most recent law, which granted haredi men the ability to delay their service annually until receiving a final exemption at age 26, expired on July 1, 2023. The government, on June 25, decided to give itself until April 1, 2024, to come up with a new law. With this decision having expired, there is no longer a legal basis for the exemption.  

The hearing also touched on the government's controversial judicial reforms, which it attempted to promote in 2023. Deputy Attorney General Aner Hellman argued during the hearing that the government's conduct during the case served the same purpose as the judicial reforms – to relieve itself of the duty to adhere to the attorney general's interpretation of the law. On at least two occasions in proceedings relating to the case, the government approved proposals that the AG deemed unlawful. 

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/article-804637?

Torah Umesorah Breaking News! Donald Trump has become America’s first felon president! Let's invite him back!

Torah Umesorah - The National Society for Hebrew Day Schools

 

 

Dear Mr. Trump,

We hope this letter finds you in good health and high spirits. Torah Umesorah – The National Society for Hebrew Day Schools, is dedicated to the advancement and support of Jewish education across the United States. For many years, our organization has worked tirelessly to ensure that Jewish children receive a high-quality education rooted in Jewish values and traditions.

 

It is with great pleasure and respect that we extend an invitation to you to be the Guest of Honor at our Annual Torah Umesorah Dinner, to be held on Rikers Island.  This event is one of our most significant gatherings of the year, bringing together leaders, educators, and supporters of Jewish education from across the country.

Your presence as Guest of Honor would be an exceptional highlight of the evening. We recognize your longstanding support for educational initiatives and your contributions to the Jewish community. It would be an honor to have you join us and share your insights and experiences with our attendees.

The evening will commence with a reception at Block 45 (there are no coincidences), followed by dinner and a formal program. We would be deeply honored if you could deliver a keynote address, reflecting on the importance of education, respectful dating advice for our teenagers, and community support. We will have red hats to be distributed at the dinner for the mega donors, with the logo - "GRAB 'EM BY THE TORAH"!

 

Please find enclosed additional details about the event and our organization. We would be delighted to discuss any specific arrangements or accommodations you might require. Kindly let us know your availability at your earliest convenience.

We are eagerly looking forward to the possibility of welcoming you and would be grateful for your consideration of our invitation. Your participation would significantly contribute to the success of our event and further our mission to enhance Jewish education.

Thank you for your time and consideration. We hope to hear from you soon.

Warm regards,

Vaad Roshei Yeshiva - Torah Umesorah - The National Society for Hebrew Day Schools

 

VAAD ROSHEI YESHIVA

HaRav Hillel David
HaRav Shmuel Kamenetsky
HaRav Aryeh Malkiel Kotler

HaRav Dovid Schustal
HaRav Aharon Feldman
HaRav Dovid Harris
HaRav Elya Brudny

HaRav Shlomo Halioua
HaRav Yaakov Bender
HaRav A. Dovid Goldberg

HaRav Chaim Y. Hoberman
HaRav Yosef Eichenstein

 

---

GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY

 

What is this profound connection between music and Torah? Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz explained this connection. Music is more abstract than any other art. It affects us not on an intellectual, rational level but on a deep spiritual level. It washes over us and affects us in ways that are impossible to explain.

 

Music: The Window to the Soul 

By Rabbi Aryeh Kerzner

Every period on the Jewish calendar holds some special significance, and Sefirah is no different. No weddings, no haircuts, and — sorry, no music. It seems that people find it particularly difficult to come to terms with the ban on music during this time.

When I was a child, my father owned an orchestra, and I grew up around singers and concerts, so I totally get it. This was always a difficult challenge for me. And clearly, I was not alone. Today we have an entire industry of a cappella music CDs, designed specifically for the Sefirah period.

The kinds of questions rabbanim receive during these weeks clearly indicates an intense thirst to circumvent this restriction against music. Can I just practice my instrument? Can I listen to music while I work out at the gym? While traveling in the car to keep from falling asleep? What about slow, emotional music? What if I make a siyum? And the list goes on and on. To keep away from music for just a few weeks proves to be quite the feat.

But I want to reflect, if I may, on a message that we can all learn from this ban against music during Sefirah. What is the practical takeaway here?

Music’s Connection to Torah

To arrive at our point, we must first appreciate, on a more general level, music’s special place in Yiddishkeit.

The author of Pe’as Hashulchan (in his introduction) quotes the following incredibly bold statement made by his rebbi, the Vilna Gaon: Most secrets of the Torah can best be understood and appreciated only through the art of music. Only music has the unique power that enables a person to fully delve into the profound and esoteric ideas of the Torah and properly understand them.

But how does this work? What is this profound connection between music and Torah?

Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz explained this connection. Music is more abstract than any other art. It affects us not on an intellectual, rational level but on a deep spiritual level. It washes over us and affects us in ways that are impossible to explain. Think about the times a beat has got you tapping your feet before you even realized it. Or the way background music is used in plays, shows, or videos to heighten every kind of emotion you can name. Why does music possess that unique power?

Music is the most direct route to the soul. That’s its power. That’s how it affects us. It touches us in ways we can’t find words to express — because it enables us to connect to our neshamah. The transcendent job of a song’s melody is to open up one’s neshamah to the deeper message that is at the heart of that song.

Yaakov Shwekey, the world-renowned singer, recalls a moving story about the power of music he heard from the chief rabbi of Tiberias. The rabbi’s wife was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor, and the doctors decided to perform a very complex and dangerous surgery to try to save her. They told her husband that if she didn’t regain consciousness by seven days post-surgery, her chances of recovery would become extremely minuscule.

The surgery was done and the days started to pass, and the rebbetzin was not waking up. The rabbi and his family understandably were feeling anxious and fearful, but there was little they could do besides pour out their hearts in prayer. On the seventh day post-surgery, with feelings of desperation creeping in, the rabbi passed by a marketplace on the street where he overheard the beautiful song “Rachem” piercing the air — the heartful, penetrating melody of a Yid pleading with Hashem to send forth salvation.

In a spontaneous reaction, he ran into the store, bought the CD, and made a quick dash to the hospital. With time running out, he sprinted into his wife’s hospital room, put the headphones over her ears, and started to play the song. His wife suddenly and miraculously woke up at the very moment the song ended. She later told her husband that somehow the song “Rachem” had aroused her soul, prompting her to immediately wake up. Genuine Jewish music is truly the song of the soul.

That, according to the Vilna Gaon, is why music is intrinsically connected to Torah understanding. Music can open a person’s neshamah, and certain profound concepts of Torah can only be appreciated and absorbed when the neshamah has been activated in its full glory. Music can thus be used as a medium of enabling the Torah to penetrate the soul. In other words, music is the window to the soul, and the soul is the window to the Torah.

 

 

Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz explained that each of the instruments used to praise Hashem mentioned in Tehillim 150 — shofar, harp, and flute, among others — elicits a different emotional response; one arouses happiness, another evokes tears, and another encourages deep reflection. The general message here is that one must serve Hashem with every emotion in his system.

The Radak (Tehillim 4) explains that each chapter of Tehillim was intended to be sung with musical accompaniment, each with its own designated instruments and melody. The reason for this is that Dovid Hamelech composed each chapter with the intent to arouse very specific thoughts, understandings, and emotions.

Refreshing Our Relationship with Music

To sum up, music is the window to the soul, and through tapping into the soul, one is able to better acquire the Torah.

Now we can return to the message of Sefirah. As an expression of mourning over the deaths of 24,000 holy students of Rabi Akiva, we don’t listen to music during this period of the year. But perhaps we can also take with us a deeper message about our general relationship with music.

We are now approaching the day of Matan Torah, that special day on which we recommit to accepting, fulfilling, and learning the Torah. Perhaps during the weeks leading up to Kabbalas HaTorah, we are meant to re-invent our relationship with music as well, which will enhance our ability to succeed in acquiring the Torah.

To renew our relationship with music, we need a few weeks to totally disengage from it. We need a complete reboot of our system, total abstention from all music, to think about what real music is and isn’t. Which music is actually soul-penetrating, which music is just noise?

Is the song being played in my home something that helps me get more in touch with my soul, or is it something that pulls me away? Is the deeper message of this melody something that I want to integrate into my soul? During this period we stop listening to all music cold-turkey in order to reflect and perhaps refresh our relationship with it — before applying ourselves to the ultimate soul-service, Hashem’s Torah.

Let’s all take stock at this moment to ensure that we are utilizing the tremendous gift of genuine soul-stirring melody, rather than being infiltrated by the “music” loaded with impurities stemming from the outside world. Now is the perfect time, while we prepare for Kabbalas HaTorah, to ensure that our neshamos are properly fine-tuned, in top form, at full strength, and ready to delight in the most sublime and exalted existence, the holy Torah.

1506 – The Lisbon Genocide - “We are once again living in a dark time when the Jewish people are under attack around the world. That is why education is so important, especially targeting young schoolchildren."

The movie “1506 – The Lisbon Genocide” shows a massacre against the Jews that has been forgotten. 19th April is the anniversary of the start of the massacre which for three days assassinated about three thousand Jews in Lisbon. The bonfires went as high as the houses, in a city filled with quartered bodies where heads were paraded on the points of spears.  

The documentary film was made as short as possible, about 20 minutes long, so that it may be seen by everyone of all ages, even those who prefer not to watch long movies. Research was carried out by the Community’s historical research centre and reviewed by the holder of the Alberto Benveniste Chair of Sephardic Studies of the University of Lisbon.

 

Identifying and combating antisemitism

Regarding the story of the 2,000 children, the director of the Porto Jewish Museum, Michael Rothwell, said, “This dark episode demonstrates the depths that many went to in order to try and defeat and destroy our people."

“We are once again living in a dark time when the Jewish people are under attack around the world. That is why education is so important, especially targeting young schoolchildren. They must be taught tolerance and acceptance and how to identify and combat antisemitism,” he added.

President of the Porto Jewish community, Gabriel Senderowicz, stated, “Today, children react more to visual media, so it is vital to create tools that depict with historical accuracy the pain and suffering Jews went through in the past so they can recognize it in the present." 

Addressing the October 7 massacre, Senderowicz noted, "It is important to show the context of current antisemitism as a continuation of what has gone before. Sadly, there is nothing new under the sun, and even today, Jewish children were hunted and kidnapped as we saw in the south of Israel on October 7.”

 

What we are seeing in Gaza is not a failure. It’s a quite brilliant IDF operational design, within the bounds of what is realistically possible.

 

Israel Is Succeeding in Gaza

 

Western analysts think otherwise, because they are seeing Israel’s war through the lens of America’s own failed counterinsurgency doctrines

 

As the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conducts another assault in the north of Gaza, they face significant criticism from Western officials and analysts who are asking why the IDF is repeatedly going into areas they have already cleared and conducting further operations. Critics claim this behavior reflects a flaw in operational design, or is even proof that Israel’s campaign against Hamas has failed. The flaw, however, lies in their own assumptions.

These critics are looking at IDF tactics through the lens of Western counterinsurgency (COIN), the doctrine that U.S. and European militaries applied in the failed campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq. In the “global war on terror,” Western tactics were to seize a chunk of territory and clear it of enemies through military force. The plan was then to hold the territory through forward operating bases (or FOBs) and try to conduct alternative governance in those areas while providing security. The system of FOBs meant that our enemies, embedded in the local civilian population, always knew where we were and what routes we were likely to use. They could mortar, rocket, and IED us at will. It was a recipe for endless violence and huge numbers of casualties.

In the case of the 2023-24 Gaza war, Western critics have almost comically misunderstood what the Israeli military is trying to do. The flaw in Western analysis is always the same: “We wouldn’t do it that way.” Yet the IDF has absolutely no intention of using the clear-hold-build COIN tactics the West tried in Afghanistan and Iraq. Why would it? Those tactics were an unmitigated disaster in both campaigns, which ended in humiliating defeats at the hands of technologically inferior armies.

COIN tactics are time consuming and costly. They also require huge troop levels to “hold” ground, for years if not indefinitely. Assuming Western doctrinal ratios of 1 soldier to every 40 civilians, Gaza would require an enduring deployment of 50,000 combat troops, before we even consider enabling logistics, engineers, artillery and the like. The economic costs of mobilizing the IDF’s reservist army on an enduring basis would be astronomical. Such tactics would also be insanely wasteful, since Israel has a safe base on the Israeli side of the Gaza border, and can therefore enjoy the luxury of only committing to intelligence-led operations at times and on ground of their choosing—advantages that the West did not have in either Iraq or Afghanistan.

So why is the IDF repeating operations in areas that it has already cleared—for example, in the Shifa hospital, or in ongoing operations in Jabalia, which they struck from the air at the start of the conflict. Critics call this approach “mowing the grass,” a phrase adopted in the West to describe the failure to deploy sufficient troops in Iraq or Afghanistan, leading to repeated clearances of the same areas after they were thought to have been “cleared.” I contend that the IDF is trying something completely different, and it makes sense.

The IDF has absolutely no intention of using the clear-hold-build COIN tactics the West tried in Afghanistan and Iraq. Those tactics were an unmitigated disaster in both campaigns, which ended in humiliating defeats at the hands of technologically inferior armies.

Israel’s strategic aims are defeating Hamas and securing the Gaza border with Israel to prevent a repeat of Oct. 7. “Never again is now” isn’t just an empty slogan. IDF operational design is built around making sure Oct. 7 can never happen again. Absent the possibility of any enduring political solution, that is simply what success looks like.

In military terms, Hamas will not be destroyed, which means rendered totally combat ineffective. Hamas is too numerous and too entrenched within Gaza—where every male of fighting age is a potential future Hamas fighter. Their cellular structure makes them hard to target, and when a commander is killed, they have shown the flexibility to promote the next man up. They are also mainly backing away from a fight in Gaza, relying on booby traps, IEDs, and small arms engagements before melting away from decisive engagements. This makes them hard to kill.

What is possible, however, is defeating Hamas. In Western doctrinal terms, “defeating” an enemy means reducing it to 50%-69% of its fighting strength. As Gaza is neither a conventional war nor a counterterrorism operation in the classic senses of each, we can frame that percentage as the removal of Hamas’ ability to repeat Oct. 7.

So how does the IDF plan to achieve the aim of defeating Hamas? Through a political solution? Definitely not. No one on the international stage has expressed any interest in helping with governance in Gaza. Nor is there any evidence that these nonexistent partners would do anything other than act as human shields for Hamas, making it impossible for Israel to attack its foes when necessary. The idea that there exists some magic device to convert any sizable number of Gazans to embrace a political alternative to Hamas that would be in any way favorable for Israel can be generously termed a fantasy. According to polling, 2% of Gazans support an Israeli-backed administration. The majority want Hamas back.

Israel’s war cabinet has received significant domestic and international criticism for their lack of a “day after” plan for governance in Gaza, which has been echoed in recent days by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and war cabinet member Benny Gantz. IDF planners are therefore faced with designing operations to achieve a loosely defined goal, with no clearly articulated strategic end state for the operation from their political leadership—in part perhaps because the “end state” may be unsatisfying to Western ears. So how have they met this challenge?

If you look at what is possible, what the best version of “success” looks like, and what Israel is doing, I contend that in Gaza we are seeing a masterpiece of operational design within severe politically imposed limitations. The IDF is not trying to clear Gaza. With no ability to impose a political arrangement in Gaza, and a Gazan desire for continued Hamas rule, the IDF answer is: Let them have Hamas. But the version of Hamas that Gazans will get is one heavily degraded militarily, and, most importantly, with vast swaths of their tunnels and civilian-embedded infrastructure destroyed. In other words, the IDF aims to replace Hamas 3.0—the version that fought three wars against Israel and then launched the brutal Oct. 7 surprise attacks—with Hamas 1.0, which took over the Gaza Strip from Fatah in June 2007.

To accomplish that end, the IDF has methodically razed what Hamas infrastructure they could find in Gaza City, Khan Yunis, and now Rafah. They have secured the Netzarim corridor to control freedom of movement from south to north. It looks like they are trying to do the same thing along the Philadelphi Corridor and Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, to cut off the inflow of weapons and supplies to Hamas.

Facial recognition software in controlled areas allows the IDF to stop known Hamas commanders moving around. This posture also allows the IDF to strike when concentrations of Hamas are identified, to degrade their manpower, and then withdraw again: And that is what we saw at Shifa hospital and are seeing now in Jabalia.

At the same time, the IDF has methodically destroyed buildings to create a 1-kilometer buffer zone around the Gaza border—a measure that if enforced would indeed prevent a repeat of Oct. 7. If Israel has its way, nobody in Gaza is getting anywhere near the border again. However, whether Washington will come down against this policy remains to be seen, which is why for Israel, the key strategic goal in Gaza is arguably to limit as much as possible the internationalization of the Strip through fantastical plans for “the day after.”

As things stand, the operational end state looks like significant Hamas infrastructure is destroyed, its fighting capability severely degraded, and the border secured, with the IDF retaining the capability to strike into Gaza at will. All of this has occurred while shifting hundreds of thousands of civilians out of harm’s way and minimizing innocent casualties (Hamas’ human shield tactics aside). As John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, has repeatedly pointed out, the efforts the IDF has made to protect civilians is unprecedented in modern urban warfare.

Both the tactical and strategic accomplishments of the IDF campaign in Gaza are entirely real. The operational design that allowed for these accomplishments does, of course, come with disadvantages. First, the destruction of civil infrastructure will require a massive reconstruction effort. While innocent civilian deaths are real and tragic, the almost 1-to-1 combatant-to-civilian death ratio remains very low compared to other conflicts. Second, the Egyptians have been very twitchy about Israeli control of the southern border.

However, we now know why. Since the start of the Rafah operation, the IDF has uncovered some 50 tunnels that run from Gaza into Egypt, suggesting a high and ongoing degree of complicity between the Hamas leadership and the military and political leadership in Cairo.

Militarily, the IDF is hamstrung by international pressure to slow operations, and uncertainty about what comes next in Gaza—a choice that may at least partially lie outside of Israel’s control. For our part, Western critics need to eat humble pie and accept that, on the evidence of the last 20 years, our tactics are not to be recommended. What we are seeing in Gaza is not a failure. It’s a quite brilliant IDF operational design, within the bounds of what is realistically possible.

 

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/israel-succeeding-gaza

“A rabbinical system’s ability to have a positive impact hinges on its ability to be a model of moral conduct” . Secular Court Needed to Oversee the Crooked Religious Courts!

 

(יא) וַתִּשָּׁחֵ֥ת הָאָ֖רֶץ לִפְנֵ֣י הָֽאֱלֹקִ֑ים וַתִּמָּלֵ֥א הָאָ֖רֶץ חָמָֽס׃ (יב) וַיַּ֧רְא אֱלֹקִ֛ים אֶת־הָאָ֖רֶץ וְהִנֵּ֣ה נִשְׁחָ֑תָה כִּֽי־הִשְׁחִ֧ית כׇּל־בָּשָׂ֛ר אֶת־דַּרְכּ֖וֹ עַל־הָאָֽרֶץ׃ {ס} (יג) וַיֹּ֨אמֶר אֱלֹקִ֜ים לְנֹ֗חַ קֵ֤ץ כׇּל־בָּשָׂר֙ בָּ֣א לְפָנַ֔י כִּֽי־מָלְאָ֥ה הָאָ֛רֶץ חָמָ֖ס מִפְּנֵיהֶ֑ם וְהִנְנִ֥י מַשְׁחִיתָ֖ם אֶת־הָאָֽרֶץ׃

"In cloaks of piety, they parade, Yet shadows lurk, their vows betrayed. Corrupt rabbis, hearts turned dark, Their teachings twisted, truth disembarked.

From sacred scrolls, they pick and choose, To serve their greed, they freely abuse. With silver tongues, they weave deceit, Their hands defile what's pure and sweet.

In temples grand, where prayers ascend, Their avarice knows neither limit nor end. Exploiting faith for selfish gain, They trample justice, causing pain.

Their flocks misled, their trust betrayed, By wolves in robes, whose souls decayed. For virtue's sake, we must unveil, Expose the lies, and justice prevail.

Let righteous fury light the way, To cleanse the temple, and to purify the fray."

(א) צדק צדק תרדף. הַלֹּךְ אַחַר בֵּית דִּין יָפֶה --- (ספרי; סנהדרין ל"ב):רש"י על דברים ט״ז:כ׳:א׳

Citing nepotism concerns, High Court of Justice halts rabbinical courts appointments

 

Petition filed by attorney notes that Chief Rabbi David Lau is a member of the committee considering the promotion of two of his relatives

כִּ֤י יָדַ֙עְתִּי֙ רַבִּ֣ים פִּשְׁעֵיכֶ֔ם וַעֲצֻמִ֖ים חַטֹּאתֵיכֶ֑ם צֹרְרֵ֤י צַדִּיק֙ לֹ֣קְחֵי כֹ֔פֶר וְאֶבְיוֹנִ֖ים בַּשַּׁ֥עַר הִטּֽוּ׃

 

The High Court of Justice issued an injunction on Sunday halting the appointment of rabbinical court judges following allegations of nepotism.

The ruling by Justice Alex Stein applies to the work of the appointments committee to the Great Court in Jerusalem and 12 regional rabbinical courts, or batei din. It followed a petition filed by Batya Kahana-Dror‎, a lawyer and fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute.

The petition noted that the appointments committee, which is part of the Chief Rabbinate that is co-headed by Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi David Lau, is reviewing the nomination of two candidates related to Lau: Rabbi Mordechai Ralbag to the Jerusalem Rabbinical Court and Yehuda Mann to head another such court.

Lau is a member of the appointments committee, presenting a potential conflict of interest, the court ruled. The Chief Rabbinate, represented by the state, has one month to reply to the allegations.

Another candidate under consideration is Avraham Deri, a nephew of Shas leader Aryeh Deri and the son of the chief rabbi of Beersheba, Yehuda Deri. Neither Aryeh nor Yehuda are members of the appointments committee, but they are said to have considerable influence on its members, Haaretz reported.

The Lau, Deri, Ralbag, and Yosef families “behave as though the rabbinical courts are their own fiefdom, to the detriment of citizens of Israel who require the services of the rabbinical courts by law,” Kahana-Dror wrote in her petition. Yitzhak Yosef is the chief Sephardic rabbi of the State of Israel.

 

Head of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party MK Aryeh Deri, thrice convicted felon, speaks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 

 

Tzohar, an Orthodox rabbinical group that has challenged the Chief Rabbinate in multiple issues, welcomed the injunction on Sunday.

“A rabbinical system’s ability to have a positive impact hinges on its ability to be a model of moral conduct,” wrote Tzohar in a statement. “Only when appointments are made properly can the rabbinical courts maintain that those who need their service will receive justice, not politics and nepotism.”

The Chief Rabbinate did not immediately reply to a request for comment by The Times of Israel on the ruling.

 

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/a-missed-historic-opportunity-the-haredi-military-exemption-law/

Despite the protests, word of mouth soon led to increased enrollment as chasidish and charedi parents saw that their sons could remain faithful to their traditions while gaining essential educational skills. These parents understood that this was the only path to achieving meaningful employment and financial stability. And Rabbi Bombach understood that this change was essential to the long-term viability of the State of Israel.

 

How does he do it?

 

Israeli superhero educator Menachem Bombach is from Mea Shearim — and the IDF 

 

Rabbi Bombach saw Yom HaZikaron as an opportunity to normalize the IDF uniform, and the people who wear it, in charedi society.

 

We are all so exhausted from this year. Even those of us who don’t live in Israel. Yom Ha’Atzmaut has come and gone, and there were celebrations, but they were muted. Tear-stained. While we sang ‘Hatikvah,’ many of us wondered where the end to all this sadness may lie. When will the hostages be found? When will the thousands of reservists, some of whom have been called up a second time, be allowed to rejoin their families? What will life in Israel be like “the day after”?

While most of us have been consumed with worry about how Israel will emerge from this prolonged crisis, there are some people — I think of them as behind-the-scenes superheroes — who have stayed steadfast in their mission, knowing that there will indeed be a day after, even if we can’t see it right now. And Israel has to be ready for that day.

I’ve had the privilege of meeting one of those people, a man who has been laser-focused on Israel’s future for more than a dozen years. Somehow, the current war, which seems to use up all our bandwidth, has not distracted him from his mission. His name is Menachem Bombach, and he definitely doesn’t present like a superhero.

In fact, if you met Menachem, your first thought might be, “Which of these things is not like the others?” His beard, along with the bekishe — the long black frock coat — that he often wears, definitely signals chasidish. He speaks almost-perfect American English — it’s self-taught — and has the poise of a polished PR pro. Add to the mix the IDF uniform that he dons when called to serve on the home front, and you get a walking microcosm of the contradictions that define Israeli society.

Rabbi Bombach is unique — and here that overused word is to be taken literally, because literally there is no one like him in the Jewish world today — in his determination to use those contradictions to strengthen the State of Israel.

That seems like a tall order, even before the trauma of October 7. But if you think back to last summer, before that black Shabbat, you will recall an Israel that was riven by deep divisions, a fissure that brought to the surface the mini-tremors and submerged cracks that long have threatened the unity of Israeli society.

The most destabilizing of these potential metaphoric earthquakes is the fault line that separates Israel’s charedi and secular populations. While we all have been moved by the images of charedim bringing food to Israeli soldiers over the past months, we also know that the rifts between these two sectors of Israeli society are likely to reappear when life in Israel gets back to normal (whatever “normal” will be).

I first met Menachem Bombach when he became principal of Lezion Berina, a religious school for Russian-speaking boys in Israel. My husband and I got involved because we both speak Russian, have strong ties to the Russian-Jewish community both in the United States and in Israel, and believed (and still believe) in the school’s mission: to provide children from the former Soviet Union with a strong Jewish identity in a warm and accepting setting that allows them to become proud, knowledgeable Jews in the modern State of Israel.

Rabbi Bombach’s journey to Lezion Berina was remarkable enough. Born to a family from the Vizhnitz chasidic sect in the ultra-Orthodox enclave of Mea Shearim, he ultimately earned a bachelor’s degree in education and a master’s in public policy from Hebrew University. And he did so having learned Hebrew (also self-taught) when he was 20, after hearing only Yiddish for the first two decades of his life.

Rabbi Bombach is surrounded by Netzach graduates.

With those credentials, it is no wonder the school’s team brought him on board. But emigration from Russia was slowing down (this was a decade before the current war between Russian and Ukraine), and the school’s administration wondered how they would continue to fill the seats.

As one of the few chasidim who had already bridged the two worlds of charedi and secular Israel, Rabbi Bombach began to act on a situation that long had troubled him. He knew that given the high birth rate and low earning power of the charedim, Israel would face a severe demographic and economic crisis in the coming years if something weren’t done to start integrating ultra-Orthodox Israelis into mainstream society.

So Rabbi Bombach did something.

He decided to take the framework of Lezion Berina and launch a school for chasidim that would teach secular subjects and prepare its students for the bagrut, Israel’s university entrance exam. That doesn’t sound revolutionary? Ask the local charedi community leaders who pushed back — hard — against such a concept. Its very definition threatened their way of life, or so they thought.

Despite the protests, word of mouth soon led to increased enrollment as chasidish and charedi parents saw that their sons could remain faithful to their traditions while gaining essential educational skills. These parents understood that this was the only path to achieving meaningful employment and financial stability. And Rabbi Bombach understood that this change was essential to the long-term viability of the State of Israel.

The flagship Midrasha HaChassidit is now part of a network of schools called Netzach, which boasts 10 schools, for both boys and girls. Perhaps most remarkable is the success of the Netzach Eshkolot program, which offers online instruction in core subjects for charedi students who do not have the benefit of English, math, and science classes in their schools. There are now 35,000 chareidim participating in Eshkolot. That number may seem like the proverbial drop in the bucket, but enrollment is increasing by more than 40% each year.

A watershed moment for Rabbi Bombach occurred in 2018, when a video of a classroom exercise at the school went viral. It was Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day, when the entire country pays tribute to the soldiers who have lost their lives in Israel’s wars. Well, almost the entire country: In certain charedi enclaves, Yom HaZikaron is traditionally ignored, just as army service is frowned upon, or worse.

Rabbi Bombach saw Yom HaZikaron as an opportunity to normalize the IDF uniform, and the people who wear it, in charedi society. In the video, you can see Rabbi Bombach asking his students to respond to a photo of a young Israeli boy lying prostrate on his father’s grave. It is obvious that the boy is secular, and equally obvious that his father has died in battle. The students, still children themselves, can empathize with a boy whose father is never coming home. Next, each student is given the name of a fallen soldier and instructed to stand and recite tehillim (psalms) in his memory. Finally, each boy steps forward to light a memorial candle.

Nothing that occurred that day may seem so groundbreaking, but to some charedi leaders, it was downright subversive. First you ask charedi children to pray for the soul of a fallen soldier, and the next thing you know they’ll be enlisting themselves. And that is exactly what has been happening, especially since October 7. A historic number of charedim volunteered to serve in the IDF after the Simchat Torah massacre.

Not all could be accepted, of course, but even 800 draftees out of 4,000 charedi applicants is an unprecedented number. In fact, 12 graduates of Netzach schools have been serving in Gaza since the war started. (And the practice of observing Yom HaZikaron continues in all Netzach schools, a mind-blowing fact.)

For a small country, Israel has an extraordinary number of heroic citizens. Some, deservedly, are celebrities, like Eden Golan, who faced down thousands of jeering protesters at the Eurovision Song Contest. Others are more ordinary, like your cousin who has three sons serving in Gaza, yet keeps going to work and doing the laundry and watering the plants.

As the saying goes, not all superheroes wear capes. Could it be that the superhero Israel needs to ensure its future “the day after” wears two uniforms, a chasidish bekishe and IDF fatigues? I’m betting on it.

For more information on the Netzach network of schools, follow Netzach on Facebook or go to netzach.org.il.

 

https://jewishstandard.timesofisrael.com/how-does-he-do-it/?

The judges with the most likelihood of being appointed are sons-in-law, brothers, cousins, and close friends of the families of the chief rabbis and their inner circle. Rather than being a force of justice and Jewish law, the rabbinical courts have become a job factory for relatives.

 

(א) צדק צדק תרדף. הַלֹּךְ אַחַר בֵּית דִּין יָפֶה

(ספרי; סנהדרין ל"ב):

רש"י על דברים ט״ז:כ׳:א׳

Nepotism at work: The committee to appoint rabbinical judges 

 

How can Israelis trust the courts they need for divorce and other legal matters, when they have become a job factory for the committee's relatives? 

 

Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef meets with newly appointed Supreme Rabbinical Court judges in Jerusalem

 

Over the next two weeks, at least 15 new rabbinical court judges will be chosen by the Council for Appointing Judges (Vaadah le-Minui Dayanim). These appointments have broad implications for the approximately 10,000 couples who get divorced each year in Israel’s rabbinical courts and tens of thousands of others who find themselves in the halls of Israel’s religious justice system for issues of inheritance, proving Jewishness, or proving personal status.

It would be unfortunate enough if these appointments were being made by the outgoing chief rabbis on the final days of their serving in office. But what is significantly more problematic and an ethical travesty is that many of the appointments will be family members and close friends of members of the committee — something that may end up being challenged in Israel’s Supreme Court. The judges with the most likelihood of being appointed are sons-in-law, brothers, cousins, and close friends of the families of the chief rabbis and their inner circle. Rather than being a force of justice and Jewish law, the rabbinical courts have become a job factory for relatives.

Both democratic tradition and Jewish tradition look unfavorably at nepotism. Moving forward now with these appointments will clearly be an ugly stain on the Israeli Rabbinate and the future of these judges.

The Talmud in Bava Metzia 85b (tomorrow’s daf yomi) describes how two young scholars who were both sons of great Jewish leaders were given opportunities to rise quickly to positions of leadership in the beit midrash (study hall). Both Rabbi Judah Hanasi (son of Rabbi Shimon Ben Gamliel) and Rabbi Elazar (son of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai) impressed the sages with their acumen and ability, and the sages sought to promote them.

According to the Talmud, they literally were “taken off the floor” and given seats of power. But the Talmud recounts that Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel, who was well aware of his son’s abilities, demanded that his son be demoted for fear of the evil eye — which, in other contexts, means that he was afraid that it would look inappropriate for his son to rise to power because of his father’s power. And in fact, Rabbi Judah the Prince was demoted.

How far Jewish history has come! It would be appropriate now for all the fathers and fathers-in-law, all the cousins and brothers-in-law, in fact, all the family members of any of these prospective rabbinical court judges to ask their relatives and friends to excuse themselves from this round of promotion.

This should not be an issue for the Supreme Court; it’s a basic Jewish halachic value. 

 

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/nepotism-at-work-the-committee-to-appoint-rabbinical-judges/